Recording drums on a track

[dc]

I've had my recorder for two weeks only. Can anyone tell me how to record a drum pattern on to a track? Is it possible? Haven't had time to read the instructions for this part.

[64Guitars]

It's possible, but why would you want to? The drums are stereo and the Micro BR only has four tracks. Why do you want to waste half of them on the drums when it isn't necessary? Creating an arrangement is a much better way to include drums in your song. It's easy to do, doesn't use any tracks, and can be edited at any time. Also, drum arrangements use very little space on the memory card compared to recording the drums on a pair of tracks.

If you need help to learn how to create an arrangement, see these pages:

https://songcrafters.org.org/articles/create_a_simple_drum_sequence.html

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Tutorials/Rhythm_Guide_Intro.html

And read pages 80-87 of the Micro BR manual.

[dc]

Thanks for the links! I play bass, and it is actually the only instrument I have to record with right now. I could bounce the drums to one track and still have three to play a line, a melody, and a harmony on. I'm aware that later on I can dump the drum patterns and melodic ideas or songs on to my pc. For now I'd like to give that a shot and see what happens. Thanks for your advice.

[Pedro]

Hello and welcome dc!

I admit I was inclined to choose recording drums but I must say it is too much trouble. I own a drumkit and altough I love the sound from it, recording into the Micro BR doesn't work at 100%. The sound always turns out very far away and doesn't quite fit when using other instruments.

So, I've choosen Micro BR drums. I mean, they really sound great, and you can create some excellent drum sounds on it if you have the time. Most of the time people are discouraged because of the interface for creating the drums on Micro BR. Don't give up! Its a bit like maths, you have to exercise it. If you want to create some great sounding songs, Micro BR's internal drums are the way to go.

Unless of course you have a set of drum mics and a mixer. 

[dc]

Thanks a lot for the advice! I should have been more specific with my question. I was wonderin how to record the Micro br drum pattern that I sequence on to a track. If you know how to do this please get back to me. Thanks again.

[Pedro]

That could be done by simple bouncing the drum track alone to a pair or one track.

[Glenn Mitchell]

Does that work? I had it crash when I tried to bounce it to trax that had nothing on them.
So I thought it needed to have at least recorded silence?

[SickNote]

You should do another one of those great YouTube vids on how to arrange your own drums.

The walkthrough is really hard to follow - pictures next to key steps would help!

I'm trying to get my head around it and it hurts... 

[Farmjazz]

It's possible, but why would you want to? The drums are stereo and the Micro BR only has four tracks. Why do you want to waste half of them on the drums when it isn't necessary?

I had to do this to preserve the RHYTHM with effects applied to it. I had a song all ready to MASTER, with the effects LOC at RHYTHM, but when I got into the MASTERING mode, I realized the effects all change to various mixdown type algorithms. So, I had to do another bounce to free-up two tracks, and then do another bounce, (with RHYTHM included), to blend it all together, then I was ready for mastering.

So, unless I'm missing something, this seems to be a case when you have to actually record the RHYTHM part. In fact, it sounded so good, I'll probably do it more often. Just listen to a RHYTHM part with MC P09:VoComp applied to it, for instance. I love it!     

[Mach]

So, unless I'm missing something, this seems to be a case when you have to actually record the RHYTHM part. In fact, it sounded so good, I'll probably do it more often. Just listen to a RHYTHM part with MC P09:VoComp applied to it, for instance. I love it!

I was thinking about this myself to try and make the drums sound a little more realistic or give them more depth. I guess I'm spoiled on using my drum machine and generating drum parts with Reason & Sonar. But the fx in the BR are tweakable and can add liveiness to the drums.

So you basically bounce the rhythm track by itself to a stereo V-track and then apply effects to it? I have not tried bouncing yet, can I bounce just the drum track?