Best options for recording drums these days?

[Iron1]

In preparation for doing our EP, we’re trying to explore all options. With DAWs and all the home recording things available these days, just wondering if there’s an inexpensive way to do this.

1. We can go into a studio and get it done old school for big bucks

2. Just have the drummer record in a studio then take those tracks and use them in a DAW

3. Buy drum mics, bigger interface, etc. and record the drums ourselves and use them in a DAW.

4. Sample our drummers hits and try and use those in the DAW to assemble drum tracks

None of these are great options in this “there’s a cover charge just to leave your house” age. But wondering if anyone has a way to go about it we aren’t thinking of…

Thoughts?

 

[scole]

Obviously there’s a midi drum kit and then using EZ Drummer / Superior Drums for the actual kit sound. Maybe there’s a gear rental place where you could rent a good Roland e-Kit so you can get your recording without actually having to buy a decent e-Kit.

 

[scole]

Here’s a video that demonstrates 6 different Mike placement options for drums with just a few mics so you can kind of get the feel for what each might offer. Might be hard to grasp how this changes for metal but it’s something.

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

If I was ever going to do this again (and I doubt I will at this point), I'd use my Roland TD-4 to record Midi tracks for the kick and toms. And I'd mic the snare and cymbals. I think the kick and toms can be realistically sample replaced, but the snare and cymbals bring the realism and dynamics.
I did this in 2014 using midi for everything, and never felt like I could get it where I wanted it. Of course I'm no engineering/mixing wiz...

 

[TSJMajesty]

If I was ever going to do this again (and I doubt I will at this point), I'd use my Roland TD-4 to record Midi tracks for the kick and toms. And I'd mic the snare and cymbals. I think the kick and toms can be realistically sample replaced, but the snare and cymbals bring the realism and dynamics.
I did this in 2014 using midi for everything, and never felt like I could get it where I wanted it. Of course I'm no engineering/mixing wiz...

Man that was frikken awesome dude!! The production sounds killer!!

Could you get this same level of quality for a live band, going mostly direct-to-FOH, (maybe not the drums), but still using some floor monitors?

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

Man that was frikken awesome dude!! The production sounds killer!!

Could you get this same level of quality for a live band, going mostly direct-to-FOH, (maybe not the drums), but still using some floor monitors?

Thanks man! The thing about recording live is that there will tons of bleed in the vocal mics. A dynamic mic made for live will never sound like a LDC. But they can sound good. The guitar and keys used several different sounds, and each had their own tracks and treatment. You can automate a lot of things today, which is cool, but you can't separate the different keyboard sounds if it's all coming from a single source. Close drum mics will be OK, but the overheads will be full of room sound, and you end up EQ'ing to remove offending things instead of focusing on the cymbal sound.

In the end, recording and mixing a live performance on a budget is a crap shoot. And you never know what you're going to get until you open the tracks. If the musicians give you really clean performances, then maybe?!?!? HAHA!!! Sorry. Best I can do.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Thanks man! The thing about recording live is that there will tons of bleed in the vocal mics. A dynamic mic made for live will never sound like a LDC. But they can sound good. The guitar and keys used several different sounds, and each had their own tracks and treatment. You can automate a lot of things today, which is cool, but you can't separate the different keyboard sounds if it's all coming from a single source. Close drum mics will be OK, but the overheads will be full of room sound, and you end up EQ'ing to remove offending things instead of focusing on the cymbal sound.

In the end, recording and mixing a live performance on a budget is a crap shoot. And you never know what you're going to get until you open the tracks. If the musicians give you really clean performances, then maybe?!?!? HAHA!!! Sorry. Best I can do.

I meant just to be able to get that great of a sound for a live mix, not for recording it. Cuz that sounded fantastic!

 

[2112]

It's worth paying the price of a good live room and engineer to get the drums done right.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Sourcing a good vibey room and old mics is all fun, mustache-twisty, and wallet-consuming, but I'm sure you can do just fine with a cheap Samson drum mic kit, additional SM57, a rented Focusrite with enough inputs, and sample replacement if necessary. I can go as far as tapping onto my microphones and using them as triggers for Addictive Drums, but most of the time I'm just replacing my tiny ass bass drum .

Get it all done where you practice

 

[MirrorProfiles]

book the best studio you can afford. even the best studios have down time and are usually open to work something out, especially if you are flexible.

there is no substitute for doing it properly, and it’s an awesome experience. whatever you spend on it will be worth it, being ambitious pays off.

 

[megametal7]

option 1 :)

 

[HotRats]

It's worth paying the price of a good live room and engineer to get the drums done right.

