Recording drums

[virtuocity]

I want to record drums in future. I will obviously hook uk the drums individually with 8 mics but I have a newbie silly question:

I will give each mic a channel on my mixer.

If I hook up my mixer to my audio interface, will the audio interface just record everything as one part?

Or will my audio interface "know" that there are 8 parts?

I want to be able to change the levels etc on each drum throughout thr project if you know what I mean?

Or am I better buying an interface with a load of channels?

Embarassed but needing a reply!

 

[RAMI]

I will obviously hook uk the drums individually with 8 mics

Why do you say "obviously"???? That's not necasarrilly the best way to do it. What about overheads???

Drum micing is more than just throwing mics on each drum. Go to the DRUM section of this forum and read Greg's guide to drum recording.

 

[mattr]

Depends on the interface and how you hook it up... more details please.

"Mixer" could refer to a 2-channel Behringer or a 128-channel Neve.

"Interface" could refer to a 2x2-on-RCA Behringer thing, or an Apogee Ensemble.

So without any specifics, these words are more than meaningless...

 

[grimtraveller]

I've found that there are a number of ways to record drums, depending on what you're looking for in each particular song. So with that in mind, I think you'll do well to not only read Greg's guide (it's 'user friendly' and informative), but also to actually look through the drum forum and recording techniques forum where drum questions have come up because there are a multiplicity of views and I've found it useful to listen to what lots of different people say. And look up techniques like the Glyn Johns method and the Recorderman method {this is an interesting debate featuring it >>https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=39030<<} and other ones that are all over the net like that of Ronan Chris Murphy. There's lots of them, some better than others.
Sorry if I'm piling it on, but I would also recommend you listen to stuff by some of the folk on HR like the first respondent to your post, Rami, who is a drummer and see what you think of the drums on his stuff. Personally, when I hear drums that I'm impressed by, I try to find out what moves the recorder of said stuff makes to get that sound and I take note. And add it to my arsenal of methods.

To answer your question specifically, unless your mixer has 8 (or more) outputs to correspond to the 8 mic inputs, it won't "know" as you put it. A mixer is often precisely that - it takes many channels of sound and mixes them into less (usually 2) channels, which is why, in the past, they've been handy for drums and choirs when one doesn't have many tracks to play with.

If you aren't looking at multitrack standalones {my bias}, you are probably better off following your inclination and going for an interface with loads of channels as they will always be useful. However, I can't stress enough, read up on recording drums and experiment. You can get great sounds miking every component. You can get great sounds with 4 mics. You can get grand sounds with 3 mics. You can get fair sounds with two mics and useable sounds with one. Each way has it's own pros, pitfalls, placement and planning. It's all great fun although it may not always feel that way !

And welcome to the big chair....