Live drum backing track

ilovejam

So our drummer recently left our band and we our finding it difficult to find a replacement. We were thinking of using a backing track to fill in the drums.

Our singer plays drums and so what we are hoping to do is [somehow] record him playing the drum track on an electric kit with us in practice, then we could play this recorded drum track and practice with it and play with it live....

can anyone inform me of how to set this up please? we obviously dont want to have to keep going to a studio to record tracks - how can we record an electric kit and then replay through the PA so that it sounds professional?

i57dwun4yb1pt8

depends on the music -
but likely if you have a full band but no drummer just backing tracks - you will look like idiots.

ilovejam

Dont worry about how we'll look - leave that to us! The music is from nearly all genres, pop, trad, jive, rock, dance etc.

Basically Im looking to find out the best hardware and software to record an electric kit with please?!

i57dwun4yb1pt8

ok, drum module sounds are crap - i use ez or suprieor drummer .
( unless you want synth drum or percussion, these are ok )

but if you wantto use the drum module sounds :

well the best way is to tel the drum module to assign to its line outs .

td20 has 4 - i usually set td20 to send kick and snare to one each , cymbals and toms to the other two as a left and right overhead type of thing )


then feed these 4 line ins into soundcard of computer ( need to have 4 free obviously )


you could also just take a stero out ( two line ins ) or even just the headphone feed .

then assign each input on card to a track in DAW ( cubase , reaper , ptools etc )

and add another track for click - and use daw click .

you will need to feed the band into a mixer / then into the sound card or direct to the sound card for him to play along to I( so you need inputs for that as well )


thats the way i did it before - but im a bit vague on memory .

it sounded ok for what it is.

ilovejam

Really, they dont sound good no? (im a n00b at all this and cant afford to set up wrong - id like to just buy the right things the first time around!)

What is your method then? I looked up some videos about the superior drummer there, it seems to be that you place triggers on an acoustic kit/use the electronic kit to provide trigger signals, then run that into something like an "Alesis Trigger I|O"..which runs into your computer software DAW, which has superior drummer running in it (unsure of that last bit!). and then in superior drummer you can edit the sounds of the drums alot more?

Can you fill me in more on that method too please?

if6was9

Easiest way to record and play back the stuff I reckon would be to buy an E-kit with a good module and record the midi out of the module onto your computer in whatever DAW you use( protools, reaper, cubase, logic etc...). Midi interfaces are very cheap and easy to use.

Then either use a sample programme like superior drummer, EX drummer, Kontact etc... to trigger the sounds and take the line out from the computer, or send the midi back out to your module at your gigs and use the line outs on that for the audio and use the sounds on that.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

you can do this - good idea ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^




i will say this again, you are better off getting a drummer

but my method is to record the midi from the electric kit module midi out , into my soundcard midi in via a midi cable

the midi is recorded in REAPER - and the instrument is superiour drummer

i record the drums midi only , no cymbals


the cymbals are real and recorded at the same time using BEYER mc930 overhead mics into a pacifica preamp which is connected to my sound card ( TC studio konnekt 48 )


i do this as it gives me a large selection of kits and rooms , while keeping the noise down and i dont have to fiddle with loads of mics and pres.

i then mix the sample drums of supeiour with the real cymbals using various standard studio methods <<, this is the hard part .

TelePaul

I wouldn't even bother recording the stuff, if there's no drummer physically present you'd be just as well off playing loops from EZD.

ilovejam

@if6was9 - thank you! I think this is how we will run it! Is it as simple to connect the drum module to the computer with just a MIDI - USB cable?

@DaDumTish - thank you too but I dont think I'll be trying that just yet!! it sounds more than a little tricky for a beginner like me!!

@TelePaul - thats just a huge pile of drum tracks to compile from? Our singer also plays drums and he hates when the drums arent as they should be/we also play some mashes and that - would it not be very difficult to piece together drum tracks exactly as the original song on EZD?

madtheory

Why don't you rehearse what ye need, then go book a studio to record it when ye're ready?