punching in drums?

[emomusician]

is it possible?

seems drummers get the short end of the stick.

since us guitarists can just come in when we feel like it, if we mess up seems like drummers should be able to have that luxury too.

[RAMI]

Of course you can punch in drums.

I don't see what would make it harder than punching in anything else. In fact it might be easier than some instruments because of the holes between hits as opposed to trying to punch a guitar in during a decaying note, for example.

[emomusician]

I've never done it.

Our drummer is solid live.. sure we all mess up sometimes..
but it'd make recording go alot faster if he didn't have to retrack an entire song every time he makes a minor slip.

how do you go about punching in drums?

[Greg_L]

Record to a click. If your drummer is worth a shit, he can easily do this. Then if there's a flubbed passage or measure, just punch it in at the beats. Crossfade any weirdness.

Even if you don't record to a click, it's still easy to do. Zoom way in and set the punched section between hits as Rami mentioned. Back the track up and have him play along. Set it to punch automatically if you can. Simple.

[elcholo]

Greg nailed it. It's easy.

I punch in automatically when I'm recording with the Firepod into the box. It's easy that way because i'm usually tracking myself, and it's a daunting task to start playing along, then run over, hit the mouse, run back and keep playing without missing a beat

When I track through the board to the HD24, I just have someone help me out (my foot switch cable doesn't reach for me to do it from the set.

oh, and record to a click...

Cholo

[Dogman]

I'm really new to drums, and suck pretty badly, and I have even been able to do punch ins and edit them....it really isn't too bad...just follow some of teh advice Rami and Greg stated.

[PhiloBeddoe]

There's no reason you can't punch drums if you play to a click. You may want to record extra on the front and back of the punch so you can drag the edit to a place that's the least obnoxious. Watch for cymbal spill.

Another caveat is to pay attention to the snare tuning. It sometimes will change from the beginning to the end of a song as the lugs loosen. It's not too noticeable over the course of a song, but if you take the detuned snare and drop it in the front of the song you will hear it abruptly change pitch. This doesn't always happen, just something to watch out for.

[Sonixx]

I find the issue is mostly cymbal seams...

I over track the beginning and end significantly and look for the best seam.

[Guernica]

...or if you really suck, you can record drums and cymbals in two passes

.what? ...just sayin'

[FattMusiek]

Yes, it can be done. That doesn't mean it's an easy task. I had one run in with trying this back in an early session of a song my band plays called "My Way". I had played the transition part leading into the bridge kinda sloppily. I used a common feature in which I highlighted exactly where recording was to start and stop. I made it work with a decent amount of clip edge dragging to the point where my bandmate couldn't hear it. I could, of course, because I had been so used to hearing it.

From my experience, the enemy of the drum punch-in is the decay of a cymbal hit from before the punch. You're gonna wanna punch in before an obvious crash and not in the middle of one or you may not have a seemless punch-in. It can be masked though if it the punch is during a part with a lot of instrumentation.

This is only speculation. but I imagine it is also a lot easier to get away with a punch-in on drums during the same drum session. If you move the mics or tune the drums differently, I'd imagine it would be hard to achieve a seemless punch-in.

I hope this helps in some way.

[JCM900]

I use the HD24, and I use automated punch in on it all the time, with drums, guitar bass, whatever needs it, its very easy to set up auto record on it.

[xstatic]

Like mentioned above, drum punch ins are possible, but not as easy. A lot really depends on the drum arrangement and the drumemrs ability to repeat things accurately. Also like mentioned above the hardest thing about them is making sure that cymbal decay and overtones don't shift on the punch in. If you do not have a clean break to punch into I usually end up starting the punch in at a loud accent on cymbals or something like that so that the attack of the new hit covers any old mismatch in decay form the previous take. As far as a click track goes, a click track really does not make a drum punch in any easier than not having one save the fact that the tempo will be more steady. The logistics of cymbal decay are rarely affected by the use or non use of a click track. Someone else mentioned punching in fairly early in order to shift the new take to the best location in post. This is an excellent idea and will certainyl save some frustration. I would avoid using a snap tool in this situation though. You may need to ride right between beats a little to seem it up nicely.

[elly-d]

hey,

yep as mention cymbal decay is the thing to look out for and how hard you are hitting the drums (or how into it you where). my advice is always to play along before the punch in so on your new recording there will also be a cymbal decaying to match it up to, and you will be hitting the drums as hard as normal. in other words don't listen right up to the point where the punch in is an then start playing. obviously any sparse beat or something on a close hi-hat is prefered. as there are more gaps to drop in.

i find digital recording is really easy to drop in and edit, but recording onto tape, well i would make do with a sloppy fill or transition. or do it again.