Drum Sound Samples

0. My Recording System

My recorders has built-in 8ch comp but does not have gates. I can do it without external preamp and gate/comp if my recorders have built-in gates, or if I choose DTM software to process sounds after recording.

Fig.1 Recording/PA System

Equipments in the order of signal flow

  1. Recording subsystem (Mixer for band practice)
    1. 8ch preamp (Behringer ADA8000)
      Make the signal level up for the input level of next gate/comp. AD/DA converter used as preamp by looping ADAT output to input via optical cable.
    2. 4ch gate/comp (Behringer MDX4600)(2 sets for 8 channels)
      Gate/Expander(short/long release, threshold level control) + Comp/limiter(on/off of auto soft knee, low cut sidechain, pair, and of course ratio and threshold control) + Limiter (not used for recording)
    3. 8ch recorder(mixing 16 tracks) (ZOOM R16)
      Dedicated to drum recording.
    4. 8ch recorder(mixing 24 tracks) (ZOOM R24)
      I need more inputs for band recording. The two recorders are connected via USB cable. Playback/record/ rewind/fast forward are synchronized. So, the system becomes 16ch input recorder.
  2. Mixing/Monitor subsystem
    1. Small analog mixer(Behringer XENIX 802)
      Mixing stereo outputs from two recorders, CD player, extra microphones etc. Main/monitor/headphone stereo outputs. Effector mix output(mono) is used as extra monitor output with a headphone amp. Each channel has 3band eq./effect out level/pan/main out level control.
      Main output is used for PA, and Monitor output is used for Video input etc.
    2. Headphone amp (Behringer AMP800)
      (2 inputs switchable, 4 independent headphone outputs, max 8 headphones)
  3. PA System (Very high power but not very good for music listening purpose)
    1. Feedback canceller (DBX AFS-224)
      To prevent feedback from vocal mics in band rehearsal.
    2. Power amp (Behringer EUROPOWER EPQ1200)
      320W + 320W stereo power amp at 8 ohm.
    3. Speakers (JBL JRX115)(left and right)
      250W, 15 inch, two-way

Fig.2 Preamp control, Gate/comp control

2. Input Gain Adjustment

Adjustment with recorder input peak LED. The red LED should never blink.
  1. Without compressor before the recorder
    1. Find the level, where peak LED flickers only for the loudest hit for each input channel.
    2. Reduce the input gain until LED never blink.
  2. With compressor
    1. Find the level LED flickers only for the loudest hit for each input channel.
    2. Turn on the compressor and make sure LED never blinks.

3. Sound Samples

Same 4 bar phrase played 4 times for No Effect, Gate(strong), Gate(medium), Gate(medium) + Comp. So, the source sounds are not exactly same. Strong hits in the first 2 bars followed by weak hits in 2 bars.

Gate/Comp parameters are of initial set up for new mics. I will fine tune later.

Input channel/description 12345678Master(stereo)
Drum Floor tom(16 inch) Left tom(13) Kick (22) Right tom(12) Overhead Left Overhead Right Snare(top)(14) Snare(bottom) (14) 1-8ch stereo mix
Mic Samson Q-tom(dynamic in DK7) Shure Beta98AMP(condenser) JTS TX-2(dynamic, super cardioid) Beta98AMP(condenser) C02(condenser in DK7) C02(condenser in DK7) Beta98AMP(condenser) Beta98S(condenser, super cardiod) N/A
Pan L100/100 L46 Center R100 L100 R100 Center Center N/A
No Effect sound sound sound sound sound sound sound sound
Gate(strong) -15dB sound -15dB sound -15dB sound -15dB sound N/A N/A -20dB sound -20dB sound sound
Gate(medium) -20dB sound -20dB sound -20dB sound -20dB sound N/A N/A -20dB sound -20dB sound sound
+Comp(4:1) -10dB sound -10dB sound -10dB sound -10dB sound -10dB sound -10dB sound -10dB sound sound
+Eq(low cut) -6dB, 40Hz -6dB, 40Hz -3dB, 40Hz -6dB, 40Hz -6dB, 160Hz sound -6dB, 80Hz -6dB, 100Hz sound
+Reverb(Real plate) 60/100 60/100 60/100 60/100 60/100 sound 60/100 60/100 sound
+Short Delay 30/100 30/100 30/100 30/100 30/100 sound 30/100 30/100 sound
+Maximize(3band comp, Xover125Hz, 4kHz) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Sense 7/24(low),7/24(mid),10/24(low) sound

4. Video (not drumming, sound and equipments)

For Video 1,2,3, listen left channel and right channel separately with earphones. Left channel is unprocessed mono sound taken by the camera. Right channel is processed mono sound.

Sounds in video 4, 5, 6, 7 are stereo. The sounds recorded by each mic are played from left to right, and mixed sound is played at the end.

  1. Input gain InputGain.mp4
  2. Gate Gate.mp4
  3. Gate + Comp GateComp.mp4
  4. No Effect playback 00-NoEffect.mp4
  5. Gate(strong) playback 01-Gate1.mp4
  6. Gate(medium) playback 02-Gate2.mp4
  7. +Comp playback (No gate for OverheadL/R) 03-Comp.mp4
goto at kmgoto.jp