Need advice: I want to record drums - I have mic's & software, what else do I need??

[Tom_Drums]

Hi everyone, any advice on recording drums would be greatly appreciated.

I have just bought some AKG drum microphones which I want to record high quality sounding drum tracks with so I can start doing drum covers to upload to YouTube. (1 kick, 3 tom's, 1 snare, 2 overheads)

I have pro tools installed on my laptop, what else do I need to start recording?

I also have access to a 12 track mixer at the place I am going to record the drums.

Also, is there any other software out there better than pro tools for this task?

Thanks.

[camcampbell777]

If you have mics, mic stands, cables, software, and a decent computer, then your last step is going to be an interface. Basically your interface is going to convert your analog signal which is what the signal traveling through your mic cables is into a digital signal that can be read by your computer and be manipulated (eq, reverb, compression) by your software. It will also convert that manipulated digital signal back into an an analog signal that can be sent to either monitors or headphones so you can hear what you are actually recording. The cheapest way to do this would be a firewire interface. It will give you some preamps that will amplify your line level mic singals to a point loud enough to be heard basically and sent to your computer for editing, and it will also allow you to connect directly to your computer from the box, as well as will have analog outputs that you can plug monitors or headphones into. Sort of an all in one deal. The question is how many tracks you want to be able to record simultaneously. You said you have a little mixer, if it has digital output then you could probably get away with a little 4 channel interface by combining interface pre's along with the mixer's. However, if it does not I would reccomend getting something with 8 channels. That is pretty common number of channels used to track drums for home studios, and even some professional scenarios depending on the kit, and application. Talk to a sweetwater rep. there are literally dozens of affordable options out there nowadays.

-Cam