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Hey guys I'm pretty new to recording drums, and I plan on recording a 4 or 5 song demo with my band. We've already made a few recordings, with a cheap radioshack mic (haha), these can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/perpetratorthrash

For the demo, I was thinking about recording with 4 mics (would that be enough?); those being, a Shure Beta 52 for the kick drum, an SM57 on the snare, and two overheads (SM57?). I have a 5 piece drum kit and 3 cymbals. I was also thinking about recording by running the mics through a mixer with USB 2.0 connection (Would this work?) and recording into either Garageband, Audacity, or if a DAW was provided with the mixer, then that.

What do you guys think of my ideas? Also, please let me know if I left anything out and what else you recommend.

Thanks.

Comments

Codemonkey Thu, 06/25/2009 - 07:37

"mixer"
No.

You want an interface. Alesis MultiMix's and such are useless and only record a stereo mixdown. So you get landed with a fixed track that you can't tweak parts of.

What you want is a multiple input interface. With preamps. Or search hard and you might find a mixer that actually records more than 2 tracks but this is unlikely and excessive. Like buying a house to use the bathroom.

Codemonkey Thu, 06/25/2009 - 14:04

Interfaces are best treated like shoes...
Find your own - I can tell you what shop to go to but not what pair or size or colour to buy.

Also, there's been plenty of people asked this question beforehand, with a slew of different needs, mainly in "Home & Project Studios"/"Budget Gear".
(You can try the search function, but it's finicky)

You want one preamp per mic you want to use concurrently. You may want phantom power for condenser mics or active DI boxes (for guitars).
You want one Hi-z input for each simultaneous guitar (bypassing the need for a DI box).
You want one line input (or stereo pair) according to the number of keyboards/synths/drum machines you want to connect simultaneously.

For anything over 2 inputs, you'll want to avoid USB if possible.

I could say "Presonus FP10" which is a pretty good starting point but might be too expensive. Sometimes you gotta make compromises.

Codemonkey Fri, 06/26/2009 - 12:58

Overheads are as good as you can make em ;)

I can get "acceptable" sound from a single mic that ain't as good as a SM57. Just find a place that they work and stick em there. No not there! To the left a little...

You should be able to get something good with them, and with the right placement, it'll be even better.

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