![]() Recording electronic drums is simple when compared to recording acoustic drums.Īcoustic drum recording is considered by many people to be an art form.įinding the balance between equipment, knowledge, patience and money that works for your project is a skill that comes with experience and time.īeing a collection of various percussion instruments, a drum kit requires different types of microphones and positioning to make one cohesive drum kit sound.Ĭapturing a great performance is difficult when you’re also the one recording the drums. And be safe in the knowledge that every Focusrite Scarlett interface will enable you to get professional sounding results, whatever you’re recording.This article covers the best and easiest way to record TD-27 V-Drums. Coupled with low-latency monitoring, this makes your Focusrite interface perfect for recording drums.įollow this advice, and you’ll be in a great position to record great-sounding drums. With Focusrite Control software, you can easily set up a custom monitor mix for the drummer, and route it to the headphones output. When recording drums, your drummer will inevitably want a custom monitor mix, which is likely to be different to the mix supplied to the engineer. How to set up a monitor mix for your drummer ![]() The ‘Dynamic’ version also features compression on every channel. The Scarlett OctoPre or Scarlett OctoPre Dynamic are perfect partners to the Scarlett 18i20 interface (or indeed any device with an ADAT input), as they provide eight Scarlett preamps in a 1U rack. Using ADAT, you can increase your input count so you can capture even the most extreme drum setup, or a generous drum kit setup plus the other bandmates. ADAT connectivity provides up to eight channels (at 48kHz) of expansion via an external device, connected via an optical cable. In case you need to record drums and other instruments simultaneously, like you would when tracking a full band, an interface with an ADAT input is extremely useful. It’s also great in another regard: it features an ADAT input. Eight preamps is a good starting point for drum recordings, and the Scarlett 18i20 is ideal in this regard. Because once you’ve miked your kick drum, snare and hi-hat, toms, cymbals and room mics, your channel count can easily reach double digits. Not only do you need great-sounding preamps for a stand-out drum sound, you need a lot of them. Using ADAT to increase you audio interface’s channel count Millions of people around the world use the preamps in Focusrite Scarlett interfaces to record music of all kinds, largely because they are so versatile and ensure that what you hear in the room is captured in your recordings. To capture the cleanest sound, you need a preamp with lots of headroom and a fast transient response, to make sure your drums sound punchy and tight, not sloppy and dull. When recording drums, the clarity of the mic preamp is critical. It’s always a good idea to dial the preamp down a little before recording, as players often increase in playing intensity once they get into the groove. Lastly, pay careful attention to avoid clipping when setting preamp levels - you can use the Gain Halos on Focusrite Scarlett interfaces to gauge when an input is getting close to clipping. Overhead mics positioned above the kit help you get a nice wide stereo image, but take care not to place either mic too close to a cymbal, though, as it might overwhelm the recording. Others will have better bass response - perfect for capturing the boominess of the kick drum. Some will have a dull and insensitive response, which might be great for loud, bright sounds like a snare drum. Small changes in positioning can have a large impact on the sound, and you can balance different drums and cymbals by moving the mic closer to, or further from, each other. The best advice, as with recording anything, is to experiment with mic positioning by moving the mics around the kit while you monitor the sound in headphones. That said, there is no right or wrong way to record drums, and if you just have a handful of mics, or only a few mic inputs, you can get a great sound if you follow some simple principles. ![]() The benefits of multi-microphone recording are the ability to ‘zoom in’ precisely on every element of the drum kit, but the downside is that you need lots of mics and a dedicated preamps on your audio interface to capture everything simultaneously. Some use a simple two- or three-microphone setup. Some engineers favour putting a microphone on every drum (multi-miking) for maximum flexibility. ![]() Here's no singular ‘correct’ way to record drums. Microphone techniques for recording drums Drum recording is one of the most challenging aspects of audio engineering, and a good drum sound can transform a song, bringing dynamic excitement and a planting that heavy groove in peoples’ heads. ![]()
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