Husband's 40th bday coming up - what to buy for recording sounds?

[cheeky-squirrel]

Hi all,
I'm here on behalf of my husband who's an avid drummer. It's his 40th birthday coming up this December, and I've been thinking it would be a great idea to buy him a piece of equipment that he can use to record sounds, and then download them onto the kit as drum beats. He's not technically savvy at all, so I would also love to learn how to edit sounds and how to put them onto the kit.

So my big questions are:

1. what should I buy? (e.g. an MP3 recording device, an iriver or something??)

2. when the sounds have been recorded, what software do you use to edit the sounds?

3. how do you put the sounds onto the kit?

All you drummers out there with experience would be such a great help to me if you can steer me in the right direction. I'm happy to download software and learn how to do it myself so I can then teach him as a birthday surprise.

Big drumming love to you all, drummers make the best husbands :-)

Squirrel

[nonoduweb]

There are a lot of possibilities to record sounds.

He can use a microphone connected to the sound card of his computer.
Then he saves the differents sounds of his acoustic drumkit in a software like Cubase Vst, (or Audacity wich is free).
Then he can send these sounds (wave files)  in DsoundTool, http://www.shortestpath.se/dsoundtool/, a software (shareware), to build the 2box sounds.

[jw-smaal]

I am using a Zoom H4 recorder.  http://www.zoom.co.jp/

It is very simple to use it records onto a SD-card.   I use it for recording "urban" sounds without the need for carrying a complete computer, soundcard etc...  The builtin mic is great and very sensitive.

The sounds need to be cut to length and split into seperate Wav files before they can be loaded via the 2box app into .snd files.  I use Logic Studio for this (and other purposes) but a free application like Audacity can do this simple task as well.

I am in the process of creating a 2box drumkit set of my recorded Pearl Cajon.   

[Baby Samus]

Hi Cheeky,

To copy sounds onto the 2Box, you must of course have a computer!  2Box provides software to make sounds and copy them onto the drumkit which you can find here:  http://www.2box.se/Pages/editor.html

Install the software onto your computer.  To copy sounds, you must connect the 2Box module to your PC using a USB cable, then load the above software.  The 2Box can take any sounds in the right format (.wav files) and turn them into sounds to use on the 2Box.  You can either make your own recordings with a microphone, or download sounds from the internet.  The only pre-requisite is that the files are in the correct format (.wav files).

Once you have recorded or downloaded the sound, you can then load the editing software and create a new 2Box sound from it.  Once done you simply copy it on.  That is the way 2Box intends it to be done but as nonoduweb says there are other ways to create even more detailed sounds using other software, but in the simplest terms this is how the machine works.

You do not need an .mp3 player, although if you do have one, you can connect it to the 2Box and play along with your favourite songs (always fun  ).  All sounds will be copied from your PC in general.

The 2Box is more flexible and can achieve more than this with further tweaking and using other software, but I hope this helps you understand the basic principle of the beast.  One last piece of advice - remember to set aside at least £50 on a good set of isolated headphones - he needs to hear the sounds from the module and the better the headphones the better drummer he will feel!

Its a great set, I love mine and have been enjoying them for almost a year.  Sound quality is awesome, and of course your hubby can join the forum and we will help him directly if he needs it.  Good luck...

[UC]

well you certainly know how to ingratiate yourself with the drumming community

might be a silly question, but does he have a 2box kit already?

[cheeky-squirrel]

Hi everyone, yes my husband does have a 2box kit already which he loves to bits. He's been drumming for over 25 years so it's great for him to have an electronic kit for the first time ever, its really puts some new energy into his drumming.

The only thing is he's not technically minded.

I think the idea of the Zoom H4 recorder might work. It can record sounds as wavs so they're already in the right format.

is there much difference between the H4 recorder and the H1 recorder?

I think the best thing about drummers (apart from the sounds of course) is their gorgeous arms.

:-) Squirrel

[fishmonkey]

ha! being ambidextrous is a bonus too!

[puttenvr]

I think recording simple effects can be done with a recorder like Zoom.
But recording professional drum, cymbal and percussion sounds (with different layers) is almost impossible for a non-pro.
Esp. when your husband isn't technical.
Good sounds stem from professional studios
So: forget it

[jw-smaal]

is there much difference between the H4 recorder and the H1 recorder?

If you need to connect external condenser microphones you need the H4 as it has phantom power support.  If you only want to use dynamic mics or the built in mics (which are of very high quality by the way) the H1 is sufficient.  

Cheers  J-W.

[jw-smaal]

But recording professional drum, cymbal and percussion sounds (with different layers) is almost impossible for a non-pro.

True, however it's a lot of fun trying (isn't that the purpose of a hobby?).  I have e.g. sampled boomwackers and created a kit for it.  Try and find that in a Sample library....

J-W,   

[cheeky-squirrel]

But recording professional drum, cymbal and percussion sounds (with different layers) is almost impossible for a non-pro.
Esp. when your husband isn't technical.
So: forget it

Hiya, I was thinking more for the use of recording sounds like dripping taps, clocks, urban sounds, voices etc. definitely not drum beats... though he would do recording of drum beat sequences just so he could remember them in the future. He's always making up new rhythms which he tends to then forget - which is a bit of a tragedy, as they are amazing. Well I think so.

So I reckon then it's got to be the Zoom. Thanks for your input :-)

[cheeky-squirrel]

If you need to connect external condenser microphones you need the H4 as it has phantom power support.  If you only want to use dynamic mics or the built in mics (which are of very high quality by the way) the H1 is sufficient.  

Cheers  J-W.

Hi there J-W, I do hope you get back to me on this as I really value your input... my husband would definitely be using the recording device to record sounds of all kinds e.g. dripping taps, clocks, voices, bells, urban sounds, anything in fact. I don't know anything at all in the slightest way possible about microphones (!), so I don't know if I would need to connect an external condenser microphone. How would I know?

Hope to hear from you soon :-)

[fishmonkey]

i wouldn't bother with an external microphone to start with, the built-in mics will be fine for what you are talking about.

for maximum flexibility in the future, the H4N gives you more options as you can directly connect mics that need power to operate (that's what the phantom power does).

[cheeky-squirrel]

Thanks Fishmonkey!

By the way, just out of interest, do you download new sounds for your kit anywhere online, Id be interested to find out where there are some great sounds out there I could find for my drummer man