Excellent video. I'm switching from electronic drums (after 15yrs) back to acoustic. I was going to buy the X Air XR12. Going to use the 4 XLR's in that for L/R overheads , hat , and outside kick (all condensers) , the 1/4 inch channels will take care of my snare (top/bottom) , rack tom , 2 F toms , and inside the kick. Apparently you can do a lot with these X Air boards , and I am very experienced at mixing , so this should be fun. I just wanted to here if anyone had done a video with drums and one of the XR boards. Your video was great , sounded great. good playing too. Thanks.
Thanks Jeff. Beware though, The XR12 does not allow for recording discrete channels to your computer. It only records to a two track mix. I discovered this when I was shopping to get an additional XR mixer that was just a little smaller than my XR18. All the Air mixers you can use live as a mixer. Only the XR18 allows you to also use it as a multi-track audio interface for recording. Bummer. But I am extremely happy with the price and performance of my XR18.
Well as long as I can send all the inputs (1-12) out L and R to my interface , that's all I require. That is possible , right? I record with USB so I only have 2 channels to start with (not like firewire or ...thunderbolt?). I pretty much dial in my drum sound before recording anyway. What are your thoughts on that? This is just for home recording.
What song is this. Are copies available without Drums? How did you like recording Drums on this unit. It sounds great . What did you record to (multitrack) what did you do in post ? I’m looking to buy the Midas version of this unit.
IslandDigital Thanks. This is from the tune “Escapade” by Tyler Reese. I’m not aware of any drumless versions being available. The XR unit is superb. (XR-18). Having control of the recording interface & simultaneous control of my recording DAW both remotely via iPad made recording drums. The studio in Nashville sent me the tracks. I brought them in to my preferred DAW, Studio One by Presonus.
Hey Burke. I would....except I discarded it some time later. It was pretty simple though. One mic per drum. Flat (no EQ) or compression. Straight in to the DAW. Any coloring I did was done in post (Reverb, EQ etc). But even then it was minimal. Those tracks were then sent to Nashville to be mixed for an Album by a guitarist named Tyler Reese. You can find his vids on RU-vid and the album on iTunes and perhaps Spotify (I've no idea, I don't use Spotify). This excerpt is taken from his tune "Escapade" on the Album "Reminiscence". One thing I wish I'd've done in addition is added a second snare mic on the underside and two room mics. I was supposed to fly down to Nashville to record the drums for the album but my father had taken ill. I was in and out of the emergency room with him and I declined going down. The producer asked if I'd consider tracking the drums from my home and I was like "sure". So that's how we worked it out. I woke up every morning (drums are in my bedroom) with a cup of strong coffee while running on fumes of no sleep and tracked the tunes 1 or 2 per day as they sent me the files. Later, they had me and bassist Gary Grainger come down to Nashville to do a few live in-studio video recordings. Here's one of the vids. Sorry I couldnt be of more help. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-24Ux4vvrlx8.html
No worries. Hope your dad pulled through. I never even thought about recording flat and fixing stuff in post. I was trying to hear the finished product (drum wise) while tracking but there's no need for that since I like the live sound of my drums anyway. So that was actually plenty of help. Gave me a different perspective. Thanks
Wow. That sounds great. Any chance you could share some details about the setup? Like how big is the room? Any acoustic treatment? How are you micing it? I'm trying to record drums in my basement and it sounds like I'm in a giant trash can. :)
Thanks. The room is small. 20 x 16 or so. Bedroom, Carpeted. All drums close mic'ed, meaning every drum is mic'ed separately with the mic an inch or so away. Hi hats mic'ed plus two overheads, one for HH side and one for Ride side. Close mic'ing should help with too much room reverb although the overheads are placed farther away so they may pick up some ambient room reverb. Any carpeting or padding you can do will help. I didnt treat my room at all since it was carpeted and had a bed in there already to absorb sound. I didn'd use any room mic's. Just a standard mic setup.
I tried close micing but used a real cheap set (CAD PRO-7, $129 for 7 mics). Sounded totally dead, like someone slapping cardboard with a ruler. Could you share what mics you used?
I used relatively inexpensive mics. My drum mics (dynamic plus a couple of overhead condensers) are Superlux. Out of Germany originally I think but you can find them in the U.S. Great sound. I have the older design. Here is a pic of the ones I have and have used for a decade now. ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB12QRvKFXXXXXXXFXXq6xXFXXXH/Original-Superlux-DRKA5C2-Drum-Microphone-set-7-Kit-Instrument-Microphone.jpg
They may sound a little flat upon first recording but thats kinda normal. You have to treat the drums in post by adding some EQ and a little reverb. This will make your drums "sing" and "pop". I'm not a big fan of compression or gating on drums but proper EQ and some reverb will polish up your sound really nicely.
I also have a couple of MXL condenser mics from Guitar Center. Great quality mics for the money. So, none of my mics break the bank and they record really well. Expensive mics are nice but not necessary. I'm very happy with my budget mics. www.mxlmics.com/microphones/900-series/990-991/images/hr3.jpg
