Importing drum tracks from Fruity Loops into Audition

[noiseordinance]

Hi there,

Let me start by acknowledging I have some older software. However, I'm comfortable with both, though I'm happy to receive suggestions if they aren't too pricey (broke college kid here!). I use Fruity Loops 6 with drum kit samples to arrange realistic sounding rock drums sequences. I then mix down the drums into a single wav file and pull them into Audition 1.5. From there, I have to sorta align the drum track onto the metronome. I lay all my instrument tracks down. Here comes the part that bugs me: adjusting drum levels. Since my drum sequence is now flattened, there's no individual control of kick, snare, cymbals, etc. I either need to deal with it, or go back into Fruity Loops and guestimate the proper levels and push them back into Audition.

I know my logic and methods are completely flawed. I have a buddy that uses Pro Tools and manages to sequence drums into individual tracks, but I just don't know where to start....

If anyone could provide pointers, I'd be ecstatic, as this has flawed my recordings for a long time now.

Thanks!!

 

[Seidy]

just export all drums to separate wav files: one wav for kick only, one for snare and so on.

 

[noiseordinance]

I've considered doing that, and that is a great idea. I'm just not sure how to make all the tracks line up? Since it's a recording and not midi commands, is there a common way people make separate tracks like this snap to a grid, or would i need to align all of these by eye / ear? Thank you for your help, BTW.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

just export all drums to separate wav files: one wav for kick only, one for snare and so on.

Exactly.

I use Fruity Loops (i forget which version) with a custom sample library (though, their "Realistic" kit wasn't too bad, IIRC) for sequencing drum loops while demoing. Usually, while working out an arrangement I'll just export a stereo master mix, but when I'm actually doing a fairly involved mix, I'll usually export the kick, the snare, and the hihats to their own tracks, and then program in individual crash hits.

There's a couple advantages to this approach - one, that it gives you the ability to control not just the volume of each sample relative to another, but also the FX mix - you can keep your kick drier than your snare, for instance. It also leaves you free to sidechain compress your bass from your kick, if (like I do, in Reaper) you have a sidechain-capable compressor, which is kind of fun. Finally, for those of us too lazy to sit down and program entire songs in Fruity Loops, this allows you to quickly copy-and-paste out an arrangement using one or two "sets" of drum loops, but then also "program" simple fills with some creative cutting and pasting - say, cutting out a kick hit, duplicating a snare hit and inserting it back in an 8th note later, whatever. It's not nearly as "real" sounding as manually sitting down and sequencing an entire track, if you're any good anyway, but with a little work here and there you can make a pretty believable performance with occasional fills here and there.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

I've considered doing that, and that is a great idea. I'm just not sure how to make all the tracks line up? Since it's a recording and not midi commands, is there a common way people make separate tracks like this snap to a grid, or would i need to align all of these by eye / ear? Thank you for your help, BTW.

Haha, simultaneous posts!

Well, if you do it my way, simply mute everything but the "component" you want (i.e - if you want your snare, solo either your snare sample(s)), then "Export as Acidized loop". All your loops will start at exactly the same point, so just open them snapped to a measure line and you're good to go.

If you want to do it with full performances, the same principle applies - export a .wav file of your, say, snare(s) solo'd, and then snap it to a measure line. Repeat for every part of the kit.

 

[noiseordinance]

I'm pretty good at composing entire drum sequences and as you said, importing individual tracks means I can do separate effects and whatnot. It's just the whole lining up each instrument by ear / eye... though I guess it wouldn't be that hard if I'm only using 7 or 8 drum sounds (btw, I have purchased actual drum kit sample libraries from 3rd parties; spanks all the stuff that comes with Fruity loops).

So let's say I have several patterns, an intro pattern, a verse pattern, a chorus pattern, etc. If I export the snare, will it give me one file for the snare that spans the entire arrangement, or does it dumb numerous files for each pattern?

EDIT: Sorry, I just read your post, that makes sense. I will do as you said by muting other instruments, but say, the snare, and then import the entire snare sequence into Audition. Good call!