#164: Playing "Real" Drums vs Programming Drums - How About Both?

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Episode show notes:

Recording actual drums is not an option for many people, so naturally a lot of people are programming MIDI drums. 

But have you considered playing your MIDI drums instead?

You can program MIDI drums grooves by drawing MIDI notes with a mouse, using a small MIDI controller/keyboard or using pre-made MIDI loops that you can adjust to taste.

But what if you want to still play the drums? 

Maybe you've even tried using an electronic kit, but it just didn't work out. We know there's a learning curve and there are pros and cons to using e-drums. And there are definitely a lot of things to watch out for. 

If you can make it work, however, it can be the perfect solution to your drum problems.

 

So we invited our "DR Drums" again, Thomas Krottenthaler, and asked him to share insights from his experience recording professional albums with electronic drums.

 

Thomas has been working as a freelance engineer at Benedikt's mixing studio, Outback Recordings for a few years now. Together, they've helped bring hundreds of songs to life. Many of them include MIDI drums that they had to refine or re-program from scratch, depending on the project and what the artist delivered.

 

And Thomas is freaking AWESOME at that. In fact, he's awesome at all things drums. So here we go, this is what we cover on the episode:

Why people choose to use MIDI drums:

·      No big room with good treatment required

·      Acoustic drums are often too loud

·      No good drum kit & no frequent drum setup required (drum tech & tuning skills, etc.) 

·      No expensive mics required no multichannel interface and good preamps required

·      Acoustic drum recording is hard and takes a lot of experience

How to record drums using an electronic kit:

·      Different ways to record E-drums (Stereo out/ Multi out on module/ MIDI)

·      Which E-drum kit to get and how much to spend on it

And much more....

-Benedikt

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For full show notes go to: https://theselfrecordingband.com/164

If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: podcast@theselfrecordingband.com