So i've got the bass and guitar bit figured out, that seems easy enough with Pods, GuitarRigs, line ins and outs and round abouts and other such coolness. I'm even confident about vocals at this diy stage of my musical production career.

But drums? Where to start?

So, we did this demo right. Took drummer and drums to studio, recorded drum parts quickly (as we were all skint) and put those 10 drum tracks (10 tracks for each song, three songs, i.e. track 1 snare, track 2 bass track 3 floor tom etc) onto a CD, brought the CD's home, imported the tracks into Sonar and took it from there. Worked out fine for what we were wanting to do.

But I want to be able to cut out the studio at the recording stage. Mixing is another story. So, assuming i've just finished building my drum room at the bottom of the garden, what next? So i've got 10 mics, how do I get them into my PC upstairs, recording 10 drum tracks at a time? I understand 1, that makes sense. But 10 at a time? Am I looking for a piece of kit that has 10 inputs with 10 good preamps for the mics and then Firewires into my PC? And if this is the case, is my SoundBlaster Live sound card not really up to the job and I need a serious Sound recording type card. I'm aware I am suffering a latency problem when using GuitarRig in Sonar but thats another story.

By the way I do want the option of 10 or more, 8 won't really cut it. I don't think. Or will it? Should I be able to record drums of thrash with 8 tracks / inputs?

Is it all about Firepod? Do I need a Pro Tools? Who is Kim Behringer and are her desks big enough?

Remember: It's all about recording at home so we don't waste money recording in a studio and we have that most wonderful luxury of not rushing the recording. Once we have all the basics, we take that to mix and THEN start paying.

GO!

Buy a desk with 12 or more channels (Soundcraft would be my choice but Behringer are good too.) Buy a multi-core cable with enough sockets on it to accomodate all your mics and enough length to go from drum room to control room. Buy enough mics for the job, 10 will suffice (kick, snare, 3 rack toms, 1 floor tom, hi hat, 2 overheads and 1 ambient mic.) Probably do with a mini patch bay for the effects and a couple of pre-amps too. There you go, job's a throbber.

I've just been recording drum tracks for James' various projects, and getting good quality gear is probably the key to getting a decent sound.

If you haven't bought the mics already, seriously look at a drum-mic set. The studio I've been using has got a set of Samson mics, I only record using 8 mics - Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat, two mounted toms, floor tom and two overheads.

For a decent multitrack setup (PC-based), you'll need either a Firewire or PCI audio interface capable of handling at least 8 inputs and outputs. Before upgrading to an Edirol FA-101 Firewire interface, the studio had a M-Audio Delta 10-10 which is a combination of PCI card and breakout input box. Either of those will do the job, but if you want to record 10 mics at once, then you might want to look at a mixing desk with an interface built in.

You'll also need a fairly beefy PC to handle the recording, preferably a dual-core machine with at least 1Gb RAM. Other than the PC, you'll need a loom cable to suit the connections you have - so if the interface has jack inputs and the desk has jack direct outputs, you'd need a jack-to-jack loom.

Next comes the mixing desk. I use a Mackie 16/8, but generally anything that has the number of inputs you need and at least the same amount of outputs. Something like the Behringer Xenyx 2442FX would probably be perfect because it has some built-in effects - but always read reviews of the gear before you buy it. I'm just looking at specs on websites!

You're probably looking at the expensive side of £1,000 to get yourselves up and running with the same type of gear that the studios are using. Though you can always start renting the studio out to other local bands to use at a discount to try and get some of the cash back.

Now that is a very helpful reply Craig, thanks a very lot. As for £1000. Well, we spent that in 1 week recording the drums for BloodStream's album just on time recording in Academy Studio.

The way I see it is i'll make it back easy, there's no end of punk bands that'd love to come spend £100 on a 4 track demo. 10 of them, job done.

I'll have a good look at those items later. That was pretty spot on fella.

John, we might also be interested as we're in need of a studio to record drums in for our new CD.

