Real Drums or Midi Drums?

Ah, you've got to that point in your recording journey where you've discovered that recording real drums is a pain in the a**, or you simply don't have the time/money/patience/skill/equipment to get a good result. So what are the advantages / disadvantages of using a sample library such as Toontracks DFHS to record your drums?

Advantages
- They're a lot quicker if using an electronic kit
- The timing is always perfect as you quantize the parts
- Relatively cheap (DFHS costs around £150 for ££££'s worth of kits)
- You get a selection of top class kits (DW, Pearl, Sonor) and cymbals (Sabian, Zildjian) to use on your recordings

Disadvantages
- You've got to convince the drummer (This is the BIG one)
- Can sound VERY sterile if you're programming with a mouse
- You need a working knowledge of how to play drums to make them sound convincing
- Expensive if you want to use an e-kit. A basic e-kit will cost £800 if you don't want to DIY your own.
- You need a good PC to run the sample library (but this is true of any big library)

Recording drums using MIDI signals is in my opinion the best trade off between sounding realistic and still preserving the "soul" of a drum part. The biggest hurdle you'll have to overcome is getting a drummer to agree to have the drums sampled rather than played by him or her. I'm actually a drummer and believe that e-drums have a LOT to contribute to the recording process, but this doesn't mean that it's for everyone.

How would you feel (let's say you're a guitarist) if someone wanted to replace all your parts with a synth? Not great, I'd imagine. It's something that should be left up to the drummer (i.e. not switching the parts out behind their back) once they've seen an end result. However, to aid you in this mission (and it will be a mission) we've posted a quick sample of the kind of sound you can get with this approach. It's not mixed, mastered, but will give you an idea that electronic drums doesn't mean 80's style reverb on the snare and apalling sounding toms.

You can download the sample HERE (1.31Mb - MP3 192Kbps), we used DFHS Superior and a DIY electronic drum kit with a TD3 module for recording. If you'd like some more information about the recording setup give us a shout via email thorugh the contact form and we'll be happy to have a chat.

Anyway, this is just the first part in this series. We'll be posting a number of new articles covering this topic in conjunction with www.drumlesson.co.uk who will be providing many of the samples we will be using over the coming months.