Recommendations?

[swrbass2004]

Hey guys!

I'm new here and had a question. Sorry in advance if this is posted somewhere else but my schedule is tight right now and I didn't have time to check the threads. I'm looking to do a true solo project in the near future where I play everything. One track at a time obviously. I plan to record guitar, bass, drumkit, vocals, synth keyboard, and hand percussion. The thought of recording drums is what bought me to this question. I've been looking at Focusrite's Scarlett audio interfaces. I was looking at the 18i20 2nd generation. It has eight external inputs(XLR) that I could track my whole kit with. I wondered if I could just use a mixer with as many inputs and run the kit mics into that and output to a smaller, two input interface like the 2i4 since it would only be me doing everything one track at a time. I would think you could tweak, post recording, on each individual drum with the eight input interface. Are there other advantages? Has anyone had experience with Focusrite Scarlett Products? Any other helpful thoughts? Thanks in advance!

-George

 

[Steenamaroo]

I would think you could tweak, post recording, on each individual drum with the eight input interface. Are there other advantages?

Hi,
Well, not really, but that's a pretty huge one!

The mixer into two channel interface could be done, sure, but if you're learning the ropes or not 100% confident in what you're doing, I'd definitely aim to go multitrack.
If you have access to an e-kit you could consider recording midi and using drum sample software like DrumCore or SSD.

Not the same, I know, but it would give you that full control (more, actually), and still allow you to run with a smaller interface.

That said, I'd be thinking about the future. If you're likely to record drums or small groups, or even live singer/songwriters in future, I'd go with the 8 channel interface.

 

[Kleudde]

You reminded me how I recorded drum for the first time for a demo of my band I rented a kit of drum mics for a couple of days and connected them all to my mixer and recorded the speaker from the mixer to my daw hahaha I didn't have an autio interface at the time. It sounded ok I was impressed but I really had to tweak each mic before recording because after that you can't change anything, they are all mixed in one track together so if the bass drum was not loud enough or the cymbales were too louds nothing we could do about it after it's recorded. I now have the focusrite scarlett 18i20 (1st generation) and it works well I recorded last year my drummer with it. It is a much much better solution since you can deal with each mics individually after it's recorded put each part of your drum to the level you want. I had tried a Presonus before that, it worked well too but had problem to install it, the Scarlett worked right away when I installed it and did a good job for recording too so I would recommand the Scarlett over the Presonus. Another solution could be (we did this for another demo), go record the drum at a real studio and record the rest with a smaller audio interface like the 2i4.

 

[swrbass2004]

Thanks guys! I'll probably go with the 18i20 honestly. I'm just getting antsy to start writing but I need to hold out for the better solution. How about compression? Software or hardware driven? Does it matter?

 

[Steenamaroo]

How about compression? Software or hardware driven? Does it matter?

The big advantage with software, of course, is that it's not destructive.
You aren't committed to what you do and can always go back to the raw recording if things go wrong.

Unless you have a particular piece of hardware that you love, or a nice analog setup where it makes sense to patch things in and out, I'd say go software.

That said, if you think hardware expansion might be something you get in to on down the road, maybe choose your interface accordingly?
There are plenty out there with line inputs instead of, or as well as microphone inputs. A lot have adat inputs too, which allows you to add 8 line inputs at a later date.

 

[Kleudde]

It's also cheaper with software, there are even good free plugins

 

[ecc83]

"Quote Originally Posted by swrbass2004 View Post

I would think you could tweak, post recording, on each individual drum with the eight input interface. Are there other advantages?"

I can think of another. Setup/strike time. Especially if you had an 8 way ADAT pre just for the drum kit? The mics and ADAT unit could be left in place* and even if you needed the mics elsewhere, stands are very cheap if you don't need them 'gigworthy'. Cables too can be bought en masse cost effectively and so left attached to stands and you only need to lift mic heads.

*This does assume of course that you have a dedicated recording space.

Dave.

 

[pipelineaudio]

With that 18i20, you could get an old Behringer 8000 or a new behringer 8200 (for like 50 dollars more) and you'd have another 8 inputs for your drums. I like 7 mics minimum on my drums (two overheads, kick, snare, tom 1, tom 2, tom 3) which would be fine on the 18i20 on its own, but I usually want separate hi hat and ride mics at least. However countless zillion great sounding albums have been done with less.

I put a few videos up of the el cheapo Pyle drum mic kit, which would certainly fit on the 18i20 alone, and if you were smart about cymbal placement and even smarter about playing the drums, it won't be the limiting factor holding you back in any way, shape or form.

Ignore the undercymbal spot mics, they werent used in the sound for this video, just the pyles

YouTube

A bit more explanation of these mics, and an initial poor placement of the overheads here:

YouTube