file conversion

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rusty K
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Rusty K

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Good day,

I found some drumloops that I'd like to use but N-track won't recognize them. They are in (.mid) format. Could someone help me make them usable. My wave editor won't recognize them either.

Thanks,
RK
 
N-track does indeed handle midi files.Just look in the menu bar for "import midi" or something like that.
A hint for midi drums;import the voices individually to their own track for later ability to tweak the kick or snare level vs the rest of the kit.Just like live drums in a studio environment.See?
Or play the midi on your external device and treat it like regular audio recording.That would probably depend on whether your external device or the sound card in your computer has the better sounding set of wave samples.

Tom
 
Tom,

Thanks once again for your help. I was able to get N-track to recognize the .mid file by using "import midi" but I can only loop a wav file.

As for importing individual midi tracks for tweaking; there already seems to be quite a bit of processing on the tracks. I'm not sure more would be productive.

Actually this all may be a moot point as "hux" in the Fasoft Forum has turned me on to PC Drummer. I've downloaded the demo and so far it seems to be very simple. As a songwriter trying to avoid an excessive amount of time programming my drum tracks, PC drummer looks to be promising.

If you have any thoughts on the subject I would certainly appreciate your input.

Thanks again,
RK
 
Its difficult to make midi drums sound realistic,so having the different sounds on separate tracks lets you go back at mixdown and say"I want a bit more level on just the kick" or whatever.
Effects are what eats up the processor,because all the data resides on the hard drive and not in RAM like other programs.If your system starts to bog down because of the # of tracks,that is when a sub-mix comes in handy.
As an example say you have three-part harmony vocals we want to reduce to a submix.Mute everything else and adjust your harmony voices to get a good blend.Mixdown those blended three and call the wave "backup vocals".Reimport that backup wave to the program and mute the three original tracks it came from.Now you can adjust levels on the backups relative to the main vocal but all the harmony voices will maintain their relative positions as you do so.
This same idea works on drums.Do the individual tracks,make up a punchy submix and mixdown,reimport the drum wave and now you have the ability to do levels on the entire kit with one fader.If you later change your mind and want a reverse gate on the snare,say;dump the submix and unmute the original tracks for a fresh submix.All the muted tracks won't affect the processor at all (except a small bit of horsepower required to draw the graphics).
This post has gotten long so I'll sign off.Good luck on your midi adventures!

Tom
 
Tom,

I think that the PC Drummer files can be imported as wav. At least I believe that's how "hux" is using them. His tracks sound pretty good which is why I bacame interested. Frankly I'd like to be able to tweak each element separately just for the reasons you stated. So.... I just import as midi and each drum comes in on it's own track? Forgive my ignorance of the subject.

So far I haven't "bogged down" but I'm just getting into it. I really don't plan to have that many tracks. Usually a basic number of Drums, bass, guitar(rhythm and lead) and of course vocals(lead with some backups). With say using 5 for drums ? 3 vocals, 1 bass maybe 2, and no more than four for all the guitar work,probably never more than 16 in all.

What do you think?
RK
 
Sounds like you are on the right track.Frankly,midi is a pain in the butt.I much prefer to bring the sound in as audio instead for the ease of processing factor.
My bitch about midi drums is the roboto feel mainly.So,because I use a drum machine,I've developed these tweaks to try and make it sound a little more real.

Tom
 
Tom,

Do you have any examples of your work for others to listen to? Which drum maching are you using? I've been using a Boss Dr. Rhythm. Everything was ok, a little robotic but...,
until I needed to disable quantize and lo and behold there is no disable quantize on my machine. I need this function, who doesn't? I got such a deal on my Boss I jumped at it without checking into it enough. I'd also like to have more kit sounds available.

I must make the right move with respect to my drum issue. PC Drummer is cheap and easy but if it won't cut it it's just more wasted money.

As always thanks,
RK
 
I have solo stuff on my home page and band stuff on my band page.I have an HR16 drum machine and a drum machine built into my midi keyboard.
Doing all this on software is the cheap way to go,you just have to put up with using the mouse interface instead of actual knobs and slider pots.
I am against quantization.No human drummer has this feature.For drum machines,I quantise the kick and snare only to lock in the groove.I freehand the other parts to give it a human feel.

Tom
 
Tom,

Man I'm still fishing for advice. What sould I do? I want the quickest easiest and best solution. Is that asking too much? Ha!

So do you tap everything in manually? Yeah I wanted a retard on the end on one of my tunes. Try doing that with quantize. But of course you know.

Really I want your advice.

RK
 
Quick and easy is loops and preprogrammed patterns.A real drummer is best,of course,but tweaking the midi or drum machine stuff can get the sound a little closer.
Most guys just do a two bar pattern and let it go at that.More details,fills,variations are what makes it seem a little more real to my mind.But that takes the time and trouble to fool with it.
This whole new world of hard disk recording is really great for one-man-band types.But drums usually suffer for it.My two cents.

Tom
 
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