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MishaSucks.net/Gear_Geek

MISHASUCKS.NET/GEAR_GEEK: RECORDING DRUMS ON A BUDGET AND MORE

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 at 5:00pm by

MishaSucks.net/Gear_Geek

You asked and Misha answered. Today, the Periphery guitarist/mastermind and #20 on our list of the Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, tackles more MS reader-submitted questions about gear, guitars, and more. This week: Misha’s preferred method for recording guitars directly to a computer, the best way to record drums on a budget, and how Misha created the sexy synth/drum loops on the Periphery and Animals as Leaders albums.

grossj asks:

I’m trying to “graduate,” if you will, from running an 1/8 inch headphone cable from my Line 6 Pod into my computer’s line-in port for direct recording. I was thinking about buying the Line 6 UX2 TonePort, but can’t I just use my pod through an interface, like an M-Audio Fast track or something? Basically what I’m asking is, where should I go from here? If I remember correctly, in the videos of your home setup you were also running a Pod at some point. How did/do you do it?

You have two options.  You can actually use your Pod as an interface, granted it may not be the fastest or best thing in the world, but it is free, and if you do choose to graduate to an interface you can just plug in via 1/4 inch or XLR.  The Periphery album was recorded with an AxeFX plugged into my Presonus Firepod with 1/4 inch cables.

Steve_O asks:

Misha, in your estimation, what’s the best way to record drums on a budget? I’m thinking of getting a Focusrite Saffire in the future along with a Samson 7/8kit. Any opinions?

Although this is always a point of contention with opposing opinions on what the “right” way is to do things, I still believe that companies such as Toontrack have developed products that sound so good that if you are trying to record on a budget (or for free, like our debut album) there is absolutely no better way to do it. Get a program such as EZ Drummer or Superior 2.0 and either program it directly or hook up an electronic kit and have your drummer perform so you can edit the MIDI. The thing is, to get a really good miked drum sound you cant really get away with using mediocre gear; you need nice mics and nice preamps, and MOST importantly you need a good drum room (which is often the very opposite of a good room for miking guitars or vocals).

So I believe that on a budget, getting a good drum program and working with that will get you the better drum sound.

Tom asks:

How did you create those atmospheric backing (drum)synths on your songs and on the AAL album? With FL Studio? I want to know because they are the sex.

and Etc asks:

Yeah, I’d love to hear an in depth explanation of how you go about doing the glitchy/electronic stuff on that album.

It was a number of things on the AAL album. I believe it was a combination of the various kits and hits in Hypersonic and Reason, and sometimes I would export sections I had programmed or just drum loops and would manually chop them up/manipulate them from there. Just trying different things for different songs and keeping them if they enhanced the parts.

For the Periphery album, Jake actually did most of that stuff, and a lot of the sounds were things that he recorded and then manipulated and loaded into a sampler in addition to using a similar approach to mine.

- Bulb

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  • jd091

    Met Misha in Chicago last February. He is quite small in real life. Kind of disappointing.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Austin-Pearl-Nutter/1418565949 Austin Pearl Nutter

      I heard he’s 8 feet tall and can karate chop a lesser man in half.

      • clrtxf

        That’s inaccurate. He’s 6’20″ and he fucking kills for fun.

        • trollolol

          seriously bro. he’ll kick you apart

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Tinker/100001070101545 Daniel Tinker

            i heard bulb had about 30 dicks

    • bulb

      thats what she said?

    • soy el niño más bonito

      …dick

    • Slaughterhouse

      Isn’t that always the case

  • Machinae Supremacist

    My prayers have mostly been answered. One question about the first one, though (if any other gear geeks are here): I’m plugging my axe right into my laptop now, and doing all the distortion on-board with software, and it’s noisy as fuck (in a bad way). If I switch to some sort of digital input (ie Pod, M-Audio) like Bulb recommends, will the noise go away? (In other words, is my line-in port causing all the noise?)

    • Colin

      Is it noisy without the distortion? If so, then yeah you need some sort of input device. If it’s just noisy with the distortion, you probably need to find a better plugin to add distortion (like Guitar Rig, Amplitube, or Recabinet).
      If you can get a clean input signal, the sky is the limit after that.

      • Machinae Supremacist

        I think the problem is that line-in ports are unbalanced. It’s at the point that I get feedback from my headphone cables, and it shows up with even a moderate amount of gain.

        • TheHateMachine

          Here is the problem.with laptops they inherently make noise when recording or playing music. Get yourself an adapter that makes it 2 prong from 3 prong and your noise is gone. i have to do this when running karaoke shows or recording. Makes it silent

          • Machinae Supremacist

            Since I’m just using a free VST plugin for my distortion anyway, I’m thinking of upgrading to a Pod anyway, so I’ll probably just do that.

          • eetfuk

            Free VST’s sound tons better than a POD these days. Get a decent interface instead.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aaron-Smith/541871852 Aaron Smith

      Here’s how you get cheap, pro guitar tone.

