Recording drums w/ Audiophile 2496

[Ishtar69]

I'm using Sonar XL 2.0 with an Audiophile 2496 sound card. We used to record drums using my friend's Roland drum kit, but now we want to use a real drum set. The problem we have is that the sound card only has 2 inputs (from my understanding at least).

One idea we had was to trigger the drum skins onto a Roland V-drum brain and then mic the cymbals. That way, the drums are recorded via MIDI instead of through the inputs, therefore saving the sound card inputs for the cymbal mics.

It would be easier and preferable for us to record the drums as if we're recording in a real studio--that is, mic everything (about 8 mics we think). But the limiting factor is the number of sound card inputs. We'd like to have an individual track for each drum and cymbal, but we're willing to compromise and combine some into one track (like toms into one, cymbals into one, etc...).

Short of buying more sound cards, what else can we do to record a real drum kit with our existing equipment?

 

[lapieuvre]

I thought about that too, What I have for a solution is using the left - right as individual ins and put the skin drums on one channel (left) and the cymbals on the right channel. then you can at least work with gate to reduce leakage.

thierry angers

 

[Stealthtech]

Perhaps a mixer ??
Or, do the v-drum thing which you can setup the pan position and so forth. Record the v-drums first, then use 2 mics to record the cymbals left-right.

 

[trogdor]

If you can get your hands on a mixer...

I would put all the drums and other instruments into the mixer, getting a good rough mix...so you know what it will sound like with everything else in there.

Especially make sure that the drum mix is right, and when it is, send the stereo drum mix to the two inputs and record.

 

[lost studios]

Ishtar.

I think you had the right in using the V-Drum brain via MIDI. I'll assume that you only have the brain and not the V-kit as well. Which brain is it? TD-10? I'll also assume that you have enough acoustic triggers to attach to each drum. Actually, we have done the this exact setup in our preproduction rig and it works wonderfully. If you have a good ear for drum sounds and a comfortable understanding of the brain, you can model incredibly realistic drum sounds using this technique with a mere TD-10 and an Audiophile. The best part even after the song is pre-mixed, you can completely alter your drum sounds, not as a whole, but individually.

I would suggest you put the kit in a good sounding room. Put up a nice pair of overheads to record the cymbols in stereo. Attach each drum trigger to each shell, and record the stereo in through the Audiophile. As others have already mentioned, a small mixer would be needed to bring the mic signal up to line levels and send RCA out to the audiophile. Record the MIDI and the stereo in simutaneously. To monitor the brain, just line the stereo outs of the brain into the mixer so you can hear the drums. Just make sure that you have a premade patch that is appropriate for monitoring conditions. You can mess with each individual drum patch after the drums are recorded, or possible to better suit your bass sound as you line that in next. Also make sure that your not routing you TD-10 signal to the RCA outs. You don't want to record that signal, you just want to monitor it.

When it comes time to mix down your drums, remember that all you have to do is bounce that MIDI drum file down to a stereo audio track. Just press record an audio track while playing back the MIDI file. This time route the drum patch to the RCA outs of your board instead of monitoring it. You even have the freedom to bounce one drum at a time giving you the ability to mix the drums later all on separate tracks. Just keep the MIDI file archived so you can always rebounce at any point of the project.

I think you'ld be happy with the results you'll achieve using this type of setup. I wish you much luck. Can't wait to here the project upon completion.

cheers
ls

 

[Ishtar69]

once again, i got amazing responses to my question. i appreciate your inputs. speaking of inputs, i just wish my sound card had more than two inputs.

lost studios, we have a TD-8. you answer kinda makes sense to me, but my drummer is the midi and TD-8 expert. i'll forward him the link to this thread. i'm sure he can figure out what you're suggesting.

trogdor, your suggestion is actually my favorite since it's so simple that even i can understand it. on a side note, is "dragon" your favorite strongbad email? mine is "techno."