Can I use my Eleven Rack to record drums?

[alexdude777]

Hey guys, I'm a newbie... and just looking to make a demo of the new material I am doing with my band. Obviously really for the level we are at, all the sounds I need to make I can do within PT and my 11R we just need to figure out the best way we can do drums. And as we gain more technically knowledge we will put more and more into our recording setup but you have to start somewhere, right?

Basically, I have an 11R, 2 SM58s, and a SM57. If needed we can purchase more equipment or different/more mics but I really want to get started as minimal as possible. I've been trying to do some research... do you think with these mics will do just for a basic sound?

IF there is a way to use the 11R as my interface that will save me a bunch of money and especially if we can use the mics we already have. Obviously this is a very, very budget setup - can it be done?

Thank you!

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by alexdude777

Hey guys, I'm a newbie... and just looking to make a demo of the new material I am doing with my band. Obviously really for the level we are at, all the sounds I need to make I can do within PT and my 11R we just need to figure out the best way we can do drums. And as we gain more technically knowledge we will put more and more into our recording setup but you have to start somewhere, right?

Basically, I have an 11R, 2 SM58s, and a SM57. If needed we can purchase more equipment or different/more mics but I really want to get started as minimal as possible. I've been trying to do some research... do you think with these mics will do just for a basic sound?

IF there is a way to use the 11R as my interface that will save me a bunch of money and especially if we can use the mics we already have. Obviously this is a very, very budget setup - can it be done?

Thank you!

The microphones are not really the first question, rather the number of inputs/sources is. The Eleven Rack has only one mic preamp. You probably want more for recording your drums. Are you tracking the band live or laying down one instrument at a time--that will affect how many other inputs and mic preamps you need. Most typically folks would use a 003/003+ or Mbox Pro or similar as the interface with the Eleven Rack hanging off that as a guitar processor. For better advice tell us more about what exactly you are doing and what all instruments and vocals need to be recorded. Some info on the drum kit and style of music might get you specific advice on mics etc.

Darryl

[alexdude777]

Sure. Well I would think we really only need to record the drums by themselves. We can play everything to a click track, and I can make the guitar/bass parts to that BPM on protools. Vocals would be done as an after thought because we are making the best recordings of the songs we can ourselves so we can play them back and write lyrics/melodies to them. And even then once I had the track done, I could play the track through protools and record vocals over it that way, correct?

We play rock...think Smashing Pumpkins meets Oasis meets Nirvana with a dash of Coldplay sprinkled in. But as far as quality goes, right now we are making scratch tracks recording everything at once through my Macbook in garage band so once I make them in PT it's going to be a pretty sizable upgrade. I want to "build" our practice room into a "studio" so that we can do everything ourselves and gain knowledge/know-how and eventually release new songs and covers weekly to our FB/youtube audience. When we get our music to a certain point than I'm assuming we would just pay money for a studio to get it professionally done, but in the mean time I want to learn and gain skills and be able to do everything myself... make sense?

The drum kit. It's a standard rock kit. I'm not the drummer and my knowledge is a little limited but it has a kick, snare, 3 toms, hi-hat, and a few cymbals.

I see what you are saying about the 11R only having one mic pre-amp. Would it even be worth it to try just using one mic to record and entire set? It's like if I could do that at least for now(and remember I'm a COMPLETE recording newbie), I could get started asap and not have to make more of an initial investment into the setup.

Either way eventually we are going to need to get an interface so I guess I can't get around that. Is it realistic to "give it a go" with just one mic for now and then start saving up for the next step? And what would the entry step be into home drum recording? Or am I better off looking into mastering a drum program in PT?

I really appreciate the advice!

[Jay_uk]

I,m not saying that you ought to do it with one Mic/Preamp ..but for some tips, read this
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/low-e...e-1-input.html

[nst7]

You might consider getting something like this to go along with your 11R:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SaffirePro40/

It's a great sounding, fairly inexpensive interface, that comes with 8 mic preamps, and a couple of those channels (maybe all of them) also have DI inputs to directly plug a guitar or bass into. You can then plug your 11R into the digital SPDIF in, using that for your guitar, one of the Mic/DI channels on the Sapphire for your bass player, and that leaves you 7 mic inputs for the drums. Doing it this way, you can record your basics, and then still go back afterwards and overdub more guitar parts/layers/solos, etc., and also vocals.

You could also expand it further by adding a second one if you need more inputs.

The other idea would be to get an inexpensive electronic drum kit, and use that, not with the internal sounds (which are generally not great), but your drummer would use the midi out to trigger any of the great sounding software drum libraries, such as Superior Drummer, or Steven Slate Drums, etc. In this case, you wouldn't need another interface, you could just use the 11R, with guitar plugged into the guitar input, and the bass into a DI into the 11R's mic input.

[Darryl Ramm]

That gearslutz thread looks useful and for general info on recording you might want to look at Alan Parson's "Art and Science" DVDs/website http://artandscienceofsound.com/. But you have some mics and an Eleven Rack so just get started. You will learn/work out a lot from doing that before buying anything else.

You should have BFD Lite and Boom with your copy of Pro Tools so you can also play with laying down a simple VI drum track.

Darryl

[alexdude777]

Thank you guys for the responses! We are going to move to an interface and a real drum recording setup once we can save up the money.

My drummer actually has a decent eDrum set so I think that's our best option, is to record using that and triggering drum samples from a library... could someone explain how exactly I do this? (I know I'm a complete newbie) - and which drum library would you suggest? I don't have EZDrummer(yet) all I would have is whatever comes stock on my PT8LE or my friends stock PT9HD, could I find decent sounds just in protools already or do I really need to purchase a drum program?

I really appreciate the advice. If I can't get this to work then I will attempt to record everything using just one mic, but really I think using the eDrums for now and saving up to get a decent interface and some more mics. Thoughts?

Thank you guys!

[nst7]

The nice thing about Superior Drummer is that you can buy various expansion packs. You can do this with EZ Drummer as well, but Superior and its expansion packs are slightly higher quality and have more velocities/articulations. If you get Superior Drummer, I would suggest as an expansion pack the Platinum Samples Joe Barresi pack.

If you're looking to not spend that much money, then consider the new Steven Slate Drums 4. Very oriented towards rock.

A little cheaper than that is Addictive Drums. They have a special right now where you get 2 expansion packs free with it.


As for how to do it, you hook up the midi out from your edrums to the Eleven Rack midi in. Set up an instrument track in Protools, hit record and that's pretty much it. But you should read up on how to use midi in the Protools Reference Guide. It can be a little more complicated depending on what you do, but you have lots of options.

[alexdude777]

Perfect. thank you for the recommendations. I'm making the guitar and bass parts right now. Is there anything BUILT into protools that we could use, even if the sounds aren't amazing, that we could connect to the eDrums and have samples play? If so which VI would you suggest? I understand if I am not that lucky but just so we could lay SOMETHING down tonight. But the suggestions are great and I now know what we need to move towards to get a better setup down the line.

[Darryl Ramm]

You should have the BFD Lite plug-in, as I mentioned before. It is limited in what it can do but you can start playing with that.

Darryl