Newbie here - Recording my band

[nin73]

Hello,

Been using Mulab 7 for around 1.5 hours now and am working my way through it. Finding it thoroughly confusing as I don't know the language that it is speaking to me in! VST, racks, etc.

I am looking at putting together a demo for my band, Electric guitar, Bass guitar, Drums and vocals. I have managed to work out how to record the guitar just need some advice how to record the drums.

I have a Roland TD30 drum kit which I can use for the drums, just need to know how to get it done. Any ideas?

Nathan

[skipscada]

Hi Nathan,

You basically have 3 choices:

1) Record midi from the TD30. That means you need to connect the TD30 to your computer either with a midi-to-midi cable (if you have a midi in on your computer) or a usb cable (the TD30 has both options). Somewhere in Mulab you will find the option to enable midi-in. Then you need to run that midi signal through some sort of drum instrument in you computer. That's where those VSTs come in. You can get all sorts of instruments and effects in the VST format, which work as plugin in Mulab, i.e. you run you signal (in this case a midi signal) through it inside Mulab. Midi isn't a sound signal, it's a stream of commands to midi equipment that tell it which sounds to produce. So you can monitor your playing as you play plugging your headphones directly into the TD30, but the midi signal you send to the computer can be used to trigger a completely different drum kit in Mulab.

2) Record audio from the TD30. Take the signal from the audio out on the TD30 and route it into your computer (you have some sort of audio interface, right?). Record this the same way you recorded your guitar (but preferably in stereo). This gives you less room for tweaking after recording.

3) Run the signal from the TD30 through speakers and record the sound of the speakers with a mic. This makes no sense.

[nin73]

Tried the Midi route, settings all work. At the moment I am getting the midi to work on the standard keyboard sounds but not on my sounds from my drum module. Do I need some drum software to work with the midi?

Nathan

[whyterabbyt]

Tried the Midi route, settings all work. At the moment I am getting the midi to work on the standard keyboard sounds but not on my sounds from my drum module. Do I need some drum software to work with the midi?

Nathan

It sort of depends what you've got set up, but what youve recorded, if you've recorded MIDI, is a set of instructions for something else to play. Now you need to send those instructions to something.

If you have recorded the MIDI from your drum module, its probably (*) possible to send it back to the drum module to play the same sounds from the module again.

(*) I say 'probably' only because I dont know your drum module, but most have MIDI inputs as well.

On the other hand, its possible to play something else, and that something else could be a plugin that you load into Mulab, or a Mulab MUX device (which is more or less a plugin).
Or you could send it via a MIDI interface to some other hardware device.

[skipscada]

This is where you open a "Which is the best free VST drumkit?" thread. I'm set up for this with payware, so I'm not following the developments in the free department (assuming you'd want to check out that first). But you could try these two:

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MDrummer%20Small
http://www.powerdrumkit.com/

Hopefully your recorded midi will automatically trigger the right sounds. If not, you will have to route the midi signals to the sounds.

For budget/midprice payware, check this thread: viewtopic.php?p=6150631

[nin73]

This is where you open a "Which is the best free VST drumkit?" thread. I'm set up for this with payware, so I'm not following the developments in the free department (assuming you'd want to check out that first). But you could try these two:

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MDrummer%20Small
http://www.powerdrumkit.com/

Hopefully your recorded midi will automatically trigger the right sounds. If not, you will have to route the midi signals to the sounds.

For budget/midprice payware, check this thread: viewtopic.php?p=6150631

Any idea where I should save the VST in MuLab? It wants me to save my drum VST into my VST plugins folder.

[thecontrolcentre]

You should create a VST folder and select it in preferences inside your DAW. Your DAW will then check this folder for new plugins every time you open it. Some DAWs like the VST folder to be on the same drive as your OS. I use C:VST plugins\ for mine. I have subfolders for 32bit & 64bit plugins.
I don't know MuLab, but I'd imagine that will work with it.

[whyterabbyt]

Any idea where I should save the VST in MuLab? It wants me to save my drum VST into my VST plugins folder.

Could you let us know if you're on a Mac or a PC, and if its a PC, whether you installed the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Mulab?

[skipscada]

Any idea where I should save the VST in MuLab? It wants me to save my drum VST into my VST plugins folder.

There should be a manual or at least a help feature in Mulab. Once you've found out, take your time to at least skim the rest of the manual. It's the best way to make sure you get specific things right, and should give you lots of useful tips for other things as well. If you are averse to reading, you may be able to find a video. People often post how-to videos for DAWs.

Edit: had a look at the online documentation. As far as I can see it doesn't mention any preferences for VST locations. Often VSTs will suggest a location when you install it (if it comes in an installer), so you could just go with that. But make a note of the location so you can point Mulab to it.

[whyterabbyt]

Edit: had a look at the online documentation. As far as I can see it doesn't mention any preferences for VST locations. Often VSTs will suggest a location when you install it (if it comes in an installer), so you could just go with that. But make a note of the location so you can point Mulab to it.

MuLab lets you just point to a folder, and it'll add everything in that folder to its list. You can repeat that for any number of folders, AFAIK.

But it'll depend on the OS/architecture to some extent as to where plugins with an installer might go...

[nin73]

Any idea where I should save the VST in MuLab? It wants me to save my drum VST into my VST plugins folder.

Could you let us know if you're on a Mac or a PC, and if its a PC, whether you installed the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Mulab?

PC and the 64 but version

[whyterabbyt]

Okay. As I said, you can point Mulab at any folder with plugins in it, but you'll sometimes find that the installers try to put them in a specific place. For 64-bit plugins, that'll often be

C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins

I strongly suggest you put other plugins in a different location, though, those that dont use an installer or give you some control over where you can save them. This is because normal users dont automatically have permission to create new files or folders inside subdirectories of C:\Program Files and that can cause certain issues (eg with saving presets)

An easy way around that is to do what thecontrolcentre said.

[nin73]

Thanks for the help guys, I have done as requested and have found the link within Mulab. I will test it later tonight to see if the kit works with it. Thanks again