Electric drums
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Posted on May 25, 2005 03:53 am
solipsism
Member Since: Nov 28, 2004
Does anyone have experiences or opinions about electric drums in home recording? I mean it would seem they have the advantage of not needing any mics or good room acoustics.
Are there any relatively cheap good sounding sound modules? And do they usually have an output for every pad input, so you can record all the drums on separate tracks?
How about triggers on bass drums and toms? I haven't really seen any discussion or articles about it. Does anyone use triggers in their studio?
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May 25, 2005 04:10 am I know OldDog from this forum uses electric drums and I can testify they sound fantastic.
A TD6 kit I believe - very good sounds indeed. I also believe they can be used to trigger stuff tho Im sure OD will pitch in for ya.
I personally use a Zoom drum machine for the sounds i.e the kit sounds. I do all the design of the beats in an app on the PC, run this out the MIDI channel, into the zoom and back into the PC to get the sounds from the Zoom with the advantage of saving the beat on the PC.
The best of both worlds. Theoretically, you can try the same song with lots of kits, find the one you like and go for it...seperate tracks are also possible but alas, its no as good as actually havin someone hit the drums (electronic or acoustic) - but, it does me most of the time.
Good luck in finding something for yer drums.
Coco.
May 25, 2005 07:11 am That's another thing I've been wondering about. To have good sounding drums without a drummer.
So when you have the drum beats on the computer is it a MIDI file or what? And what app do you use?
May 25, 2005 08:06 am solipsism, I am not sure what app you're using to record, but I use SONAR 3 Producer and it allows you to create MIDI drum tracks and then convert them to audio for mixing.
May 25, 2005 11:13 am don't go out and get some used yamaha kit....use a midi controler and a software sampler, it's cheaper and sounds better.
May 25, 2005 11:14 am unless you're a drummer, and like to play...
May 25, 2005 01:27 pm i like to trigger my bass drum and toms, and occassionaly snare. it works because you can use acoustic drums to make electronic sounds (its the same setup with a module but you use analog triggers) it all depends on what kind of sound you want. if you want a consistent, smooth sound, triggering is the way to go. but be careful, when you trigger, you take away all of the "personality" from the playing (accents, etc). a nice triggered bass drum can do wonders, so maybe you should look into that. its a cheaper way to go than buying a complete electronic set (triggers and a module can run anywhere from $300 to $1000 dollars).
autumn design
ZX6R1033PerdidoMember
Since: Dec 15, 2004
May 25, 2005 01:37 pm If you already have an acoustic drum kit... but a set of acoustic triggers.
olddogMember
Since: Jul 02, 2003
May 25, 2005 03:30 pm Unless you already play drums I would stick with a software solution or a setup like Coco uses.
The electronic kits such as the Roland TD6V which I have or the Yamaha Xtremes are very nice and with an experienced drummer you'd be hard pressed to to tell them apart from acoustics, add the advantages of being able to play thru headphones, and a large choice of sounds, not having to mic them, etc, they are a great deal, but only if you can play them. You can/could program your drums in midi on the PC and play them thru the sample module, but the modules are pretty expensive just by themselves, there are cheaper alternatives to go that route.
As far as outputs until you get into the $2000+ range most are stereo out only, which I haven't really found to be a problem, but at least 4 outs would be nice.
A great site for questions and more info on electronic drums
www.vdrums.com/forum/index.php
Dan
May 26, 2005 07:10 am I don't record computer based, so I'm limited when it comes to software solutions.
I've played some drums but never owned a kit of my own. I'm probably going to get one at some point but I'm not sure if it's going to be acoustic or electronic. And because of me not being a drummer it would be good to be able to record drums without one also.
Solutions or recommendations would be appreciated.
mccartyeeeeeeemo.Member
Since: Oct 30, 2003
May 26, 2005 10:07 am my band recorded the two songs found on www.wasted-days.co.uk on an electric kit. i particularly like the sound on Grey Faces - not many people can tell it's an electric kit! if you like the sound i will get you the details of what setup the studio used which we went to.
(that site is still under construction but the song downloads should work)
GeoffSM7b the Chuck Noris of Mic'sContributor
Since: Jun 20, 2002
May 27, 2005 06:13 am yeah I think a drum machine would be your best bet. I'm a drummer and have both electric and acoustic and even though I love my Tama I tend to record more with my electric because of where i live . Most people can't tell the difference and on the plus side it's easier the record the electric kit , the down side is the cymbals don't sound as good but the soud decent and i have a cheaper DM5 brain for my kit.
May 27, 2005 11:19 am agreed!!! find a drum machine!!! deffinately the right solution here.
May 27, 2005 11:20 am I can play a pretty mean drum kit with 6 fingers!
