Home Recording Studio Equipment for Drums

mhanon13 said:
hey MFB! I got one more question! Sorry about this.. I am already ordering some of the recording stuff. i bought the Presonus Firestudio. but where u plug in the microphones is very weird.. what kind of cable do i actually need to buy? Any recommendation?

Thanks a lot bud!
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The mic input you are talking about is a multi purpose input, very common on todays interfaces. it will allow you to use a 3 pin XLR mic cable to input your microphones as well as using 1/4" jack line level sources into the same inputs.

what sources are you looking to input?

cables you need: 1/4" jack cables (elec guitars/keyboards/drum machines etc)
& 3 pin XLR cables (microphones)

hope this helps.
 
Trench.one said:
The mic input you are talking about is a multi purpose input, very common on todays interfaces. it will allow you to use a 3 pin XLR mic cable to input your microphones as well as using 1/4" jack line level sources into the same inputs.

what sources are you looking to input?

cables you need: 1/4" jack cables (elec guitars/keyboards/drum machines etc)
& 3 pin XLR cables (microphones)

hope this helps.
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Also the 1/4 inch input is higher impedance and lower gain due to the fact that these sources are louder than mics (and hence don't need balancing like a mic cable). You want to make sure you don't use an XLR-Jack microphone adaptor cable for recording as this will result in lower gain and higher noise from your microphones.
 
Yep, you're going to want 3-pin XLR. Your microphones should have a male XLR output on the bottom of them (those three pins) and the interface will have a combined 1/4 Inch jack/XLR input (female). Against all political correctness, signal flow is usually male-female (and you can work out why each bit is named as such). Hope that makes some sense!

Good choice on the interface. Top bit of kit, that.
 
mhanon13 said:
so you guys think I should get a Female XLR-Male 1/4''??? Is it better to record with that cables?

Thanks! :)
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If you're running mics, something like these should do the trick. Obviously not from that store, but the connectors are what you're looking for. Just look for the three pins.
 
mhanon13 said:
so you guys think I should get a Female XLR-Male 1/4''??? Is it better to record with that cables?

Thanks! :)
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NO! I said you should NOT get those sorts of cables, get XLR female-XLR male cables for all your mics! It is MUCH better to record with these cables as they are balanced which practically doubles your signal to noise ratio.
 
Alright guys, I almost set. I already got the mics, cables, the Presonus Firestudio 26x26, and I am trying to buy the Monitors and a good software. My PC is windows vista.

what software would you recommend me to buy? I am between cubase and Sonar. but there are many models of cubase and sonar. Does Sonar work well with the Firestudio?

I don't really know what to buy. :( (I am also planning to do my own music, MIDI)

so what would you recommend me? I may spend up to $500 on a really good software.
also, what kind of some cheap monitors can I get? I can spend up to $150 on some good monitors.

thanks!
 
mhanon13 said:
Alright guys, I almost set. I already got the mics, cables, the Presonus Firestudio 26x26, and I am trying to buy the Monitors and a good software. My PC is windows vista.

what software would you recommend me to buy? I am between cubase and Sonar. but there are many models of cubase and sonar. Does Sonar work well with the Firestudio?

I don't really know what to buy. :( (I am also planning to do my own music, MIDI)

so what would you recommend me? I may spend up to $500 on a really good software.
also, what kind of some cheap monitors can I get? I can spend up to $150 on some good monitors.

thanks!
Click to expand...

I reccomend you get Cakewalk SONAR studio version 8. Then you can spend the rest of the money on some monitors.
 
mhanon13 said:
Alright guys, I almost set. I already got the mics, cables, the Presonus Firestudio 26x26, and I am trying to buy the Monitors and a good software. My PC is windows vista.

what software would you recommend me to buy? I am between cubase and Sonar. but there are many models of cubase and sonar. Does Sonar work well with the Firestudio?

I don't really know what to buy. :( (I am also planning to do my own music, MIDI)

so what would you recommend me? I may spend up to $500 on a really good software.
also, what kind of some cheap monitors can I get? I can spend up to $150 on some good monitors.

thanks!
Click to expand...


