Greg_L mix contest/clinic/critique - just for shits and grins

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Hey Ramrod, can that Tascam be used as an interface with Reaper?

Unfortunately, no. You can't get the individual tracks out. So, I record onto the TASCAM and then bring all the tracks into REAPER. Took me a while to make that jump, but I'm glad I did.
 
Unfortunately, no. You can't get the individual tracks out. So, I record onto the TASCAM and then bring all the tracks into REAPER. Took me a while to make that jump, but I'm glad I did.

How do you do that?

So you can't use the Tascam as an interface?
 
record on any channel from 1-9 and paste over to 13.....
record a bunch of back vocal tracks on 1-9 and then bounce them over to 13/14......

Sorry. I don't know why I kept saying 1-9. I meant 1-12. :cool:
 
How do you do that?

So you can't use the Tascam as an interface?

You can do it by USB or by CD. I just transfer them into my computer by USB. You can use it as an interface with the digital out. But that only allows you to assign 2 tracks going out.
 
....I just realized that I could record directly into REAPER through my TASCAM if I use the digital out. But, then again, I need more than just 2 trakcs for my drums. So, I can do it for everything else but the drums.
 
:laughings:

Hey, I don't doubt that. A drummer I am not...even with real drums. Tapping little buttons on a machine, I ain't got a prayer.

Oh well, I reckon it is what it is. Thanks for your support! :)
 
:laughings:

Hey, I don't doubt that. A drummer I am not...even with real drums. Tapping little buttons on a machine, I ain't got a prayer.

Oh well, I reckon it is what it is. Thanks for your support! :)

I picked up a used mpd 24 controller (bigger pads) for around $80.....works a damn sight better than a wee drum machine and gets more realistic beats than drawing it in (I dont always use machine drums)...

Im sure you can use loops but that means you cant treat each drum..all you've got is the loop??? :(
 
If you can't do real drums, at least program your own. Or learn how. Loops and machines suck. :mad:
 
I picked up a used mpd 24 controller (bigger pads) for around $80.....works a damn sight better than a wee drum machine and gets more realistic beats than drawing it in (I dont always use machine drums)...

Im sure you can use loops but that means you cant treat each drum..all you've got is the loop??? :(

Lost me there dude. Remember, i'm an idiot, thick, dense,...ya gotta splain to me in more simpler terms.

Controller?...meaning, you use the controller to play kits that you find online?

drawing it in?...huh?

My drum machine has "patterns", none of which I use. I set tempo, pick a kit(it has several), customize the kit by changing a single element such as loosening or tightening down on the hat, customize a bit further(cut/add reverb, adjust pitch and such), do some panning(kick and snare ALWAYS center :D),....then start tapping. I "program" one pattern at a time(mentally thinking of where the kick should land to correspond/landing with the bass, which I will record later once the patterns are linked in an entire song), then link the patterns to create an entire song. It's a long process that is often revised several times....a pain in the ass, which I usually do before anything else....the entire song on drums.

Oddly, it seems that sometimes, though the beat is accurate, where it lands on the beat seems odd. As if in a driving type ditty the beat is dragging, because the beat should be on the front of the one, so to speak. I've messed with the quantization, but tapping those little buttons...I suck keeping things accurate.

In short, the drum machine sucks, I suck, or both. :spank:

Hey, but on the bright side, Acidrock did give me the scoop a while back on using midi to set the clock thing so as to make sure revisions are on tempo. Thanks Acidrock!
 
If you can't do real drums, at least program your own. Or learn how. Loops and machines suck. :mad:

Lost me too.

Program? Isn't that what I am doing? When you say "machines such", do you mean trying to play along for the entire song, rather than setting it(programming it?) and just hitting play?

Machines do suck...at least when i'm at the helm. The hat has no life/personality... the snare either, for that matter...just droning repetitive lifeless robototry.
 
I mean like designing your own patterns by drawing in the hits. It's time consuming though. You could probably learn how to play and record real drums in the time it would take to do one song. :laughings:
 
Lost me there dude. Remember, i'm an idiot, thick, dense,...ya gotta splain to me in more simpler terms.

Controller?...meaning, you use the controller to play kits that you find online?

drawing it in?...huh?

