What do I need, how cheap can I get it?

[IAmNotATable]

Hey, guys!

I know some of you know your stuff about recording, and I have some questions about what to get in order to be set up. I really like the idea of a small home studio just for the fun of it. My friend Bobby and I went out on a little roadtrip and bought a CAD Premium 7-Piece Drum Mic Set. Bobby begged his way down to $80 for the complete set, so we split the cost. The mics were bought with camp touring in mind, but I figured in the off season I can get some good use out of them too. So... Home recording for as cheap as I can possibly go. This should be fun.

Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is an 8 channel mixer and interface. Or both in one. Do you think the Alesis Multimix 8, a mixer that has interface integrated into it, would be a good mixer to do this with? And I've noticed that there are two types of this mixer, one with Firewire interface and one with USB. Would the USB one work? They are much cheaper. ($300 vs. $115)

Problems with this mixer is this; I only see 4 XLR spots on an 8 channel mixer. My friend Jeff let us use his Multimix 8 at a recent gig, and I saw other cables coming out of that thing. We used all 8 channels. But I don't know what I need to do to make the XLR coming from the mic go into a 1/4" cable for the mixer. Would that work?

My train of thought right now is mic going into mixer via XLR or whatever the flip for the 1/4", then the mixer going into my MacBook via USB or Firewire. Preferably USB. Then using Garageband or the program my friend Zach downloaded, Reaper. I don't know if that is a good train of though or not. So my questions to you guys is this...

Can you think of a cheaper way for me to record with all 7 mics?

If I'm thinking correctly, what do I do about the 4 channels without XLR input?

Any help you guys can offer would be much appreciated, as I am still trying to figure this out using recording forums and instructions online. I can't even use the "I'm a drummer" excuse because all of you play drums.

Thanks!

Noah

[IAmNotATable]

Just got the Alesis MultiMix 8 USB. This is turning into an advice thread very quickly, haha!

[Russ]

What's your budget for mics, and which ones are you getting? You should definitely start with 1 or 2 overheads, but you can pick up a few others like kick and snare to sweeten the sound up at a later point. Some people like to get the packs, some like to pick individual ones based on performance and price. The overheads will pick up a lot though, so i'd start there.

[IAmNotATable]

Oh I got the mics, CAD Premium set. It's legit! Then the Alesis Multimix 8 is on it's way along with a MXL V63M. My friend Ross is hooking me up with 8 XLR cables, and I gotta order 4 adapters.

[nucjd]

Good for you IAM. went and checked out the Alesis unit. Just a few FYI points ( which you may already know). There are four preamps on that unit and the other 4 inputs are line level. What that means if you are going to run 8 mics in at once you are going to have to buy 4 preamps to use those line level inputs. Also remember that the TRS inputs can with any 1/4' but you really should buy balanced cables to keep down noise.

Anyway I am excited for you. The eq fuunction and shelves are really nice features.

[Russ]

I use mxl's myself(990 and 991 pairs). They are surprisingly good in terms of sensitivity, but be careful with them. I have noticed they are fairly fragile, mysterious damage showed up on mine, even though I don't often move them. Keep in mind if you run out of cord, xlr cables can link together to double their length. Just plug the male into the female end, but you will sacrifice a cable and therefore a mic to get that advantage. 20 footers are a good size to get, but keep some twist-tie's handy(the kind you use for garbage bags). I don't like plastic cable ties because they snap into place and you have to cut them off to readjust your cables.

[IAmNotATable]

Just got 4 male to female XLRs and 4 1/4" to Male XLRs. No preamps though... How do those work?

[nucjd]

Preamps are extremely important on multiple levels. A few things. What a preamp does is take the weak signal from the mic and amplifies it up to line level signal which is the industry standard for required signal levels to be recognized and recorded. Now, the preamp "colors the signal" massively and will impart good and bad sonic characteristics to the signal that originated from the mic. One thing tough for people to get their heads around when they first start recording is the preamp in most cases is more important than the type of mic you have. For example Michael Jackson's thriller album vocals were recorded with a Shure SM7b mic which costs about 300 dollars ( it is a male vocal broadcast mic) everyone says "WOW that is a great mic" yes and no. What most folks do not realize is the mic is running through a 5000 dollar preamp which gives that classic sound before it went through the other processors to tape. So in short a good preamp can make a crappy mic sound beautiful and a bad preamp can make a 5000 dollar Neumann mic sound like garbage. So anyway on cost for preamps. They range like anything else in the recording world from 30 dollars to 10,000 dollars per channel. You will need four channels pf preamps to run mics in on the other four channel. Not a deal breaker but you might be using the 4 mic method for recording for a little while (BTW, some amazing drum tracks on big records were recorded with the four mic method). Hope this helps.

[nucjd]

Little clarification IAM. Looking at it little closer, it looks like channels 5and 6 are TS ( Tip sleeve) and not TRS ( Balanced= Tip, ring, sleeve) so there will be sum hum on those channels if you star trying to run long cables. Channels 7 and eight are output channels only. Not sure which model you have but that is what I was seeing with a discontinued model on the internet. Adjust the above to your model.

[IAmNotATable]

Unfortunately I'll have the cheap ones. Dang. I am recording tomorrow, not with my mixer though. I'm bringing the mics.

[Kazaamski]

What if he bought some XLR Y cables> He could run his 2 overheads into one XLR input. 2 tom mics into another XLR input. The kick get's it's own. And then the snare. Not the best, but, then you don't have the bother of worrying about preamps.
OH and IAM, can I join your company?

[IAmNotATable]

Heck yes you can.

I got the mixer and tried using the other four channels that needed preamps as well as the four XLR channels. All 8 worked great, so now it's just learning how to mix in Reaper and watching to make sure there's no clipping. And probably more than that, too. I'm getting some help from my friend at church, he knows his stuff pretty well. But while I'm here, does anyone have any advice on recording with what I've got?




HOLY THREAD TOPIC CHANGE BATMAN

[Russ]

Be prepared to dampen, and get new heads/tuning on spot before miking. If you have two overheads, you can reduce phase issues by panning left on the left mic and panning right on the right mic. A similar method helps when double miking with dynamic mics as well, one of them hard left and the other hard right. Drop the mids a little bit if you want more attack, but keep them otherwise. The first two levels to set should be your overheads, because they have(in my opinion) the largest impact on your mix. The close mics add and sweeten up the sound from the overheads, so work on them one at a time after the OH's are set. Just try not to be intimidated or overwhelmed by the size of the board, and take things one channel at a time, one person hits quarter notes while the other checks the levels is how i'd do it. Sometimes you don't have the luxury of a drummer and a soundguy, so use good headphones if you have to check your own sound.

[VIbes]

Record each channel/mic individually and mono with no eq.. eq and pan after you record. Like the left and right overhead, pan Left and right. Left and right toms not as wide. Floor tom a little to one side. Snare and kick in the middle. It will give the kit space and sound good. Make sure you are getting a good signal on all channels when recording but not in the red. Maybe -4 db. Once you get a recording of all mics at a good level, mix accordingly in your software. It's not that hard once you do it. Mic placement is important too. Don't dampen your drums! Just record them how you like them and the best tuned you can get them. I had to mic up my set today and here is some test drumming in my little studio. Still balanceing things up since I had everything all unhooked, but gives you a idea. I just record flat into the computer then mix in the box.
[ame="http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XWfZg2xhl8"]http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XWfZg2xhl8[/ame]

[nucjd]

Great advice Vibes. Spot on with the basic set up. Also like the track.