USB Drums

  • Thread starter Thread starter SuperFuzz
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SuperFuzz

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I play drums, but when I record on my tracks, because of my setup, I have to use MIDI drums (i.e playing notes on the keyboard to make drum sounds)...and obviously for a drummer: this is no fun! Do you reckon a USB drum kit would be good? Would it work with Cubase 4?

Here's a link to one I was considering buying:

h t t p:// w ww.amazon.co.uk/Ion-iED05-USB-Digital-Drum/dp/B000HWXGPW

Tell me what you think. :)
 
im sure theyre okay dude, and yeah most likely work in cubase howeever they look really uncomfortable to play haha. it may not be what you want to hear but maybe an electronic kit thats reasonably inexpensive (yamaha do one or two) and a midi interface is what you should be aiming for!

but yeah i feel for you on the midi keyboard route, i went down that road for a bit. BORING haha
 
Ahh, stupid me! I have a MIDI interface (Saffire LE), therefore a USB drum kit won't work with that, will it?
 
SuperFuzz said:
Ahh, stupid me! I have a MIDI interface (Saffire LE), therefore a USB drum kit won't work with that, will it?
Click to expand...

Yeah it will work. Just mean you have to plug it into a USB port, and input it that way. Just ignore the fact the Saffire exists and record in the drums via USB. It should (i guess) appear as a seperate input bus in cubase depending on how the software operates.
 
But I got the Saffire because when I recorded MIDI or Audio without it (via a simple USB interface) I got huge amounts of latency. Won't I get latency with this if I don't use my Saffire?
 
I wouldn't see any reason you would have latency issues with the USB kit; it's not doing much other than sending its audio signal (which might already be a digital one) out via the USB port. This in itself shouldn't cause any latency issues.

However:

As a drummer, something like the kit you linked to would frustrate me. It looks cheap, and heaven knows what the samples sound like or what the pad response feels like.

You've got a decent audio interface that can capture the audio output of any electronic kit. I would think that you could pick up a used Roland TD-5k or TD-7k (or even a kit from Simmons, Yamaha, etc.) and be much happier with it than the kit you mentioned.
 
I think you should just get a digital drum set and run the line out into your interface, that way you wont need to worry about compatability problems.
 
JG96 said:
I think you should just get a digital drum set and run the line out into your interface, that way you wont need to worry about compatability problems.
Click to expand...

I very much agree. The kit you posted a link to is pretty poor looking. Why not spend the extra and get something worthwhile?
 
I'll chime in here....

I use a roland TD3 kit with cubase 4 triggering superior drummer 2.0

I used to record them through a midi to USB adapter and the latency was enough to put you off playing before you were into the second bar of the song.

I now have the kit hooked up to the midi input of my yamaha N12 mixer which is firewire. The results are useable, you get used to playing in front of the beat but the way around it is this....

You have your midi input triggering Superior as a VSTi but you DON'T monitor back the signal! You take the stereo out of the drum brain and monitor that straight off the mixer...no latency. When you're done you unmute the VSTi and bingo, everything is in perfect time.

Any cheap drum brain with your own selection of trigger pads will get you started but beware, the cheap kits really are cheap. The first one I bought...legacy dd505 I think it was, the same kit is sold under many names. The pads were really cheap plastic with a moulded rubber head. after a week the pads went loose with playing then started to tear around the rims...all of them, especialy the snare to the point they were unuseable.

If you can hold off, save for something decent. The TD3 manages all my needs and the amount of drummers I have coming through the studio thinking they don't wanna play one... I get them to play 1 song right through then show them what can be done with a couple of mouse clicks to tidy up their playing...most love it, not all but most of them do. Superior drummer is the best bit of software I've bought in a while but even the results with EZDrummer before I upgraded were much better than I could achieve with an acoustic kit and 4 mics.

buy cheap, buy twice... musical rules ;)
 
JG96 said:
I think you should just get a digital drum set and run the line out into your interface, that way you wont need to worry about compatability problems.
Click to expand...

the problem with that is you'll end up with a stereo track of the whole kit and severely handicap your mixing ability. Get it in midi with everything on its own track via EZdrummer or BFD or something.
 
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