Recording Electionic Drums

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mickrose

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Hello, I was going through your site an some of the links looking for information regarding Recording Electronic Drums. My drummer has a Roland V-Tech Kit, and I realize that all mixing, panning, EQ, Volumes of each drum and cymbal, has to be done prior to recording. There is obviously no individual mixing after it is on a track. What Specifics, Tips, Do' and Don'ts do you suggest with regards to this?

Thanks for any help you can give,

Mickey Rosenfeld
 
Depending on the project and the recording medium you are using, you could record multiple track off an electronic kit.

Example - module with 2 channel (stereo outs). Pan snare left and kick right and mute (turn off volumn, unplug, whatever) all other pads.

Record just the sanre & kick on 2 channels. Then assign the toms to the left and right (mute the snare & kick) and play the tom fills. Then record the hi-hat, etc. etc.

Naturally, the drummer has to be pretty good (and open minded) - and you need enough channels on your recording "deck".

If that is too much hassel, then simply try to get the best sound you can out of the module.

If you have 4 outs, assign the snare (maybe hihat) to the 1st out and the kick to the 2nd out. Then pan the rest of the kit to outs 3 & 4.

If you only have stereo outs - then get the best sound you can - but remember, electronic cymbals rarely sound good - so keep them low in the mix..

Actually, the best way to record would be to record just the MIDI performance (if you have MIDI recording capability) then after the performance is recorded you can start to tweak the sounds.

I always record the MIDI first (I don't commit sound to tape). Then, after I have the rest of the sounds (guitar, keys, etc) I trigger the drum module and start to look for the right snare sound, etc.
 
Recording Electronic Drums

Mike , thanks for your input. I know that the the kit's module has 2 channel out puts R&L and also "direct out" R&L and midi. Should be able to assign certian drums to specific outs and then switch up from there. We will see.

We get sound levels proir to recording, but when I listen back, then the ride cymbal is overbearing, or during a roll, the overall volume of the toms drops out. We make adjustments and try again. I know that part of it is the drummer and the sweet spots on the heads. The midi application is something I need to learn more about!

We are recording on a Korg D-12 which has 96 virtual tracks, so I could very well record each drum and cymbol individually as you have indicated and get my final levels and sound after the fact.

Thanks for the suggestion.
 
THe best way to do this is going to be a little time consuming but certainly less so than recording each thing individually.

Use the Midi in/out to your advantage. record your drummers track as one single track of MIDI data. then boune that track back through the module one "note" at a time (since all closed hi hat will be one note,all snare is one note,all tom 1,tom2,tom3, is one note ect...) this will require multiple passes but in the end you will have an individual track for each drum,cymbal ect...

Plus a unique benefit of this is to be able to actually change the sounds as the song develops.

ex. let's say your drummer records a killer take for a song but as the song develops you don't like the hi hat sound. rather than record a whole new take just send the original midi note for the hi hat back through the brain and change the sound to what ever you want.
 
Heres your answer

http://www.gnmidi.com/gnfreeen.htm

Download mididrum.exe from that site and follow the instructions. Its extremely easy to use and it will divide your original midi file into all the seperate tracks automatically. Free, fast and easy. What else can you ask for? Good luck!

TYler
 
http://www.gnmidi.com/gnfreeen.htm

Download mididrum.exe from that site and follow the instructions. Its extremely easy to use and it will divide your original midi file into all the seperate tracks automatically. Free, fast and easy. What else can you ask for? Good luck!

TYler
Click to expand...


Not a bad idea but, he is not (i dont think) using a computer to record. If he is then the simplest method is still to record the single MIDI track then explode it in whatever editing software he is using.

However in the Korg you should be able to send/recieve/record MIDI data. If this is in fact the case you should also be able to send the individual notes back through the brain.

vedder: The problem isn't with splitting the MIDI but in getting each instrument on it's own track. regardless of how the MIDI data is split I am assuming that he will still be using the sounds from the drum module which only has a limeted number of outs. Hence the need to send the MIDI notes a few at a time.
 
We will back in the studio next week and I'm going to try and record using the Midi.

The Korg D-12 does have Midi in and out, so We will see what has to be done to seperate the drums. I'm not using any kind of computer for our recording. Not sure at this point whether I will try to use the Korg's EQ and effects or mix through my board and the componets in the rack.
I kinda feel limited with the onboard effects and EQ and compression. I think I would probably get better results by using the the individual componets. Agree of not?

Thanks again for you help and imput.

Mickey
 
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