Kronos audio form drums

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:41 am

i know a bunch of you are recording audio in be it guitars or vocals but have any of you recorded drums into the Kronos? How is it working for you? Any pitfalls/advice before I give this a shot?I figure to give myself a 2 bar count in so I have time to get from the Kronos to the drums. Perhaps I could use my foot switch to start stop the sequencer. I haven't looked into that yet. For ease I may just have my wife push the sequencer start button.

Thanks everyone if I don't reply to your post right away it's because I am deep into the oil fields up here in ND. I will be back in when I can. Thanks again! Bertotti

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:52 am

For a digital kit with a stereo line out I don't see many issues.
For a properly mic'd acoustic kit I see a million. Which are you doing?

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 5:08 am

Acoustic and I haven't a lot of mic's. I hate not using my drums they sound better then anything I have heard from Kronos or Maschine. DW Collectors Series kit. Oddly enough that is where my Kronos money went when I decided to wait for some of the bugs to get worked out.

Micing issues aside Kronos should be able to handle the audio, I think.
The only mics I have to use for the drums are a couple fathead two ribbon mics. I have a small area so I am hoping some careful placement will be acceptable. I want to try overhead above the kit pointed to the snare and one overhead and in front of the toms directed towards the kick shell. That though is a whole different subject.

My concern is taking taking the two signals through my little mixer and into the Kronos, Or two separate signals. I suppose my best bet is to just try and see if it works. Nice to have any heads up ahead of time, which is why I started this topic. Thanks!

Thanks!

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 5:18 am

The actual audio is no problem of course. Two mics makes it simpler if not necessarily easier to get a great sound. Some analog compression would help if you have any. Adding a dedicated kick mic and submixing to two channels with your mixer could dramatically improve your results. Having to balance them prior to recording is harder but some trial and error should get you there. It's pretty hard to get a nice oomph from the kick with just overheads or ambient mics, but I've heard some great results doing whole kits with just the three mics. Also, the sound of the room becomes really important when you're not close-mic'ing. Try making the droom dryer or livelier by moving stuff around or adding/removing sheets, pillows, rugs, mattresses, etc.

Good luck! I'll be interested to hear what you make of it.

EDIT:
If you don't want to buy/use more mics and you don't mind losing some stereo image you could try with just the one overhead in the middle somewhat slanted to the snare, and placing the other actually close mic'ing the kick. I haven't had to do this but it's worth a try.

WaterDrum · Post by **WaterDrum** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:32 am

I am only a "X reader" from the Wavedrum forum.
still good infos over here in the Kronos forum and other subforums
@ Bertotti
a good drum recording can be very complex .
imo with your equipment and room you are just wasting your time
google "recording drums" and it will tell you why ...

http://www.netplaces.com/home-recording ... m-sets.htm

maybe its possible to trigger internal Kronos one shot samples
with connected cheapo Piezo elements ???

also very interested in results

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:20 am

Thanks guys as always I appreciate your help. I am not a great drummer but will post up the results as soon as I have some.

I am not adverse to having some more mics, just not in a position to get some now. I do have a piezo, but the whole point here is I really want to use my DW's, I really love their sound! I just hope I can pull it off.

I need a bit better understanding of the sequencer but that is another reason I am trying this. Good or bad I will post up what happens.

MoonMusic · Post by **MoonMusic** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 8:01 pm

I'll post more later but for now I just wanted to say NOT to use ribbon mics on drums....The high SPLs will blow them out....moon

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:50 am

Yea I wouldn't want to ruin the ribbons but I wasn't going to close mic. I was going to do overhead, would that still be a problem?

MoonMusic · Post by **MoonMusic** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 3:33 am

I've never owned a ribbon mic myself but from everything I've read on the gearslut site, the pros say the ribbons are fragile and can even be damaged by a vocalist "popping" into it so drum overheads would definitely kill them if they are that fragile....I just got a set of DW drums this year with the idea of miking them up with one microphone after seeing this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-NcdXBhpdU
Drums start at 2:10 mark....I got the Mic from Apogee for a 1 mic setup.....Unfortunately I couldn't get it to sound anywhere near as good as this video...Part of the problem was getting the tuning of the drums right and they rang too much, also my recording space isn't a very good one....Then I decided to try a different setup after watching this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhsF0KBlcXY
I bought the newer model audio technica from what he is using and got a shure mic drum pack like he is using....I got much better results but I'm going to be using a lot of channels by the time I'm done setting this up.....I bought a lot of drum heads and muffles this past summer trying to find my sound....I think I finally found just enough dampening but I haven't had a chance to set mics up and see what it sounds like yet....I also want to build a studio room to have all my stuff in one location so I'll have to dial in even further then....To be honest it hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be to set this up but I think in the end, it will be worth it....I love playing the DW kit MUCH more than my V-drums but the V-drums are extremely convenient to get a great sound in an instant...

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 4:30 am

Yea I love DW drums. I will have to do a lot more reading. I could have swore I had a link somewhere to someone using my mics as drum overheads, but thanks for the links and the heads up better safe then sorry. I feel this needs more research before I ruin my mics.

MoonMusic · Post by **MoonMusic** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 5:10 am

I would definitely check....The manufacturer of the mics could tell you for sure.....moon

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 9:40 am

It's ok, they list drum overheads right on their main page for the mic! I will give it a try thanks for the heads up. I would have been very upset if I had ruined my mics.

fathead2

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Fri Sep 27, 2013 2:57 pm

Anyway to tame a lively room, the drums really kick the room in. I am in a bed room and the ceilings have a 2' slant on the two long sides, if that makes any difference. Maybe hanging some blankets up? Perhaps I will have to get a different mic?

When I say lively I mean very resonant and some room reverb of course. My goal is to get lcoser so post processing can be maintained. I honestly do not know how I would correct this post but I imagine it is possible in a DAW. I hope to get it decent out of the Kronos. Thanks

I also need a good way to post something up. I have never posted a sound bit on the net before. Free is the best.

edit to add: dug up some 2" thick foam, very flexible flat on one side egg crate on the other. I will experiment with this to see if it is useful in helping my fatheads ignore some room ambience.

MoonMusic · Post by **MoonMusic** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 5:04 am

You can use everything from foam to moving blankets to regular blankets to whatever dampens really....Close micing the drums would help cut down on reflections but you'd still get them in your overheads.....So that's where room dampening would help....I've posted MP3s on soundcloud pretty easily before so that's an option that's free....Yeah, I know what you mean by DW's kicking the room in....I have a 24 inch kick and I love it....LOL....moon