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Thread: mics or midi? need help.

  1. #1

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    Default mics or midi? need help.

    I have been recording my drums using the reaper daw and a us1800 16 channel interface, with several mics. An audio technical boundary mix inside the bass drum, a sub kick on the outside an at 57 clone on the snare, at tom mics, pro37's as cymbal overheads, and an at2020 for a room mic. I have also recorded using a d112 on the bass and sm57's on the rest of the kit. Overall it sounds good but not perfect.
    I am considering using my ekit to record MIDI and use something like ezdrummer or bfd for the sounds. Yesterday I setup my ekit and ran my MIDI cable and used gtg dpc3 for the sounds as a test run. It records the MIDI, but only plays back some of the drums. Can anyone help me with this? Or is this gonna be more work than its worth?
    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Ludwig centennial natural 11 piece
    Gp jungle natural 4 piece
    Yamaha dtxpress3
    Saluda cymbals
    zildjian a customs
    Sabian aax

  2. #2

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    Default Re: mics or midi? need help.

    An alternative would be to record the drums as you were and then use Drumagog (?) or a hit replacer, it will trigger off the audio files and you can load in whatever sample you want, quite common to put a low 808 kick under an acoustic version to give it weight.

  3. #3

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    Default Re: mics or midi? need help.

    I've tried that but had trouble getting it to work on more than 1 channel simultaneously.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Ludwig centennial natural 11 piece
    Gp jungle natural 4 piece
    Yamaha dtxpress3
    Saluda cymbals
    zildjian a customs
    Sabian aax

  4. #4

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    Default Re: mics or midi? need help.

    How about a mixer? Plug-ins are cool and all, but real recording isn't done with plug-ins. I get the feeling from your description that your trying to make YouTube videos (and trust me, we need one more YouTube drum video), but I highly recommend getting behind a board. Learning the routing. Understanding how and why instrument and voice tracks sound good (or bad). Learn to record and run sound, it's hugely beneficial.
    Last edited by SunDog; 05-22-2016 at 04:24 PM.

    Collectors Black Ice Finishply
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  5. #5

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    Default Re: mics or midi? need help.

    No , I'm actually recording my bands demo in my home studio. The drums sound pretty good but quite perfect.I'm reading more and more about drums being routed to plugins that will trigger a pre recorded note. I've started toying with this and while I wouldn't want to do it on an entire kit it does seem to help on the bass drum for instance. I can keep the original recording and also trigger a wav file and blend the two to fill out the sound.

    When I record, everything has its own discreet channel, no pre eq, or anything. Only thing I do is set the levels,and adjust mic placement. All mixing is done after the fact. Is there another approach I should consider?

    As for using midi, I've had no luck with that. Probably because I've never used midi before.
    Last edited by carbohydrate kid; 05-22-2016 at 06:52 PM. Reason: Misspellings
    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Ludwig centennial natural 11 piece
    Gp jungle natural 4 piece
    Yamaha dtxpress3
    Saluda cymbals
    zildjian a customs
    Sabian aax

  6. #6

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    Default Re: mics or midi? need help.

    Quote Originally Posted by carbohydrate kid View Post
    When I record, everything has its own discreet channel, no pre eq, or anything. Only thing I do is set the levels,and adjust mic placement. All mixing is done after the fact. Is there another approach I should consider?.
    Maybe, I don't know what kind of results your getting. I certainly can't offer any less expensive alternative. The triggered kick drum program makes me think you didn't capture a usable sound. My method of recording is very simple and really relies on good gear ie. a good mixer, good microphones, tube pre-amps, good out-board gear. Then I run all of that into an automated software.

    Collectors Black Ice Finishply
    10x8,12x9,15x12,16x14,20x18,24x16
    14X6 Collectors 10 and 6 snare Natural Satin
    14x8 Collectors Black Nickel over Brass

  7. #7

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    Default Re: mics or midi? need help.

    Well for instance, I was using a akg d112 on the rest side of my kick in front of the kickport .it recorded clean but had too much attack. When I moved it back it became more boomy and had a better thud, but would pick up more of the rest of the kit .so I tried combining that with a subkick I built. That seemed to help a bit but then I thought why not use an internal boundary mic instead of the d112 and get a real punchy tone to combine with the low end of the subkick? When mixed with a full band it sounds good. But when isolated, there's something a bit strange sounding about it. That's when I started triggering a way file to add. Honestly, I'm probably being nitpicky. The recordings sound very clean and clear.like I said , I keep reading about studios where triggering and using midi is the norm and wondered if I should start leaning that process or stick with the standard method of mic the actual drums. It certainly seems like they both have their uses.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Ludwig centennial natural 11 piece
    Gp jungle natural 4 piece
    Yamaha dtxpress3
    Saluda cymbals
    zildjian a customs
    Sabian aax

  8. #8

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    Default Re: mics or midi? need help.

    a lot of the time its a matter of having the room and your ears in perfect harmony

    doesn't matter what you record with but how you can use it to your advantage

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