Recording Drum MIDI tracks

[dvdtlsn]

Looking for some ideas and experiences regarding recording drum MIDI tracks.

Currently I am building performance tracks and the drum track is really slowing my down. I have VST drums and MOFX8 available. I have keyed in MIDI in the DAW, played in via keyboard and used a virtual drummer. Considering an electronic drum kit, but not sure if that would be effective/efficient.

What works for you?

 

[EvilJ]

I use an Alesis Command mesh kit and run it through EZDrummer or Melda MDrummer, works great.

 

[DirtDog]

Looking for some ideas and experiences regarding recording drum MIDI tracks.

Currently I am building performance tracks and the drum track is really slowing my down. I have VST drums and MOFX8 available. I have keyed in MIDI in the DAW, played in via keyboard and used a virtual drummer. Considering an electronic drum kit, but not sure if that would be effective/efficient.

What works for you?

E-drums into a VST and write to MIDI is a completely valid way of doing it. E-Drums are just another type of MIDI controller in this context.

I’m a hack drummer but doing this versus keying MIDI is a whole lot more efficient and effective for me.

I rent a set of Roland V-Drums periodically when I need to do this.

 

[dvdtlsn]

Thanks for the responses...

 

[Stylee Mousse]

I bought a kick trigger thing that uses a real kick pedal and 3 Roland pd-7, 8 single pads.

I just play in breaks, fills etc using a 1st gen nord drum unit to compliment drum machine tracks.

I also prefer sticks over keys for playing in midi. Also I use a Alesis mmt-8 as a hardware sequencer to run my synths and drum stuff. I use this setup to write tunes before recording them and doing live instrument overdubs. It a really fast way to capture ideas for me, way quicker than writing in a DAW.

state of the art 1989!

 

[hbarcat]

I've been playing the Roland TD6 drum kit for quite a few years now, but that's probably overkill for what you're intending.

When I want to lay down a quick drum track for practing over, I have an Alesis tabletop kit. I think it cost about $200 about a decade ago and it's ultra compact, super easy to use, and it sounds okay for what it is.

There's a variety of these tiny kits available from other brands, like Yamaha, Korg, Pyle, Roland, etc...

 

[tothemax]

I picked up a used Kat e-Drum kit, but I pretty much suck as a drummer. It's pretty basic and the module has a few good sounds, the goal was to have a kit in the studio so drummers wouldn't have to haul gear over to practice or lay down base tracks. For recording bt myself I usually use either a Zoom RT-223 or Alesis SR18 drum machine, both support a foot pedal for start and stop, and both have lots of rhythms. Far more than I ever use, or you can program your own, manually or through MIDI. I think both support about 100 user tracks.

For a plugin, I like MT Power Drum Kit, really easy to build drum loops (drag and drop). It's free, but worth making a donation so you stop getting the "support the product" pop up every time you launch it. Great drum sounds.

Cheers and good luck with it...

 

[dave_p]

You can get a decent drum track using the piano roll like this:
Spend some time making a good 4 or 8 bar segment. Add any swing or humanization to it.
Copy and paste it. Change a couple of things. Drop a hi hat beat or put in an open hat. Maybe a cymbal hit. Now glue those 2 together. Copy and paste it. Change something. Add a fill at the end. Glue it all back together. Copy and paste. Change something. You get the idea. Do the same for bridges or B sections. By essentially doubling and changing something each time you will get a pretty convincing drum track very quickly.