100%

Go in a good studio with a nice room and nice gear.

Record your drums and also record multitracked samples (with a long tail) at various volume of every piece of the drum kit: base drum, snare, toms, single crash hits, ecc. Record multiple hits for each volume. 4 or 5 is more than enough.

When you mix the drums (at home or wherever you do it) put all those single hits in the time line and mixdown those samples without overheads and room mics and mix down overhead and rooms separately.

Load all those samples in your trigger plugin and add them (in parallel to the original recorded drums) to your mix to give focus, clarity and punch or simply more or less room sound to the final drums mix.

 

[la szum]

Of course the most expensive option is the best. Figures!






I vote pick your poison and ask yourself what you want out of it, and how much
of an investment you actually want to make. Life is full of compromises, and we
don't always get (or need!) access to the best of all possible options to get a great
result!

 

[Jarick]

Depends on the project, budget, drummer, and gear available.

Obviously if you have a big budget and it's an important project, a studio is the way to go. That's assuming you have a good drummer with good time and good gear who can get all the tracks recorded in a day or less. But you'll have good acoustic tracks to work with and can always bring in samples as needed.

If you don't have the budget and you're doing hard rock or metal, you're probably best off to trigger drums using a good plugin like Superior Drummer. Electronic kit would be best here, but you could possible get away with a cheap mic kit too acting as triggers. With these genres there's so many good plugins and samples out there that will give you a pro sound with minimal work.

If it's for an indie rock type project where you can get away with a more lo-fi drum sound, then you could probably record at home with a handful of mics and an entry level 8-channel interface like the Audient Evo 16 or Focusrite 18i20. From my experience, put as much time and money into getting the overheads right capturing the whole kit sound. I loved a Rode NT2 here but those are $400. On more of a budget, there's the NT1 at $250 or even the Audio Technica AT2020 at $100. Then supplement that with good room mics because that really opens up the sound. I'd look at the Rode M5 which is $200 per pair and those are useful for acoustic guitar too. Stick with the SM57 on snare and I like the Beta 52 for kick. If you do close mic the toms, I like the Sennheiser E604 as they sound good and have integrated mic clips.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Some good advice already. My take is -- if you have everything worked out with the songs, arrangements and all is tight, and you have an idea (or references) of the drum sound you're looking for, then it maybe best to set up some time with a local engineer that has a solid rep.
If you want more flexibility and plan on writing and changing along the process, then I would invest in some more equipment, whether that be the interface and mics route or a midi drum set.

 

[Bruce]

Like the old saying goes…..cheap, quick and good: pick 2.

The benefit of paying from the start to go to a real studio is you’ll have well recorded drums. Now you can completely ruin that and make it sound like dogshit in the mix, but you’d be starting off from a good place giving your production the best chance for survival.

The benefit of buying the gear and doing it yourself is you’ll have it for the next 100+ recordings, never having to go to a studio again. This will likely not sound very good but will get better as you learn.

The benefit of an E kit is it can be cheap, will sound great with your samples you choose. The downside is you’re stuck with samples, editing can be a bit of a drag and there will be a programming learning curve.

What would I do? Probably record the drums in a rehearsal space for next to nothing and sample replace. It is probably your best chance of getting a human performance and making it sound good. Look into Slate Trigger plugin. Cheap and easy to use. Check for phase so whatever you dont sample replace is at least useable.

 

[sleewell]

Place we go here in town charges 50 an hour. Big room, nice mics, nice kit too. Forgot what its called but he also had one of those mini bass drum thing that you put on the bass drum to get a bigger fuller bassier sound, it looked expensive lol.

Seems well worth it, especially split 4 ways.

 

[ian_dissonance]

At least get the drums recorded in a good room with good mics if you are going to record live drums. And get good samples of the kit.

 

[marsonic]

I'm not a drummer, and I'm aware that at least some drummers claim that eKits are still not up to everything they can do...but there is a question about whether the songs need those things. E.g., it doesn't matter whether a sampled cymbal roll sounds right if your album doesn't use a cymbal roll.

The two options that would appeal to me are:

1. Record together in a studio. Overdub anything but drums as necessary "at home" if you want or need to. The room and expertise are what you're paying for with the studio, plus a lot of other little things (setup, coffee, advice, commitment because every minute costs money, etc.).

2. Get an eKit or triggers, record together "at home", go direct for everything you can and with vocal shields for everything else.

The difference, in my mind, really comes down to how much you want the sound of the band together in a good/real room (as opposed to together with as little room sound as possible) and whether or not the sounds you're using can be done with samples/direct or if they actually need to be done on "real" instruments.

YMMV, obviously.