I think that the presonus products already come with like Cubase LE, don't they? That might be all you need to get started with. If you like it, you can probably upgrade to full version cubase.

For monitors... buy used. =)
 
This is awesome, all you guys have been great!

I'll start off with Cubase LE I guess. I have seen that peeps use Cubase and Pro Tools because they are very popular. The other time I saw in another thread (not drummerworld) a post from a sound engineer that i will just copy paste. It just gets me to think about it:

Comment by RealSoundEngineers on July 3, 2007 @ 1:21 am

The studio I work in is industry standard, and we record many mainstream commercial music / where all of us engineers use protools & cubase for multitrack recording. I have encouraged the studio to set up a rig with SONAR on many occasions, but the owners are brainless caught up in a “Industry Standard” bubble. I also do work at home with my personal setup where I use nothing else besides SONAR. And everytime I share one of my tracks from home recordings with the boss he says “Why don’t you produce this level of quality here?”. It is because the fools force me to use ProTools and Cubase, which beleive it or not can not top SONAR (with the right DX plugins SONAR kills everything). I have been doing this for 15 years, and im tired of protools and cubase. They are subpar.
 
mhanon13 said:
This is awesome, all you guys have been great!

I'll start off with Cubase LE I guess. I have seen that peeps use Cubase and Pro Tools because they are very popular. The other time I saw in another thread (not drummerworld) a post from a sound engineer that i will just copy paste. It just gets me to think about it:

Comment by RealSoundEngineers on July 3, 2007 @ 1:21 am

The studio I work in is industry standard, and we record many mainstream commercial music / where all of us engineers use protools & cubase for multitrack recording. I have encouraged the studio to set up a rig with SONAR on many occasions, but the owners are brainless caught up in a “Industry Standard” bubble. I also do work at home with my personal setup where I use nothing else besides SONAR. And everytime I share one of my tracks from home recordings with the boss he says “Why don’t you produce this level of quality here?”. It is because the fools force me to use ProTools and Cubase, which beleive it or not can not top SONAR (with the right DX plugins SONAR kills everything). I have been doing this for 15 years, and im tired of protools and cubase. They are subpar.
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Well, that guy is obviously a fool and a tool. "with DX plug ins, sonar kills..." That's like saying, "with a jet turbine mounted on the roof, my dodge neon will outrun a ferrari modena". Professionals use Pro-tools. Go to a REAL recording studio. Most of the major label quality studios use pro-tools HD not the semi-pro LE version. I seriously doubt any sonar rig is going to match 192 k sampling with 96 channels of pro-tools HD and an SSL/Neve/ API front end with apogee converters. Yes, plug-ins help to level the field and yes a competent engineer behind the desk can make even Garageband sound like a milion bucks but no system can match the power of P/T HD.
 
diosdude said:
Well, that guy is obviously a fool and a tool. "with DX plug ins, sonar kills..." That's like saying, "with a jet turbine mounted on the roof, my dodge neon will outrun a ferrari modena". Professionals use Pro-tools. Go to a REAL recording studio. Most of the major label quality studios use pro-tools HD not the semi-pro LE version. I seriously doubt any sonar rig is going to match 192 k sampling with 96 channels of pro-tools HD and an SSL/Neve/ API front end with apogee converters. Yes, plug-ins help to level the field and yes a competent engineer behind the desk can make even Garageband sound like a milion bucks but no system can match the power of P/T HD.
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You make a good point however most audio software can handle 192khz, it's more about the audio interface. And to be honest the sampling rate is pretty irrelavent anyway seeing as it's all just gonna be mixed down to 44.1khz/16bit anyway.
 
Hey guys,

I got a pair of KRK RP5 or Rokit5! I got them for $230 after I offered a seller.. I bought the presonus firestudio also on Ebay, same my mics... Dude, I have saved hundreds of bucks buying on ebay. If any of you know what to buy... I strongly recommend you to buy on Ebay if you already know what to buy (if you already tryed them let's say on the store)...

It's not likr you are gonna guess... I am going to try it.. no.. I was convinced that the KRK is a good brand and was very recommended by lots of people.. so I went ahead and bought it...

