Drum Audio Track To Midi?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Durv
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Durv

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HI there,
i've been learning more and more that producers take the timing/hits from a mic'd drum kit...and simply replace it with a midi based or other triggered drum sound? so that its "perfect" and still real sounding.
i saw on one of the threads that someone did "extract timing" of a KICK track to a MIDI track? and assigned a "kick" sound to it?
Can someone explain how this is done? Step by step? and if too complex, maybe show the direction so as to how i could learn more?
i feel it would help my recordings by leaps and bounds!
please help!
thank you
Durv
:eek:
 
theres a plugin called drumagog that does exactly what you want.
 
Or, simply select the track you want to extract from, in this case the kick track. Select the whole thing. Go up to edit>audio>extract timing.
A dialog box will pop up, and some tweaking of the settings should get you going. I always hit the audition button, as it will place visible markers on the audio track where it detects the kick(or whatever else). When you get it triggering correctly, just click OK. The midi will be in the clipboard. Just right click on a MIDI track and Paste. All your hits will magically appear. A few may be misplaced, but that's easily corrected in Piano Roll View.
This has been extremely useful for me in replacing some cheesy old drum tracks of mine.
 
i HAVE drumagog...but i actually DONT like some of the sounds at all!!
I mean they are ok....but i dont hear the exact "kick" i like....i DID find some snares i like.
So "extract timing" is coverting it to MIDI? amazing. I know this is over indulgence....but once i creat a MIDI track and "paste" the MIDI signal...
how would i go about getting the MIDI signal to "trigger" a sound?
Is there any place i can read in depth about this?
thank you!
Durv
 
My band ended up using drumagog on our last project for the kick. The recorded sound didn't have the punch we wanted, but the drumagog didn't have the fullness we wanted either, so we mixed them together and found a good balance of the two.

as for midi... couldn't you just set that track up as a midi drum track using the timings you got for your audio track?
 
If you have drumagog, why not spend a little time concentrating on recording a few really killer kick sounds, then use drumagog to trigger them?
 
mbuster said:
If you have drumagog, why not spend a little time concentrating on recording a few really killer kick sounds, then use drumagog to trigger them?
Click to expand...

I just dont have the knowledge/experience to capture the "perfect" sound. I'll just admit it.
I was wonderring if you guys could tell me, step by step, how do i make a MIDI DRUM TRACK? i aplogize for my ignorance guys...i just dont get it.
i have the manual for S3, but it reads like hyrogliphics to me.
is there a website or tutorial that might help me do this?
also, has anyone noticed the "pop" when drumagog is triggerred? with some sounds? i hear it often on the snare or such....its like a slight pop/click.
thanks again guys.
Durv
 
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Well, there's nothing wrong with not being an expert. Although, I'd still recommend trying to record your own samples as an excercise in mic placement techniques.
That being said, in order to get your midi drum tracks working, we need to know a couple of things. Are you planning to trigger sounds on an outboard device (keyboard, drum machine, etc) or via a software sampler?
 
by the way, if the manual doesn't make sense ( I know it's hard to get started with midi and samplers when you don't know the lingo and implementation) Scott Garrigus' Sonar Power book kind of serves as a second manual, explaining in more of a How-to type of way. I got the book when I was getting started with S2xl, and it helped me a lot.
 
mbuster said:
Well, there's nothing wrong with not being an expert. Although, I'd still recommend trying to record your own samples as an excercise in mic placement techniques.
That being said, in order to get your midi drum tracks working, we need to know a couple of things. Are you planning to trigger sounds on an outboard device (keyboard, drum machine, etc) or via a software sampler?
Click to expand...

I would like to use REASON to do it since i have that... or perhaps get "DRUMS FROM HELL" ? I only have the S3 vsynths that came with S3 Producers. I DO have the Oxygen 8 keyboard, but i mainly use it to like write some simple melodies with the EDIROL synth. i didnt hear any great drum sounds in it though. So to answer. i would like to use a software synth.But again, i dont know how to actually "piece it together". ...which is the hard part!
i am definitely going to see if i can get someone to just let me sample their kit! I just gotta find a drummer whos willing, and able...and has a good/great kit! Not to mention a good drummer!
when you do so...do you edit the clip to be just one hit, and no other sounds? like not KICK+ CRASHES right?
Mbuster, thank you again. i am very glad that i'm not getting flamed on here like on some other mssg. boards!
peace!
Durv
 
There are, I believe, a few ways to use the timing and feel of a real drum track to create a MIDI sequence. I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I am fairly sure it can be done pretty easily.

You can use the Extract Timing feature above.

You can you some sort of beat slicing program, such as Propellerheads ReCycle. Basically this takes a drum loop and slices it up into beats, but I think can also produce a MIDI sequence used to trigger each beat. I don't have the program so I don't know for sure. Normally you would do this so you could use each slice of the original loop as you wished, but you could presumably just use the timing and entirely different samples.

For a cheaper option, I believe the Computer Muzys program that comes on the CD with Computer Music magazine can also do the same thing.
 
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