Did you ever look at your drum track up against the grid?

[junplugged]

What does your track look like when you compare it to a grid of bars/beats?

Mine doesn't line up perfectly, I'm on one side or the other by a small amount. Sometimes a lot, and then I have to nudge a few beats over.

What is this in relation to the groove?

I'm often playing sooner than the beat and sometimes a little after, then I mess up sometimes and it's about 1/32 or 1/64th note too late from my current time difference, which could be 1/32 or 1/64th note away already. The late hit could be a total of 3/64th note values away from the time line.

I didn't want to slice it all up and quantize it, I don't think there's a need for that although maybe sometimes that's done. Better drummers maybe don't need to do any edits?

 

[mikeh]

When I've looked at my groove against a grid it often moves around a bit. This is not a bad thing if it does not compromise the song. There are some notes that need to be tweaked, but often only a little here and there - if it is not terribly obvious, I leave it alone.

The best studio guys who play to clicks all the time repeatedly indicate that a click is simply a guideline that the drummer works around.

 

[sepsis311]

I'm not the greatest drummer by far, and when i record myself, i dont line up perfectly. I originally play guitar, and started learning to play drums, cause i thought it'd be cool to jam to myself, so i find myself playing to my guitars and the click all the time. When I do record myself and play back a loop from one gridline to the other in the song, it sounds seamless. So i'm sure your playing is just fine.

 

[PhilGood]

We're human, not machines. There's an acceptable amount of 'breathing' in a track. That's what makes it musical. If its too far off, its noticable. If it sounds right with the other instruments, there's no need to worry. We can't all be like (insert famous great drum god here) and other 'robots'.

 

[sepsis311]

(cough) raymond hererra (cough)