How do I record Midi sounds of my electronic drums?

[haarp]

Hi there.
I'm quite new to recording and I don't know much.
Firstly, I have a Yamaha DTxplorer. I've been told by a sales man that you need a midi interface in order to do recordings.
I only know that I have to connect the Yamaha DTxplorer Module's Midi-out to the midi interface and connect the midi-interface to my computer.
My band mate is doing all the mixing and currently he needs the Midi file of the drums.

My main question is, how do I actually get the midi sounds onto the software and what software recommendations would you give?

Any additional help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[alvinthedrummer]

If you want to record the midi signals into the computer, you need a sequencing software (eg. Ableton Live, Digital Performer, Logic Pro etc) to capture them. You will need a midi interface to connect your drum module to the computer (eg. Roland, M-Audio, Presonus etc). But I have a question....are you trying to capture sound of what your module is producing or are you trying to capture your drum "hits" into your computer as Midi signals and then using them to trigger sounds from your computer's sound library? If you are only trying to capture the DTexplorer's sounds into your computer then all you need is to run the 1/4" output from your module into the interface (eg. Roland, M-Audio, Presonus etc) and record the sounds into the sequencing software as audio files. That is way less complicated.

 

[haarp]

Wow thanks Alvin. That was exactly the reply I'm looking for. I'm just trying to record the sounds as it is. However there's still a few things. Will these sounds be in midi format for mixing purposes and what kind of software would be reccomended for it. Thanks a lot.

 

[alvinthedrummer]

No worries! If you just want to capture the audio samples from your module then just buy 2 1/4" cables and line them out from the module and into the recording interface. Nowadays most recording interfaces have both audio and midi recording abilities. My favorite one is the m-audio profire but any lower models that has 1/4" ins and outs will do just fine. It will not be captured as midi but audio files rather. Just imagine u singing into a mic and the sound gets captured into a recorder which the mic is connected to. But in this case it's the sound coming out from the module and into the recorder which is the computer. Think of the recording interface as sort of a mixer which is routing the drum sounds into the computer.

Midi signals have no real sounds. They are just signals that helps to general something. Think of it as a computer keyboard. A keyboard is mapped in such a way that when u hit "A" in microsoft word document, it churns out "A" on screen for u. But in a game, you can remap the same button to maybe fire a gun? Midi signals are something like this. It does not store anything but is only a value which u can map. So for example, when u hit Tom 1, you can map that to churn out a dog bark in the computer. I hope that clears up some doubt for u...

 

[haarp]

Yeah dude, that clears alot of doubt for me.
I asked a Yamaha Salesman at dhoby ghaut once and he showed me a few midi interface which is going for a low price and it does the job.
The last question I have is, what software would be better in terms of recording and mixing the midi sounds.
I've heard that Ezdrummer and a few are a good source of software.
However, is there any other software which is good for a beginner and not as expensive?

Cheers.

 

[alvinthedrummer]

Ezdrummer is more of a drum sampler (correct me if I'm wrong) and really a focused recording/mixing software. For a quick and easy job, Ableton Live is superb. If don't have a budget for it then just buy a m-audio interface. It comes with a streamlined version of Ableton live which is more than enough for your usage. You will still have enough tracks for your singer, guitarist and bassist and more if you learn how to consolidate a few tracks into one.

 

[haarp]

Thanks alvin for the help! Really appreciate it.
Just one last thing. Does that mean that I can record individual instruments produced by the drums just by the m-audio interface?

 

[alvinthedrummer]

No prob. Yes, you can. You can a lot with most m-audio interfaces and I can take a few months just to show you. But for now, what you need is what I have described. All the best!

 

[haarp]

Okay, it sounds kinda stupid but I have another question.
If I'm now planning to record the audio as it is, i would still need a recording interface.
The promoter actually told me about the CI1 which isn't a bad recording interface. However, it is out of stock until may. I'm on a tight budget here so what type of alternatives would be better if I'm looking to get a cheap audio interface which the main purpose is to record the actual sounds of the drums (L/R)?
Thanks in advance~!

 

[alvinthedrummer]

Yup, preferably with an external interface. But you can also check out more options such as presonus, alesis. Or, the cheapest option I can think of is buy one of those Samson USB microphones....