Thoughts on a hybrid drumkit:
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Posted on Dec 15, 2012 07:31 pm
J-bot
Byte-Mixer
Member Since: Dec 04, 2007
So, this is a purely hypothetical scenario.
Let's say I manage to afford or set up an external recording space for client someday. It would be pretty gear light, but one thing I would like to have in said space, is, of course, a drumkit.
Now, there are two routes I was thinking, either acoustic, or electronic. As for electronic kits, I like the Alesis DM series with the metal Surge (or is it Sarge?) cymbals.
This made me think, "How feasible would it be to create a hybrid kit?" Such as, placing a couple acoustic drums with the electronic kit. I think having a recording of the actual physical moving air produced by the drumkit adds a lot to the recording. (if miced properly, of course) So, electronic kits are convenient, but what if we were to maybe add an acoustic kit and snare in place of the electronic kit and snare? That would add some authenticity to the sound I think.
But the other question, of course, is how feasible or practical would this be? Maybe it's better to go full electronic, or just get an acoustic kit set up if you want or need the extra feeling of a good acoustic kit sound.
Of course, keeping an acoustic kit around, or adding acoustic elements to an electronic kit would also mean maintenance and upkeep. Tuning the drums, replacing broken heads, etc. etc. Though, adding just a kick and snare to an electronic set would be less to maintain.
And of course, in the case of either the acoustic or hybrid set, you'd need to make sure the sound is controlled or separated from other sources if you are recording multiple people concurrently.
So I guess we could discuss the advantages and disadvantages to acoustic kit vs. electronic kit vs. possibly some sort of hybrid electro-acoustic frankenkit? hah.
Anyway, it could just be total crap, and a total nightmare to mix the acoustic pieces with the electronic pieces. I'm really just thinking out loud in a hypothetical scenario here.
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Dec 16, 2012 02:37 am I saw a video once where instead of recording an acoustic kit and then adding samples on top of the kick and snare to beef them up, they just had the drummer on an electric kit with real cymbals. So the only real thing were the cymbals, and the rest of the drum hits were all midi, allowing them to put in any samples they want blah blah you know the process.
I think it would be cool to have a hybrid kit. I've also been eyeing an Alesis DM10 as my next big music purchase. I think it might be kinda rad to have a real snare on a stand and just make the rest of the pads toms or whatever you want (you dont need 5 toms afterall haha). That way, you never have to worry about your snare sounding too fake or sampled. In my experience, the snare is the only problem area as far as sounding too "midi"-y.
Maybe if you have cymbals that you really like and can get a good sound out of, throw those on too. That would probly be my ideal solution to a hybrid kit. Then the only mics you need are a set of room/overhead mics and a couple close mics for the snare. No need to worry about toms or kick.
Ya hope that helps.
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
Dec 16, 2012 03:18 am Yeah, those are pretty much my thoughts on it as well. And yeah, I like the Alesis DM series kits. I think I'd want to go with one of the DM Pro kits with the Surge cymbals since the cymbals have a metal coating, but they are damped heavily so they don't sound much louder than tapping a tabletop with a drumstick...but they feel a lot more natural apparently.
I mean, I'm not a drummer, at all, but I'd want something that feels good if I ever had a drummer over to record some work.
Looks like the DM10 Pro uses the Surge cymbals, so you might want to consider that one if it's within budget....they're not cheap though, being just over a grand. Well, I guess that's cheaper than some things, but still. xD
Back last year, or the year before when I was looking, I think it was the Alesis DM5 Pro that caught my eye, but it's not available in many places anymore. It did have the brass coated surge cymbals though.
And looking around, it looked like there is an acoustic-electric kit out there made by Pearl called the E-Pro Live. They are pricey though, looking at $2K-ish and up.
And with the roland electric kits, apparently it's possible to connect the triggers to a real acoustic kit. So, I guess it's definitely feasible to create a hybrid kit...I mean, it's been done I guess, haha. :D
I think Yamaha also makes some hybrid kits now that I'm looking around.
Hmm....something to consider if I ever get to have a recording space someday. :P But yeah, I think part-miced and part-electronic would be kinda cool.
Dematrixhttp://www.reverbnation.com/2ndgMember
Since: Nov 27, 2007
Dec 19, 2012 08:48 am hey dude we just went thru the whole electric kit thing doing a recording. Firstly we had issues with an old TD6 Roland drum brain, being not human enough to record with as far as velocities and allsorts of other unexpectants if thats a word.
we ended up having to aquire a TD20 for it to be worth it in the end. For metal really we had no other choice. The requirements for good metal kit sounds require a good room etc if ya were to use an acoustic as you would expect.
So we got the td20 set up the responses the way we needed them and it was good in the end man. Ran it thru drum software via midi from td20 and was good.
Ive also thought about what you mentioned too about a hybrid type kit in the sense of snare and whatnot.
These days though with good drum software you can layer almost an infinite amount of pieces with each other, and move the ohs further away or closer to the kit as well as ambient mics etc.
I think going electric with software is the way of today. unless ya got the time, money and room quality going for ya to go acoustic.
I had this crazy idea too im toying with where i use play the drum track once recorded thru my monitors and mic one up with a decent mic. record it and use that if it works of course as another layer and to give more of a live feel.
I know what ya mean about prog drums being hard to get robust enough sometimes to make em sound more real. Im also gonna try parallel compression which should also help.
As for the hybrid kit, another angle is, you can invest in midi triggers for your acoustic record both and blend with whatever prog sounds ya like.
more so i heard drumagog can use just mic signals and convert them to midi as well as record as wav. Might be able to side step the whole midi trig thing.
we are going down the drum midi trig road for live but using the midi triggers to monitor the drum tempo which in turn controls the computer samples we use live adjusting the tempo of them as we play so as not use a click.
TheTincanbugsloppy dice, drinks twiceMember
Since: Aug 05, 2003
Dec 19, 2012 04:38 pm For recording I would just do a track with an electric kit first, then record an acoustic drum track separately. You're going to get a lot of stick noise on your Electric-acoustic hybrid track otherwise...
I do love my alesis Dm8 usb kit....it's so quiet that my neighbors are sleeping instead of calling the police about the noise...
