Triggers vs. Mic

[moneycat12]

Hey everyone

Juuuust when I thought I researched everything, I discovered the magic of recording with drum triggers. It seems like a great idea, but it is a bit more expensive than the mics I am looking at; and I'm not sure how it will all work using overheads for cymbals and triggers for toms, snare and kick.

This is all my information:

-I'm mainly going to be recording hardcore and metal
-I am recording in my basement. It's not a great room to track but I'm spending around $300 on acoustic treatment (DIY panels basically).
-I'm going to be recording full drum kits

This is the mic package I was looking at:
Buy Audix Fusion 7 7-PieceDrum Mic Kit | Percussion Microphones | Musician's Friend

As for triggers, I was looking at these:
Buy ddrum Trigger Kit | Electronic Drum Pads | Musician's Friend

If anyone can suggest decent modules that would help me out.

Any opinions on mics vs triggers?

[bozmillar]

If you are into the whole DIY thing, it might interest you to know that those drum triggers are nothing more that piezo elements in a big red case. You can just buy a pack of 10 for 6.50 plus shipping. Solder the leads to an XLR or TS cable and you have yourself some triggers. PIEZO ELEMENT | AllElectronics.com

You can just duct tape them to you drum heads and you're good to go.

You can either run them straight into your DAW and use KTDrumtrigger to convert them to MIDI or you can buy a drum module and use that to convert to MIDI.

[RicD]

Bozmillar, that's a great option I may even try it.
Right now i've been playing with Drumagogg. ( I think that's how you spell it ) It converts real drum hit's with midi or replaces the drums in live time with samples. It's a little pricey but it's done a good job for me. Each drum sample group has many samples. you can set it to randomly pick the samples based on how hard you hit the drum via user set triggers. Just another thing to think about.

[bozmillar]

Keep in mind that the cymbals may be a bit tricky to trigger. I would combine the drum triggers with a couple overhead mics. it's a pretty good compromise and still gets the human and original sound to your drums.

[willjrockstar]

Originally Posted by RicD

Bozmillar, that's a great option I may even try it.
Right now i've been playing with Drumagogg. ( I think that's how you spell it ) It's a little pricey but it's done a good job for me. .

This is the cheapest route and you dont need the acoustical treatment.

If i remember correctly i paid $149 fror DG platinum.

[RicD]

Originally Posted by willjrockstar

This is the cheapest route and you dont need the acoustical treatment.

If i remember correctly i paid $149 fror DG platinum.

The price is about right. Like bozmillar said I still keep the overheads, mix that with the drummagogg ( still don't know how to spell it ) and get a live real sound pretty easy, not counting for the compression and eq troubles I have but that's another issue

[willjrockstar]

Well you spoke before of it being pricey. And as im sure you know the real triggers will set you back a whole lot more.

Actually with all of the "pristine" sounds that DG impliments, Overheads in the mix can be kind of a downer. Unless of course the OH's are well recorded. It doesnt sound like you have a GREAT enviroment.

Just sayin,, dont rule out cymbal replacement if you havent already been there done that.
Good luck.

[moneycat12]

Big question!!! If you use overheads with triggers, doesn't is muck things up to have the toms, snare and kick bleed into the overheads?!?!?!

ps: cymbal replacement? How does that work?

[paul999]

Originally Posted by moneycat12

Big question!!! ........doesn't is muck things up to have the toms, snare and kick bleed into the overheads?!?!?!

Not at all. In fact it enhances the drum sound with some more realism. If the kick is interfering roll off the O.H's to about 300hz if you want less bleed roll off higher.

[String7th]

You can do what I've been messing around with recently. Getting more small diaphram condensors and micing each individual cymbal and HH at an angle that captures less snare and kick, then pan them where I want. It only adds a hint of bleedthrough, like paul sd, add good realism, and with the right placement can sound really good.