Midi drums with real cymbals...tips and advices

[The-Zeronaut]

In the summer (i hope that) i will record like 25 songs with my band (6 or 7 years of songs)
and i would want to record drums like this:
4 toms
kick
snare
2 overheads
hihat
ride
china
room mic

but i only have an 8 mic interface (presonus firestudio project)
so i am pretty much fuck XD

so i was thinking on programming the drums (kick , snare and toms)
and recording:
2 overheads
hihat
china
ride
room
snare and/or kick triggers just for reference when quantizing/slip editing the performance to the midi drums

or i could record all of the above and just program the toms...

anyway

do you have any tips or advices for doing this?
im specially interested in things i should do or be aware of when im editing the drums


Thanks a lot for the help!!

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[FIXXXER]

if the drummer is good you can try to record overdub style.
first the drums only and then the cymbals. would be also a
nice thing when it comes to mixing as you won't have any
drum bleed in the cymbals...just an idea not sure it it works.

cheers
S.

 

[Mjespo125]

I would recommend investing in a trigger to midi converter and mesh heads, similar to what this dude has, I have a similar set up,

 

[Trevoire520]

You could go for:
Overheads
Kick
Snare
Tom1
Tom2
Tom3
Tom4

and sample replace from the mic's if you need to.

Or as has already been mentioned you could go for triggers on the drums and use a module to convert them to midi, leaving all your inputs free for close mic'ing cymbals.

 

[SimonTaddio_Qc]

I'm working on my EP, and I'm kind of doing what you want to do. We took samples from the drummer's kit (Sonor 3003 kit with Pearl reference snare), then played snare, kick, toms on a V0drum, and replacing with the forementionned samples. All overhead, ride, HH, etc will be recorded afterward in the same room the gtr was recorded, and the samples took.
Can't show you the results as it's not over with yet, but so far so good.
Hope that helps

 

[darthjujuu]

check out used firestudio's on ebay, just get one more and daisy chain them together with firewire?? alot of people don't realize how flawlessly this works... the computer just see's it as one interface with 16 preamps.

 

[darthjujuu]

http://cgi.ebay.com/PreSonus-Firest...761?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5bf67de1

 

[AboutBlank]

+1
I mean 25 songs... I, personally, would rather buy this instead of the option to deal with a Alesis Trigger Modul.
Get yourself an Octopre for example and you don't have to deal with annoying mistriggers...

 

[darthjujuu]

yea i owned one of those alesis MIDI converters...tried it with a DM5 pro kit, adjusted settings for hours, simply didn't work satisfactory. a TD6 module running the MIDI cable into your firestudio is a significantly better option. But for that price, you could just buy another firestudio.

 

[The-Zeronaut]

i have in mind buying another presonus in the future and daisychain the two so i have 16 inputs
but right now i can´t possibly spend 400 euros in an interface as i am a student with no job and no income.

i have what i have XD i cant buy mesh heads or new interfaces or whatever XDD
Thank you for your ideas
but i would like ideas that use the things i have right now

 

[The-Zeronaut]

bump

 

[cent73]

Firstly I would drop the room mics - you can replay the whole kit through PA afterwards and record it.
Secondly I would try to get the best possible sound from the overheads, so you won't need separate mics for the ride or china.

Now you're down to 4 toms, kick, snare, 2 overheads and hihat. Still 1 mic too many. So you can subgroup both overheads with a hi-hat mic on an analog console and send it in stereo to your interface.

If you still want to program the drums I wouldn't do it with toms. The drummer may want to hit them with different strength bringing out wider tonal possibilities. I would go for the kick as it's usually more consistent.