[[email protected]]

Hi, I'm just about to spend a lot of cash (to me!) on a system and
wondered if I'm going the right way about it. I'd be really grateful
for any comments - Just need some reassurance I'm getting the right
gadget for the job! Thanks in advance!

Here's what I want to do:
I want to record a live drum kit keeping each individual drum on a
separate track in cubase, now because my bedroom is my studio and the
room sound isn't very good, I'm planning on replacing my drum sounds
with drumagog running on each channel. Thus my rubbish kit sounds
brilliant!

I was thinking about getting the "PreSonus FireStudio Project - 10x10
FireWire Interface w/ 8 Preamps"
http://www.meconline.co.uk/acatalog/...TUDIOPROJ.html
...allowing me to record my drums using a bunch of cheap mics I have,
as it has preamps on each channel, so drumagog gets nice fat wavs to
look at and replace. (Almost all other 8 input cards only seem to
accept line level inputs which is no good for my kit and a bunch of
mics)

So for about £350 spent on this hardware and about £200 on drumagog,
I'm hoping to get an amazing sounding drum kit!

I've tried alternative ways to achieve a good drum sound like using
the LM7 in cubase and programming beats "by mouse", but it just sounds
horribly fake to me (the samples sound like some 80's keyboard!). Also
tried using my current soundblaster card's midi drumkit samples but
they sound equally horrible!

Is the above the best way for me to have the feel of a real drummer,
combined with a great actual drum sound for about £500? (1,000 USD)

I just have a couple of other questions in addition to the above if
that's cool...
* I gather the above gadget connects via firewire. Will I still be
able to send my click generated by cubase to my drummers monitoring
headphones? I read somehwhere you can't sync clocks using firewire
but don't think that can be correct can it???
* I don't recognise what physical connectors are on the presonus FP -
are they xlr connectors like you get on most mics or are they 1/4 inch
jacks like you get on guitar leads? Or are they some kind of weird
"either/or" hybrid I've never seen before?! Sorry for being dumb!
* I currently have a new soundblaster card and was wondering if this
would still be a part of my system or whether the presonus FP would
replace it? (Do I need an additional soundcard or does the presonus do
it all?!)
* I've not heard of presonus, are they reliable? Is it likely to run
on vista (which I have) and are the drivers stable and regularly
updated?

Again, many thanks for any comments or advice!!

Paul M.
England.

[Mike Rivers]

On Mar 31, 11:21 am, wrote:

I want to record a live drum kit keeping each individual drum on a
separate track in cubase, now because my bedroom is my studio and the
room sound isn't very good, I'm planning on replacing my drum sounds
with drumagog running on each channel. Thus my rubbish kit sounds
brilliant!

This is wishful thinking. I suspect that it won't work that
brilliantly in practice since with a small room and lots of mics, you
won't have good enough separation on the tracks for Drumagog to figure
out what to do. You can go through your drum tracks meticulously,
muting all the leakage so that Drumagog doesn't think that a tom hit
is a snare hit and so on. This is very time consuming, though. You
might find that your money is better spent going to a studio with good
mics and good drums, and just record good tracks to begin with. But
some people insist on doing things the hard ware just to maintain
"control."

I was thinking about getting the "PreSonus FireStudio Project - 10x10
FireWire Interface

That's a perfectly reasonable choice. Not the best in the business,
but decent for the money. I don't know how it sounds in comparison to
everything else like it, but you might want to take a look and listen
to the Focusrite Saffire Pro10 or for a better buy for a little more
money, the Pro26. I thought those sounded really good, but the
software control panel ("mixer") for the Presonus you're looking at is
much more flexible and friendly.


So for about £350 spent on this hardware and about £200 on drumagog,
I'm hoping to get an amazing sounding drum kit!

Dream on!

* I gather the above gadget connects via firewire. Will I still be
able to send my click generated by cubase to my drummers monitoring
headphones?

Yes. All of these multi-channel interfaces have the means to create a
headphone mix of inputs (the drum mics) and playback from the DAW.

