Drum Programming

M

mudomo

New member
If I were to get something like Superior Drummer, can I lay down a drum track for a song IN the software and then throw the completely recorded audio file in something like Audacity with my other recordings? Or do I need to do something else to record a track? Very noob question, but a noob is exactly what I am when it comes to recording. Thanks for your answers :D
 
You need a host program to run Superior Drummer. Something like ProTools, Cubase, etc. From within one of those programs, you can create a drum track, render it to an audio file and then load the file into Audacity. But why? Audacity is kind of like the last program you want to use for recording. Its good for converting audio formats, but that's about it.
 
Yeah, Audacity was just used an as example because it's all I have right now, I'm not planning on using it for recording. Anyways, so will something like ProTools have a piano roll to make drum tracks?
 
Yup. Plus, you can use SD's pre-canned groove files (or whatever they are called) to use as a starter then edit them. Far easier than starting from scratch.
 
I use Reaper and Addictive Drums and I have, on several occasions, retrofitted a drum track to a previously recorded tune - generally previously recorded on a standalone machine, not via PC, by importing the wav files, then setting up a MIDI drum track as Chili has alluded to, by using Reaper to host the drum VST.

It must have been recorded to a click to do this. Well not must have, but you need a constant rhythm if you're going do to it at any speed.

Essentially you drop your track in, preferably by importing wavs of the input tracks, not as a stereo mix. Then you work out your time signature and approximate tempo, and set up a simple click in your drum VSTi, then alter the BPM until you're as close as you can get to an exact match with your recording. Much easier if you bring the click track with you, obviously. Given you can get the BPM to a 1000th of a second, you can get it close enough so that no-one will ever notice.

Once you've got the beat matched, you program your drums to your heart's content and mix them in... or record new bits or whatever.

As an example of how this works, this track I'm linking to was recorded to a click as a demo on a standalone machine, and the only original thing in the version at the link are the vocal and acoustic guitars. Everything else was added after importing it into Reaper, beat matching, adding MIDI drums, then electric guitar, bass and harmonies... so yes, you very much can do what you want to do, with a bit of patience, and for god's sake, ditch Audacity and use Reaper, or similar...

Time Is On My Mind
 
Chili and Armistice,
This is about where I am at with drum programming. May I ask: For the purposes of quality home recording, how detailed do you get when you import drum loops? Is it normal to get all detailed, split all the drums into separate tracks like real mic'd drums would be and then EQ /mix into a stereo submix? Or is it considered acceptable practice to just put the mixed drum loops onto a single stereo track and be done with it?
 
I think it depends on which VSTi you are using. Superior Drums has enough controls built in to the VSTi that you could do everything there and send it as a 2 track to the main bus. EZDrummer doesn't. Although EZD is meant to just drag and play, as noted by others it doesn't sound great right out of the box and you need to massage the individual tracks to make it sound decent.

Even though Superior Drums has extensive capabilities, I still send the tracks individually to the DAW and use my UAD plugs on them. I don't know anything about Addictive Drums or SSD.

As for the canned groove files, I edit extensively. I like to use their files as a starting point then I edit the drum hits to match what I hear in my head. I love this part of writing drum tracks. I can spend hours editing drum parts. :) But I have found that some of ToonTracks expansion tracks don't need a lot of editing. The Americanca expansion pack is one of them. I've only used it once, but I don't think I did a whole lot with it other than dragging the files onto the midi track.

Hope this answers your question.... Maybe I went off on a tangent.
 
Chili said:
I think it depends on which VSTi you are using. Superior Drums has enough controls built in to the VSTi that you could do everything there and send it as a 2 track to the main bus. EZDrummer doesn't. Although EZD is meant to just drag and play, as noted by others it doesn't sound great right out of the box and you need to massage the individual tracks to make it sound decent.

Even though Superior Drums has extensive capabilities, I still send the tracks individually to the DAW and use my UAD plugs on them. I don't know anything about Addictive Drums or SSD.

As for the canned groove files, I edit extensively. I like to use their files as a starting point then I edit the drum hits to match what I hear in my head. I love this part of writing drum tracks. I can spend hours editing drum parts. :) But I have found that some of ToonTracks expansion tracks don't need a lot of editing. The Americanca expansion pack is one of them. I've only used it once, but I don't think I did a whole lot with it other than dragging the files onto the midi track.

Hope this answers your question.... Maybe I went off on a tangent.
Click to expand...

Addictive Drums is similar to SD. You can do all the processing and mixing in the VSTi window itself and just have a stereo output. The default setting has the drums ready-mixed and processed to a reasonable-sounding drum track. However, you can turn all the processing off (there is eq, compression, envelope filtering and more (I forget exactly what) applied to each mic channel) so it's essentially just a sample player. You can also use direct outs to multiple tracks in your DAW and then mix as you would a real multi-tracked drum session.
 
Chili said:
I think it depends on which VSTi you are using. Superior Drums has enough controls built in to the VSTi that you could do everything there and send it as a 2 track to the main bus. EZDrummer doesn't. Although EZD is meant to just drag and play, as noted by others it doesn't sound great right out of the box and you need to massage the individual tracks to make it sound decent.

Even though Superior Drums has extensive capabilities, I still send the tracks individually to the DAW and use my UAD plugs on them. I don't know anything about Addictive Drums or SSD.

As for the canned groove files, I edit extensively. I like to use their files as a starting point then I edit the drum hits to match what I hear in my head. I love this part of writing drum tracks. I can spend hours editing drum parts. :) But I have found that some of ToonTracks expansion tracks don't need a lot of editing. The Americanca expansion pack is one of them. I've only used it once, but I don't think I did a whole lot with it other than dragging the files onto the midi track.

Hope this answers your question.... Maybe I went off on a tangent.
Click to expand...


It was a great answer. I am so overwhelmed by drug programming that I suffer from paralysis. It doesn't help that I have collected and now own basically every popular drum VST that exists. I can barely seem to figure out how to get started, and I am faced with too many options. I can totally see where you could get into spending hours editing. I'm pretty sure that I am going to put the Main Thing on the back burner for a while and throw myself into learning basic drum programming, recording and mixing first before I start adding a lot of other types of tracks.

jonny deep said:
Addictive Drums is similar to SD. You can do all the processing and mixing in the VSTi window itself and just have a stereo output. The default setting has the drums ready-mixed and processed to a reasonable-sounding drum track. However, you can turn all the processing off (there is eq, compression, envelope filtering and more (I forget exactly what) applied to each mic channel) so it's essentially just a sample player. You can also use direct outs to multiple tracks in your DAW and then mix as you would a real multi-tracked drum session.
Click to expand...

Thanks for commenting JD, where to mix and how to EQ are, to me, a fundamental quandary.
Sorry if I hijacked the thread a bit, gathering an understanding of this subject is turning out to be key to me getting to the next level.
 
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