How to Record and Edit Drums for Your Home Demo Recording

The basis of most songwriting is a beat or rhythm. In most cases, drums are both for a foundation of a song. From there, musicians and arrangers will build up from the drums, adding in bass, guitars and other instruments. However, drums happen to be one of the most dynamic instruments, making them sometimes trickier to record.

First, have your drums set up (or else you won't get too far with recording with no drums!). Microphone placement isn't as hard as it looks, but it does take some practice to get it right and get the right balance. For that you will just have to listen as you place the mics.

Drums can be recorded with its own mic into individual tracks for each piece and routed to its own track or into the same track. This is how serious drummers record, but then again they also probably dedicate a lot of their focus on drums and have purchased a drum micing set. Or the drums can be stereo recorded with two microphones where you find the best balance of sound. Check with your software to see how each is routed.

Drum machines also come in handy for those who are non-drummers. These are best used with a mini mixer and routed into your audio interface for recording. Making drum recording easier, drums can be looped and this is especially easy with a drum machine. When recording, the machine simply plays what was programmed.