Drum Editing: part 1 February 9, 2008
Posted by ConnorSmith in : Editing, Project Studio , trackbackTo see our recent video on drum editing in Logic, click here.
To see our recent video on drum editing in Pro Tools, click here.
I received a question from Alex H. via email. Lets try to get it answered:
I recorded a song last weekend, and I laid down the drums for each part, because we wanted an improv feel to a few parts, so we could choose takes. Now, I’m familiar with blending different takes with crossfading, but that doesn’t work here. For example, I need the end of the verse to completely finish playing, while at the same time, the chorus begins. Crossfading doesn’t work because it’s cutting off what would be the natural sound of the drums, were I to have played both parts on one take. I know I can always make two tracks, and have one end as another begins, but that will double my track load. In DP, if you layer the tracks, it only plays the one on top. Any ideas? Ideally, I’d just place the end and start of the tracks over each other, and DP would play both.
Let’s talk through some possibilities.
EDIT: Expect a video to be posted on this soon. Its really really hard to explain without some quality visuals.
Well, this is a toughy. There are a few different things to try (I present 3 options). Options 1 is quick, but it may not sound great. Option 2 requires a lot more tracks and processing, but will probably sound good. Option 3 is your best bet (kind of a combination between the two). But, I would suggest familiarizing yourself with all the techniques, as you may have to use any one of them in another situation.
My first advice would be to try some different crossfading techniques. Before you do this, make sure all your tracks are grouped together so that any edit you perform will apply to all tracks. When you line up the two sections to crossfade, make a fade by dragging box in the corner of the waveform OR highlighting what you want to fade and choosing “create fade” from the above menu. If you chose to “drag the box”, now double-click on the fade. If you chose to “create fade”, that dialog box should have already appeared. Experiment with the different types of S-curve fades that are available. I would assume that since you want to make the first section “finish” before the next begins, you would want a curve that slowly faded out the 1st half, and quickly faded in the second. Its definitely one of those situations where you are going to need to experiment with different sized S-curves as well as smaller and larger fades. That being said, there is no guarantee that this will work…
Option 2 is to make a new additional track for each drum part. I would label them with some sort of tag (so you now have “Kick” and “KickA”, “Snare” and “SnareA”….). Then drag the verse you have to the original drum tracks, and the refrain to the “A”-tagged tracks. Then you can experiment with different fade lengths on each individual track. This will have the potential to sound the most natural and is the most flexible overall. However, it also requires probably at least another 8 tracks plus plug-ins… For DAWs with limited track counts or slower computers, this is a problem.
Option 3 is probably what I would suggest to do: Go ahead and leave everything on a single track as in option 1. Make the fade as best you can but don’t fuss about how it sounds too badly to start. Now, go ahead and mix your song. When you are COMPLETELY finished mixing, its time to “fix” the fades. Send your drums to a bus, and make a two new stereo audio track with that bus as their inputs. Delete the fades you have between each section on the original drum tracks, and drag the waveform edge to the right to expose audio past the fade. Now record-enable the first stereo track and record your drum part from the beginning of the song until that fade that you just deleted, being sure to record all the way to the edge that you just dragged.
The reason you are dragging the edges of the waveform before you record is that if you didn’t, you would just be recording TO the fade and not past/before it. Then, when you went to combine the sections, there would be no overlap to create a fade.
Now, record enable the second stereo track. Drag the other side of the fade to the LEFT this time, so that the waveform starts before the previous fade began. Now record your drum part (starting at that edge) until the next section break. See where I am going with this? Its basically the same thing as in option 2, but you are “bouncing” the drum track down to stereo in the process, which prevents you from having to make individual tracks for each drum.
Hopefully that made a little bit of sense… Alex also asked about reverb on drums, so I guess I should make a short web video about drums. I should be able to get to it tomorrow, so expect a video about this technique at least, if not also a video on mixing drums and using effects. If there is anything else anyone wants in the videos, or has any questions about this article, please email me.
Connor
The Studio Files Team
Comments»
Option 4. DP could simply allow you to overlap tracks with simultaneous play.
Is that too much to ask?
Thanks for the ideas Connor. I’ll probably give them a go this weekend.
Sounds like some tricky coding within the DAW to have that happen
For the few instances where we need stuff like this, I guess we will just have to work with the “workarounds”. But yeah, try out the third option (aka wait until the end and then make new stereo bounces of both sides, and use the 2 stereo tracks to make the overlap).
And I’d be pretty irked if DP got “simultaneous double file play on single track” before Pro Tools got automatic plug-in delay compensation
I guess this sparks another question. I don’t know the details, but I love watching behind the scenes documentaries of bands making an album, and I know drummers will do different takes of different parts, and then pick and choose later. What technique do the pros use? There has to be natural blending and overlapping of starts/finishes if takes are being puzzled together. I guess I never thought it would be that difficult to do that.
Yeah, its very common to do multiple takes of a song and choose the best “verse 1″ and connect that to the best “refrain 1″… etc.
Assuming you played to a click track, and assuming the parts are somewhat similar, this should be solvable somehow. You should just be able to highlight what you want from section “A”, and drag it over to section “B”. What sounds unnatural about your edits? Sometimes just dragging the edges to the left/right a little bit can help a lot (see my note at the bottom, but if you can, send me some stereo bounces of a problem track. I can probably help more once I hear it).
If you are going to record things in sections like that, I would recommend always playing “a little extra”. For example, if you just want to re-record verse 1 of your song, record it, but play a few bars into the refrain. That way, when you edit them together, there will be some leeway as to where the edit point is. You have to keep a close ear out for the decay of drums (and cymbals especially). Those will be the most noticeable “glitches” on edits. If you get really stuck, you can cut off certain pieces and automate some reverb sends and mutes…. but that gets tricky.
You might want to send me some audio files of what you are doing (even just a stereo bounce of the parts running into each other). Situations like these are very specific to the material that is being recorded.
Yeah, I completely forgot about playing through a little bit to the next part. Crossfading the exact same part works alot better than trying to crossfade transitions with emptiness on the other end.
I have to do the edit between a few parts. One part, the last thing I hit was the snare and open hi hat. The hi hat decay needs to bleed into the next part. The other parts are similar situations.
I’ll experiment with different crossfades first. They don’t sound awful right now, but it’s noticeable that there is an edit. If I ever considered myself good at something in recording, it was editing. I’ll figure something out. You’ve helped plenty and I should be able to make it work from here.
I’m laying down another drum track today, and if I have to split it, I’ll make sure to play through.
Thanks.
A lot of people forgot about that
I would remember this no matter what you are tracking. Its good for EVERYTHING. If you have the option to edit before, at, or after a transition, chances are you will find a spot that works. If you don’t leave yourself that wiggle-room, you can get into some sticky editing situaitons.
C
The Studio Files
Hi..
Apologies for the noob question but can someone explain stereo bouncing to me please?
Is it something that you can do live or does it have to be done with editing equipment…if so, what kinda thing would I need.
Thanks for any help.
Sure–
Bouncing is simply the process of combining all of your tracks, incorporating edits and mix settings into a single stereo file. You accomplish it with your digital audio workstation software (like Pro Tools or Logic). When you send the stereo mix out to another device like 2-track tape or a hard disk recorder, it’s usually called “mixing” and has to happen in real time because there is one device creating the mix and a second receiving and “printing” it to a different medium. Bouncing can happen faster than it would take to do it live, depending on the speed of your computer and the complexity of the project (numbers of plugins utilized in the mix, primarily).
Damon
The Studio Files
Thanks Damon..
I appreciate the help and swift reply