First time recording real drums and I need some help

[chovie d]

Hi all,

What I want to do is record some songs for a female singer songwriter in my small home studio. For my own stuff I use ezdrummer. For this recording she has a real drummer and would like to use him. My studio is very modest and my recording gear is entry level at best. I use a line6 toneport UX2 as my interface and its only capable of two inputs at a time. I have one set of headphones and no outboard mixer. What I'm thinking of doing is laying down a real basic ezdrummer pattern, then recording her as I would record myself. THEN have the drummer come in and replace the ezdrummer. She'd play acoustic guitar, I'd play bass, electric, steel, etc...there isnt a real full live band here.

so what do you all think is my plan sound or should I be somehow recording the drums first?

I guess when i do go to record the drums it would just be two overheads? or maybe a room mic and a kick mic?

Im not totally aginst buying some new gear like a small mixer, headphones and some mics, in fact I love an excuse to buy gear, but I cant swing it right now financially..so the recording would have to wait if that were the case.

thanks for the help and any suggestions

[Jon Nolan]

Hi all,

What I want to do is record some songs for a female singer songwriter in my small home studio. For my own stuff I use ezdrummer. For this recording she has a real drummer and would like to use him. My studio is very modest and my recording gear is entry level at best. I use a line6 toneport UX2 as my interface and its only capable of two inputs at a time. I have one set of headphones and no outboard mixer. What I'm thinking of doing is laying down a real basic ezdrummer pattern, then recording her as I would record myself. THEN have the drummer come in and replace the ezdrummer. She'd play acoustic guitar, I'd play bass, electric, steel, etc...there isnt a real full live band here.

so what do you all think is my plan sound or should I be somehow recording the drums first?

I guess when i do go to record the drums it would just be two overheads? or maybe a room mic and a kick mic?

Im not totally aginst buying some new gear like a small mixer, headphones and some mics, in fact I love an excuse to buy gear, but I cant swing it right now financially..so the recording would have to wait if that were the case.

thanks for the help and any suggestions

well, if you wanna go super cheap:

get a heaphone splitter, and a couple of headphone extension cords.

beyond that, your idea of having the artist play to your ez drummer track first and then having the drums later sounds like a reasonable enough plan.

a couple of "if it were me" thoughts, for what they're worth...

- i'm assuming you're charging little or nothing for the session? that being the case, i think it's usually fair enough for the to expect that you won't be tracking under ideal and super-comfy conditions. if they want super cues mixes, isolation and to be able to track everything all at once, then they should prolly hit a bigger studio! home-studio/DIY'ers can get a damn good job done, it's usually at the expense of the tool-comforts me thinks...

- prepare the artists for this reality. for example:

- ask yourself (and the artist and/or drummer ) if the drummer will be able to pull off the after-the-fact drumming. sometimes it can screw up drummers if they haven't ever played to a click, or done anything like this before.

- drum mic'ing... if it wer me, i'd put a mic on the kick, and one OH - over shoulder, over snare, or a few feet in front of the kit - whichever sounds best.

option #2:
buy, or borrow a small mixer, and record them at the same time, mixing the vox/gtr to one interface input, and the drums to the other.

just some thoughts for you. good luck! let us know how it goes, eh?

[snoopy23]

It may be worth your time to buy, borrow, or rent a small outboard mixer. Then you can record your drums with a few mics, take a stereo mix into your interface, and add the rest later. That's my two cents.

[johnnydove]

- ask yourself (and the artist and/or drummer ) if the drummer will be able to pull off the after-the-fact drumming. sometimes it can screw up drummers if they haven't ever played to a click, or done anything like this before.

+10
i just finished up tracking a band where the drummer was not readily available and the guitarist wanted to lay down his parts to a click and have the drummer play after the fact. it would have worked fine except the drummer wasn't used to playing to a click and was wavering so much in between the sections that we ended up re-recording the guitars. this is fine if you're getting paid, but if you're not i'm sure you'd want to have the least amount of hassle possible.

[Brett Siler]

If your only options are two inputs and you can't get/borrow a mixer I would do this

1) a mic on the kick and a mic on the overhead

2.) two mics on the floor pointed at the drum kit like so:

(it doesn't have to be a omni like picture says)


Get a pair of isolation head phones or some really good earbuds and some gun ear muff things and do some critical listening through the mic while the person plays or hit drums. You are really gonna be relying on the drummer to balance out the cymbal to drum ratio, so place it well!

[drumsound]

Maybe record basics in a room that is actually ready for tracking drums...

