Can't Line Up My Drums With The Tune!

[Dr. Varney]

I'm having real trouble lining up the drums I made in FL Studio when I import them into Reaper.

Here's the whole story:

Once I'd made the drum pattern I wanted in FL (in a project called 'DrumMachine.flp), I exported each piece of the kit into my stem folder. I also recorded a complete .wav of the looped pattern to use in the next stage... (in other words - just a recording of the drum pattern, to use as a guide loop, to play the other instruments along to).

The next stage was to start a new project in FL and import the drum loop .wav in and work around that. Made a fine tune with bass, synths and it's all dead on.

After removing all effects and automation from the tune, I then exported everything from the main tune project, MINUS THE DRUMS GUIDE-LOOP. This results in lovely clean stems - ready for mixing from scratch, in Reaper.

Okay, so then I get to work in Reaper. First I imported the proper drum stems I made earlier into Reaper, repeating the loop and then mixing the whole kit together beautifully. Very proud of that bit.

Now I have come to place my other tune parts on top, everything else is at odds with the drums. I can't get them to play along with each other, it keeps going out of time but I can't work out where.

So I thought to fix this by going back into my FL DrumMachine project and making up the drums into exact song length and exported the stems again, only this time, they are complete song length instead of being just a loop lasting 2 bars (or whatever). The gross effect is and should be exactly the same as using one loop and repeating it - but this time I've left exactly enough silence before the drums come in.

This means that all of the stems can start at exactly zero time, in Reaper - and should run the length of the song, until it ends. So there is no sequencing involved - I just mix what's there; beginning to end. Just as if it were several analogue tapes all the same length, playing together.

It works for all the other instruments; they seem to be in time... but the drums just sound terrible because they are out of sync with the rest of the piece.

I've magnified in to have a look and I notice the marks of the waveform in the drum wavs start out lined up with the lines in the grid in Reaper but seem to drift as the song progresses. For some reason, the drums are going out of time, according to the grid. I've tried adjusting the grid units from minutes/samples/beat/etc but it makes no difference. I just can't line them up. Is the grid phooey? I've never had this trouble in FL Studio. That grid is always dead on, even with recorded wavs!

Now the drums are not out of time, because if I listen to them soloed, it's obvious the drums are in perfect time. When I mute the drums and listen to the other stems playing together, they are in perfect time as well. Because they were sequenced by a computer and not played live, they have to be exactly in time - and they are!

So what doesn't make sense here is how this can be happening?!

I've tried a lot of things but now I'm out of ideas and at my wits-end. Please, does anyone know what could be going wrong here?

Dr. V

 

[Dr. Varney]

Did you check to make sure both projects were made at the same tempo?

Dr. V

 

[Dr. Varney]

No I didn't. The drums are at 125.00 while all the other instruments are at 124.100.

Dr. V

 

[Dr. Varney]

Well there's your problem then (you idiot!)

Dr. V

 

[noisewreck]

Hey Doc,

If they start out in time and then drift apart, it sound to me like a sample rate issue.

Were both drum part and the rest of the audio parts exported at the same sample rate?

Do they play at the right pitch?

[Edit] I had this window up and was doing some other work before I posted. Looks like you've sorted things out [/Edit]

 

[Chibi Nappa]

This thread is

 

[Bristol Posse]

Did you check to make sure both projects were made at the same tempo?

Dr. V

Yup I've done that too. It's a great way to waste hours and get increasingly frustrated as to why you tracks won't line up, only to discover they can't possibly line up because you recorded them at different tempos
well done for answering your own question though

 

[Dr. Varney]

Thanks, I really hope I didn't waste too much of anyone's time, trawling through all that.

It's often the smallest things (or the omission of) that cause the biggest problems!

I don't think I'll make that mistake again.

One Q. Does my process seem rather long winded to you, or is it common for people to use more than one application to arrive at the final result?

With practice it seems to be getting easier and more fluid a process. Obviously, it means being uber organised with file names etc.

Dr. V

 

[Bristol Posse]

One Q. Does my process seem rather long winded to you, or is it common for people to use more than one application to arrive at the final result?

With practice it seems to be getting easier and more fluid a process. Obviously, it means being uber organised with file names etc.

Dr. V

I think it's one of those whatever works for you decisions.

Personally I have one DAW (Sony ACID Pro (I'm possibly the only person in the world who uses it as a full on recording DAW, but I digress)) in which I do everything, because so far I haven't run into anything I wanted to do but wasn't able to from that application.

However my process may seem convoluted to someone else, who would just fire up a different DAW that handles MIDI better or something for that portion of their workflow

I liken it to driving in LA. If you ask 5 different people how to get somewhere you'll probalbly get 5 different answers. In every case the traffic will suck but you will get there eventually. You'll just get to see some different scenery (or possibly be shot at ) depending on which route you take.