DEC. 20, 2008 (about)

As 2008 drew near to a close, we decided that we would re-record a song that we wrote about 6 or seven years ago so we could make a video for ministering. The song is Jesus Wept. Near the end of December '08 We had Paul lay down 2 Drum tracks for Jesus wept.

 We decided about a week later to re-record the drum tracks so Paul came over again to sit behind his electronic drums and plug into the computer. He recorded two more takes. We kept the second take and began to do some processing on the Drums midi track.

Tech Note:
When we record drums we use Paul's electronic drums to produce MIDI (musical instrument Digital Interface) tracks on the computer. MIDI tracks do not record the sound an instrument makes but rather the event that causes the sound. So instead of recording the sound that a Cymbal makes Midi records that the cymbal was hit at a certain time and with a certain force AKA Velocity.

There are many advantages to doing drum recording this way. One is that MIDI is easier to work with. You don't need a dozen high quality microphones, or the expertise in their placement. You can actual change the drum set you hear with out having to do any re-recording. You can fix mistakes with a computer mouse instead of re-recording. An with advances in drum sampling technology, you can come really really close to the human feel. Some older recording using MIDI drums were robotic sounding 'cause every time you hit a drum it was the same sound no matter how hard you hit it. How hard you hit it only changed the volume. So, when a drum was hit softly it didn't quite right. It's just like recording some one shouting and then playing it back at a low volume. Just be cause the volume is low doesn't turn the shouting into a whisper. The other issue is every drum hit sounds a little different from the next depending on where you hit the drum. The old tech just having one sample per drum could make a drum roll sound like a machine gun. New Drum software has different recordings of each drum at many different velocities and then one for left and right hands. Coupled with a drummer playing a physical drum set, the new computer based drum recording can sound really good, and the advantages really out way a purist motivations in the home/small recording studio environment.