[chovie d]

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions.
I am not charging them. This is just my lil home studio.
I liike her songs, and I like her and the drummer as peole, so its for fun.
They might try and build and band and this would give them something to show prosepctive musicians.

you guys are right, it would depend on the drummer.
But can you trust a guy to tell you he cant play to a click?
His intentions may be good, he might think he can do it, but......

Im not ripping on drummers. far from it, i coudnt do that and i admire those that can.

k, thanks again. if we try and fail there wont be too much lost.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

But can you trust a guy to tell you he cant play to a click?
His intentions may be good, he might think he can do it, but....

their intentions are ALWAYS good, and they all THINK they can do it. just ask them how much experience they have playing to a click. if the answer is "none" or "a little", i can pretty much guarantee they can`t do it. i know i sound like a jerk but this has been my experience. they`re super confident and psyched to do it, you press record and it`s a disaster by the time you`re 4 measures in.

[joederschlagzeuger]

I agree with More Space Echo. I have a good deal of experience drumming to click but it took me a while to learn how to do it. If I don't practice or record regularly with a click I can get rusty.

I suspect many drummers misunderestimate the challenge.

I can't add anything to the micing suggestions but would like to say that you aught to spend some time making sure the drums sound as good as possible and as much like you would want them to sound on the recording before hitting the red button (assuming you are not trying to get the sound of a Metallica or a Peter Gabriel album).

[Brett Siler]

I agree with More Space Echo.

[UXB]

If he can play to a click, would the final performance be better? Would the track be more emotive without a click?

I'm not sure what the genre is, but if you are dealing with people who have any chemistry or history of playing without a click and you alter that equation by forcing the music to a grid, that may jinx matters more than a sparse mic setup.

There's obviously more than one way to skin a recording session, and I apologize if it may sounds like I'm playing devil's advocate. If you all have time, you may want to pay them a visit in their rehearsal room where they are comfortable and bring a small recorder. You may even have an opportunity to "test run" what it would be like to play with a click.

Best,
H

[trodden]

or as mentioned above..go to another place in town. record the drums along with a "scratch" guitar track, or a "keeper" guitar track depending on the performance/isolation/etc, then finish up at your place.

there are a billion cheap studios in C-attle.

[chovie d]

Sorry, I havent told the whole story. I thought it would be boring and unecessary but I think from some of the comments and suggestions it would be helpful. You guys might get a chuckle out of it too.

This WAS a band. Country-ish music. There was a male singer songwriter guitarist who shared those duties with the female singer songwriter. This guy had the deadly combination of being super controlling and not very smart about making band decisions. In other words, he HAD to make all the decisions...and the decisions he made ALL sucked. He booked the band to play at a comedy club...for example...it did not go well. One of his bright ideas was to go record for free from some guy who placed an add on craigs list "Ill record your band for free if you help us get our new studio up and running". i was just playing steel for them and not too involved really but i told him i thought this idea sucked... he insisted. The band spent three months trying to get the mixes from this guy. It was a horrible recording experience, and the recordings sound like pure ass. The band was completely demoralized and lost all confidence. Then they decide they wanna change the bands name (which truly did suck ballz) and this guy rather than discuss that, ups and quits. Good ridance frankly, they will be so much better off without this guy. Anyway, I like the drummer and chick singer as peeps, and i like her songs and just wanted to help them out by trying to help them keep a band together or record some of her songs so they could replace the control freak with the bad ideas. So its no big deal for me, this is not my main gig...I just wanna see if we can do something in my studio...a rough demo for the purpose of building back their band.

I talked to the drummer and he swore he could play to a click. I asked him twice in a row. He's good solid drummer and has experience...but like you guys said above...its not the easiest thing to do , even if you think you can do it.

The reason i want to record eveything else first, and then replace the drums afterwards is primarily because I dont know how to do it live with my limited rig.

I have alot of my own songs recorded using ezdrummer. I could just have him try and replace the ezdrummer on one of those to see if it will work out i guess.

again thanks for the help..doesnt look like this is gonna happen for a couple weeks now.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

haha, you gotta love a bad decision making control freak. sounds like things are working out for the best. the click track is only a big deal if they haven't had the experience, if they have then it's no problem at all. i've overdubbed drums on loads and loads of songs, and i'm like the worst drummer i know...

[Snarl 12/8]

Man,

It seems to me that if you're recording them for free they could help you out a little in return. Maybe they have a couple mics and an interface that they could scrounge from friends to bring to the session. Or, better yet, they could get you a used tiny little mixer and another mic as "payment". Your not exactly working for free at that point, but they'd be building up your capabilities as a resource for them in the future. A little quid pro quo as it were.