Recording drums

Question

Now, to whoever reads this, you might be my savior or my doom…

Haven't found a SINGLE tutorial explaining how to connect edrums.

Didn't realise I actually needed a MIDI cable (yes, I'm at THAT step; the noobiest level you can find in recording music. A little beginner's video would have helped!).

Now that I've more or less installed a DAW (had to know I needed one too) aka REAPER (yes, another step complete, which is already a victory in itself!!!), kontakt 8 seems to realise my edrum module IS connected somehow, but doesn't want to recognise it; there's no sensory input whatever I try.

HOW DO I CHANGE THE PREFERENCES SO THAT KONTAKT 8 CAN FINALLY RECOGNISE MY DRUMS??

Somehow, a friend had managed to find them AND record them when we had tried a few days ago, and now that I want to do that on my own nothing seems to work.

No thanks to native instruments!!

PK The DJ · Answer

Exactly. If it's a complete kit of digital drums like Roland V-Drums, then they typically include a "brain" that all the pads plug into, that has drum sounds and outputs audio - so there's no need for other cables, and instructions on assembly would be included.

mykejb · Answer

I'd add one question to PK's "What eDrums did you buy" - what are you trying to do with the drums and Kontakt.

1 - Do you want to use Kontakt as an additional drum sound module to play through?

or

2- Do you want to record the MIDI from your drums into a DAW then play it back in the DAW while you add other instruments?

PoorFellow · Answer

@Alphalex

As I see it then your problem is two part (you can google this but I already did that for you too..)  :

1)  how to use edrums with Reaper

2)  how to use Kontakt with edrums

.

Try this first :

How I Route And Setup Kontakt Drums (IN REAPER)  (And Why You Should Too)

.

Else :

Section 1  :

Copy of Reaper DAW Users conversation on FaceBook :

RL

Can any of you experts help me. I’m trying to get my edrums hooked up to reaper and to play through a drum vst. I think I did everything correctly. Reaper and the pc recognize the drums. I have the brain in gm mode. I mapped all the drums with the vst . I armed the track and have the input as the edrums. But reaper doesn’t seem to get a signal from the drums. Am I missing something? Plz help! Tia!

DD

"Ctrl P" to find Audio > MIDI devices > you need to set your edrums IN on ENABLED.

Then "Ctrl T" name it MIDI edrums. This will be your midi channel in. Set it to RECORD (now blinking red)

Then right clic "add new virtual instrume" this where you set your VST.

Route the midi usind "send" to the VST. If MIDI is corretly mapped should work fine

NX

Maybe this is obvious, beginner myself. But did you add the track as new virtual instrument?

RL

NX where do I find that?

.

YOUTUBE

How To Connect Electronic Drums to Reaper (2025) - Step by Step

How to use hardware DRUM MACHINES with REAPER

How to Route Midi from your Drum Module Over USB in Reaper

How To Set Up EDrums With REAPER + Addictive Drums 2 (Low Latency Guide) W/ YARG or Clone Hero

REDDIT
Connecting electric drum set to reaper

Recording electric drum kit.

Need help recording e drums

.

Section 2 :

Reaper Tutorial: Routing Drums in Kontakt

Reaper: setting up Kontakt drum kit with separate outputs

Routing Kontakt Drums in Reaper // MixWave Tutorials

multi output drums from kontakt

.

Finally then edrums is potentially far more advanced to setup and use than if using a simple Midi controller keyboard !

So learning wise it would have been a lot easier had you started with using a simple Midi controller keyboard which is what you ought to do/have done if you want to start learning using a DAW (any DAW).  Also then any of the NI keyboards comes with a free DAW Ableton Live Lite which I personally think is more beginner friendly than Reaper though maybe not as beginner friendly as Mixcraft which in turn is of poorer quality than Anleton Live and will give more plugin problems than Ableton Live (great quality !)

.