I read somehwhere you can't sync clocks using firewire
but don't think that can be correct can it???

Firewire doesn't have as accurate a means of synchronizing multiple
devices as using word clock, but this is a different issue than
synchronizing a live drummer with a click track.

* I don't recognise what physical connectors are on the presonus FP -
are they xlr connectors like you get on most mics or are they 1/4 inch
jacks like you get on guitar leads? Or are they some kind of weird
"either/or" hybrid I've never seen before?

They're Neutrik Combo connectors, a female XLR with a 1/4" phone jack
in the middle. You use the XLR when connecting a mic and the phone
jack when connecting a line level source or direct instrument on
inputs that accommodate it.

* I currently have a new soundblaster card and was wondering if this
would still be a part of my system or whether the presonus FP would
replace it?

The Presonous should be sufficient for your recording projects. You
may find that things work better in the studio with the SoundBlaster
removed or disabled, or maybe it doesn't matter. If you use your
computer for playing games, though, you might want to leave the
SoundBlaster in for that if it doesn't otherwise get in the way.

* I've not heard of presonus, are they reliable? Is it likely to run
on vista (which I have) and are the drivers stable and regularly
updated?

I believe that Presonus has a Vista driver. Their stuff is generally
pretty reliable and while they may not update as frequently as some,
generally their first releases are OK, though everyone can have a bad
day.

[WillStG]

On Mar 31, 11:21*am, wrote:
Hi, I'm just about to spend a lot of cash (to me!) on a system and
wondered if I'm going the right way about it. I'd be really grateful
for any comments - Just need some reassurance I'm getting the right
gadget for the job! Thanks in advance!

Here's what I want to do:
I want to record a live drum kit keeping each individual drum on a
separate track in cubase, now because my bedroom is my studio and the
room sound isn't very good, I'm planning on replacing my drum sounds
with drumagog running on each channel. Thus my rubbish kit sounds
brilliant!

I was thinking about getting the "PreSonus FireStudio Project - 10x10
FireWire Interface w/ 8 Preamps"http://www.meconline.co.uk/acatalog/info_FIRESTUDIOPROJ.html
...allowing me to record my drums using a bunch of cheap mics I have,
as it has preamps on each channel, so drumagog gets nice fat wavs to
look at and replace. (Almost all other 8 input cards only seem to
accept line level inputs which is no good for my kit and a bunch of
mics)

So for about £350 spent on this hardware and about £200 on drumagog,
I'm hoping to get an amazing sounding drum kit!

I've tried alternative ways to achieve a good drum sound like using
the LM7 in cubase and programming beats "by mouse", but it just sounds
horribly fake to me (the samples sound like some 80's keyboard!). Also
tried using my current soundblaster card's midi drumkit samples but
they sound equally horrible!

Is the above the best way for me to have the feel of a real drummer,
combined with a great actual drum sound for about £500? (1,000 USD)

I just have a couple of other questions in addition to the above if
that's cool...
* I gather the above gadget connects via firewire. Will I still be
able to send my click generated by cubase to my drummers monitoring
headphones? *I read somehwhere you can't sync clocks using firewire
but don't think that can be correct can it???
* I don't recognise what physical connectors are on the presonus FP -
are they xlr connectors like you get on most mics or are they 1/4 inch
jacks like you get on guitar leads? Or are they some kind of weird
"either/or" hybrid I've never seen before?! Sorry for being dumb!
* I currently have a new soundblaster card and was wondering if this
would still be a part of my system or whether the presonus FP would
replace it? (Do I need an additional soundcard or does the presonus do
it all?!)
* I've not heard of presonus, are they reliable? Is it likely to run
on vista (which I have) and are the drivers stable and regularly
updated?

Again, many thanks for any comments or advice!!

Paul M.
England.

