Hi, Keni. Yup, all kit pieces will have their own track already. Just looking to get the traditional piece by piece setup of...
Kick
Snare
Ride
Hats
Toms (one track each)
OH left
OH right
Room left
Room right
That's actually more luxurious than what would normally come my way but with all that separation I can mimic various drum mixing styles. Full kit through OHs and room mics with kick/snare helpers. Piece by piece mixed together with OH and Room mics blended in for room sound/kit cohesion. Kick and snare with OHs covering toms, cymbals, ride and hats. Kick/snare transients extracted to MIDI for sampled helper tracks.
On and on.
When I start writing and recording new stuff I can fall back on the freedoms using a programs like BFD and Sonar in the digital realm provide but I need to learn the ins and outs of dealing with whatever drum mic set ups get thrown my way.
Knowaddimean? For this track I could do whatever I want because it was created in Sonar using the sampler but I'm looking at it as a training exercise for future mixing endeavors. If I go through this with the nice crisp set of tracks BFD provides then at least I'll have routing, insert and mixing concepts together before I have to deal with live tracks that will most definitely have other problems that will require my attention. If I'm trying to juggle multiple concepts that I am inexperienced in it is likely to turn into a frustrating mess very quickly.
Might seem weird but if I keep using the same project to test things out then I can focus on specific techniques without dealing with the unique problems and surprises fresh material may present.
Cheers.