Not sure which tom mics to add to what I've currently got...

[AdamWathan]

Hey guys, I'm looking at picking up a few more tom mics in the near future and I'm not sure what to pick up... Right now I've got a pair of D2s and a D4 from the DP5 set I bought. I want to pick up another 3 mics just to be able to cover my bases when I've got to track a larger kit.

I'm not really interested in 421s mostly because of the price, and also because a lot of people seem to think they are similar to the D2/D4, similar enough that I would better off picking up another set of those and saving myself some money at least

I'm mostly looking at either buying 3 of the e604s, or another DP5 set since I want another D6 eventually and the extra I5 wouldn't hurt either. From what I've gathered, the D2/D4 are generally considered to be better mics than the e604s, but I don't really want to have one big set of all the same tom mics, I'd like to have a bit of selection in my arsenal. At the same time however, I don't want to buy a set of e604s and never use them on smaller kits if the Audix is always going to come out on top.

Is it worth grabbing a set of the e604s for some different flavour even if the Audix are slightly "higher end" mics?

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

I'd go with the Audix.

 

[JeffTD]

Grab another D2 and a D6 - D2 for the extra rack tom if the guys got one, and D6 for the extra floor tom or kick. If the guys got more than 5 toms... slap a 57/i5 on the highest rack tom maybe?

 

[AdamWathan]

Cool thanks for the suggestions guys, I think I'll grab another DP5a kit then... DSS3, that's definitely a good suggestion for 95% of situations! This however is the kit that I'm going to be tackling in the near future

I'm not even sure how to do this with 12 channels! I'm thinking, top mic both snares, all toms, both kicks and 2 overheads with a separate ride mic? Or alternatively, take the kick trigger module output and not mic the kicks at all, so that I'm only using one channel for the kicks and then use 4 overheads... Hmmm...

 

[greyskull]

i'd cry

 

[Metaltastic]

Wow, now I see why you were afraid 12 pres on the Onyx still might not be enough!

 

[AdamWathan]

Realistically I think I can pull it off with the methods I listed, it should be do-able! I definitely doubt I'll ever have to do anything bigger than this, especially not before I've had the chance to grab another set of preamps in a couple years... The only problem is that I can't run guitar through a separate input for play-along purposes during tracking, but I could either run a programmed click with pre-recorded scratch guitars through the drummer's headphones or sum down a stereo mix for the drummer into the auxiliary in of my V-Amp and have the drummer monitor through that while the guitarist plays along... Just gotta get creative, haha...


What do you guys think about using 3 overheads, left, center and right? I think I would still get enough ride and hi hat that way, plus then if I recorded the kicks via trigger output I'd have an extra channel for the guitar instead of using 2 channels for kicks that are going to be replaced anyways (this is death metal folks, acoustic bass drums? HA!)

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

This is how I'd do it with 12 channels.

1 kick module
2 snare 1 top
3 snare 2 top
4 tom 1
5 tom 2
6 tom 3
7 tom 4
8 tom 5
9 hh
10 ride
11 oh L
12 oh R

(you want definition on your HH and Ride)
And if you have a drum module it must have a MIDI out, so take the MIDI instead of the audio and you have one more channel for: snare bottom / OH C / Ambience / Guitar Track / Whatever

 

[AdamWathan]

This is how I'd do it with 12 channels.

1 kick module
2 snare 1 top
3 snare 2 top
4 tom 1
5 tom 2
6 tom 3
7 tom 4
8 tom 5
9 hh
10 ride
11 oh L
12 oh R

(you want definition on your HH and Ride)
And if you have a drum module it must have a MIDI out, so take the MIDI instead of the audio and you have one more channel for: snare bottom / OH C / Ambience / Guitar Track / Whatever

Good call on the MIDI! N00b question though, how do I use the MIDI signal with apTrigga? I think I remember reading that it can't use MIDI... Some MIDI to Audio plug? Or is there some slick free VSTi that'll let me use the MIDI notes to trigger a sample? I think I can do it with FruityLoops as the VSTi but that seems like overkill...


EDIT: Nevermind, looks like apTrigga does support MIDI, will have to play around in Reaper and try to get it configured to do it properly though!

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Or is there some slick free VSTi that'll let me use the MIDI notes to trigger a sample?

Sampler. I use reason's nn-xt.

 

[Soundlurker]

ApTrigga works great with midi. Add a track with aptrigga, then simply route the output of the midi track into aptrigga.