Rock bands, drum plug-ins, and pro studios

[beats me]

I’m wondering how often signed bands use drum plug-ins in the studio from programming to having the drummer's kit hooked up to MIDI triggers. Seems like it would be a big time and money saver from quickly editing the patterns to virtually changing individual kit pieces to not having to mic up a room. I would also imagine every drummer is adamantly against it.

[yur2die4]

I think they might be against it up to a point.

A professional realizes that there will be compromises made by you for your team to further help advancement.

On the one hand a drummer may have a particular style which would absolutely require micing to capture the nuances of a performance.

But a drummer who's specific role in a band is just to hit stuff, keep a tempo, and give each song a particularity. Their playing can be captured to grab their choices in snare/hat etc, within a timeframe and then thrown through the system to get various kits and dynamics, after much fewer takes (time).

[theophilus]

not sure you even need the triggers... if you have reasonable separation & multiple tracks, things like trigger can do drum replacement based on the audio track...

[savyurrecords]

Death Metal and its variants make heavy use of drum samples and have for some time. With their tempos it is impossible to make a drum kit sound the way they want.

[doghouse]

It's funny how death metal recording is so far removed from the sound of actually performing live.

Makes me wonder what the whole point is

[lapieuvre]

http://www.slatedigital.com/products/trigger/

This is used a lot in studios

[fishmonkey]

and drumagog...

http://www.drumagog.com/

[perez.5]

I’m sure drummers would be against it but it is probably required quite often except when there is a particular sequence that the drummer can only play on the mic.

christian rock bands

[JuanSOLO]

Seems like it would be a big time and money saver

Computers can be so deceiving.
You can hook up some drums to triggers, or use some electronic drum pads.
Then you have to choose sounds, sounds that match.
Then you have to edit those sounds, as well as edit midi data.
Then you have to mix it with the rest of the music, which usually involves the above 3 steps over and over and over.

Or you can just set up the drums, mics through nice gear, get a good take and get to mixing.

This same thing happens at my work where we do CG animation.
People are under the illusion that the computer will offer 'more' in efficiency, editing, and choices.
Yet this just bogs down the entire process at every turn.
Everything has to be made from scratch, EVERYTHING.
Then it has to be made to look like it all belongs together.
When most of the time it could have just been shot with a camera and some proper lighting.
Or drawn/painted.

Limitations are great for productivity.

[JoshG567]

I program all of my drums, and although I'm getting better it is the furthest thing from enjoyable.

I can't imagine it being someone's JOB to do it ALL DAY LONG as a studio staffer.

Just like working with live drums and mics, as dude above me mentions, there's a non-trivial learning curve with digital drums.

Seems like a zero-sum game, analog vs. digital drums.

[Harmonic Progression]

I would argue that many bands that record now use drum samplers and even VST instruments when recording the song, or maybe at least for making a demo. Maybe for some of the drum and percussion parts, maybe for the whole thing. Depends on the song, depends on the band.

Make the damned song; get it done. THEN use the demo to teach yourselves how to play it live. Why not? This is an efficient path to creation for some.

Then there are hundreds of dance/electronica groups who do EVERYTHING in the box. Some with very realistic sounding drum and percussion parts.

Phil Collins' song "In the Air Tonight" was made with a drum machine. Now of course in concert, the song was played with real drums, including the ubiquitous gated-snare sound. So you implement triggers, or you use an e-kit.

There are TONS of songs made with samplers. There are entire genres that rely on samplers. Once we went to samplers, the eventual use of computers was a foregone eventuality.

Drum VSTs such as Stylus RMX, Battery, Ableton, and more can offer a huge library of sounds. From the ordinary to the exotic, if you want more options, the only affordable way to do that would be with VSTs. Physical instruments can quickly become prohibitively expensive to a three-piece band who works carwashes during the day and plays coffeeshops and downtown festivals on weekends. And if you can program some of the parts, then why not?

[Machinesworking]

I would say mostly not.
It's not that hard to mic a real drum set, and the drums add the live feeling to the recording you simply do not get from drum machines.
Replacing parts, on major label recordings? yeah they do that, or just add to the part etc. but for most bands the budget simply isn't there.

[JoshG567]

Usually only happens when some aspect of the live drum recording turns out to be insufficient that you need to supplement with a sample.

And still then, you've got a live track to use as basis for any programming you do - you aren't whipping it all up from scratch.

[Tarekith]

It's funny how death metal recording is so far removed from the sound of actually performing live.

I was just reading an interview with some famous death metal producer, and he had said it's not uncommon for them to spend weeks editing every drum hit and guitar note/chord to be perfectly in time to the nearest ms. I had no idea they strove for that kind of perfection at times, that's pretty dedicated!

[Angstrom]

I’m wondering how often signed bands use drum plug-ins in the studio from programming to having the drummer's kit hooked up to MIDI triggers. Seems like it would be a big time and money saver from quickly editing the patterns to virtually changing individual kit pieces to not having to mic up a room. I would also imagine every drummer is adamantly against it.

That's a weird idea!
obviously drummers vary widely but I wouldn't use outdated ideas of an 80s rock drummer to imagine what a modern working drummer would do. I know drummers with huge collection of plugins and synths, and they spend their spare time making beats in a way lots of us would recognize.

The only real difference being: they input the beat in 5 minutes, and then spend 3 months tweaking the sounds.