Best gear for recordings??

Hey guys!
I record my songs with a simple sound card and "garageband" (macBook)...
So I can only record the guitar. But I also want to record the drums, so what can I do? Should I buy a mic and connect it with my MacBook??

-George

1 mic for drums is probably going to get you the worst possible recording. It is very hard to record drums. You might be better of using "fake drums". Someone else might be able to give you recommendations on that.

Originally Posted by: hunter18011 mic for drums is probably going to get you the worst possible recording. It is very hard to record drums. You might be better of using "fake drums". Someone else might be able to give you recommendations on that.

I use ToonTracks Ez Drummer.

I have the standard EZ drummer bas pack plus I've obtained the Americana and the Twisted Kit.

I use these with Garageband. These drums are very real sounding. They are not electronic-y samples but actual recorded drums/patterns. I've very satisfied with the quality of sound.

Thing is, with any 'sampled' drums, they may not be exactly the pattern you might have in your head. That shouldn't stop you, though. Because you can edit the different parts of the kit (ie - snare, high hat, bass etc), you can adjust or remove/add elements as you need. However, it takes patience. It's not as easy as telling a drummer 'No, it's like -boom chukka chukka-...'. If you have patience, you can get what you want.

Another 'down side' of using this type of program with Garageband is that it technically does not support multichannel exporting to Garageband. However, no big deal. Once in Garageband, you can copy/paste a track as many times as you want.

I will make a pattern that I like and then paste out multiple channels of the pattern. Per channel, I will strip out everything but the part that I want (ie - bass drum) and viola, I have multichannel drum mixing. I often layer multiple parts for drums (ie - bass drum has a channel for the 'thump' and a channel for the 'snap').

...and so on.

You have lots of freedom if you are willing to work a little bit.

Here's a simple track I did for a vid but it gives you an idea of the drum sound I got.

@Jeff
How can you use the fake drums with garageband? Well I have the 120$ but I don't want to spend them, if I have to spend more money for other tools which I'll need to use it to connect the drums with garageband... ^^

Hi,

Someone just gave me a Korg D:1600, with alot of wires, mics and stuff. I'm told everything works, and he showed me. It sounds really good. There's also disc player/recorder. He also gave me the manual and dvds to learn how to use it.

I can't find any forums or rooms for it, so it's not really being used anymore?

Anyone know about this system, or a place on the web to talk w/ others, or is this even a good gift?

It sounds great!

faith

Originally Posted by: George 2Ned@Jeff
How can you use the fake drums with garageband? Well I have the 120$ but I don't want to spend them, if I have to spend more money for other tools which I'll need to use it to connect the drums with garageband... ^^

Sorry for the delay...

You don't connect the software I mentioned to actual drums. The software itself is drum patterns. You don't need a drummer with the software. If you watch this video to the end, you will see a menu that they fly out, those are patterns you can choose from and many have tons of variations. Also, the samples you hear in the video are from the software.

So this software is not to connect drums to but to use when you don't have a drummer at all.

(edit note...never post without proofing...oi......funny that part of my corporate job world is writing policy and communications........)

I agree that the drum software is the way to go. Plugging one mic straight into your computer will not sound good at all. You can get some interesting sounds that way, but nothing that would be conducive to actually getting a "decent" drum sound.

If you want to record a drummer; you will need an interface with 4 or more inputs and the proper mics. There are many, many ways to achieve this but you will spend much more then what it would cost to get EZ drummer. It's all laid out for you and sounds good already.

Yup - Use Midi Drums for that!
Recording a drum set is an art...the drums have to be tuned, the room has to be good, the drum heads - multiple mics, you have to know about phase issues, have good mics etc...far too complicated.
Get a good plug-in and use Midi Drums. Of course, you also have to learn how to create good midi drums - which, too, is an art in and of itself...
Sorry, I know...there are no easy solutions in audio LOL

Best wishes!

i have recorded drum tracks for demos before with 1 mic... through an M-Audio mic preamp directly into a PC. used an MXL 990 before... used a Rodes NTK as well... if you can get a fairly quiet environment you can make it happen.

the quickest way to record a real drumset would be a decent condensor mic out in front of the drum set a couple feet or so then elevated about 8 to 10 feet... obviously you would have to mess with the input level to get the right mix but you should be able to get the whole kit... it's not going to sound like a fully mic'd kit but you should get a decent live drum sound out of it. something you can EQ to get the mix that you want later... be sure there is a wall behind the drumset to help throw the sound out to the mic... should help the kit sound tighter. unless you want a really open sounding kit then record in the middle of a room with no sound isolation behind the kit.

getting a good drum sound from midi drums or from drum programs can be done but you lose the human element and things tend to become a little too robotic (in my experience).

Btw If u are looking for some cool drum kits for ur guitar part , I am usually use this sample pack

https://www.lucidsamples.com/garage-samples-packs/240-nu-garage-drums.html

If you want a free drum program/vst that works with midi or allows you to create loops from samples in the program try http://www.powerdrumkit.com

Originally Posted by: fuzzb0x

If you want a free drum program/vst that works with midi or allows you to create loops from samples in the program try http://www.powerdrumkit.com

The MT Power Drum Kit sounds great!

you are mushc better to use sampled drums from a keyboard, or software plugin on garage band. To record a drumkit you would usually use around 15 microphones!

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