recording drums - one person, one room

[bed eternity]

how many other people do this. set up the mikes. set the pres. run over to the kit and check it back on the headphones. then get up and make an adjustment to the pres. move the mics around a little bit. then go back over to the kit and try playing again. etc etc etc.

i think that this indeterminite method of drum recording maybe has a tinge of john cage in it. what ive noticed is that while ill never be able to pin point down an exact drum sound that i want before i press record i actually like working with a random sound.

of course theres always ways to completely mangle it inside the computer if necessary

[johnmarkpainter]

It is a pain.

I've recorded Drums in my current room so many times now that I can do it if I stick one of my usual setups.

Do you have a Wireless remote? Great for this purpose.

jmp

[Dan Phelps]

Or, if space permits, back the kit up to your "control room area" so you can just swivel around, adjust your levels, and hit record.

But...yes...sometimes the random factor is great. When something is being hit too hard and you get a pleasant crunch...

[palinilap]

When I record solo stuff by myself this is how I always do it. I don't mind it... can be exciting in a way. I set up like a minute of pre-roll in Pro Tools to give myself time to get behind the kit and situate. It's frustrating to keep running back and forth when making mistakes, but I can live with it. Instead of moving mics around with headphones on I usually just record sample takes and playback on my monitors until it sounds right.

[majortom]

Yeah, I like it also. It is a pain sometimes but when it does work out it makes it all that more satisfying, since the stuff I do on my own is all on my own without anyone helping out I've become used to all those funny things that others may not think of, like do I have my headphone cable free so that i can get to the back of the kit fast and not have my phones ripped off my head.

I just finished a project I was working on doing it this way, if you like you can check some of it out at www.myspace.com/ernestovonschlade

[MT]

Nothing more frustrating too when you're coming in after an intro or whatever, your waiting, you crank into it, you mess up on the first fill, then have to stop, Ctrl-Z, hit record, start again... gets funny after a while.

[RodC]

I use the latency of my DAW, routed to monitors or headphones where needed. Hit the drum, wait a bit and you will hear the signal.

For more details check out this thread:
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... ht=latency

[standup]

Frontier Tranzport might change your life. It makes a big difference in the "set preroll and run across the room" thing. I have my "control room" on the second floor and tend to record on the first floor, so it may be a bigger difference for me than it was for you. But it's a remote, you could tape it to the kick or put it on a stand and just hit "stop" or "undo" etc.

[bed eternity]

I had thought about the tranzport and would of course still love to have one, but the the thing is id rather spend the money on instruments or other gadgets. i can get by without the wireless control, but without new instruments i wont have as many options for new sounds.

as far as the recording drums and then making adjustments based on that, that seems even more tedious to me and it would definetly eliminate the randomness that i find interesting with the way i have to record drums.

i didnt read the link about increasing latency, but again, im sure that will require much more trips between my motu and my drum kit than im used and also eliminate the random factor.

like alot of you other posters i run the show with no help and i agree its rewarding and awesome not to let anybody hold you back.

good luck to all pursueing solo endeavors

[lysander]

Up until last fall we lived in an apartment, so my son and I would go and record drums at one of those rental rehearsal spaces in the same way you describe. We'd go in the morning so there weren't other bands playing in the next room. Three hours -- with 30 minutes for mics, pres and DAW setup, and 30 for tear down included. We used whatever kit was included in the room rental. We would record six or seven tracks easy, with multiple takes.

It was always fun to take the tracks home and find out what we ended up with. Had to spend some time mixing to fix things, but we got some good room sounds with that room, and we never had to completely abandon any tracks. We often used Fletcher's four-mic technique, with an added ambient mic at the far side of the room.

[???????]

Yeah I do this too. I record drums in my kitchen and my computer/'control room' area is one room over. So it's get up... run to the computer... command period... F12... back to the drums. Etc.

I play all the instruments on my stuff and it is always that way. The Farfisa is in the next room too and I never feel like moving it for just a quick track.

[drumsound]

Usually if I'm playing drums on a client project I get some kind of help. Even if it's someone who doesn't play well I can make sure the phase is right and general relationships and tones. If I'm just goofing, or doing some sort of freebie/favor I run back and forth as needed.

[vsr600]

I hate when I have to do this. Being a drummer lots of times when singer song writers come in they want me to play drums on their tracks... anyway I've devised a method of setting up my digital camera so it records whatever meters I need to look at while setting things up and playing. So I set up the camera, hit record, go play a few hits, and run back to see what it was peaking out at. Note I don't recommend doing this but it works for me hehe...

[bed eternity]

I hate when I have to do this. Being a drummer lots of times when singer song writers come in they want me to play drums on their tracks... anyway I've devised a method of setting up my digital camera so it records whatever meters I need to look at while setting things up and playing. So I set up the camera, hit record, go play a few hits, and run back to see what it was peaking out at. Note I don't recommend doing this but it works for me hehe...

good idea, luckily for me its all in a tiny room and i can see the meters when im behind the kit.

moving on who hates it when they start working on a song at around 11 pm and once theyve got a solid tune its too late to lay drums down behind it. then youve got to wait till the next day when its not fresh in your mind and it takes you 10 trys to get a good take which still probably wont compare to what you woudlve gotten the night before

argh i need to move out of this damn city

[palinilap]

You can also purchase a cheap wireless video game controller for your computer (bought mine for under $30) and program any single key command (no control+Z unfortunately). It basically just becomes a really compact wireless keyboard and mouse.