I have done a bit of drum replacement work. If you know you are
going to replace your original drum sounds, I would recommend muting
as much as possible the heads of the kit, you want as short and dead a
sound as possible from each drum. Your typical napkin and gaffer's
tape padding should work find for that. And you need to place the
mics to isolate each drum as much as possible, especially to keep the
cymbals and kick out of them. Try to face them as much as possible
away from each other, you don't care about the sound.

Nice if you can get the cymbals live, the padded drums will be
buried by the samples. Worse case you can go back over the track and
overdub your crash cymbals, but the hat you really need live. If you
have access to any omni mics, maybe even a good pair of lavaliers,
they can work great on the cymbals. You can do a couple of recording
passes to check how well the isolation is on your rmic placement.

Will Miho
NY TV/Audio Post/Music/Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

[Sean Conolly]

wrote in message
...

Hi, I'm just about to spend a lot of cash (to me!) on a system and
wondered if I'm going the right way about it. I'd be really grateful
for any comments - Just need some reassurance I'm getting the right
gadget for the job! Thanks in advance!

Here's what I want to do:
I want to record a live drum kit keeping each individual drum on a
separate track in cubase, now because my bedroom is my studio and the
room sound isn't very good, I'm planning on replacing my drum sounds
with drumagog running on each channel. Thus my rubbish kit sounds
brilliant!

I was thinking about getting the "PreSonus FireStudio Project - 10x10
FireWire Interface w/ 8 Preamps"
http://www.meconline.co.uk/acatalog/...TUDIOPROJ.html
...allowing me to record my drums using a bunch of cheap mics I have,
as it has preamps on each channel, so drumagog gets nice fat wavs to
look at and replace. (Almost all other 8 input cards only seem to
accept line level inputs which is no good for my kit and a bunch of
mics)

Hi Paul,

How about the stupid simple solution - put triggers on everything into an
old Alesis D4, and record the MIDI output. You can the use that to drive
MIDI drumkit of your choosing. You just need to capture the events, not the
tone. If you already have cheap mics and a mixer with channel inserts you
can use those instead of triggers, although you'll want to deaden the heads
a lot as Will described.

Sean

[AbsenceStudios]

Hi Paul,

How about the stupid simple solution - put triggers on everything into an
old Alesis D4, and record the MIDI output. You can the use that to drive
MIDI drumkit of your choosing. You just need to capture the events, not
the tone. If you already have cheap mics and a mixer with channel inserts
you can use those instead of triggers, although you'll want to deaden the
heads a lot as Will described.

Sean

=========================

I second this motion.

[WillStG]

On Mar 31, 11:53*pm, "AbsenceStudios"
wrote:
Hi Paul,

How about the stupid simple solution - put triggers on everything into an
old Alesis D4, and record the MIDI output. You can the use that to drive
MIDI drumkit of your choosing. You just need to capture the events, not
the tone. If you already have cheap mics and a mixer with channel inserts
you can use those instead of triggers, although you'll want to deaden the
heads a lot as Will described.

Sean

=========================

I second this motion.

Well you could record triggers, which are just glorified contact
mics, and then use Drumagog. I have done the Alesis D4 triggering
thing, used the Jeanius Russian Dragon to determine the trigger delay
is just 2ms from trigger input to internal Alesis sounds. But it's
likely Drumagog is even better than that, especially if you're going
to introduce more midi delay time into the equation.

Will Miho
NY TV/Audio Post/Music/Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

[Laurence Payne[_2_]]

On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:21:03 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

I was thinking about getting the "PreSonus FireStudio Project - 10x10
FireWire Interface w/ 8 Preamps"
http://www.meconline.co.uk/acatalog/...TUDIOPROJ.html
...allowing me to record my drums using a bunch of cheap mics I have,
as it has preamps on each channel, so drumagog gets nice fat wavs to
look at and replace. (Almost all other 8 input cards only seem to
accept line level inputs which is no good for my kit and a bunch of
mics)

So for about £350 spent on this hardware and about £200 on drumagog,
I'm hoping to get an amazing sounding drum kit!

What would a MIDI drum kit cost?