My drum machine has "patterns", none of which I use. I set tempo, pick a kit(it has several), customize the kit by changing a single element such as loosening or tightening down on the hat, customize a bit further(cut/add reverb, adjust pitch and such), do some panning(kick and snare ALWAYS center :D),....then start tapping. I "program" one pattern at a time(mentally thinking of where the kick should land to correspond/landing with the bass, which I will record later once the patterns are linked in an entire song), then link the patterns to create an entire song. It's a long process that is often revised several times....a pain in the ass, which I usually do before anything else....the entire song on drums.

Oddly, it seems that sometimes, though the beat is accurate, where it lands on the beat seems odd. As if in a driving type ditty the beat is dragging, because the beat should be on the front of the one, so to speak. I've messed with the quantization, but tapping those little buttons...I suck keeping things accurate.

In short, the drum machine sucks, I suck, or both. :spank:

Hey, but on the bright side, Acidrock did give me the scoop a while back on using midi to set the clock thing so as to make sure revisions are on tempo. Thanks Acidrock!


i have a pretty decent drum machine i jam with but i wouldnt put it in a track...for acoustic drums you can spot them a mile off...Ive got Superior drummer and NIs abbey road for them that I use the controller to tap in the beats...Im not good enough to do the fills like that but the general beats is pretty easy, and if you can get it accurate enough without quantizing it then it sounds fairly realistic

with a loop or drum machine the velocity is the same on every hit, repeated every bar, and unless your greg for some apparent reason that rarely happens..and even midi loops is like having the worlds greatest drummer while you're plonking away on a five note solo, that sounds even worse :)


when it comes to having decent mixes you'll want more control over the effects...like compressing the kick or snare aside from the rest of the kit..unless your machine has multiple outputs?


electronic stuff always goes through a sequencer....they are a piece of pish compared to getting realistic acoustic sounding drums...one track takes me a couple of days generally, just for the drums, eventually im going to buy a kit and just learn them...got to be quicker ;)
 
forgot those drum triggers, like my mpd, can be used to trigger drum machines with midi...I have a fourtrack standalone for sketches and use it with that :)
 
Im not sure but with standalone recorders theres some kinda problem with the way they treat mono tracks...Id look into the manual in depth as even Heatmeister had troubles...Id send him a stereo wave then the stanadalone would split it in two again....

LOL @ "even Heatmeister had troubles..." as if I'd be somehow less likely than others to be confused by technology. I am likely the least technologically adept member of this forum :D.

See, I don't have the 2488, although I thought about getting one. I have a Roland VS2400. It has 24 mono tracks available. None of them are preset to be linked stereo tracks like on Mick's Tascam. While it sounds like Rami has workarounds for this, I don't understand why they designed it that way? Seems inconvenient at best.

The problem I had was that your stereo files (which apparently occupy only one track each on your pc) are automatically split into two of my 24 tracks, not one like on your pc. It just took up more space than I anticipated. I can choose to link any adjacent tracks I want, but it sounds like Mick's machine already has some tracks linked right out of the gate...why I can't imagine :confused:.

Loops and machines suck. :mad:

Aw man, that is all I've ever used...sometimes they don't sound too bad :p.
 
Greg----> Yeah, that's what i'm doing, drawing it in. Pain in the ass, it.

kcearl-----> I haven't messed with the velocity much...i'm not consistent enough to actually accentuate what I want accentuated as opposed to what I don't want accnetuated.

(As per what Acidrock helped me with)If i'm recording the kick on a track, I mute all other items on the kit. I do that until everything is recorded on individual tracks(except cymbals and toms, which I adjust volumes and pan in the field on the drum machine before recording on individual tracks as a whole...cymbals on one track, toms on another). So, in the end, I can compress the kick or snare...although I haven't experimented thusly yet.

Anyway, i've dragged this out long enough as it is...embarrassing.

Thanks for taking the time guys.
 
Seriously though, I'm all for people playing real instruments whenever possible, but acoustic drums are logistically the most difficult rock instrument to get set up and record properly...in terms of noise, space required, mics required, etc.

I would think real drums performed and recorded well are ideal, but are programmed drums really any better than loops or drum machines? I've heard some pretty god-awful programmed drums over the years...
 
I've heard some pretty god-awful programmed drums over the years...

The problem with programmed drums, and I've read Rami touch on this and I totally agree, is that they are sometimes programmed beyond the realm of human capability. A lot of times there are things happening that a human drummer simply won't do. Also, it's really easy to over-program a drum take. It's easy to throw fills everywhere when you're drawing drum tracks. That doesn't usually sound good. :D
 
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