I hate "doing drums"

[DankStar]

No matter how I do it, recording drums just sucks. I thought I'd crank out a QUICK 3-minute song yesterday, and I spent the whole day goofing with the drums. This time I used my drum module (a Yamaha TMX) and a DIY trigger set-up (piezos mounted on PVC stands basically) to do the various drum sounds on separate tracks. Took me freakin' forever to nail it.

It takes me even longer when I program an external drum machine or clicking with a mouse in a computer-based program. Then it sounds hella fake to me since it's so "in time." Then you I go nuts trying to de-computerize it.

I've realized this is why I seldom record anymore. The drums are too damn time consuming. I may just do 1 or 2-minute songs here and there, but make it up in the quantity of them rather than 4 or 5 (or even 3!) minute ones that eat up so much time.

Man, if I were to try to do a whole album these days it'd take me a damn year.

Anyone else have this issue?

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: I hate "doing drums"

Yeup - I now just sketch in the drums using Stylus and the Backbeat S.A.G.E. Xpander then hire a pro to track the drums. I use a session guy in Nashville sometimes and one here in LA. The player in Nashville is Brian Fullen, he's on the web if you need a pro.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: I hate "doing drums"

The thing about recording drums is that it takes pretty good mic placement, a bunch of mics, a pretty good room, nice preamps, and a pretty good drummer to get everything recorded properly . . . and man is that ever hard to get all together when you're feeling inspired.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: I hate "doing drums"

If I'm recording a live drummer, I try to get it out of the way as soon as possible because I know it will take the longest. It is a total pain in the ass, but once you get it right it will be worth all the effort.

I've never made a demo with live drums. I can throw together a decent loop in Reason pretty quickly, and that usually satisfies my percussion needs.

 

[DankStar]

Re: I hate "doing drums"

...glad I'm not the only one.

I always say for guitars it takes me as long to record them as it does to play the song. It goes so quick sometimes it's a real letdown because I love to play guitar but it's done in like 3 minutes per track.

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: I hate "doing drums"

I heart DFHS.

For a live drummer, they NEED to be able to play to a click. If they can't, I wouldn't record them.

 

[DankStar]

Re: I hate "doing drums"

I heart DFHS.

Is it in any way quick, or basically just kick arse samples and loops? I've heard/read good things about the drums from hades.

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: I hate "doing drums"

It's "Drumkits From Hell", i believe .

And oh... the last time i tried "doing drums", i got my pecker trapped in the hi-hat stand. Not fun.

jk!

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: I hate "doing drums"

Is it in any way quick, or basically just kick arse samples and loops? I've heard/read good things about the drums from hades.

Just really, really kickass samples, but it does some things to make it sound really realistic...

Basically, there are 15 different hits that are cycled through for soft, gradual, and hart hits, and they're cycled at random. That, the huge amount of velocities you can pick from, the hits for each different hand, the mic bleeding, and the ambience mic really, really bring it to life.

 

[Voxman]

Re: I hate "doing drums"

I use BFD! I like it a lot,easy to use.