Sampling a live drum performance

I"m going to visit my brother this weekend....he is a great drummer and I was thinking about sampling him while he does his thing....mabey get a good 4-8 bar loop out of it. Do you guys have any tips on this? How to get it to sound good as far as recording it through the MPC goes. Get at me if you have any good suggestions. Thanx,

Season

I would record to a another device first, like a digital multitrack, computer or md recorder, then lift out the parts that are sampleworthy.

Have him drum to a metronome so that the loops will stay in the right tempo.

Also ask him to play single hits so you can use similar sounds in your beats.

As far as recording goes, it depends on how many microphones you've got, and their quality.

A condenser is good to use as a overhead microphone, capturing the natural reverb in the room, while a dynamic mic is better to have close to the individual drums, as it normally can withstand a lot more pressure before it starts to distort.

As for the placement of each mic, you need to try different positions and angles, so that you get a good, clean signal without a lot of distortion and room acoustics.

A blanket in the kick is good to remove "boom".

cheech hit the nail on the head, the groove is the MOST IMPORTANT THING. the drums may be tuned great and the weather is good (weather does effect the sound of the drums) but if the drummer cant keep a groove it will be a waste of time. total waste.

Well, I know my bro' can keep a beat....so a he doesn't need anything to keep him on time....his skills are second to none.....my biggest concern is getting it to sound good. I have a nice dynamic mic that I can use but that is it.....thanx for the tips.....keep 'em comin'.

Season

if all your working with is one mic you will probably be best off using it as a overhead and also sampling each particular sound hit seperately...ie, snare, kick highhats ect.....also another thing you can do as well is record say just a highhat pattern or groove seperately....using a good swinging highat or ride groove loop is a nice way to give your beat that live feel....playing to a click is definately helpful and can save time but it all depends on how your going to edit the final piece. also depends on if the drummer is used to that type of studio drumming to a click....also as digital bastard mentioned the natural reverb of the room you are recording in will be captured so try recording in different spots and rooms...can make a huge difference having a good sounding room especially with only 1 mic to work with

yo season what is your friend/bro name? is he famous? well, there are a lot of great drummers that can not keep time. FACT. your best bet is to keep it simple, just hihat, snare and bass drum.

question, how many times have you recorded a beat on a mpc and the timing was off? by the way it has quantizing

quantize cant replace the groove of a good drummer

my point is playing a groove it is easy said then done. my point is sometimes an individual cant keep a groove on a machine with quantizing let alone on a drumset. i am sorry that i got in this convo, there is a differents in experiences here.

I was assuming that this drummer had good experience as Season stated ...Of course it is a good idea to work with single hits on the MPC as well as trying to create a groove...i said that in my first post...but trying to get a drummer to lay down a "in the pocket" groove can be a good lesson to learn. Its better to at least try something and take the experience in good or bad then not at all.....granted yes he is only working with 1 mic but still you can get a good overhead sound if the room acoustics are right....

man, didn't mean for this to get heated....I appreciate the suggestions.....I know what my brother is capable of...we've done a lot of stuff on stage together....him laying down a nice (simple) groove, and me rhyming over it. So mwalker, I know what you are saying about keeping it simple....some drummers try to go way too overboard and it ends up getting messy. No, my brother is no famous, but he is a great drummer. Anyway, I'm gonna experiment with it this weekend....I'll keep you posted.

Season

your gonna need multiple mics if ya want it to sound cool. why not sample his drum kit and have him drum some ish on you mpc for you, same thing, less hassle.

jonloc wrote: why not sample his drum kit and have him drum some ish on you mpc for you, same thing, less hassle.

No it's not the same thing. If you played the drums you'd know it don't work like that.. A real live groove is something that is impossible to get on the MPC. You can get close tho.. But can't get the real thing.



Season I am not saying he can't keep in tempo, but if your brother is playing a break and the tempo changes from for example 90bpm to 90.5 bpm, your ear won't notice it.. But you're going to have a hard time looping it right on the mpc. Trust me, I''ve been there

What you just said makes total sense....some of the other posts made it sound like he couldn't keep a beat....but you explained it perfectly...for me anyway....I appreciate it.

Season