Suggestion for budget e-kit for one-off recording session

[STA]

Hi I’ve tried searching similar topics but most of them are a couple of years old so I’m hoping there are better options now.

 

i have a one-off recording session coming up and I am not a drummer myself and the drummer of my band does not like e-kits so he’s not willing to invest in 1. So I was thinking of purchasing a used e-kit that I could potentially sell afterwards.

 

what would be a good e-kit between $400 – 1000 that works really well with ezdrummer 3? I do live in Europe by the way so the Thomann kits would also be an option.

 

thanks.

Topic

[Mick Avoidant]

Have a look in the MIDI setup in the settings menu and see what kits are listed.

[Bear-Faced Cow]

You could probably find a decent used kit for that price range. It really doesn’t matter what you find since EZ Drummer 3 allows you to create your own mapping.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[Brad]

STA wrote:

Hi I’ve tried searching similar topics but most of them are a couple of years old so I’m hoping there are better options now.

 

i have a one-off recording session coming up and I am not a drummer myself and the drummer of my band does not like e-kits so he’s not willing to invest in 1. So I was thinking of purchasing a used e-kit that I could potentially sell afterwards.

 

what would be a good e-kit between $400 – 1000 that works really well with ezdrummer 3? I do live in Europe by the way so the Thomann kits would also be an option.

 

thanks.

Where in Europe are you located and would renting a kit be an option?

EZdrummer version: 3.0.6
Operating system: macOS Sonoma (14)

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro (always up to date)
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

[STA]

Thanks all. Yeah i’ve explored renting but it’s not cheaper than buying a used kit and potentially selling it after the project.

thanks all for the suggestions.

[Glenn Stanton]

well, if you don’t need a lot of takes, you could bring your laptop into the music store and record it on one of their demo kits 🙂 maybe flip the store employee a few currency units… 😉

Glenn

www.runnel.com
www.reverbnation.com/fossile

• This post was modified 1 year ago by Glenn Stanton.

[Andrewsrea]

Some DAWs, like Presonus Studio One Pro V6 can convert analog drum recordings to midi, but there are a lot of steps involved and still a lot of midi editing to get the nuances right (like the hi hat pedal inflections).  You’d basically record a live kit, covert it to midi, parse that out by ‘instrument’ onto separate tracks and then polish.  Not as convenient as a digital midi kit.

[Bear-Faced Cow]

Another thought is to record your drummer on his kit and find someone with Superior Drummer (or get that since the cross grade is a bit cheaper than the trouble of finding a used e-kit) and import the audio into the Tracker and turn it into MIDI that way?

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[STA]

I didn’t even think about that. How good is that? Would it also be possible to record with just an overhead or do you need individual recorded stems for that?

[Mick Avoidant]

STA wrote:

I didn’t even think about that. How good is that? Would it also be possible to record with just an overhead or do you need individual recorded stems for that?

An overhead would work, but you’d want a kick mic as well. Two overheads would be better than one, for stereo if nothing else.

[Bear-Faced Cow]

It really depends on how clean and defined the drums sound through the overhead. It goes without saying that the cleaner the recording the better chance you have at the tracker being more accurate. The only downside is that you the same track for every kit piece, which means that you have a greater chance of misfires on certain kit piece articulations which means that you would have to go through the entire capture. That being said, I have used the tracker successfully this way with a drum stem that was split out of Logic 11.

Close micing the drums would be far better option. It doesn’t have to be pristine as you are only using it for the tracker. However, if you record it to individual tracks, then you can assign them to their appropriate kit piece. You don’t need expensive microphones for this either. You could probably pick up five mediocre used mics for cheap.

 

The upside of this is that your drummer is going to be far more comfortable on his own kit, thus resulting in a much better performance. That is what counts more than the quality of the recording.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

• The post has been modified 3 times, last modified 1 year ago by Bear-Faced Cow.

[STA]

I appreciate all the responses and help so far. So I am considering Superior Drummer however looked at the price tag and it’s pretty hefty even if I get the discount because I got ezdrummer 3 already.

 

so my last question would be is it worth the upgrade? Initially for the tracker functionality but not sure if it has added value for the drums compared to ezdrummer 3.

[Bear-Faced Cow]

I’ve been using Superior Drummer 3 since it was launched. The drum libraries are far more extensive in their mic channels and you have far more control over things like bleed allowing you to come up with your own mixing setups. You can also use all of your EZXs in Superior Drummer. It would be far more useful in your case than the e-kit route. I use both Superior Drummer and EZ Drummer in my projects as EZ Drummer provides the perfect footprint for adding things like percussion to a drum mix that I have set up in Superior Drummer.

jord

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Jordan L. Chilcott

Web Site: https://jordanchilcottmusic.com/

[Author]

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