Here you will find home recording news, tips and articles as well as reviews of new recording gear and software. Revolution Audio Canada exists to spark the home studio uprising by any means possible!
Audio-Technica MB/DK4 Drum Mic Pack
MB/DK4 is an affordable pack of 4 quality dynamic microphones designed for drum applications both live and in studio. The MB/DK4 is a great way to get started with drum recording on a budget - 4 mics for only $185.99!
MB/DK4 includes:
3 x MB 5k Cardioid dynamic for Snare and Tom drums
Tailored for snare, rack toms and other highly dynamic instruments, the
MB 5k snare/tom microphone offers a moving coil dynamic design with
cardioid polar pattern, delivering superior off-axis rejection for
maximum gain before feedback. With a frequency response of 100-12,000
Hz, the mic is engineered to handle fast transients and high SPLs.
The cardioid dynamic MB 6k kick microphone has a frequency response of
60-12,000 Hz. A natural at handling high SPLs, the MB 6k delivers
superior results on bass drum as well as on floor and deep rack toms.
In the latest XLN Audio newsletter, a new freebie was announced for Addictive Drums users
"To celebrate the great success of the INDIE ADpak and the INDIE Rock MIDI Pak we are giving away an extra Bass Drum we recorded at the same time as the INDIE ADpak.
This is a Ludwig Vistalite (Blue) 22 X 16" and it's recorded
exactly as the ICE Custom Shop Bass Drum in the INDIE Kit. This
Vistalite bass drum is slightly shorter and deeper in character than the
ICE Custom Shop and it's actually the most used bass drum in this
studio.
When we tried out drums in the studio for the INDIE ADpak we fell in
love with the ICE Custom Shop kit but we were stunned by how great this
Vistalite bass drum sounded so we just had to include it in the
recording. It's rich, fat and punchy and right now ladies and gentlemen
it's for FREE!"
The most recent XLN Audio newsletter announced a great contest for all the Addictive Drum users.
Drum Solo Competition
People! Time to whip out the drum sticks and dust off your chops! XLN Audio is hosting a Drum Solo Competition. The 5 best drum solos will be chosen by our XLN Audio expert panel and awarded with one XLN product of choice each! The rules are simple:
1. RECORD A VIDEO of you playing a drum solo. This can be done with an E-drumkit or a keyboard using Addictive Drums (max 3 min).
2. UPLOAD THE VIDEO to your Youtube channel and send the link for the video to our email drumsolo@xlnaudio.com before June 01.
3. CHECK OUR WEBSITE (xlnaudio.com) for links to the uploaded videos and to check out the winners of the Drum Solo Competition!
You can be good or bad, happy or mad, everybody has got a chance of winning. Now get to it and show us what you have got! Contest winners will be announced on our website and notified via email by the end of June 2011
Alesis DM10 Studio 2011 Electronic Drumkit
The DM10 Studio Kit is professional, six-piece electronic drum set with natural-feeling RealHead drum pads, low-noise DMPad Cymbals, the groundbreaking DM10 drum module, and a compact, flexible StageRack. Read more about the DM10 Studio 2011
NEW FOR 2011 – STAGERACK
The StageRack is the backbone of the DM10 Studio Kit. With its rugged four-post design and industry standard 1 1/2" tubing, the StageRack provides supreme stability under the most serious drumming duress. The StageRack's clamps, mounts, and integrated boom cymbal arms are all fully adjustable with plenty of flexibility to securely fasten your drums, cymbals, and module exactly where you want. You won't need tools to make most adjustments so you can spend less time setting up and more time rocking out. Large enough to easily accommodate additional drums and cymbals – even acoustic drum, cymbal, and percussion instruments – the StageRack still takes up only a fraction of the space of an acoustic kit.
The DM10 Studio Kit gives you more – more drums, more cymbals, more sounds, more flexibility, and more value – to power your creativity.
TOP FEATURES
DM10 high-definition drum module with 12 trigger inputs and mixer
Load custom third-party sound sets or control computer software, all via USB
RealHead 10" snare and four 8" toms: dual-zone drum pads with real mylar heads
Need heavy-duty headphones?
The Extreme Isolation headphones are ruggedly designed for the most demanding of situations. Drummers will love the tight fit, and high level of sound attenuation. Available in either 25 or 29 decibels of sound attenuation.
Blocks external sound with 25 or 29dB of sound attenuation
by Jason Johnston
Many of us couldn't fit a drum kit into our home studios, much less what the sound would do for any relationships in the house. Good news: MIDI Drum beats and sounds have come a long way. You can now produce realistic drum beats at home, with a little knowledge and select equipment, and even keep your marriage.
(For a quick tutorial on how to play drum beats in through a MIDI keyboard, see our video tutorial at the bottom of this article.)
Top Ten Tips for Programming Killer MIDI Drum Beats
1. Never Quantize 100% unless it is dance or electronic music. Every recording application has an option for the strength of the of the quantize. In Cubase it is called "iterative strength." In Pro Tools it is called "Strength." Often you'll find a randomize feature. Play with the settings, quantize and undo until you get the feel.
2. After recording your beat, move your snare slightly forward or backward without a snap to grid. It's amazing what a slight adjustment of the snare can create. You can apply the same principal to other parts. Real drummers make mistakes even, and your MIDI drummer can too.
3. Real Cymbals never sound the same twice. Change the velocity for each one.
4. The pedal hi-hat is all that should be left of the hi-hats during a solo. It's impossible to do a tom roll and an open hi-hat hit at the same time.
5. In general, think about what is realistic for a human drummer. Even if your listeners are not drummers themselves, if they have listened to a lot of music they will probably sense when a beat is physically impossible for someone with only two hands and two feet.
6. Does a drummer do the exact same roll every 8 bars? Should your MIDI drummer? No. You can copy out the same 8 bars initially and then go in and make slight adjustments to drums being played, velocity or the number of hits. Often "less is more" when it comes to rolls and MIDI drums. Too much could be a dead give-away and make them question whether you really did have Neil Peart in your studio.
7. Can't keep up while playing the parts in real time? As long as everything is still MIDI, set your project tempo much lower than the target speed and do your recording. Then do a little edit/quantizing clean up and put the tempo faster again. You'll sound like a pro. If you can't slow down the project you're working in, record the drums in a separate session and then export the MIDI for importing into the original session.
8. Add a kick drum when you hit some of your crash cymbals. It's a typical thing to do for a drummer, it adds more punch and it might help hide the fact that it's not a real cymbal being playing.
9. Invest in a good quality, multi-sample drum sample library. We love Native Instrument's Battery 3 software drum sampler around the studio and use it all the time. The new Strike! for Pro Tools is amazing too and comes with 20 GB of samples. They help make the drums sound realistic by adding multiple samples, layer upon layer, for each drum part. For instance, the studio snares layer various samples that are triggered depending on the velocity of the note. You can hear the snap of the snare happen as the strength increases. Your original source sound will make a big difference to the realism and how long it takes you to mix in the end.
10. Load an MP3 or WAV file of your favourite music into your recording application and play along. You can experiment with different beats or mimic the beat on the song. You can always listen back and cut out the parts you want later. It might be good just for inspiration or to build up a MIDI drum library of basic beats you can use later.
Hope these tips help you make more realistic MIDI Drum beats. The best part is you don't even need a van to do it.
Click below for our Basic Keyboard MIDI Drumming Tutorial
