Adding Drums To Recordings

[Scouse]

What is the best way to add drums to a recording (not real drums but digital, I have to think of the neighbours).

This is the process I tend to do now:

Record a guide vocal and acoustic guitar on channel 1 then in this order:
Bass guitar: channel 3
Rhythm guitar: channel 4
More vocals: channel 2
Guitar solo: channel 5
Persussion tamborine: channel 6
backing vocals: channel 7
keyboard: channel 8

I then just listen to Channel 3,4 and 6 to see if the sound is tight and clear and it passes the 'toe tap test'.

I sometime re-record channel 1 being careful not to over record the count in 1,2,3,4!

So I end up with a nice wav file in GoldWave which I 'top and tail' by adding any reverb, overdubs etc. and convert to MP3.

Ideally any drums would be added early on with the bass and rhythm guitar. Otherwise it might sound as if the drums are following the rest of the band.

Listen to my version of Drive My Car which lacks drums and therefore (pardon the pun) drive.

[Myriad_Rocker]

BFD and Drumkit From Hell Superior are both excellent acoustic drum modules. There is also a free soundfont called NSKit that you can download. Just type it in Google and you'll find it.

Personally, I recommend BFD. I use it and it's awesome.

[blueroommusic]

1) write/track song out
2) program/play drums over it...
3) delete guitar & bass
4) re-track guitar/bass

your right man...the drums will follow the song if you wait too long to throw them in...that would be catastrophic ...the guitar/bass should follow the drums, not the other way around...start programming drums now before it's too late...it will take a while to figure out the tricks involved in getting it to sound like a real drummer, and not just a metronome

[Robert D]

Originally Posted by Scouse

..........Otherwise it might sound as if the drums are following the rest of the band.

Which part of the band would they follow, cause the band doesn't seem to be following anything. Cool tones, but rythemically....it's a mess (sorry). So, the way I approach this kind of thing is to record guitar, bass, and scratch vocal tracks to a click track (metronome). Then I put in drums (V-Drums and Gigastudio running Peter Erskins' Living Drums). Not being the worlds tightest drummer, I record directly to wave, and also capture the midi stream so that I can edit audio or midi as needed. Once all that starts to gel I'll go ahead and start doing overdubs, with the real vocals going on last.
Find the flow that works best for you, but I highly recommend concentrating on finding the groove, and a click track might help a lot.

[Superhuman]

I use DFHS (Drummer From Hell Superior) by Toontrack and it is excellent. The only way to record anything with midi drums is either to a digital metronome in the recording software or lay down a basic beat first and play along with it. The toe tapping measure just won't cut it! If you are no good at programming midi, groovemonkey.com does a few cd's of preprogrammed beats just for DFHS, worth investigating - the sound is top quality and very realistic. I do a basic beat first just to get a solid tempo, then play a few riffs, then experiment with the beats and start adding in extra layers of sound. I tried it the other way around, it only works with a live drummer, midi is far too precise.

[Micter]

Ya as stated by these other gentlemen start with drums or a click track. Someting has to set the timing and keep it there. Personally I would program the drum tracks first then track the Bass, Guitars, Vocals, Solo in that order.

[Scouse]

Thanks guys, that's probaby what I suspected but needed to be told directly. You've given me a fair bit to consider.

Thanks also for your comments Robert D that's what I needed to hear. A song like that needs to be tight and driving and I guess that's why Ringo and Paul were so good at laying good foundations.

I played all the instruments and vocals and I knew really the track was mistimed and that's why I posted the link to illustrate the problem. I felt the track was OK in parts and just starts to get into a groove but falls apart to often.

Thanks again