A BASIC Home drum recording rig

[nomsgmusic]

What's up guys, sorry I'm not around as much as I used to be, I'll try to correct that (I had 500 or so posts on the old board.)

You are a pretty hi tech bunch here so I figured that I would run this past you.

I want to create a pretty basic recording rig at home (NOT for tracking as much as for teaching, practicing, recording gigs, etc.) For recording gigs I am thinking about the new Zoom Q3 HD (as a stand alone solution.)

But at my home (teaching, practice, and rehearsal, NOT recording per se) studio I am going to keep a board, and my spare set of drum mics up to record students, rehearsals, and my own practice. I was thinking of this "basic" rig.

The signal chain that I am thinking about (and looking for input about) is this: Put my (spare) 2 Shure 137 OH's, Beta 52, and a 57 through a Mackie Profx12, come out of the profx into the audio aux in on the Zoom, and capture video and audio (or just audio, because the Zoom can apparently do that.)

If I "eventually" wanted to, the Mackie has a USB out that I "guess" (the literature in the Mackie says you can at least) I could go right to my Mac and record live to 2 track type of stuff (maybe for good sounding rehearsal mixes) but that's not a priority right now. I really don't want to tie up my computer with that stuff at the moment.

So do any of you have any experience with either the Zoom q3HD, or the Mackie Profx12? Because I haven't bought them yet. I have the (spare set of) mics sitting around, so lets not get into a whole mic discussion.

Has anyone used the aux in's with the q3HD for better sounding recordings? I have been told there is an issue with the gain switch-setting on the Zoom (low, high, and auto) and don't know how the aux in will work with that.

Lets not get into the difference between mic pre's etc. I am just using this as a teaching, practicing, and rehearsing tool. And I am just looking for low tech, basic ease of functionality, and good video and audio documentation, etc.

I know I could do all of this with the Zoom alone, but I have a decent amount of play alongs that students use for practice, and I figured with the board etc I could record them nicely with the play alongs, we could listen back, they could hear themselves, and we could talk about improvements.

Or for rehearsals (with the board) I could have the bassist go direct, maybe have a guitarist go direct through a pod or something, and mic up the rest of the acoustic instruments-vocals with the remaining channels, and keep everything through headphones (with a headphone amp.)

I'm anxious to hear any input, thoughts, suggestions, comments, etc, along those lines.

BIG Thanks (in advance,)
Mark

[janne jansson]

What mac do you have?

I can 100% recommend Presonus 16,0,2 studio live!
Small and great sounding ,very flexible, great drivers, easy AND not expensive.
I have been recording on and of 20 years and think the preamps sound great with drums...
I got mine 2 days ago, and in 20 minutes i was recording my drumset via logic and my macbook.
If you have macbook you could use the camera in that and take the sound from what ever sound card
and email the lesson to your students very easy...

The microphones you have are all great...

[Jim Richman]

Look into multitrack apps for iphone or Android. There are adapters you can use to hook up mikes. I know the iPhone would sound better than most android DC's.
This would be good for students, one mike on the drums would be enough. Even the built in mike on the iPhone would be suffice.

But recording a band live, I would use a laptop and some 8 pre soundcard.


My Macbooks built in mike works better than expected. So you could just use that with your students-----if you have a macbook.

[chris perra]

I guess it depends on how involved you want to get..
A Q3hd by itself will give you a decent recording for teaching ect. Using it as a line in can be done as well with no problems..

If it were me I'd get a Zoom H4n recorder, which has decent mics and 2 channels of combo 1/4 inch and xlr jacks
You can record the mics and the xlr or 1/4 inch at the same time.. then mix them down later if you want

Then I'd use a decent video camera like a kodak playsport or Z18.. and sync the video later.
That might be too much to deal with for you.. if so, the Q3hd and the mackie mixer would be fine.. And you'll be able to expand later if you want...
Here's a vid I shot with a H4n mixed with the vocal monitor out of our mixer

[nomsgmusic]

Janne, maybe you misunderstood. I am NOT trying to record lessons to give to students, I really don't want to go down that route of having students post lessons of mine on youtube (without my "control.") I just want to be able to be able to record them playing a tune with phones (with a play along or something,) and run the music and the drums through the board to the recorder and watch it back with them. I have a number of advanced students, and I think this could be VERY helpful to them.

Jim, you are talking about something I just don't want to go into. Setting up mics and a laptop to document gigs for myself if waaay too involved. To do (what I explained above, for students) with any sort of live mic from a phone or a laptop, I would have to run the music through a PA (which I'm also NOT interested in!) But thanks anyway.

Chris, Thanks for the advice. That video looked and sounded very good! Have you ever used the Zoom using the line in for audio? On another forum I was told that the input switch (while set on auto) would pad itself way down after the first second of high input, rendering the rest of the audio (if it was substantially quieter) very low. What I am wondering is if the line in would negate the "input select" switch, to avoid this problem.

I know I could get a better camera and recorder and sync them later, but again, but that's a little too involved for what I'm trying to do. If I want to go to those lengths to record a gig, I'll hire a pro. And for teaching it's just too much.

What I explained in paragraph one is the "prime" teaching use (and come to think of it, I might do this myself occasionally, who knows.) Using the Zoom (or whatever recorder I decide on) alone (for gigs or my practice) is use two, and the Zoom alone, for gigs is use three.

(Again...) My line of thinking is this. If I'm already going to get the Zoom (or something of the sort,) and I already have the (spare) mics, phones, and headphone amp... Would I have any issues putting all of the signal (drums and music) through a small board, and then into the (video and audio, Zoom or otherwise) recorder so students can see and hear themselves play a track. If a student got a really GREAT take, I could make a DVD for them, and they could do with it whatever they want.

Recording rehearsals or sessions at the house... I was thinking that it would generally work the same way (I think?) Have everyone go through the board (or mic'ed,) and run an out to the Zoom, and an out to a headphone mix.

Still looking for opinions, options, and input
Thanks,
MSG

[chris perra]

I haven't used the Zoom Q3HD that way... so I couldn't say.. I've used the 1/4 inch in on the H4n and it reacted the same way as the mics. As they record at the same time..Set to auto gain it worked great... But I don't know how the Q3hd would work.. I'd take the advice of someone who has used it over mine...
I would guess it's the same gain structure as the mics.. I think board member "Robhaerr" has one.... maybe he would know for sure..

[Paul Marangoni]

I'm going to check this out at NAMM: http://www.rolandus.com/products/details/1268

I think it may be perfect for my next project.

[Julián Fernández]

No digital IO is a big no-no for me, but it looks nice...
I think I´m gonna be buying a couple of 500 series pres this year... To me, that´s the future...

[Paul Marangoni]

The main reason I'm curious about that new Roland thing is the portability, dedicated headphone outputs, and 12 XLR inputs. I still prefer all-in-one workstations with dedicated buttons for everything, but those days may be over unfortunately.

And it does have digital I/O via coaxial connector.

[Julián Fernández]

You´re right... It does have spdif, no adat though.
It´s a great moment to set up a home studio; plenty of choices at all budgets...