Video: Drum Editing in Digidesign Pro Tools LE March 12, 2008
Posted by ConnorSmith in : Digidesign, Editing, Pro Tools , trackbackThis is a new video, and the problem seems to be solved.
Once you’ve watched our videos on grouping tracks and the introduction to keyboard focus, you are ready to learn drum editing in Pro Tools. I show two types of edits The first is a multi-track edit to fix the timing across all the drums. The second replaces a bad snare drum hit.
Transcript (slightly different from latest video, but same structure) :
This is The Studio Files .com video on drum editing in Pro Tools LE. This is basically the same video as before, but with updated graphics so that you can see the demonstration a little better. Now, if you haven’t watched our videos yet on keyboard focus or track grouping (or you aren’t familiar with those concepts), you will want to watch those first, because I apply all those skills in this video. So, I have marked two spots that I need to edit. The first is going to be a multi-track edit for timing, and the second is going to replace a snare drum hit. Let’s listen in to this first marker and figure out what needs to be edited. It sound like right in here, the drums are getting a little sluggish. (Both the kick drum and the snare hits). Let’s listen one more time. Let’s check out this kick, so zoom in with the F5 key. This kick seems to be coming in a little late. So, separate with the B key. Our nudge amount (just like in the previous video) is at 100, so we are going to leave it there. And, we will nudge back with the comma key. Let’s just move it 100 samples (or 1 click) to start. I’m going to zoom out with the R key, and lets listen to that. That sounds pretty good, but now, the next kick drum sounds like it is late. Incidentally, make sure that your ALL DRUMS group is selected (like I showed in the grouping tracks video). Otherwise, you are going to have to make single edits on every single drum (which will take forever). Let’s separate this kick with the B key. And, this kick sounds a little bit later, so let’s nudge it back 200 samples. Let’s listen to that. Everything is getting better. Now, this kick and this snare are getting behind. So, lets separate those with the B key, and nudge the whole thing back 200 samples. The kick is fixed, but that last snare is still late. We need to move it a tiny bit more, so separate with the B key, and move it back 100 samples (or 1 click). Let’s listen one last time. Sounds good. Now that we are done editing, we need to crossfade all of these edit points so that they don’t pop and click. So, zoom in with the F5 tool. Like we showed you in the last video, just highlight the overlapped regions and hit F (assuming you have keyboard focus on). And, it doesn’t matter if there’s space in between the regions like here. As long as you highlight and hit F, Pro Tools will automatically fix that for you. Let’s talk about the other type of drum editing. Zoom out with the R key. This type of drum editing is where you need to replace a hit. This is very much like our Logic video, but rather than replacing a bad noise, we are going to replace a bad drum hit. Yeah, on that snare hit, it sounds like hit flams the drum or mis-hits it or something. Listen one more time. So, we can replace that. We know that the snare hit right before it (here) is good. So, we will just replace it with that. But, you do not want to have your ALL DRUMS group selected, because you just want to affect your snares. So, go down [to the bottom left side of the screen] and make sure to turn off ALL DRUMS. OK, lets select the snare drum that we know is good, separate that with the B key, and switch to your grabber tool with F8. And while holding down option, drag that snare hit over the new one. Now we need to make sure that it is all lined up correctly, so zoom in with the F5 zoom tool. Switch to the edge edit tool, which is F6 (that tool will drag audio region edges back and forth). I am going to drag the original hit over to see where it starts, and just make sure that the new hit is lined up. That is pretty close, but it looks like I need to go back just a little bit, so I am going to nudge it with the comma key. And, just like we did with the multitrack, I am going to write in fades. So, hit F7 for your selection tool. Highlight and hit F. Zoom out, and listen to it to make sure it is OK. Much better. OK, so now just like in Logic Pro, you know how to do multitrack drum edits to fix timing, and you know how to replace individual drums. Stay tuned for our next video on the tools in Pro Tools if you need a refresher on that.
C
The Studio Files
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