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Sampling my own acoustic drum kit fully mic'd. Best approach to create a multi output, round robin sampler instrument?


luca9583

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Hi folks

 

I'm looking to shoot my drum kit so i can create my own sampler instrument. The goal is to then have something that functions just like Drum Kit Designer or Superior Drummer, but i'm not currently aware of any plugins that have allow you to import your own round robin samples into a visual drum kit layout, so i was wondering what the best approach would be.

 

I want to have round robin samples at various velocities, with close mics, overheads and room mics all going to their own bus outputs.

 

Once i've got all the phase right with the mics in the room, i'm then thinking that each midi note representing each drum or cymbal would trigger a layer of samples of each mic, in a round robin sequence. So, for example, C2 cycles through several kick drum hits with each mic, and each mic goes to it's own bus etc.

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Firstly - plan well. Secondly, do some test samples on a single kit piece and assemble your test instrument, and can experiment with how many samples, layers, mic positions, articulations, round robins and so on your need per instrument, how to set it all up, and how much editing etc you need to do.

 

Armed with that knowledge, you can do the recordings, and start to assemble the instrument.

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Firstly - plan well. Secondly, do some test samples on a single kit piece and assemble your test instrument, and can experiment with how many samples, layers, mic positions, articulations, round robins and so on your need per instrument, how to set it all up, and how much editing etc you need to do.

 

Armed with that knowledge, you can do the recordings, and start to assemble the instrument.

 

Thanks. I'm guessing the Drum Machine Designer would be the best choice. I'd also like to be able to run this instrument in Logic 9 in addition to the current Logic, but i can't see a way to route samples to a Bus in the EXS24

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The EXS24 can have multiple outputs, so you can create an instrument that routes groups to whatever mixer channels or busses you like.

 

Note: Drum Machine Designer is LPX-only, it isn't in Logic 9, so if you want to also use the same instrument there, it'll have to be a pure EXS24/Sampler instrument all in one...

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Doing a complete drumkit with all the pieces is an incredibly tedious and time consuming endeavour. Given that you have a great kit in great condition with new heads that are perfectly tuned, with a stellar sound in the room and through the microphones, the real work begins.

 

So you have, say, a 6-piece kit with three cymbals and hihat, nothing too fancy. What is your strategy ? If you record a stereo mix, you will have to have 10 samples to get 1 hit of each item. Ok, but what if you later want the overheads more quiet or the snare louder ? So you're looking at multitracking the drum kit with like 8-10 mics. Ok. So that's 10 x 10 = 100 samples to get just one single hit from every item. How many velocity layers are you planning for ? Realistically ? 4 ? 5 ? That's 500 samples right there, round robin of 3 or better 5 will make that 2500 samples, all of which will have to be perfectly performed and when it gets to cymbals, you'll begin to feel the flow of time itself. A medium strong hit on a ride cymbal can ring on for half a minute. You will be anxious to even breathe while you slowly tune in to the quietest of quiet sounds, and when that little creak from the drum throne ruins the thirteenth attempt to capture that china ringing out you will weep.

 

Ok now you have recorded 2-3 hours of material, brace yourself for the editing process where you have to listen to everything over and over again to sort, fade, level, name, catalog until finally you arrive at 250 neatly packed 10-track samples. Note how I so far avoided hihat which is where the real boss fight happens. Although you're literally just banging stuff with a stick, a hihat can easily create 15 different sounds and that is in one foot position only. And this is the instrument with the highest count of hits in the song.

 

Anyway, creating a Sampler (EXS) instrument is advisable if you intend to use it in L9 as well (although I see absolutely no point in going back to L9).

 

Round robin as well as multi-channel outputs are managed on the Groups level, and you will use the multi-out version of Sampler, obviously.

 

Oh, did I mention that sampling a drum kit is great fun ?

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Lovely...although in Logic 9 i don't see the ability to route samples to my existing buses. If i choose any of the available outputs from the drop down menu in EXS24, these don't appear in the mixer. I'm guessing this might be something to do with the environment.

 

I prefer Logic 9 for certain things which is why i like to have both versions available for different projects.

 

@fuzzfilth beautifully put..and it shows that there's a gap in the market for a plugin that could make all of this easier.

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