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Hi,

I'm just looking for advice on how to set up recording for a drum kit through the Digi 003 rack. I've only ever recorded two tracks at once through the Digi 003 so need a bit of advice about recording a whole kit.

I can see how it's easy to set up four mics through the XLR inputs but after that I'm unsure what to do, I plan to use all 8 inputs 4 mics with XLR to XLR on inputs 1-4 and four with XLR to jack on inputs 4-8 but I can't figure out how to set all these tracks up so I can listen to each one individually and all 8 at the same time.

Is there an easy way to do this or am I going to need more gear to get this working? I couldn't find this info in the reference manual, not much of a techie really, more of a muso.

Appreciate the help in advance

Dave

Ireland

Comments

anonymous Thu, 04/10/2008 - 03:50

I use a 002, but the process is still the same.
You will need mic preamps to make use of the 4 line inputs on your mixer. These preamps could be high end outboard preamps, or you could use any mixing board that has line outputs (or inserts).
What you do is plug your drum mics into the mixing board and then use 1/4 inch cables to connect the channel outputs on the board to the line inputs on the 003.
Listening to the the individual tracks should be as easy as clicking the solo button on the tracks, and when you unclick the solo button you should be hearing all of your tracks.

MarkG

Boswell Thu, 04/10/2008 - 03:52

The jack inputs on the Digi 003 are at line level and have no phantom power, so will not work directly for microphones. You will need at least a 4-channel pre-amp to go between the microphones and the 003 line inputs.

Alternatively, you could consider an 8-channel digitizing pre-amp that has ADAT lightpipe output. This would connect to the ADAT input of the 003, leaving the jack inputs free for other uses.

Having said all that, do you need extra channels? You can get really good recordings of a drum kit using only 3 or 4 well-chosen and correctly-positioned microphones.

BobRogers Thu, 04/10/2008 - 11:14

Boswell wrote: ...Having said all that, do you need extra channels? You can get really good recordings of a drum kit using only 3 or 4 well-chosen and correctly-positioned microphones.

I agree with all the technical stuff mentioned above, but I think this is the most important suggestion. If you are new to recording, start with at most four mics on the drum set - Kick, snare, and two overheads. You can spend weeks and weeks working on these four. You have to learn how to position the mics, how to best position the set in the room, how to tune and damp the drums for recording, how to mix and edit the tracks, and finally how to work with the eq, dynamics, and reverb plugins in PT. We're talking a lot of work before you are any good at this. Don't double the number of tracks right away.

anonymous Tue, 05/12/2009 - 11:14

I am prety confused..

Hey Guys,

Sorry to restart such an old post but I really needed some clarification on the above said information.

I am a drummer who is interested in recording using PT 8 LE with a Digi 003 Rack. I will be using the Roland TD-20 V drums and an acoustic kit requiring 8 microphones.

The posts above somehow led me to believe that the line level inputs from 5-8 on the 003 Rack are not capable of running microphones! I can run the condensers through the XLR inputs but why wouldn't it run Dynamic microphones on the line level inputs??

I would really like clarification on this asap before I pull the trigger on this purchase. My intention was to use 3 condensors and 5 dynamic microphones to record my acoustic kit. The V-drums send out 8 line level outputs so that is pretty straightforward.

Am I missing something here? Why does the guy who started this post require phantom power for all 8 microphones.

Thanks all.. Please feel free to educate me if my theory is flawed..