How to tell a drummer his drums are all fake..

[NSGUITAR]

Hello everbodddday.


I have several bands lined up to record with me. Some of them metal; some of them indie; some of them rock.


I own about 3 (nice) mics. As you all know, this is not enough mics to record drums..

What I've done for our band is used all three as overhead mics, and just programmed the rest of the drums.

I KNOW that some bands will disagree with this method. So I need to know how to tell these guys that it's how I do it, without losing them as clients.

Any takers?

 

[lolzgreg]

Tell them it yields the best results for the least amount of money. That's an instant win.

 

[JamesNorman]

if you own cheap mics put them up around the kit and then just dont use them in the mix.

or do you only actually own three mics?

 

[Trevoire520]

Buy some cheapo mic's
or
Borrow some mic's

set them up for the recording session
and then just do your usual stuff anyway?


Or you could be REALLY crazy and actually try to record real drums.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Triggers?

 

[korpse pop]

Why you have several bands lined up to record with you when you don't even have the mics ? Buy some mics

 

[scorpio01169]

^^^^^
THAT

 

[NSGUITAR]

I have plenty of mics, that's not the issue.

I have 3 super nice ones, and several sm57s.


The issue is where to plug the mics in. A mixer. I don't have one yet.

 

[tarbh666]

^^^^

 

[Downwards]

What lolzgreg said. Tell them thats how a lot of engineers are doing it these days - Just program them in, and to trust you, it'll sound tits.

Honestly though, if your upfront and honest with them about how you do it, and they don't agree with it, or don't wanna do it like that, then maybe you shouldn't work together, you know?

 

[Jind]

I think you need to be honest with them upfront that you are not equipped to handle recording an entire kit. If you advertise the ability to record a band, you should have the gear to do it or be honest with the folks you do business with and let them know just in case they have an issue with it. You can tell them that you can faithfully reproduce their patterns, but they may not want that.

 

[laszlozsolt82]

If you do recording for money i say go buy some mics , triggers micpres(integrated in soundcard, there are many that are great and don t cost so much) and try to make a good work, and never fool the bands...
Triggering drums its easy and it can make your work easyer in my opinion,instead of programming drums.
In metal recordings Kick and snare are replaced, but for the indie thing you have to record a nice kit with mics....
If you dont have the cash for investement then send them to someone who can record their drums properly and just do the rest of the recordings and mixing...
just my opinion, and advice

 

[NSGUITAR]

I think you need to be honest with them upfront that you are not equipped to handle recording an entire kit. If you advertise the ability to record a band, you should have the gear to do it or be honest with the folks you do business with and let them know just in case they have an issue with it. You can tell them that you can faithfully reproduce their patterns, but they may not want that.

So I guess I don't understand the general setup of most studios.

Would it go something like Mixer-->Firewire Interface--->Computer? Or what?

 

[Lasse Lammert]

So I guess I don't understand the general setup of most studios.

Would it go something like Mixer-->Firewire Interface--->Computer? Or what?

don't get me wrong, but why are you advertising your services as "studio", if you clearly don't have a studio or even an idea how a studio works?

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

So I guess I don't understand the general setup of most studios.

Would it go something like Mixer-->Firewire Interface--->Computer? Or what?

Before you go ahead with these sessions, whichever way it's gonna be, you got some serious reading to do. I'm not trying to be offensive here, but it seems you've booked some bands without the necessary knowledge and making sure the necessary gear is available. In the worst case scenario the band will come to the session thinking you guys will be tracking drums the usual way and then you pull out the "Umm, yeah, see, I haven't got anything to plug these mics into, so I'll just program the drums, right" -card.

Nothing wrong with offering just your talent and not the gear, just make it 100% sure the place you will be working at has the stuff you need. And in the future, make it clear with the band what equipment you have (or in this case, what you don't have and the necessary work-arounds) and what you can do with it before you make it a deal.

 

[NSGUITAR]

Could somebody just tell me a typical signal chain? I plan on going out to buy some stuff tomorrow so I'm ready. I've not advertised myself as a studio at all. I've not listed any gear I've had either, a few bands have just like my recordings, and want to record with me.

So, I need to know a typical setup so I can be ready.

In the past, I've always used a set of V drums, but I'd really like to buy the necessary stuff for recording properly.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

Microphone-->preamp-->converter-->interface-->DAW

 

[NSGUITAR]

Microphone-->preamp-->converter-->interface-->DAW

Actually, I'm checking out the M-Audio NRV10, and it looks perfect for what I'm looking for.


Do you know if this is compatible with Reaper?

 

[Trevoire520]

Still only going to get 5 inputs on the NRV, quite a struggle when you consider some drum sessions can take up to 24 inputs.

Something more suitable would be a Profirre 2626 and a Behringer ADA8000 (hooked up through adat) as this would give you 16 inputs.

SM57's can cover everything on kit except kick and overheads/cymbals to be honest. A set of drum triggers will help for if you want to blend in samples.

For the metal bands you might be best off using the v drums along with real cymbals, recording the midi out from the module to trigger some decent samples in Reaper. For the indie and rock bands I'd definitely be mic'ing drums though.


All this being said though, if this is your first time recording drums then chances are things aren't going to come out great at all, you might be best off sending them somewhere else to record drums and then coming to you for the rest of the recording.

 

[NSGUITAR]

Still only going to get 5 inputs on the NRV, quite a struggle when you consider some drum sessions can take up to 24 inputs.

Something more suitable would be a Profirre 2626 and a Behringer ADA8000 (hooked up through adat) as this would give you 16 inputs.

SM57's can cover everything on kit except kick and overheads/cymbals to be honest. A set of drum triggers will help for if you want to blend in samples.

For the metal bands you might be best off using the v drums along with real cymbals, recording the midi out from the module to trigger some decent samples in Reaper. For the indie and rock bands I'd definitely be mic'ing drums though.


All this being said though, if this is your first time recording drums then chances are things aren't going to come out great at all, you might be best off sending them somewhere else to record drums and then coming to you for the rest of the recording.

I've recorded drums several times before. I've just never owned the equipment to do so.. And I've never really payed attention to the step between setting up mics and editing/mixing. My fault, but I that's what this forum is for right? Asking question, getting answers, and sharing? lol