      I recommend getting a cheap guitar USB interface like this
      http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCG102.aspx

      Then go get yourself the free LePou amp sim plugins (Lecto is great and simulates a Dual Rectifier) along with LeCab for loading cab sim files.

      An example of Lecto:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2jrEEo1VY

      Download a cabinet sim file to load into LeCab from here:
      http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3202762/g12k_impulse.rar

      There are a trillion other places you can get free cab files emulating various cabients with various speakers, but that should get you started.

      You may also wanna look at the TSE X30 which emulates an ENGL e530:
      http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/plugins.html

      Also grab the TSE 808, which is a Tube Screamer emulator to tighten up the amp
      http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=36

      Signal chain should be like this: Guitar -> interface -> TS808 ->amp sim >LeCab (with cab file loaded into it

      • Machinae Supremacist

        YES. LePou/LeCab is what I’m using now. I want a Pod for live sound, though.

      • http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Kahn-of-K/130479476983735 jonniejonjon

        That’s some helpful advice right there, wish I’d heard of lePou plugins before I got into Line6 stuff would’ve saved myself a pretty penny (not that it’s even that expensive, but free’s free!) Here is something I recorded using the line6 tone port ux2

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RQC0j020c

    • bulb

      The trouble with laptops is that most PC laptops dont have grounded power supplies, and sometimes this can sometimes cause excess hum or noise. You could see if one of those humkiller thingies works, but i have never tried it myself.

      • Machinae Supremacist

        Thanks for the reply! That’s the impression I got from some googling, too (my power supply definitely isn’t grounded, unless the plug has some invisible third prong). I guess the only way is to get some kind of digital interface.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aaron-Smith/541871852 Aaron Smith

          A dedicated interface would absolutely be the best way to go. If you only plan on recording guitar direct in, that bheringer unit will work well and it’s cheap as shit. If you ever wanna record something like vocals, you’ll need an interface with an XLR out. The M-Audio Fast Track is such an example, and you can find them pretty cheap used online. ANYTHING is better than using your laptop’s line in.

  • Steve O

    cheers for taking the time to answer my question Misha!

    one thing though… if you’re running SD 2.0 or something equivalent like BFD or whatever, does it matter if the e-kit itself doesn’t produce very good tones, since it’ll be using the samples inside the program? If so, could you reliably use a cheap one for recording electronic drums that way?

    • Colin

      No, the electronic drumset is just sending midi to SD which is data only. The samples used in SD are very good, and those would be all you hear in the end result. You could certainly use a cheap one.

      • GoingDeaf?

        Keep in mind, however, that a better E-kit will have better triggers and will likely pass on more accurate midi data of the dynamics of your playing… though people don’t seem to care that much about having “human-ness” in their metal drum tracks these days.

        • bulb

          All of this is very accurate. And although you may not want all the dynamics in the world, it is much more rewarding to play on a nice e-kit. Matt tracked the drums on my old td-20 which i believe is the best feeling e-kit out there, none of them are terribly authentic, but that one is actually fun to play because of how bouncy the heads tend to be.

          • Steve O

            Cheers dudes!

            Yeah, dynamics are quite important, for me at least… if I ever get a real nice electronic kit, it’ll probably be a JoBeky custom. if you haven’t heard of them, check them out, they have real drum shells + real drum sizes, it’s like one of those Pearl e-pro for almost 2/3s the price of one

          • bulb

            I hope it plays better than the e-pro, that kit looked so amazing in the previews and ended up being such a piece of crap.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael--Vanderven/502827008 Michael Vanderven

    here’s jakes “Glitchy” music page lol
    http://soundcloud.com/jake-bowen/lemon-lime-update

  • Colin

    I just wanted to add that using Superior Drummer with gating and sound replacement is the way to go since most people don’t have access to an electronic drumkit. The recording quality doesn’t have to be very good, and the results are stellar.

    • bulb

      This is true, if you can get the signal going you can use Toontrack’s Drumtracker to convert the audio to midi for you. Just remember to use separate mics on everything!

  • Kurt Cocain

    For an easy way to get the glitchy sound without a huge headache, download the D-Blue Glitch VST program. It’s free and works awesome. There are 9 parameters to mangle your sound, and limitless variations to mix stuff up.

    • Broccoli Tim

      This. I’ve played with it in FL then chopped that track manually the way Misha described for some interesting results

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeff-Gross/1569840018 Jeff Gross

    Misha answered my question…..thank you so much! holy fuck!

  • Kurt Cocain

    Misha, I’m considering upgrading to Superior Drummer 2 (or 3 if it’s out). Would you recommend an electronic drum kit (Roland, Yamaha) which is out of my price range, or would a 6 or 8 pad trigger midi controller you can use drum sticks on be better? I’m looking into the later, because I need portibility while trying to get the best sound.

