A-Z Guide: Play & Record Electronic Drums on a Computer

Join me for a deep dive into using electronic drums with computers, drum plugins, VSTs and samplers! From MIDI to round robins to velocity layers, I cover it all in this A-Z guide.

All of my tips on connecting your edrums to your computer and recording MIDI drums is in the vid. I cover questions I've gotten on videos such as describing "buffer size," "latency," my setup, how others can connect their edrums to their computers.
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This is how I use my electronic drum kit with my computer and drum VSTs, plugins and samplers. I'm including every tip and trick that I know of. I'll cover MIDI, connections, buffer size, latency, round robins, velocity layers and the whole shebang. Let's start with a broad overview of the kit and connections, and then I'll cover each a bit in depth:

I have a Roland TD17KV kit with addons plus an additional drum module, a 2box Drumit 5. I go USB from the Roland to the PC, and MIDI from the 2box module into a MIDI to USB converter, and then from that to the PC via USB.
I use a Focusrite Scarlett Solo as my audio interface.
I use Reaper as my daw usually, and using the Scarlett Solo in Reaper is simply a matter of going to Preferences and Audio Device and choosing the Scarlett as my output for audio. The Roland kit and the Drumit 5 are in the MIDI list because I have them hooked up like I described above, plus beforehand I had downloaded and installed Roland's td17 drivers for Windows.
Latency is a word you'll see a lot in edrum discussions online. Essentially it's the time between you striking the drum pad and the sound of the sample (or whatever) being played by your computer speakers. Buffer size affects latency. A smaller buffer size will reduce latency but require more processing power.
Adjust the buffer size in your DAW settings. Common sizes are 64, 128, or 256 samples.

That's the quick rundown. Watch the video for the bread and butter!

I also cover popular drum sample libraries like:
EZ Drummer 3
Addictive Drums 2
BFD Player or BFD 3
Hertz Drums
ML Drums
Steven Slate Drums 5.5
Groove Agent from Steinberg

Contents:
0:00 What this video is
0:29 The quick run-through of my setup
1:36 Details of my kit, addons and connections
2:43 Do you need an audio interface for edrums and VSTs?
3:13 ASIO explained, plus ASIO4ALL explained
5:18 Why buffer size is important
6:30 Keeping latency down
7:51 Drum plugins, VSTs and drum samplers
8:38 Velocity layers
9:20 Round robins in drum plugins and avoiding machinegunning
10:01 Standalone versions VS plugin versions
10:45 DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations)
12:23 Which drum plugin or drum VST is best for YOU

[eDrumsandVSTs]

I forgot to add: You may encounter some drum plugins/VSTs that will require you to configure which sounds will be triggered by which pads on your kit. Some are super easy and you just select your kit from a list of pre-made MIDI map presets. Some don't.

[FranklandMusicGroup]

your videos are so helpful and underrated. You deserve more subscribers!

[Victortheworshiper]

I must say you are best teacher I've come across on you-tube for the entire time since I knew You tube..I just love your videos

[WhyTheHorseface]

Thank you!! This is just what I’ve been looking for!

[maidenmopar]

Most excellent video! Shared with group! Faceless is a 🌟

[Ludo_A]

Is there a difference between ASIO and ASIO4All? And how do you connect the Focusrite between PC and Roland module? Great video BTW.

[Epicurus]

is it possible to just record the module sounds? i'm fine not using and vsts /drum plugins

[olafs.]

Nice Video, thanks for sharing. But the drumming in the background is really annoying.

[blinddog]

This is great, thank you! I was able to hook up my Nitro Mesh through a USB cable and did a midi take, but I can't figure out how to export a consolidated wav as well as wavs for separate components of the kit (ie. hi hat for one wav, bass drum for another wave, etc). How do I do this?

[nicmcwhirter]

Great video thanks for the advice.

I have a Roland TD07KV, running all thr appropriate stuff through an iMac, reaper and I have purchased Counterkit from SoundBlind, however my snare, hi hat and tom isn't picking up but everything else is. How do I overcome this so I can get the full kit to work on my kit? Floor tom, bass drum, cymbals and rim shot works but the rest don't which is frustrating!

[crash_]

Can you do cymbal chokes on edrums by using drum VSTs? I'm using EFNOTE 7 with Mixwave right now but can't do cymbal chokes on it.

[ipaddrummer]

Direct module to laptop is not for me..coz i don't have a high end gadgets.. But i do have interface sacrlet 6i6 but no idea how to connect interfere and record v drums on my reaper...can u explain it to mee in details

[stomptheelites]

Ive tried everything but my drums stop playing through speakers after just a few hits. I don't know why.

[UtwoBed]

Why is it that nobody mentions the Cakewalk DAW?

[zachvenus]

not one good video on mapping an e kit with ableton, huge opportunity for someone