:D
 
KRK's are good quality monitors. There are better and they have a distinctive sound - but they are well made and very usable. A good purchase.
 
Hello to all. This is my first post to the forum. I'm looking to record my drums in home also. If anyone can help me understand this process and help me narrow down what I need to buy or in which direction to go for recording.

Here is what I have for equipment:

Full drumkit w/cymbals
16 channel Peavey PA board with gigantic speaker cabs.
7 microphones with stands and clips
Mac computer

Now I've learned from the forum that I need to get a good audio interface with 8 inputs if I want to record to the computer.

My questions are —

1.) Is the Peavey PA and board with the speakers even needed if I buy an audio interface? Would using the PA and board be going in another direction from the interface and computer way of recording all together? Which direction would you folks recommend going in.

2.) Is Garageband needed to record to the computer? It is on my Mac already.

3.) How are the drums actually "recorded." I know this may sound dumb to the people who know all about this but is there some kind of a "record" button or switch someplace? It's hard for me to understand how this works as I keep thinking that you need to hit a "tape rolling" button to start a recording. Where do the tracks go to and how do I start and stop a recording? Does my computer need to be where my drums are?

I appreciate any feedback on this as I would prefer to get some answers from the others drummers here rather than having to go to Guitar Center and be duped by some salesperson. Thanks.
 
If you already have the mixer then there is not point getting an audio interface as well. you can plug the mixer into the line in on your mac. so instead of the audio interface processing it your sound card will you this will allow you to use garage band. if you get an audio interface you wont be able to use gb. you wont be able to use gb becasue it can only talk to one sound card and the audio interface will be a "sound card"

Hope that helps
 
^ actually there is every point in buying an audio interface as well. You will be able to record each mic as a seperate track meaning more control over the mix.

electricshed said:
Hello to all. This is my first post to the forum. I'm looking to record my drums in home also. If anyone can help me understand this process and help me narrow down what I need to buy or in which direction to go for recording.

Here is what I have for equipment:

Full drumkit w/cymbals
16 channel Peavey PA board with gigantic speaker cabs.
7 microphones with stands and clips
Mac computer

Now I've learned from the forum that I need to get a good audio interface with 8 inputs if I want to record to the computer.

My questions are —

1.) Is the Peavey PA and board with the speakers even needed if I buy an audio interface? Would using the PA and board be going in another direction from the interface and computer way of recording all together? Which direction would you folks recommend going in.

2.) Is Garageband needed to record to the computer? It is on my Mac already.

3.) How are the drums actually "recorded." I know this may sound dumb to the people who know all about this but is there some kind of a "record" button or switch someplace? It's hard for me to understand how this works as I keep thinking that you need to hit a "tape rolling" button to start a recording. Where do the tracks go to and how do I start and stop a recording? Does my computer need to be where my drums are?

I appreciate any feedback on this as I would prefer to get some answers from the others drummers here rather than having to go to Guitar Center and be duped by some salesperson. Thanks.
Click to expand...

1.) no, don't bother with the PA system. Some of the dynamic mics might be okay to mic up the toms with but apart from that there is really no use for it in recording unless it's a digital mixer.

2) There are other programs out there but garageband is pretty good for the purpose.

3) there should be a button in the software which you press to record.
 
^ actually there is every point in buying an audio interface as well. You will be able to record each mic as a seperate track meaning more control over the mix.
Click to expand...

Very true, but if you are good at mixing you should be able to mix it on the board. Also if he didn't want to spend a ton of money on a 8 channel interface then he could use that method
 
Calummordue said:
Very true, but if you are good at mixing you should be able to mix it on the board. Also if he didn't want to spend a ton of money on a 8 channel interface then he could use that method
Click to expand...

I thought you would say this. However you have to remember that what you hear on the drum track will sound very different when you add all the instruments. Besides what about effects? What if you want a huge reverb on the snare drum but you want to keep the kick drum really tight sounding? To acheive this you'd need to buy a load of outboard FX so you'd have spent more money than the cost of an audio interface and it won't sound as good because the mixer is geared towards live use whereas the interface is specifically designed for recording so yeah if you want to make a PROPER recording an audio interface is well worth it.
 
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