How many tracks for drums (samples, not recording)

I have a general question for you guys. I do a lot of acoustic drum type stuff, and I've been wondering about track count. I've been reading for the last few weeks about recording drums to try to understand some of that stuff, but seeing as how I'm using samples coming out of my mpc, some of the track counts don't really match up since it's not like I have matched overheads or anything.

I usually throw the kick on a track, snare on another, hats on one, toms on one and cymbols/perc on one or two more. I'm running low on tracks (using a vs1880 at the moment) for a project involving guitars (good god do they eat up tracks), so I was wondering if that was maybe overkill or if I could combine a few things here and there. By project I mean my own thing that I'm doing almost specifically to learn some mixing/mastering stuff, so I want to get the tracks right before I start getting down to the mixing part and realize I've screwed up.

The same question also applies to rap type drums, though those I usually just have kick, snare, hat/cymbols, plus it's way less of a track count on the other instruments.

Do things out of necessity not habit.
Track things out because it's required not because you want to or because you can.

Technology has made peoples habits far too habitual and less about necessity.

Since you are working on the 1880 use that as a subconscious focus for laying things out.

Whether you are dealing with the electronic or acoustic drum mentality sometimes think about what sounds can go together because of your track limitation.
It's best to treat it somewhat like drum bleed and it pretty doable if you use a little forethought.

Your biggest task is to first decide how many tracks can functionality be spared for your drums without hindering your overall plan for the track and try to work within that.

Now since I'm older I grew up on 4 tracks, then 8 tracks, went to synced recorders then eventually PT with the HUi.
By the time 2000 came and PT5 had what at the time seemed like incredible features we had methods that allowed us to track like crazy with a DAW.
Never really got into breaking them unless the situation calls for them.

Your drums are samples so use that to your advantage by making your samples as close to the sound you are after if and when you can.
Use the positioning of the drums to create a balance.
Use the routing in the VS to emulate a drum bus.
Things like that can help you work within the limitations of the 1880.

However you may come out better just grabbing a VS880 (16bit) or VS890 (24bit) and locking it to the 1880 for 8 more tracks.
They are dirt cheap and fall into the same workflow.

In the vs1880 you simply have to learn to bounce tracks. Usually I end up with many different drum variations then the band comes together and decides which they like best. I always get the main drums sorted first on a stereo pair. That way I can do everything else and later add extra crashes or little fill sounds here and there on one other track.

The Beatles recorded great music with 8 tracks and it is timeless. There are no limitations...

Cheers,
Ian

PS Ntalecs idea is a good one about getting another cheap recorder in the same family. I would just add that you can probably find a vs1824 for $200 somewhere. Then you get the CD feature and a slightly better track layout.

Putting drum kits to tracks can give a nice hypnotic stereo effect. Like when you wear headphones and the music feels like its crawling all over inside your head.


For example a rolling snare. Set up at least 6 tracks and pan each track from Track1 hard left to Track6 hard right. Tracks 3 and 4 should be panned center. Then record the drum roll in a sequence for each track as it plays. It would like the snare is rolling from the left ear and outthe right.

i dont know how many tracks you have, or exactly how the 1880 works, but if it were me and i had lot of track limitations, i would record it separate like your doing. and not care too much about the track count initially.
after you get a good "drum mix" going, with all the fx, panning, and everything else you want, i would bounce it down to a two track, then import that two track drum mix into the new project. now your new project will have space where all the extra dums were in your original project, and you can use these for recording whatever other parts of the song you want to.
so to work like this, i would think that you would save the original project as "drums multitrack song 1" then save the new one as "song 1 drum mix."
this is where some knowledge of your machine might have to come in, but if your not feeling the drum mix in your "mixed" project at the end, save it; go into your "drum multitrack" project and bounce down another two track, and replace the new drum mix with the old drum mix on the working project.

hope something like this can help!