Recording Live Drum Tracks on Separate Tracks on DAW Software

[DoubleBlade]

Hi all,

I'm just wondering, how does one record a live drum track onto separate tracks on the DAW software?

For instance, we got a drummer playing the drums live. All the various signals (snare, cymbals, bass drum) will flow through the various drums mics connected via mixer and onto DAW software. How do you make it such that each recording track on the DAW software will only feature one part of the drum? For example, track 1 - snare , track 2 - hi hat , track 3 - bass drum etc.

By the way, I'm using Cubase.

 

[kongwee]

Why not if the mixer is capable for that. Cubase allow to track as many as you like till the limit of the whole system.

 

[soft]

Hi DoubleBlade

With close mic-ing, you can try to get as little spill over as possible. For example, TOM 1 microphone might pick up a little bit of TOM 2. That is ok, just try your best to position the microphone to minimize picking up TOM 2.

Are you having problem with it?

 

[blueprintstudios]

SOFT : haha sorry to hijack james, but I'll take this one especially. it's in my ballgame.

DoubleBlade : hi there, 1stly, i too, record live drumtracks all the time at different locations bedrooms/jamstudios etc.

kindly refer to http://tinyurl.com/diyrecording

what I will advise is, if your mixer is analog, what you're going to just get is drums.wav. e.g
OH/OH(overhead)/snare/kick/tom/tom/tom = 7 drum mics > mixer? > ? > DAW(Cubase) > Drums.wav
whereas if you use a multitrack interface like Zoom R16 (i'm using this.)

7drummics > Zoom R16 > USB > PC/Laptop > DAW (Cubase) > LOH.wav/ROH.wav/SNR.wav/KK.wav/LTom.wav/RTom.wav/FTom.wav

now you have that drumset "dissected" in 7 components.

however depending where you're recording at, you may not have the proper luxury of having a "Room" mic. unless the drumroom is properly treated. I personally close mic like how james has said for all drumshells (snr/kick/tom) then the tricky part would be the miking for hihat/ride/crash because I only have 8 inputs, I use 2 Overhead mics with my own technique to pickup both hihat/crash+ride/crash evenly in a way that I can work with during mixing process. should you require more, you can buy 2 R16 (Max) and set one master/slave then record 16 tracks at once. or your own preference of audio interface which supports ADAT up to a total of 16 inputs.

lastly as I was saying the "7 containers".wav will depend on what mic you use and how you miked up and how well your drum was tuned. that's all microphone technique from there.
e.g if a snare resonance is too high, listen to the sound in person if it is really ringy, tune it or put a little o ring or tape ductape. if it's not ringy but the test recording is, then adjust your mic to aim more towards the middle of the snare away from the rim.

also depending on the mic you're using, some have a higher rate of natural "Noise Gate" (meaning picking up "Bleeds" from the other parts of the drums, like the snare mic will be really close to the hihat , but because of the type of mic you're using it picks up little instead)

in general by now you would have known that dynamic mics pick up lesser "surrounding" noise and high frequency (like cymbals) , and condenser mics pickup more highs.


this should cover most of your queries. gd luck!

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[DoubleBlade]

Hi all,

Thanks for all your inputs. Actually I'm not recording live drum tracks currently it's just a casual question which I had in mind.

 

[kongwee]

It is good to know yeah. When you on live or studio recording, it is good to ask around. Like me not into recording, but most of time I will do separate track for sample drums and apply different eq and compression on each component. It is same on studio recording with very good set of out board gears.

 

[blueprintstudios]

You're welcome.if your casual thought materializes you can always refer.thanks for asking a useful question that many drum recording enthusiasts can learn/read from. You have no idea how many have asked me bout this on msn haha.

 

[unsane]

I'm just wondering, how does one record a live drum track onto separate tracks on the DAW software?

julius bro the simplest answer to your question is: you'd need an audio interface with as many inputs as you need seperate tracks. for your kinda music that usually ranges for 8-16 simultaenous inputs on drums. FOM was about 12 i think.

 

[AlvBobo]

Hi all Softy Gurus,

I got a really really burning question. I'm recording live and mic'ed drums in ProTools. But I'm having difficulty understanding the EQ and compression. I've referred to some online guides, but still can't find a perfect setting for the plugins in ProTools. I.e. my bass drum is initially not punchy enough, then when I apply the plugins, the track keeps peaking, or it will sound over-compressed and plastic. I also know that I need to apply overall compression and EQ to the mixdowned stereo drum tracks alone.

I'd really love if anyone can share their ideal settings? Preferably using Protools and its plugins.
Thanks so much!

 

[blueprintstudios]

alvbobo : i'm surprised no one replied .. anyway . mixing is usually a "thing" which you gotta discover on your own as there're many many mixing tutorials on youtube,google,tweakheadz,other forums esp the library etc. irregardless of what DAW you use. so a few reasons why people don't share it's because it's crucial that every new mixing engineer goes thru this phase on their own instead of being "spoonfed" (although the presets are there for you to dabble with already)
gd luck in your mixing!