  • Tom croft

    How do you go about writing songs? As in, structuring them? I currently play guitar in a band but when it comes to writing, I sometimes struggle to fit riffs together. Do you do it by what feels good or is there some set method you follow?

    • bulb

      I just go by what sounds good. Sometimes by the time i have laid an idea down i just hear other possibilities in my head and i try to work off of those ideas. But sometimes im not that lucky and i find it best not to force it in those situations. Sometimes its best to come back to it later. But when im lucky a couple of ideas will spawn an entire song, and i can write everything in one sitting which is always ideal, just gotta get in the zone and not be interrupted haha!

  • Tom croft

    Thanks for the advice misha. I have another question haha! Do you record everything you come up with? I write some pretty good stuff at home but when it comes to playing it in the studio my mind goes blank!

  • Pablo Vsh

    Is it better to have a bunch of pedals then connect to interface or use amp modelers?,
    And how can I use axe fx to record?, and what interface is best to use or amp modeling programs? sorry Im barely starting

  • trence75

    I use a sans amp gt-2 its a tube amp modeling pedal.i just plug it straight in and it sounds pretty damn good.for years I used a drum machine and recently I upgraded to superior drummer 2.0 and its a creative life saver. I just use my recording stuff as a sketch pad because we have a friend that has good recording equipment.anyway i’ll just sync the bpm to my host and record everything to a click. Then I’ll give our drummer 2 versions,one with drums and one without. Of course I save some stuff for the practice room

  • Derp

    Great, now there will be even more “albums” with badly programmed drums. I hate the current generation of “Audio Engineers”.

    • Derp

      By the way, I’m not directly insulting Periphery or Misha, I just hate programmed/fake drums and hearing Superior/Slate every other album.

  • trence75

    Actually I’ve never used a drum machine/superior drummer/drum programmer to put out an album. I give our drummer a version with drums just give him a feel for what I had in mind and usually he comes up with something better.

  • howdthattaste

    in regards to drum sampling, when you say “program it directly”, which program do you use to program the drums? That is, how do you go about composing a drum beat for some new music you’ve come up with? What options do I have? I currently write guitars in Guitar Pro, then add a percussion track. I am able to export the drums as midi, but it lacks the intricacies of a [near] real drummer. And Sonar’s step sequencer… well… it might just be a matter of me having to get used to it. any suggestions?

  • Full Metal Life Jacket

    Does anybody know of any FREE drum progrmas that are better than Hydrogen? After downloading every kit available, then piecing together my own kit, it sounds pretty good. I still want it better though, and don’t really have the money to buy one.

  • David

    While I completely understand using electronic or canned drums for bedroom recording and laying down idea/demo sketches (I do it all the time and I’m a drummer)….let’s talk non-binary reality here for a second.

    For a couple hundred bucks you can buy an SM57 for the snare, a decent/cheap overhead condensor mic, and a cheap bass drum mic (Nady) and learn how to mic some freakin live drums!!! Put them through a cheap pre-amp or mixer and go. Most guitarplayers can’t be bothered, but those who really want go the extra mile, and like to experiment, I can’t recommend live mic’ing enough.

    Find a drummer in your neighborhood, befriend him, have him play drums on your tracks.

    • ernest

      that’s such a waste of time and money. it’s 2011 grandpa.

      • olf

        I agree with David. I think it’s a little awkward that bands sound more and more the same, because they use standardized recording techniques and sounds. I think you give away an element that offers you much space for personal taste and character in your sound. I would always give real drum recording a shot before using sampled or programmed drums. I personally prefer drums with character, drums that breathe. Plus you will always hear the individual groove of a drummer, his personality in his playing. Programmed stuff is just on/off/1/0 perfectly quantized techno stuff. If I was a drummer and my band decided to replace my live drumming with programmed stuff sounding perfectly like Thomas Haake, I think I would leave the band. Yes, recording gets more of an effort with live drums. But its also more fun I think! The product will truely represent your band. The journey is the reward, guys! Guess it comes down to a question of taste in the end…

        • Colin

          If you can get a good drum recording, of course none of this is necessary. It’s a way to get to a high quality sound on a low budget. You’re just kind of reinforcing some stigmas about it. No one is talking about programming drums, and it wouldn’t be quantized unless someone quantized it. The midi notes are recorded exactly when you play them, so it’s just as natural sounding. That, along with the ability to tweak your sound with a DaW, and having such a range of samples in Superior Drummer, you really can come out with a good drum sound without sounding like every other song. It’s not as machinelike as you think it is.

  • Jake_Johnson

    does anybody know how to ask these kind of question to misha, cuz i dont know what to do so i can ask him myself.

  • http://www.facebook.com/polarizationmusic Pmat

    Hi Misha!

    I just have 2 question about your amazing guitar sound from the Axe-fx. You mentioned that u went into the Firepod with a 1/4″ cable. So did u use any gain from the Hi-Z input of the Firepod? and Do u use any kind of compression (plugins or Axe Fx) on your distorted guitars?