Quantizing audio drums?
in [Audio Recording]
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From: kleinebre on 6 Nov 2005 04:38 Given a multi-track recording of a drum set, what would you recommend to enhance steadiness of the drummer? I've had limited success triggering MIDI but would prefer to stay in the audio domain.
From: Mike Rivers on 6 Nov 2005 06:52 kleinebre(a)hotmail.com wrote: > Given a multi-track recording of a drum set, what would you recommend > to enhance steadiness of the drummer? More practice and less coffee. OK, maybe more coffee for you, because to adjust drums can be a pretty tedious process. It's best done one beat at a time, with an editor. Leave the ones that are pretty close and start fixing the ones that make you jerk when you dance.
From: kleinebre on 6 Nov 2005 07:56 I was afraid you were going to say that, Mike ;) If bands would practice more, the entire problem wouldn't exist, so I'm left with the option of trying to represent the recorded result in a way that is as merciful as possible to the client. In the meantime, most of my clients don't have a lot of time to burn. Are there any tools that would be able to help automate the process? I had in fact tried copy/mute/mixpasting a few hits that were obviously off-beat, and sure enough the result was pleasing enough- for a single track at least. I'm still worried about the crosstalk though- if I move a kick drum on its own track, it will still be off-beat on the tracks of the overhead mics. If I move it on those tracks, it's likely introduce artefacts on the cymbals. What gives the best results in your experience? Working a single track at a time vs. all at once? Time stretching instead of copy/mute/mixpasting?
From: Mike Rivers on 6 Nov 2005 08:44 kleinebre(a)hotmail.com wrote: > If bands would practice more, the entire problem wouldn't exist, so I'm > left with the option of trying to represent the recorded result in a > way that is as merciful as possible to the client. "Mercy" can be putting them out of their misery, but I know what you mean, and we both know what they expect when they go into a studio - all of their mistakes can be fixed after they record. But just gently remind them that fixing takes time and skill, and that's what they're paying for when they come into the studio. > In the meantime, > most of my clients don't have a lot of time to burn. Are there any > tools that would be able to help automate the process? Drumagog is the name that usually comes to the surface when it comes to fixing drum tracks. I've never used it, but you might look into it. > I had in fact tried copy/mute/mixpasting a few hits that were obviously > off-beat, and sure enough the result was pleasing enough- for a single > track at least. > > I'm still worried about the crosstalk though- if I move a kick drum on > its own track, it will still be off-beat on the tracks of the overhead > mics. If I move it on those tracks, it's likely introduce artefacts on > the cymbals. This is why the process can be tedious if it involves fixing more than a handful of hits. What you have to do is select all the tracks and move the hit in all of them. Since it's usually the snare that's the most obvious problem, you might start out by moving the overhead tracks (as a whole) so that the snare in those tracks is aligned with the track for the dedicated snare mic. Now, for every snare hit that you want to move, select the smallest area you can surrounding the hit on the snare and overhead tracks, do what you need to do in order to move just that chunk (not the whole track - this usually involves pushing a button that makes the selected area into an independent chunk, and then just line them all up on the beat. Whatever DAW software you're using, it almost certainly has this capability, but you just have to figure out how to do it. I've never used time-stretching or compressing to adjust timing within a track unless I've done a gross replacement and had to fit it into the available space. It rarely works without further adjustment. I would consider it an "extra cost miracle."
From: Iain Fraser on 6 Nov 2005 10:21
beat detective <kleinebre(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:1131269889.816987.148830(a)g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > Given a multi-track recording of a drum set, what would you recommend > to enhance steadiness of the drummer? I've had limited success > triggering MIDI but would prefer to stay in the audio domain. > |