*dun dun dun* Recording DRUMS with Triggers and Midi!

[aaronglass]

Hey all!

So here's the deal. I just got my first piece of equipment to be taken seriously, and that's the Saffire Pro 40 interface. So now I can record guitars/vocals much better, but there's one thing left, and that's drums.

Now, I'm not super experienced in mic'ing a drum kit, nor do I have the space/money/desire to do so. So, I picked up Steven Slate Drums (the EX pack for $99) they sound great, and have been used in professional mixes for a while so I figured why not. They're a virtual drum kit designed to be patterned out in midi fashion.

My original plan was to pick up a midi drum kit for drummers to record on, and just route the SSD kit off of that, only to find out "hard core drummers hate midi kits" and hey, I can't blame them. So, I looked into drum triggers for an acoustic kit.

My current plan is to buy a cheaper acoustic kit, pop some Ddrum triggers on there ($300 at guitar center) and just replace the drum sounds with something better. Here's the link to the ddrum triggers at guitar center. This brings me to the main question...

Has/does anyone here trigger drums and replace their sounds on the regular? What's the easiest/cheapest way to get the best results/what equipment? Also, I read SSD aren't natively compatible, so I found this Alesis Trigger iO gear that apparently converts triggered drums to MIDI through USB. Here's the link.

Could that work? If so, how would I do it? Also would I just need that to act as the drum brain, and just buy triggers separately? Or should I get the brain that comes with the ddrum triggers and route them from there/to the Alesis, into my computer then out through the SSD kit? Would that even work?

Thanks for any input guys! It's really appreciated, this is the last and final piece I need to get down before opening up my current studio to local musicians!

 

[guitarklown]

The one problem you're going to run in to with setting up triggers is going to be your cymbals.. Getting your hats, ride, and crashes all triggering is gonna take a mic for each one. You'd be much better off buying a set of electronic drums. I bought a set of Alesis drums with the DM5 module (I'm pretty sure you can get those for like $600 now) I just sent the midi out to my computer to SSD and fucked with the midi channels on the DM5 and was done. Also, since the drum set is sending out midi to your computer, you can go in and edit any screw ups.

 

[dale_a_smith]

The one problem you're going to run in to with setting up triggers is going to be your cymbals.. Getting your hats, ride, and crashes all triggering is gonna take a mic for each one. You'd be much better off buying a set of electronic drums. I bought a set of Alesis drums with the DM5 module (I'm pretty sure you can get those for like $600 now) I just sent the midi out to my computer to SSD and fucked with the midi channels on the DM5 and was done. Also, since the drum set is sending out midi to your computer, you can go in and edit any screw ups.

That's all very well, but what are you going to do when the drummer your recording wants to play a drum kit? Its kinda like telling the guitarist to play his parts on a keyboard cos you can't mic a guitar cab up. triggers are a great solution. Just means that you have to spot mic the cymbals.

There is loads of good info on this very subject here on the forum.http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/production-tips/403588-drum-samples-replacement-triggers-faq.html

 

[Tommy Evans]

Tell him to sit his ass down in front of that fuckin midi kit or GTFO.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

While I wouldn't demand anyone to play anything they weren't comfortable on there are triggers that feel IDENTICAL to the real thing...

And that's because they use drum heads and the cymbals are hard just like their brass counterparts.

In the end though, it still doesn't feel like sitting down to a real kit so I get the complaint personally. The problem you will soon come to find out is how shitty drummers keep their kits. The words "new drum heads" are like complete taboo to a large majority of players.