Home recording of acoustic drums...?

[tombo74]

I'd like to get more into home recording (probably digital) of my acoustic drums and I'm looking for some advices.

I've been using a single mic through a little 4-track Fostex for quite some time to listen to myself and improve. I also mix it with some minus-drum play alongs or loops from my QY-10 sequencer. The sound has always been crappy but I didn't care too much. Now that my Fostex is totally dead, I'd like to get some better quality and affordable equipment.

I have good drum mics which I use live:
AKG D112: Kick
Yamaha MZ205Be's: Snare, toms (mounted on LP claws)
Yamaha MZ204: Floor tom (mounted on LP claw)
No good overheads yet

My kit is in a soundproof room in my basement.
I also have a new powerful laptop if the solution is to go with PC recording.

Do some of you guys do home recording of your drums?

Should I go with analog mix to digital, direct digital and software mix or else?

What solution would be the best sound/ease of use/price combination?

Any of you know the Behringer brand. These german products are cheap but are they good?

Advices are welcome.

T

[Randy walker]

Behringer is not bad if taken care of, I have heard horror stories but I have a few things and they work fine.
As to home recording software, you can download an 8track version of Protools free, you can buy Vegas from Sonic Foundry, or Sonar (i use this) from Cakewalk. There is also Inuendo and Cubase too.
Interface with a soundcard, many choices, I use Frontierdesigns www.frontierdesigns.com
You will need an interface from your mixer to the PC and this new device from Behringer for the price is excellent http://www.behringer.com/02_products...A8000&lang=eng
It runs about 200.00
You can run 8 channels of XLR or 1/4 into it and run out to the PC using ADAT lightpipe. Then for monitoring you can run lightpipe back to it or send it it to a cd recorder.

Mics, never worked with the Yamahas you mentioned, but it's all in what works best in your room. For kic I switch between the D112 and the Beta 52 by Shure.
As to overheads, you can go to Guitar Center or an online catalog and buy the Otktava 319 or 219 really cheap and these will work fine for your application and can be bought for 100 a pop.

[Randy walker]

I should have mentioned I make a nice living recording my drums at home for others without having to walk into a local studio.
My signal path is as follows:
mics to Mackie 1604, patched directly out to an ADAT, although the snare and overheads go thru a seperate tube preamp and then into the ADAT. From the ADAT it goes via lightpipe to my soundcard and into Sonar.
For monitoring it goes out of the PC via lightpipe to a digital board for mixing and monitoring. A second lightpipe is wired directly to my cd recorder so I can make mixes on the fly and not bother with making an MP3.
Hope this helps.
My setup is a tad expensive to get into but similar systems can be done at a decent price. The expense is going to be in the software, which can run anywhere from 300.00 to thousands. Soundcards are about 250.00.

[tombo74]

Thanks a lot Randy!

Some more questions:

Can I do without a mixer? Since the ADA8000 has 8 inputs, I think the mix could be done with the software...right or not?

Do most soundcards have ADAT input for a lightpipe?

Can I rely on the software for all FX and sound reinforcement?

To summarize, could I go with:
- An ADA8000 type of thing
- A soundcard with the right input
- A free software

and that's it for a basic A/D setup?

[Randy walker]

MOST soundcards have lightpipe, but you will need to check the specs to make sure. Yes you can do without the mixer and just use the Ultragain ADA8000 and go direct to the PC.
As to the software, free verses bought is going to determine whether or not you get PLUGINS, which are your verbs, compression, gates and so forth. If your good with the internet-and you did not see me post this [img]cool.gif[/img] ...........You can find CRACKED versions of recording software and TONS of plugin cracks too. [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ October 17, 2003 02:33 PM: Message edited by: Randy Walker ]</font></font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 17, 2003 02:34 PM: Message edited by: Randy Walker ]</font>

[dum-dum-soc]

I have a TASCAM DM-24 Digital mixer that has 16 mic pre's and a gang of other cookies and toys. I have a digi 001 and will soon be getting the 002 rack. Here is how I am set up. I use adat light 8 channels for my kit, everything else comes through the analog ins and outs on the back of the digi 001. I have a beta 52 on kick, two RODE NT3's for overheads, 57's on snare and toms with my two floor toms sharing a mic. I get great sound and have done some serious recording. I would love to post some music but I don't know how just yet............

[Randy walker]

For toms I use AKG C408's, overheads I use Audix CX101's. For the hat an Audix ADX50. 57 on the snare and a D112 for the kic.

[wolfgang.at]

I use a Yamaha 01V digital mixing console (the same console Weckl has been using live and on his "How to Develop Sound"-video) and the AKG "drumset big" microphone set (1x D 112 /bass drum, 2x C 1000 S /overheads, 4x C 418 /toms) plus one or two SM57?s for the snare.

[tombo74]

Let's say I want to enhance my snare sound by adding a sample I like to it. Does a basic recording software allows you to do it afterwards?

Like triggering the sample from the acoustic snare track, putting it on another track and mixing the two like 75% of acoustic and 25% of the sample.

I know guys like Weckl used to do it but is it still in vogue nowadays?

[Randy walker]

drumagog is a great program for doing this. You can also send the signal from the snare track out to a triggering source such as a Alesis D4 and then bring the sound back in.
But the easy way is either drumagog OR if you have disc of samples and are good at looking at the wave forms you can align the new sample up with your current snare sound and work ti that way. takes practice though lining up the wave forms.

www.drumagog.com

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 22, 2003 03:15 PM: Message edited by: Randy Walker ]</font>