After hours of messing around and trying to find information on my own, i turn to you guys, on the off-chance here is a recording artist on the boards.
I have a Simmons SD7K Electric Drumset. i bought it used a few weeks ago.
I hooked the drums up to my computer running Sonar Home Studio 7 via USB port.
My computer recognizes the connection, and more importantly Sonar even gives me a reading when i hit a symbol. However, Sonar will not record what i’m playing. Anybody have any idea?
The Simmons is sending a digital MIDI signal (not analog audio signal) over the USB cable. Sonar is recording the MIDI data. The MIDI can signal can “playback” what you hear indirectly by resending the instructions back to the Simmons as if you hit the pads with sticks.
If you want to record the analog sound what you hear so that you can make an MP3 file or post it on youtube, you need to connect the analog outputs (LINE OUT) of the Simmons module to another device that can convert analog sound to digital.
What sort of equiptment would i need for this?
Here are examples of USB audio recording interfaces:
http://www.sweetwater.com/c695--USB_Audio_Interfaces
The cheaper products (less than $200) will work fine for your purposes because you only need to simultaneously record 2 tracks (the Left channel and Right channel). The more expensive products record 8 tracks or more.
Forgot to mention another cheaper alternative … many computer motherboards have a built-in “MIC IN or LINE IN” that you can use to record audio. You just need a cheap $5.00 adapter cable that converts RCA or 1/4" out to 3.5mm plug.
However, the recording quality will not be the same fidelity as using a dedicated USB-audio interface.
Does Sonar have a Virtual Drum sampler? This will be added as an output on the Midi channel that the Simmons is on, and will use sampled drums that are triggered off the pads. This could well provide better (and more flexible) quality output than the internal drum sounds on the Simmons. Otherwise, get the latest copy of Computer Music (about USD$10) which has a Drum sampler VSTi as part of the CM Studio on the coverdisk, and a pretty good set of Drum samples, too (NSKit).
N.B. I have never used a Simmons or Sonar, but I do use computer audio equipment.
Si