putting electric drums to a laptop

[metalassault]

I just got a roland v-drum set up with the TD-8 sound module and i am a virgin to the mysterious realm of home recording and all that stuff.
Basically, i want to know what i need to get my v-drums to record onto my laptop (software, equipment, cards,anything). i need to be able to record my v-drums and then burn them onto cds and pass along to my guitarist
But again i dont know what components i would need in order to get what i am playing onto my v-drums onto my laptop.

 

[reshp1]

It sounds like you just want to get the sounds down so you can pass them along to someone, not really worried too much about the sound quality. If so, just plug the line out of the TD8 into the LINE IN of the laptop. Some laptops only have a Mic IN, but for what you are doing that'll work as well.

Then go to control panel>sounds
click the Audio tab, under sound recording, Click the volume button, it should bring up a little mixer thing. Select Microphone, and use the slider after this next step to control the gain of the input.

I'm assuming you're using a PC. You can use the window's sound recorder (under accessories). Go to File>Properties, under format conversions choose from "All Formats" click Convert Now...
Choose 44.1kHz, 16bit stereo

It only lets you record 1min at a time but here's a little trick to get around it.
Hit the record button until it gets to 1min and stops.
Hit record again and record another minute to the end
Keep doing it until you have a enough time for what you need
Save as "template" or something.
Now every time you want to record something you can just open the file and record over it, and save as something else. No more 1 min limit.

Start recording the drums. If it sounds like you're clipping turn down the slider in the previous step. Otherwise if it's too quiet, turn up the slider.

Save the file when you are done and you should be able to burn it to CD.
It's been a while since I did that (upgraded equipment MANY times since) so I think that's right. Let me know if you run into any problems.