Rerecording drum machine after other tracks

[J Wah]

How can I record a drum machine after I have recorded guitar, vocals and other tracks and have it all in sync? While I am writing I want to be able to lay down a simple drum beat and then concentrate on other tracks. After the other tracks are down I want to be able to go back and change the drums, record them and have them in sync with other tracks. Can this be done by recording the drum machine thru midi? I have a midi drum machine, a cable to conect it to the computer and I am using n-tracks.

Thanks for the help.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo DooWahDeWah:]

If you are using a drum machine, you need to either use a patch or program the machine as you want and then lay down the chords with the drums.

Once you have that down, you can only "add" drum licks to other empty tracks to enhance the original drum track.

I had a good musician friend do this in my studio and I learned.


It seems to me that it would be very difficult to record all of the tracks and the vocals and then go back and "change" the drum track -- I don't know if you really can do this. However, you can "add" to the original drum track.

I always lay down the drum track, usually with keys/chords, and then go from there.


But, maybe someone knows -- sounds very tough to me though.


Green Hornet

[tubedude]

Hmmm, recording into a daw? You could record them and then nudge the tracks in good and tight. Pretty simple. Tape would be a different story.
Drum machine have a midi in/out? You could probably set up a midi based "click" that will lock it in with your previous piece, then you can delete the orginal one. I'm not a midi guy, or just barely, so someone else could help you with those specifics.

[J Wah]

Yes my drum machine is midi. I don't know very much about midi but I hope it can be done. I thought I could use the computer as the master and it would play the drum machine regardless of the pattern but maybe its not that easy. I don't know very much about midi but it seems with terms like master, slave, midi clock, sync, etc. it would be a piece of cake.

[nattn]

Use midi to record a simple drum track. record all other tracks to the beat of the drum track. As long as the drums are on seperate track(s) & in midi, you should be able to modify, delete, re-record the midi to your hearts content. After you are happy with the results of your hard work, bounce the midi part to audio, add compression & reverb or whatever other FX seem appropriate or interesting.

If you have no experience in midi & h/t set it up, take a look at this tutorial. midi tutorial

Good luck

[mikeh]

Although I've not used n-tracks - I have to beleive any software based recording software has the ability to lock into either SMPTE or midi-sync (maybe both). Almost any halfway dsecent drum machine should have that capability.

Normally the sync is set up so the drum machine will not start to play until it receives a signal from the recording mahcine/software.

So program a very basic drum groove and lock the sync in. Set the drum machine to play (but it won't actually start until you start the recording software). You won't actually record the drum part - it will be a "virtual track". You can then record all your melodic parts while the drum machine plays a beat. Once all the melodic parts are done, you can then program the specific drum parts for the song and finally commit the "finished" drum part to your recording media.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo DOO-Wah:

Simple solution. Lay down your basic simple drum track; then, do all of the other tracks including the vocals; then, hire a real drummer to dub in the drum stuff you're looking for.

Sometimes I amaze myself.

Green Hornet

[J Wah]

Thanks guys. I thought this could be done.

nattn - thanks for the link to the midi tutorial. I am new to the midi stuff and will check it out tonight.

mikeh - I'm sure n-tracks can do that and I'll have to check my old Alesis drum mach.

GH - That thought has crossed my mind several times.


Hey, would this be any easier if I were using Fruityloops or something like that?

[nattn]

Creating a drum track in fruity loops & importing the wav to N-track would work just fine.

Learn midi though. You will not regret it.

David