Recording drums and using triggers

[Angusdevil]

I want to record my drummers set but i'm not really happy with his bass drum sound. I want to put a trigger on it. My question is, do I have to have a drum module to do this? I've hooked the trigger up an audio track and noticed that it just has a spike when I hit the trigger. Is there a computer program that will recognize this "spike" and replace it with the sample? True, I could do it all by hand and it would be kind of a long process but I just wanted to know if something in a program could do it automatically.

I'm running off a P4 WinXP
2 Delta 66's
Allen & Heath Mixwizard 16:2
Sonar 2 XL
Adobe Audition

I'm new to the idea of triggers so any information would be great.


Thanx

 

[jonhall5446]

This is not a great answer for your question but if it were me I would work with that drum sound and get it the way you want it. In the future you won't have to worry about it if you get it right now. Changing the mic, the mic position, the drum head, the drum altogether, or try to eq. I donno, before you go the digital fix route there seem to be other options. Plus if I were a drummer I would hate to have my kick replaced with a sample

 

[Angusdevil]

Thanx for the reply. I have tried forever to get a sound that my drummer likes and he can't find one that he likes by naturally micing and changing heads ...... He absolutly loves the sound of the trigger and wants to use it if possible. I am one to always mic something in any and all occausions but my drummer seems to beg the differ on this.

Anyone else have any ideas or thoughts on this??

 

[jonhall5446]

Take the drum and beat him over the head with it. he he
Sorry I couldn't help

 

[Angusdevil]

hahaha, I have done that with his old heads and sticks but not yet a drum, i'll have to give that a try sometime.


Any other ideas out there?

 

[RawDepth]

I’d be willing to bet that he has a big ass pillow stuffed in there and no front head. Right!

Pardon me if I am wrong but, a lot of drummers do this.

Tell him to get a (new) quality recording head on the drum and tune it right. Tune it to the lowest pitch that will still make the drum ring when no muffling is used. Put a new head on the front that is slightly thinner and lighter than the beater head. He can cut a 6” hole in the front head for the microphone and make the hole be off center. Tune it to exactly the same pitch as the beater head. Not higher.

Get the damn pillow out of there and only use a small amount of muffling to stop the ring. Like maybe a beanbag or a folded towel leaning against each head. Duct tape is okay but not too much. The wooden shell of the drum needs to resonate so you don’t want too much stopping that from happening. That’s where the warmest tone comes from.

Buy or rent a quality large diaphragm bassdrum mic (like an Audix D6) and place it well inside the drum using a boom stand. Don’t let the mic or boom touch the drum or front head anywhere. Place another decent mic outside the drum (near his pedal) aimed at the beater head. This can be a condenser or ribbon mic. The inside mic will pick up dynamic power and low end. The outside mike will pick up mids like head click and attack.

Record the mikes on different channels and later blend to taste. Keep your record meters at about -3 to -6 dB.

If it still sounds like sh*! Then get a new drummer.

 

[Angusdevil]

The bass drum itself sounds great. My drummer knows how to tune his drums and I love the sound of the drum, but the problem is, he doesn't like the sound of the drum, he wants a completely different sounding kick, something almost electronica. I'm not trying to get out of getting a good kick sound, I can do that really well, but I'm just looking at other ways of trying to get a different, unnatural sound using triggers.

 

[RawDepth]

Oh, well, then in that case...

The only way I know to trigger drums is to use a module like the Roland TD6.

http://www.musiciansbuy.com/ROLAND_TD6_DRUM_MODULE.html

It's really quite simple. You plug your trigger into it. When the drum is hit, the module creates the sound of a real studio recorded drum (which you have chosen) and sends it out the stereo ¼” output plugs. You plug the module straight into your computer or recorder and record the signal just like it came from a microphone. Presto!!! There are over 100 bassdrum sounds to choose from all acoustically and dynamically perfect. Over 1000 other drums, cymbals, and sound effects too.

Roland has a TD3, TD6, TD8, TD10, and a TD20 models. The 10 and 20 are well over $1000. The TD6 has editing features that the 3 doesn’t have. It is probably the best value at $379.

There are other brands of modules too but they don’t sound as rich and natural as the Roland.

 

[Angusdevil]

I've thought about buying a module but then I think of it as a waste of money in a way for only a kick sound on a few songs. Thanx though for your input. Are there not any programs on computers that would do this? You would think that in this day and age with everything else that the recording programs can do that they would be able to do this.

 

[RawDepth]

None that I know of.

Let me know if you find one because I would like the ability to do it too once in a while.

Perhaps you could rent or borrow a module.

 

[Angusdevil]

I think it is either going to boil down to me either renting a module or put in the sample by hand oh we'll i'll let you know if i find anything.

 

[noisedude]

have you tried this in the drum forum? it's not a 'newbie'ish kinda question so it'd be fine. i'd really like to know the answer, that's all, because i'm looking at different ways of doing my drums at the moment because we can't get a decent sound with our limited mic cabinet and rubbish-sounding rooms. we wanted to try triggering bass and snare and putting hats/cymbals/toms in in real time.

 

[Angusdevil]

Just posted it in the drum forum so keep an eye out in there for some answers. Thanks all for your help.