The Bends - cover

I don't have Reason Drums, so maybe some of this will be off a bit, but Drums has several samples per hit, as you said. They shouldn't be too drastic, but yeah, sometimes you'll get a lighter or heavier tap at the same velocity. I was playing with Symphonic Strings and found the same thing. The different samples come in at random, so that explains why it's different every time. In Symphonic Strings you can choose 2, 4, or 8 sample sets. Are there similar sets in Drums? Is there a John Bonham 8 and a Jon Bonham 4 or 2 like in Strings? You could maybe reduce the random samples since it was already humanized...
 
I'm not seeing anything like that. I could be missing it, but I don't see it. I'm looking at it again in the song, and I'm watching it actually skip notes that are there, even ones with high velocities. It's really frustrating, because the sound is otherwise phenomenal and realistic. I can't find any way to get it to stop doing this. I've googled it, and I haven't found anyone mention this problem with RDK. I may have to wait until I have the money for some good drums that I can use in Logic, but that really sucks because I love this Bonham set, and the Clyde Stubblefield set in RDK. I suppose when I eventually get Kontakt I could take the individual samples from RDK and rebuild the sets in Kontakt. Ugh.
 
The original's such a powerful sounding song that I imagine this is a tough one to replicate with amp sims and fake drums. The performance sounds pretty good I think - a bit already said about the drums and I'm not really best placed to make any suggestions.

One thing that caught my ear is some kind of high frequency artifact on the synth patch that comes in in the verse. It's not that prominent on every note, but comes through on the note change at like 0.36 - it's a bit unpleasant and I don't know whether it's from the sample itself or the processing? Worth addressing if possible I think.
 
Woooooooo! I figured it out! It was really simple, too. Some of the note durations were too short to trigger correctly (I read that this is an issue with Reason's sampler), so I selected all the drum notes and made them the same duration. I don't know how you get different durations from hitting a drum pad, but whatever. Easy fix. Now the drums sound exactly like I played them, and any flaws can be blamed on my playing and not the software. Just the way I want it.
 
Midi triggers sometimes also skip if the same note is still playing when the next one hits...i.e. the first note is too long.
 
BroKen_H said:
Midi triggers sometimes also skip if the same note is still playing when the next one hits...i.e. the first note is too long.
Click to expand...

That was the first thing I tried months ago when I first noticed this problem. It fixed some notes, but not all. I also have a cover of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" by the Beatles, where I had the same issue with the same Bonham drumset. It really messes up the ride groove. I can't wait to fix that one too now that I know how. I retracked the main guitar with a better amp model last night on The Bends, and remixed the drums with the Bonham set. I'm still not 100% on the guitar sound (I really think there's only so far I can go with Line 6 - I wish I could afford a new amp right now), but overall it's sounding a lot better. Hearing the dynamics on the snare really got my heart pumping. Pretty much ensured I wasn't going to sleep all night.
 
Been debating getting Reason Drums for quite a while now. Maybe it'll move up my list...after I get the studio running again. :laughings:
 
BroKen_H said:
Been debating getting Reason Drums for quite a while now. Maybe it'll move up my list...after I get the studio running again. :laughings:
Click to expand...

Now that I figured out that problem, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. I tend to use the Bonham and Clyde Stubblefield sets the most, but it has several others like Phil Selway (I could have just used that for The Bends, but I wanted to do something different), Questlove, Chad Smith, and others I can't remember. The one I first used for The Bends, the recording posted here, isn't from RDK. It's a lower quality set. When I post the improved version of The Bends you'll be able to hear how much better RDK is. Though I initially intended to use Reason as my DAW, I quickly realized that I wasn't going to get what I was looking for with it. I can't use my UAD plugins with it, or any others that aren't made for it. So now I use Logic as my DAW, and Reason just for MIDI instruments. I wish I had spent the money on samples for Logic, though. Oh well. It is a really cool interface, conducive to creativity.
 
It would be much easier than exporting midi from Reason, picking it up in Reaper and running it through SSD to get the tracks (and moving all the notes around so they work the right piece of kit) then rendering each track separately, and dropping them back in the project...
 
That does sound like a process. I have to start with enough scratch tracks in Reason to play the drums to (usually a guitar played to a click track, or maybe if I started with a drum loop I'll have more tracks to play to), play the drums, then export each drum as audio and import them into separate tracks in Logic where I do the rest of the recording. The same goes for any other MIDI instruments I use - piano, synth, strings, etc. I did get one good sample set for Logic called Abbey Road Vintage Drummer, but it's not good for rock stuff generally. It's sampled from kits from the 30's and 40's.
 
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