House of Drumming.com

Odd Arne,

That room looks great, BIG congrats!!! I went through this whole process when I bought my first house a few years back, there is nothing quite as fun as owning your home and being able to play at home whenever you want to! I am not in the woods so I had to start with soundproofing though. Here's a solution that I came up with that was "pretty" cheap. I use it now for teaching (and everything else) and it's GREAT!

Two overheads (a friend gave me a few Shure 81's, but you can use cheaper ones) a 57 on SD, and a Beta 52 on the BD (I just used my spare mics,) and Ipod into the tape in. That all goes into a little Mackie 12 input mixer with built in effects. Actually if your internal balance on the set is good enough, you can get a GREAT sound with only 2 good overheads (BD mic optional.) You'd be amazed how many records have been made this way. Sometimes I mute the other channels and just record with the overheads, it's one of THE BEST "drum lessons" you can give yourself.

Now here's the cool thing. I come out of the main outs of the Mackie to the external input of a Zoom Q3, and out of the monitor outs to a headphone amp. So I have two distinct mixes. Therefore I can also do "headphone rehearsals" with everyone wearing Isolation Phones and getting a "band mix" (bass DI, vocals, keys, all go direct, take the 57 off of the SD and mic a GTR or horns.) And the Zoom gets the "recording mix."

BINGO! I can get a really good quality digital recordings of rehearsals, video of students or myself playing along to something, or just playing. I can even come out of the Zoom and go into a stand alone DVD burner to make hard copies for students or band members. Better than any crappy iphone recordings. And all the gear is stuff that you can use "otherwise" (playing live, better recording situations, monitoring yourself live, etc) if you wanted to at a later date.

I haven't uploaded anything because I have an old Mac G4, that is apparently to slow to upload video (that's the next thing I have to upgrade, I'm not made of money!) I might have to ask some advice on this in the future.

But after a lot of questioning, testing, researching, borrowing, etc. That is THE BEST, simplest, and most versatile, solution that I came up with.

Good luck with the new crib!
MSG

Thanks for the input.

Yeah it seems I don't need much to get things working. A 52 should fix the bass drum sound and along with a separate mix help with my timing.

I probably won't buy a regualr analog mixer as I can borrow what I need outside of my 4-channel Behringer quite easily. The thinking is that I'll go really small 2-6 channels in the beginning and just borrow stuff until I have enough nice pres and can swing it for a bigger converter.

I'll just borrow or buy cheap used stuff to tie me over during that period.

First priorities are:
- my playing skills
- getting good basic sound
- learning to use Pro Tools.

For cameras I really want to get something I can use along with other cameras for multiple angles later on.

It will take a while. Lots of fun plans ahead. The rooms are already there, so I can focus on only equipment for now.

Today I just remembered I have a cheapo Aphex 107 preamp. I haven't use dit in a couple of years and basically use it as a source to feed the wet cabs in my guitar rig. I thought one of the channels didn't work, but I hooked it up to the condensers and both channels worked fine. It was night and day. I could raise the OHs and save a channel, becaus that high up panning them hard was ok. It was actually harder to meld the cymbals with the play-a-long, though.

I'm gonna hold off on the 98s because I'm not completely sure and pick up a 52 and a couple of KSM 32s(Great for guitar as well). That should work and keep me self sufficient for a while.

this is not for now, but if you wanna look into AFFORDABLE Neve, API type preamps, this is pretty awesome (I own one): http://www.seventhcircleaudio.com/

Yeah. Better preamps will come a little later. Probably next year. I'll see what's available in storage at the community house. I have to find out what I like before I spend too much money on those.

I will pick up a LTD-1 for guitar at some point though, and hopefully it can do some sort of a job on the drums as well.

Melding with the music was partly solved just by patching in a reverb unit. It was just a joy to practice yesterday, playing some slower songs with a pretty decent live sound in my headphones. Bass drum needs some work, but I have a feeling that buying the 52 will solve some of that.

Odd-Arne Oseberg wrote:Yeah. Better preamps will come a little later. Probably next year. I'll see what's available in storage at the community house. I have to find out what I like before I spend too much money on those.

I will pick up a LTD-1 for guitar at some point though, and hopefully it can do some sort of a job on the drums as well.

Melding with the music was partly solved just by patching in a reverb unit. It was just a joy to practice yesterday, playing some slower songs with a pretty decent live sound in my headphones. Bass drum needs some work, but I have a feeling that buying the 52 will solve some of that.

Take off your front bass drum head, add some muffling, and your kick will have a lot more control for miking and mixing.

Jim Richman wrote:

Odd-Arne Oseberg wrote:Yeah. Better preamps will come a little later. Probably next year. I'll see what's available in storage at the community house. I have to find out what I like before I spend too much money on those.

I will pick up a LTD-1 for guitar at some point though, and hopefully it can do some sort of a job on the drums as well.

Melding with the music was partly solved just by patching in a reverb unit. It was just a joy to practice yesterday, playing some slower songs with a pretty decent live sound in my headphones. Bass drum needs some work, but I have a feeling that buying the 52 will solve some of that.

Take off your front bass drum head, add some muffling, and your kick will have a lot more control for miking and mixing.

I will try that out as soon as I get my 52. I'll either get it ordered in form the local store or go to Trondheim and by one in a few weeks.

Just as soon as I have goten the computer and software + the 6x12 Ludwig side snare that I want mics and mic pres will slowly accumulate over the next couple of years.

Got my 52 today. Pulled out my black beauty and have enjoyed a whole evening of half-time shuffle playing with a clear and solid bass drum tone in my phones.

for toms I guess 421's will be the choice, though I'm slightly worried about the size and placement, since they are place with such hich angle in most pics I've seen.

Regarding overheads I guess I'm just getting more confused the more research I do, but the price difference between KSM 32s and Neumann KM 184 isn't really that big. I guess. long term getting by with just one pair isn't realistic, but I think I'll just stick with the cheap Behringer mics I've been borrowing at work and see if I can save up for recording gear before I go much further with the mics.

try here: http://www.oktavamod.com/