 

[AlvBobo]

Hehe.. I didn't know they had videos of mixing on YouTube! I'll go check it out.

 

[blueprintstudios]

hit the libraries for www.halleonard.com 's stuff also.

 

[AlvBobo]

Lol.. I just found out that you're everywhere!! And I've been conversing with you in multiple threads.. lol.
Thanks for the link bro.

 

[ankursamtaney]

my bass drum is initially not punchy enough, then when I apply the plugins, the track keeps peaking, or it will sound over-compressed and plastic. I also know that I need to apply overall compression and EQ to the mixdowned stereo drum tracks alone.

Not an expert myself, but I think where you should really start before touching those plugins is:

>> does the bass drum sound good when playing LIVE? Is it too boomy, or too dead, etc. Once your LIVE sound is sorted out, you may want to look into micing.
>> have you miced it up correctly? (sure - right / wrong are very subjective here, but you can find many 'standard' ways of doing this online) If the bass is ported, is the mic inside the drum? where does it point? Is it too far inside and too close to the batter head? or maybe not close enough? etc. If the bass is not ported, do you mic the batter head or the resonant head? if resonant head then is it too loose, which doesn't give you a tight punchy kick? I know it's a lot easier said than done, but I'd still say you experiment first with all of this before slapping on plugins / FX hoping to 'correct' your sound. may also want to experiment with different mics perhaps.

 

[AlvBobo]

Hi Ankursamtaney: Thanks for the advice. My drums sound good live. The bass is ported. I actually paid a professional drummer to come to my place to do the entire setup, including mic'ing. Hence I assume the physical part of the drums was taken care of.

Reason for my mixing question for drums is because the recording sounds 'so-so' when I don't add any effects. Much like an amateur recorded track without proper EQ and stuff. Then when I fiddle with all the settings, the track becomes boomy, or heavily compressed with cut'offs at the peaks. I'm experiencing this even when I use the presets for the compressors/limiters/EQ with the 'Kick/cymbals/snare etc.' presets. This is what's bothering me.

 

[blueprintstudios]

Not really everywhere.just kopitiam,computer and sound.it's the convenience of iPhone and soft foruming in between mixing breaks.

Just a curious question why is your drummer doing the miking instead of you?

If you'd like to give us a shot like the other forums doing the "Mix This!" theme, you can upload the drum tracks in 320kbps mp3 to mediafire.com

 

[kongwee]

H
Reason for my mixing question for drums is because the recording sounds 'so-so' when I don't add any effects. Much like an amateur recorded track without proper EQ and stuff. Then when I fiddle with all the settings, the track becomes boomy, or heavily compressed with cut'offs at the peaks. I'm experiencing this even when I use the presets for the compressors/limiters/EQ with the 'Kick/cymbals/snare etc.' presets. This is what's bothering me.

I could only say the preset are there are not for doing something miracle. All the knots and digit they do have their own function. See the example of how to use compressor below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiKVvr_5mnI

Does it look a bit similar to your plug-in in term of function.

For me, I still load preset, but I will adjust according to the feel of the music.

 

[ankursamtaney]

Hi Ankursamtaney: Thanks for the advice. My drums sound good live. The bass is ported. I actually paid a professional drummer to come to my place to do the entire setup, including mic'ing. Hence I assume the physical part of the drums was taken care of.

Reason for my mixing question for drums is because the recording sounds 'so-so' when I don't add any effects. Much like an amateur recorded track without proper EQ and stuff. Then when I fiddle with all the settings, the track becomes boomy, or heavily compressed with cut'offs at the peaks. I'm experiencing this even when I use the presets for the compressors/limiters/EQ with the 'Kick/cymbals/snare etc.' presets. This is what's bothering me.

Can post the track here? Both the dry version and your edited version which you say sounds boomy. I'm sure you'd get better advice if people can hear what you've already got.

 

[AlvBobo]

Not really everywhere.just kopitiam,computer and sound.it's the convenience of iPhone and soft foruming in between mixing breaks.

Just a curious question why is your drummer doing the miking instead of you?

If you'd like to give us a shot like the other forums doing the "Mix This!" theme, you can upload the drum tracks in 320kbps mp3 to mediafire.com

Cool dude. Looks like you're very much in the mixing biz. I kinda asked a drummer who's experienced in setup of drum mics to help me with the initial miking. I'm basically a noob when it comes to miking. lol.

 

[AlvBobo]

I could only say the preset are there are not for doing something miracle. All the knots and digit they do have their own function. See the example of how to use compressor below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiKVvr_5mnI

Does it look a bit similar to your plug-in in term of function.

For me, I still load preset, but I will adjust according to the feel of the music.

Hi Kongwee, thanks for the link. Think I'll start going through the videos 1 by 1 before I venture any further. Hehe.. =)