Skip to main content

I have been having a really hard time getting the drums sounding like a normal drum track. Sounds a bit muffled, airy.

Bad mics, with a small room have a lot to do with it. But either way, I'm considering selling my kit (Tama Rockstar), and getting a Roland TD12. Has anyone had any experience recording with these?

I've been looking at them a lot lately and playing around with them at a local music store and they sound great. But I'm not sure if they would sit like normal drums would in a mix.

Topic Tags

Comments

ouzo77 Thu, 05/17/2007 - 06:01

I use v-drums with the td10 module live and it sounds good, though a bit synthetic. but the td12 is a more recent model, so i'm sure it sounds better.
for studio use you can get good results with a bit tweaking (inside the module and with comp, eq, reverb in your daw) and i'm sure it will fit in the mix quite nicely. probably better than an acoustic drumkit without a proper room.
make sure to record the direct signals of the v-drum seperately and either record the built in room simulator, which is quite good, to another stereo track or use a reverb/room simulator in your daw as a send effect to add space to your drum tracks.
you can, of course, trigger other samples like dfh as Jbrax suggested.

the best thing in working with electronic drums is, that you can record the midi data. this way you can fix mistakes in your take without redoing the whole thing.
but playing on a e-drum kit isn't exactly the same as playing on an acoustic set. you'll have to adapt your playing in terms of dynamics and where and how you hit a pad. takes a bit time but when you know how to do it you'll get quite realistic drum tracks.

BobRogers Thu, 05/17/2007 - 19:25

patrick_like_static wrote: You simply can't match the organic feel of real cymbals. Why not try electronic drums but real brass?

I agree with Patrick, but I have a few points. Cymbals are one instrument where I feel "the best is barely good enough." Electronic cymbals are really no worse in tone than cheap brass cymbals for me. While the room is not as big a factor as with drums, good mics are important for cymbals. Bottom line is that while I agree that cymbals are the weak link of electronic drums, you still need pretty good equipment to beat them (IMO). The cymbals will be thrown in if you get the electronic set, so you'll be able to try both ways and see what sounds best in your enviroment.

vdrummer Fri, 05/18/2007 - 04:10

If you use a TD-20 kit the cymbals are the best e-cymbals you can get and are much better than poorly recorded good brass. The TD-20 has 10 outputs to separate the pads as you like. Many record the MIDI and use drum samples, look at www.vdrums.com for more info on MIDI which I do not use. Also if you get a Vexpressions program these relieve the user of having to program the drums to taste since the Vexpression sounds are top notch. One benefit is the sounds can be dramatically changed, not committed to one sound as with a acoustic set. The big draw back is the number of subtle accents that a top notch drummer can create on an acoustic set is much greater than on an e-set (although an e-set can do rim shots, rims sounds, positional sensing on the snare, edge and top sounds on crashes splashs etc., and the ride is 3 way (I like 3 ways) bell, top with positional sensing, edge).