Recording and triggering drums using real cymbals and MIDI drum pads

http://jamydod.blogspot.com

Triggering acoustic drums is a good way to get a great sounding drum track in a home studio where you do not have the stacks of equipment or room required to get a pro sound. We placed overheads and a hi hat mic to capture the cymbals and used drum pads from an Alesis electronic drum kit to trigger some Steven Slate drum samples (www.stevenslatedrums.com) We tried this to make the mixing process easier to avoid spill when triggering from a pre recorded snare or tom in the overheads. Once recorded, we triggered the midi into EZdrummer then used drumagog to introduce the Slate samples. Qauntized the audio using beat detective, then quantized the midi to make a tight sounding drum track. Let me know what you think.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• recording drums
• midi
• alesis dm5
• pro tools m powered
• steven slate drums
• drumagog
• using drumagog
• ezdrummer

[oncepureband]

Hello! i got pro tools le 8, mbox pro, SSD EX, Trigger EX, and i have an acoustic set & an Alesis DM5 Pro kit. i have been recording thru my DM5 kit, but i'd like to use the SSD EX sounds. im a noob w midi, so im not sure how it works, but i heard u can sample any drum sound from CD's using Trigger or SSD EX? will i need to run a midi cable back to the mbox pro to use SSD samples?

[jimjamstudio]

@oncepureband you will need to run a midi cable from your dm5 out onto the in on your mbox pro and the samples will come out of the computer when you hit the pads on your kit. In theory you can sample a drum sound from a cd but youd need to have the desired drum playing completely on its own for the entire length of the sample which isnt very common. Hope this helps :)

Jamie

[realstevo007]

Hey, right know i'm using a Ddrum hybrid kit with EZ drummer and then recording acoustic cymbals, I was just wondering how you got your cymbals sounding so good and defined? What mics/ mic placements did you use? Eq and compression?

Cheers, it sounds greaaatt!

[jimjamstudio]

@realstevo007 i used AKG C1000's for overheads, they're cheap and alright! Theres no right way really, just place them around the kit and see what sounds best. Try and keep them equidistant from the snare aswell. I just placed one to the left and to the right. EQ, i cut out alot of the bass but again theres no right way, just have a play and see what sounds best. Avoid boosting the high frequencies though! Enjoy, send me a message if you need anymore help!

Jamie

[marfguy1987]

you are using the alesis dm pro pads it looks like right?

[jimjamstudio]

@marfguy1987 dm 5 pads :)

[Moshinmysocks]

cymbals still sound electric :/

[babaroogeorge]

that sounds ace!

[manuelpedregon]

this is great man!! greeting from mexico!