HELP: Live set with live pre-recorded drums

[Raptor7]

Hi all,

Got a question for you and especially for FOH experienced guys.
We will perform a show soon and our drummer gonna miss it because he is the soundman for a Jean Claude van Damme movie in production. Anyway we decided to pre-record the setlist for drums to keep the live feeling and NOT use crap sounding programmed drums. I mean we mic'd the drumkit as in a real live show and recorded that multichannel as per setlist order. Also we videotaped it in order to be projected behind us like he was there with us. we also made some scripting, he waves with his hand, etc... Could be fun, we are very used to play with a click track and backing tracks so this won't be a problem for us.

BUT my question is this: what kind of audio treatment should I apply to the tracks before the show? Should I only gate, eq and compress to a minimum? Should I keep them as multichannel in order for the FOH to live mix them or should I do a pre-mix along with the backing tracks and give to him a stereo feed? Should I use my 4 output USB audio card in order to send on two separate stereo tracks the backing tracks on one and drums on the other one? Or...?

Here no one has done this before (pre-recorded live drums + backing tracks) so I have no one to ask about that.

Thanks

 

[Hamish666]

Im about to used programmed drums for an upcoming show and plan on using a mini jack to two 2xlr cable.
saying that i have no idea if I'm going about it in the right way.

 

[Raptor7]

Im about to used programmed drums for an upcoming show and plan on using a mini jack to two 2xlr cable.
saying that i have no idea if I'm going about it in the right way.

from my witness experience I know programmed drums will sound very apart from the rest of the live instruments so this is what I try to avoid. This plus the respect for our fellow coleague.

 

[Paulie!]

I would say leave them all multi or mix it into a 4 track kinda thing (kick, snare, kit right, kit left).. this would probably be the best thing so that you're not locked into a kick/snare volume...

OT: JCVD has a new movie coming out?!

 

[Hamish666]

from my witness experience I know programmed drums will sound very apart from the rest of the live instruments so this is what I try to avoid. This plus the respect for our fellow coleague.

fair enough man, in my situation it's because my drummer bailed on me.

 

[Paulie!]

fair enough man, in my situation it's because my drummer bailed on me.

I hate it when that happens... I had a guitarist and a vocals bail on my last band (the music was "hardcore" enough for them).. me, the other guitarist, the drummer, and the synth dude should up one day and their shit was.. gone.. but they forunately they left us the PA to use for a while.. and our shit actually sounded better with one guitarist and three of the remaining four splitting vox duties.. so it kinda worked out..

 

[Hamish666]

I hate it when that happens... I had a guitarist and a vocals bail on my last band (the music was "hardcore" enough for them).. me, the other guitarist, the drummer, and the synth dude should up one day and their shit was.. gone.. but they forunately they left us the PA to use for a while.. and our shit actually sounded better with one guitarist and three of the remaining four splitting vox duties.. so it kinda worked out..

Well in our case another drummers got in touch but no way can he learn the songs in time, but its good since this dude is a lot more experienced, professional and all round a better drummer.

Good luck on the gig drumerless anyway man!

 

[Raptor7]

Well in our case another drummers got in touch but no way can he learn the songs in time, but its good since this dude is a lot more experienced, professional and all round a better drummer.

Good luck on the gig drumerless anyway man!

Thanks man, I will tape it and maybe post a clip just to have something to laugh about:Spin:.

Paulie, thanks for posting.

Alright, any more thoughts on that matter?

 

[guitarguru777]

As FOH guy I can tell you DONT DO ANYTHING to them.

Send the mix out Multi-Channel to the snake from your DAW and let the FOH guy deal with it however he wants to.

Put the session up in your DAW, Route each drum out however you recorded it and feed each channel back to FOH though an XLR cable into the snake.

Dont just hand him a stereo mix if you want it to sound as good as possible.

DONE....

 

[nwright]

For FOH, I'd keep it simple and just give them as little as possible, so 2 track stereo.

EDIT
DOh, see guitarguru's reply. I'm not a soundman. It's hard enough around here to get soundmen to run a kick trigger along with the mic, let alone have them run a pre-recorded drum performance.

 

[Paulie!]

As FOH guy I can tell you DONT DO ANYTHING to them.

Send the mix out Multi-Channel to the snake from your DAW and let the FOH guy deal with it however he wants to.

Put the session up in your DAW, Route each drum out however you recorded it and feed each channel back to FOH though an XLR cable into the snake.

Dont just hand him a stereo mix if you want it to sound as good as possible.

DONE....

+1... Though, I thought he said he had a 4 track interface which is why I suggested using a right & left 2-track mix down of the kit with a seperate kick/snare track... totally un-comped/eq'd etc..

But if he's got the means to send everything to the desk, by all means do it up...

-P

 

[guitarguru777]

Well i guess it depends on how many outs he has.

I figure if he was able to record multi track he should be able to send Multi Track. Its rare an interface has less outs then in's

 

[Raptor7]

I will use the same setup as for recording: PT > M-Audio Profire 2626 so I will have 8 available outs to send in for the mixing board. The problem now is from where I will get another output for the backing track. Maybe I will combine the Hihat with the right OH (judging from the listener's POV. Need to try this..

 

[Bloodsoaked666]

I think your putting WAY to much thought into it dude.

I have been playing live shows for 3-4 years now with pre-recorded drum tracks. If the sound guy sucks your drums will suck no matter how much time/effort you put into the tracks.

I go directly from my iPod to a DI Box to the PA and it works GREAT! Never had an issue, I have two iPods just incase one crashes on me.

Here are a few videos of me playing live with the pre-recorded drums:

 

[Raptor7]

oh, man thanks for your input. much appreciated.

 

[Bloodsoaked666]

oh, man thanks for your input. much appreciated.

No problem dude! Just get them sounding the best you can through your own PA or even home stereo and hope the PA guy knows what he's doing. I have all my tracks in stereo.

The hardest part is making sure the club you play has good monitors, it not you will never hear your drums and then you are F*&^ek! Try not to have your guitar/bass cabs directly behind you so not to drown out the drums from the monitors, more than likely you will need to play your guitar/bass at a lower volume than normal.

I have played venues with no monitors, then I just take one of the mains and turn it at me so I can hear the drums.


Peter

 

[Raptor7]

I guess we will have 1-2 monitors behind us just to get the feeling that the drums are behind us haha. Odd situation.

 

[JeffTD]

The biggest thing you're going to run into is stage presence and vibe missing because of no guy bashing away back there. I'd worry less about programmed vs real drums and more about that. The videos posted above should prove my point pretty adequately.

 

[Raptor7]

I believe you're right but it's one time only and we HAVE TO play this gig.