Well to be honest i'm looking to the future here, i've got to build a drum room in the back garden yet, THEN buy all the gear, THEN learn how to use it before I could even begin to think about recording another band for real (cos I might mess it up or it might be really crap etc).

So... don't wait for me. But if I sort it i'll let you know obviously. That's the ultimate goal though, i'd enjoy that, be a good hobby y'know.

You don't need all of that expensive shit.
Just sell your soul to Satan and he'll sort it out for you.

i'd just say... go to a studio!!!

you'll always get a better result. especially if its with a decent producer who knows what they are doing.

although you can get a good result for demos, i've yet to hear something of decent comerical quality that has been soley recorded at home.. or at least the enviroment you are talking about.

obviously though, if you can afford to get a machine (apple or otherwise) to run pro-tools, a sound card to go it, a half decent mixing desk, some half decent mics then you can certainly get very good results at home... but this will cost a few ££££. i certainly dont have that!

good luck though, i will be very interested to hear the results you get! it can be done, but seems to cost a lot of money to get the right results.

Yeah just go to a studio.

Resilience Records wrote:i'd just say... go to a studio!!!

you'll always get a better result. especially if its with a decent producer who knows what they are doing.

although you can get a good result for demos, i've yet to hear something of decent comerical quality that has been soley recorded at home.. or at least the enviroment you are talking about.

obviously though, if you can afford to get a machine (apple or otherwise) to run pro-tools, a sound card to go it, a half decent mixing desk, some half decent mics then you can certainly get very good results at home... but this will cost a few ££££. i certainly dont have that!

good luck though, i will be very interested to hear the results you get! it can be done, but seems to cost a lot of money to get the right results.

I'm personally of the thought that pro-tools isn't worth it unless you buy all the associated outboard. Seems to me that without all the hard gear, it's just another software interface. I know you're more versed in this stuff, Jamie, just thought I'd mention it.

As mentioned, I'd go to a studio myself, but if you can't afford that try your local university music tech department. You might find some people willing to record for free for experience, and if it all goes tits up... Well, you didn't put any money into it, did you? Just make sure you take away all of the original sound files if they use a different program/file format to you, and make sure all said sound files go from 0 seconds so you can sync them up without any hassle later on.

Well for what its worth...........

At Rockfields we had a custom variable room, with Wood floor, vaulted ceiling, and stone wall to one side, with 2.5 seconds of natural reverb, 14 dedicated tracks, and about £11K of mics - and I was more than happy with the sound - in fact the best I think I have ever achieved.

But since then I have artist liaison support from Roland, and got a TD20 from them. What an awesome piece of equipment. You can alter the individual drums size, the material its made from, type of skin, snare buzz on the snare, damping on the bass, mic position, and then where the over head mics are, and whether the kit is in a studio or stadium etc.
I reckon with maybe 20 mins of tweaking I had pretty much got the Rockfield sound, which can be mixed out of the TD 20 S/PDIF straight onto any recording taking up maybe one stereo track - and while you play it is silent - so no need for silenced drum booths.
OK at £4500 RRP, it costs nearly as much as a few days at Rockfields - but - it is truly a brilliant instrument.

Tim

well fuck you and call you tim!!! that sounds like all sorts of wonderful wonders to rager.. we hopr to get rel durs downasap

Fair comment - did not mean to sound such a show off - but really am very keen on the Roland Gear - plus also, we are in our mid to late Forties, having been playing none stop since we were 13, so its been a long time coming for us, and without the support of a private limited company we could not have entertained Rockfields, and without the support of Roland - I would not be able to have a TD20.

We have spent many times in four track analogue studios, all huddled in the same live area, trying to make music.

Best wishes,

Tim

heh, don't worry man, i was really pissed and very very jealous

we have some pretty damn decent recording equipment, but nothing for drums, and having a friend with a roland digi kit, that TD20 just blows it out of the water!!!!

Hey Thrash Metal,

No worries mate - where are you based? Are you getting a recording together at the moment?

Best wishes,

Tim