Tempo mapping non-clicked track to vibe VI drums and grid

[Zydeceltico]

Hi All -

I'm a singer/songwriter with a home studio. I write a variety of songs most of which tend to show my affinity for the '70s and '90s.

I've been using Reaper since 2012 and Superior Drummer almost as long.

While I love what I'm able to achieve with SD3, I continue to miss the vibe of a real drummer who instinctively speeds up at choruses and naturally falls back in a verse or drives ahead of the beat in a bridge.

Also - I write the vast majority of my songs on either acoustic guitar or piano. I just bought the Townsend mic system to use with my Apollo Duo - -which I absolutely love.

The reason I bring this up is that the quality of sound I'm getting with that setup is so good that I want to approach my tracking of the overall song differently.

In the past, I have always recorded a scratch track of me playing and singing a song to a click, finding or creating a suitable groove in SD3, then retrack instruments and vocal separately and individually......and I always feel like it loses vibe - - - - -because it does.

So now - -with this new mic system - - I feel like I am totally wasting great vibe by trashing my scratch after I have a drum groove.

I want to use my scratch of vocal/guitar as the final and then put all of the other arrangement to it.

But that means I need to get the click to follow my live performance rather than the opposite - and I need SD3 specifically to follow my groove/meter.

Anybody have tips/tricks/suggestions?

I've watched Kenny's video on tempo mapping and that is obviously where I am headed. Thinking creatively about stretch markers also.

But does anybody have any "user experience" outside of pointing me at his video that might be beneficial? Specifically regarding attempting this with SD3?

One workflow that I'm considering - bearing in mind that I do not have perfect tempo (being human and all that) - is to record the guiatr/vocal combo to a click but not worry about "dead on." Then turn click off and tempo map that track. Then have SD3 follow that click groove. That would also allow me the opportunity to retard some areas and speed up other bits as I see fit but still be somewhat "on track" due to originally playing loose to a click.

Anybody else have any workflow tips?

Anything I should know about SD3 peculiarities trying this?

Thanks,

Tim
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[grimtraveller]

Tim, though I can't particularly help you on this, I do have a philosophical question for you. And it's this; when you hear a song, can you automatically tell if it was tracked to a click ?
There's been a lot of debate on this here down the years and personally, I've reached the conclusion that just because a click is used, it doesn't guarantee "dead on" timing by the player. Which, if used skilfully, can add that breathing, push and pull quality that comes without thinking when a click isn't being used. I think what you're proposing can be done, it'll just take somewhat longer and will probably be a bit fiddly but that shouldn't matter if you get there in the end. What's a bit of extra time ?
My apologies for not being of any help !

 

[Zydeceltico]

Tim, though I can't particularly help you on this, I do have a philosophical question for you. And it's this; when you hear a song, can you automatically tell if it was tracked to a click ?

Actually I can tell when it's not been played to a click. But my reality is less about the click and tightness as it is that I personally play looser with more vibe when I'm not overly-focused on the click - - and I have a lot of years practicing to a click (which has made my bass playing HUGELY better - lol - I can lay exactly 15 ms behind the kick now all the time instead of always being 50 ahead of it - lol). What I'm after is less about my playing than it is "adding more human" to the stellar grooves in SD3.

More than anything, I don't have a drummer and don't really want the hassle of finding one, practicing, paying, etc., to get my SD3 grooves to vibe a little more.

Thank you for your thoughts!