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Hello,

I'm in a band and we would like to do our recordings ourselves. I can handle recording the guitars, bass, and vocals, but I have a few questions about recording drums.

What I'd like to do is to use drum triggers. Two questions arise from this:
a) Bass, snare, and tom are easy, but I haven't seen triggers for cymbals. How would I go about this?
b) The triggers I've found and will buy once I have the answers to my questions (ddrum Red Shot 5 Piece Trigger Kit, if anyone knows anything better for around the same price, please tell me), connect with a 1/4" cable. Would I be able to directly connect each cable to a 1/4" input on an audio interface and record audio from that, or would I have to use MIDI?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

RemyRAD Sat, 04/07/2012 - 10:05

Why do you want to use drum triggers instead of recording drums? You know, you can't get good at this stuff by just playing computer games. All you need is 4 microphones to make a decent drum recording. Simply 4 SM57's can make a lovely recording of drums. Even nicer if you have a pair of overhead condenser microphones. And 57 on snare and kick. Much simpler than screwing around with drum triggers and somebody else's samples. Plus you've already discovered that playing cymbals with triggers on the cheap really doesn't have much of a chance of turning out well. So get to work since you're already good at recording guitars bass and vocal and learn how to record some real drums. Don't be lazy now. I know you're better than this.

I love recording real drums
Mx. Remy Ann David

soapfloats Sat, 04/07/2012 - 19:46

One of my benchmark "reference" recordings is Wilco's Sky Blue Sky.
I don't want to misrepresent, but I had the understanding that the whole thing was done live takes, everybody in the same room...
and every mic but the overheads and Tweedy's vocal... was an SM57.
Could have been a few other mics and a few overdubs, I don't recall - The article isn't in front of me, and not online- but it's Tape Op #70.

Point being, listen to Remy. All four of my 57s get used on any larger session. Drums, guitars, bass amp, even the occasional acoustic instrument and vocal.
Of course I also have other more expensive mics I use, but would probably use more 57s if I had more.
Not always the right choice, but often the better choice. Especially if you don't have other choices currently in your locker