I recently bought an audio interface to do some drum recording and ran into problems quickly regarding inputs and outputs (buses) as well as other techniques to make your drums sound good. Here is my research and I hope it helps you.
I'm using a Focusrite Scarelett 18i20, 8 preamps as well as Cubase software.
Setting up the mics
This tutorial works for people using Cubase. It is pretty easy to set up with any good audio interface. Add mono buses (depending on how many preamps you have) and for input and stereo for output.
Jimmy Rainsford shared some great tips for setting up the drum mics such as making sure that the both the L and R overheads are placed equidistant from the drumset to avoid phasing issues (where the sound travel faster from one overheads and the other lags behind which makes it sound really weird).
Make sure you do proper tuning. Good instrument + tuning = Good sound.
My tips which might help you or not
1) Remember to enable clicking if you are recording a track. Sometimes you might get a little excited and speed up a little.
2) Remember to check the record option. I end up realizing I haven't record a track (The L overheads) and end up having to redo the track again.
3) The stacked recording function in Cubase is pretty sweet. I tend to break up my recording when there is a pause in the song. (1 bar or something) I get a little nervous when the record better is on so the stacked function allows multiple tracks and you can go back to choose the best take.
4) If there are no sound coming out from your monitors, be sure to reset you Scarlett MixControl to factory setting.
Post production.
Jimmy covered the condensed version of post production in Pro Tools but the same thing applies to Cubase as well. It is basically the same theory but using different softwares. (Jimmy is using Pro Tools)
Things to take note:
1) EQ
2) Gate
3) Normalize ( You might want to get your drums to sound louder if the recording is a little soft)
4) Compression
5) Roomworks so that the sound doesn't sound too dry. ( Basically adding air to your track - there are some presets such as Hall, Room and so on)
Export your tracks and you're done. If it's your first time recording doing multi track recording, you ill definitely run into technical issues, just got to learn to problem solve! Hope my tutorial helps.
