Recording drum machines!

[syrupcore]

funny about the 424 reference cause I was going to suggest something similar - my cheap 4-track mic pres seems to do the trick for me. really nice gear in the path seems to keep drum machines sounding like the do: too nice and clean. And I dont mean 'to get a gritty drum machine sound' type thing, just something to put a little dust on it.

If you have the vst>rtas adapter, there is no substitute for blockfish+dominion.

also agree with the above 'programming, programming, programming'. spring reverbs are delicious on drum machine too.

will

[d-bolan]

i had goodluck putting my godawful drum machine through a reel to reel and creating a delay...

[megajoe]

I have a Roland TR626. It has 11 trs outs! A stereo pair, headphones, and an output for Snare, Kick, High Tom, Mid Tom, Low Tom, Hi Hat, Ride, and crash. 8 tracks of a drum machine leaves open a lot of possiblities, and I've seen them for like $50 on ebay before.

[apropos of nothing]

In addition to my earlier reply, I will also say that overdriving the channels on my line mixer does a lot to liven up a beat.

On the programming tip, with a hot enough kick/snare pattern, you don't need much in the way of variations. a switch from no hats to w/hats and maybe a variation with a ride in there someplace ought do it.

And NO TOM FILLS. None. They just sound stupid on drum machines. cut-up breaks/processing fills are cool.

But I hate rack toms in general. Down with floor-toms, but rack toms -- Nuh. 'Cept Simmons/Synare >DWOOOOOVZH!< sounds. Those are cool.

[stevemiddlekauff]

Hm, I recorded a band a couple of weeks ago that had a drum machine and I
looked at recording the drum machine more as capturing what they had spent
the time to program. They also had their own effects on it. Part of this bands
sound was definitely their shitty drum machine, so I just DI'd and mic'd it
going through the amp they usually put it through. Then again, who knows what
will happen to it when it's mixed.

[Mr. Dipity]

If you have the time, I'd record the various instruments from the drum machine separately, so that you can EQ/compress/distort them individualy before mixing them back together for group treatment.

[joel hamilton]

I checked the "best of" sticky and didn't see anything...I figured this might be something people asked about. Anyway, I just recorded a few songs with Don Cab-esqe band and in one song, there's an Electribe drum machine playing through most of it. They wanted it to sound extra cool, so we tried playing it through a Rhodes 18" speaker and I recorded that (421, RE20 on the grille, 87 a few feet back) and it was....ok. How do you guys record drum machines and make them sound great? I'm not talking about making a drum machine sound "real" or human, just taking a run of the mill drum machine pattern and taking it to a higher level.

Line amps. Tube line amps. Mic pre's (dicrete or tube or IC, whatever).
Record to tape really hot. Compress at a low ratio and watch the meters swing all over the place. Compress like crazy. Distort it. Hit the console really hard.
I was distorting the shit out of my console mixing a "tracy and the plastics" record, just to put some "fur aound the edges."

The sounds were SOOOOOO digi on that record, all into a laptop, and I used every possible line amp and hit the console really had and did all kinds of shit... the biggest trick of them all is so simple it hurts:

Lowpass.

[joelkriske]

i've done a whole lot of drum machine recording in my life... and have tried most, but not all, of the things mentioned above, and recommend all of them as things to try.

another thing that i have done on occasion is run the drum machine through my roland sh-2 and hit it really hard.
really cool and bizarre distortions, with live filter sweep/lfo possibilities, if you feel like getting real nutter butter for a spot in the song.

[jtotheg]

Distressors. Tape. EQ.

Well, at least worked for me.

[vibrationlander]

pardon me if someone already mentioned this, but . . .

one thing that i do quite a bit is to play back a very simple rhythm (most often with just 1 or two percussion pieces such as hi-hat/shaker, whatever) almost as a
click track and play the other pads of the drum machine manually as the song continues real time. if your drum machine has velocity sensitve pads all the better. . .

a little touch of human feel with any of the aforementioned techniques will help out your sound much of the time.

[Rick Hunter]

And NO TOM FILLS. None. They just sound stupid on drum machines. cut-up breaks/processing fills are cool.

RIGHT ON.

[twitchmonitor]

And NO TOM FILLS. None. They just sound stupid on drum machines. cut-up breaks/processing fills are cool.

RIGHT ON.

Man, that should be in the "things I wish someone had told me when I started out" post. And "best of."

[RefD]

running a beatbox thru an amp of some kind really does help.

even better if your machine has its own amp built in (see the Rhythm Ace on the right):



follow it with some EQ and limiting to bring out the aspects of the sound you like.

as always, the way you mic the amp is important.

mein $0.02.

[vibrationlander]

another thing to try is mixing in some real percussion with the drum machine palette to massage the sounds together. a little tamborine or maracas is the teaspoon of sugar to help the robotic hi-hat go down.

[vibrationlander]

unless you don't want the robotic hi-hat to go down.
but who wouldn't?javascript:emoticon(':D')