Midi and Sound replacement

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MadMax

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I'm trying to record midi out of my Yamaha digital drums and replace the sound with a soft Synth using Blue Jay drums or something like it. On my first run last night, I recorded the midi and a stereo audio pair out of the Yamaha drum brain.
Obviously, my drummer needs to adapt to playing a digital set a little. but the preliminary results are promising. The midi track playing a GM set sounds pretty crappy, but when I remapped to the Blue Jay set, it started to sound better.
My question is; does anybody have any experience doing this stuff? Any tricks I should know about?

Thanks.
 
MadMax said:
I'm trying to record midi out of my Yamaha digital drums and replace the sound with a soft Synth using Blue Jay drums or something like it. On my first run last night, I recorded the midi and a stereo audio pair out of the Yamaha drum brain.
Obviously, my drummer needs to adapt to playing a digital set a little. but the preliminary results are promising. The midi track playing a GM set sounds pretty crappy, but when I remapped to the Blue Jay set, it started to sound better.
My question is; does anybody have any experience doing this stuff? Any tricks I should know about?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

No tricks, but you want to split the recorded midi track out to separate individual tracks for each drum (there is a cal program in Cakewalk that will do this for you). That will allow you to mix and match kits and use the specific snare sound you want, the specific kick, and so on.
 
Yeah, I've thought about doing that, and for exactly that reason. Do you regularly record drums this way? I'd like to hear some examples.
I kind of just thought that this may be a great way to get good drum tracks without having to mic a real set and get the proper mics, room, comps, etc. since the samples sound so good.
 
Yes, I regularly record this way using Roland V-Drums (except when I finally record to audio I use the V-Drum samples, rather than software samples - mainly because I don't have any software samples that I feel are better than the Roland samples).

Although there is probably no substitute for mic'ing real drums, I live in an attached townhouse and real drums are pretty much out of the question for me. Also, it is soooooooooooo convenient to record this way.

If you want an example, you can check out the song How Bout Us here:
http://home.comcast.net/~jcaporaso/music/
 
Sounds fine Dachay. Particularly "How much I feel" has a very pro sound to it, the kind I myself would be hoping to achieve in my recordings. And that can be done with Sonar. And what else does it take?
 
tombuur said:
Sounds fine Dachay. Particularly "How much I feel" has a very pro sound to it, the kind I myself would be hoping to achieve in my recordings. And that can be done with Sonar. And what else does it take?
Click to expand...

Thanks. Everything is recorded and mixed in Sonar, and then exported to Wavelab for a do-it-yourself mastering job.

Besides Sonar and Wavelab, I use Kompakt from NI for some sound samples, and several of the Waves plugins. I use the Waves stuff both in Sonar (eq and compression mostly) and in Wavelab (eq, multiband compression and limiting mostly).
 
The bass sounded very good. Is that from Kompakt?

I have a bass guitar, bought for recording only, but have found that samples are just as good, at least when I play the bass.
 
tombuur said:
The bass sounded very good. Is that from Kompakt?
Click to expand...
If you're speaking specifically of the song, How Much I Feel, my recollection is that the bass we used was from the Edirol VSC that is included with Sonar. I would have to double check to be sure. It probably has been eq'd as well.

If you're interested in knowing the specific sample used and/or the eq settings, let me know and I can reopen the project and check.
 
If that was the Edirol bass, I must admit to being a snob, since generally I am not impressed with the Edirol sounds.

Someone sells Kompakt at a very good price around here, so I was wondering whether to get it. But do I really need it? I have several bass samples bought from Sonic Implants and Samplehead. I have BFD drums + samples and loads of loops. So maybe I just need some more B3 samples or the B4 and perhaps some strings/synths to fill the gaps in some songs. The guitars I play myself. I guess you have to decide how to put together your "band" and then stick with it to create your personal sound.
 
tombuur said:
If that was the Edirol bass, I must admit to being a snob, since generally I am not impressed with the Edirol sounds.

Someone sells Kompakt at a very good price around here, so I was wondering whether to get it. But do I really need it? I have several bass samples bought from Sonic Implants and Samplehead. I have BFD drums + samples and loads of loops. So maybe I just need some more B3 samples or the B4 and perhaps some strings/synths to fill the gaps in some songs. The guitars I play myself. I guess you have to decide how to put together your "band" and then stick with it to create your personal sound.
Click to expand...

Generally I don't care for the Edirol either - but it does have a couple of decent bass and piano patches. I think the key is not to audition the sounds "solo" when deciding, but rather audition them within the context of the entire mix. Sometimes stuff that sounds like crap solo, will sound pretty good in a mix. (I assume, btw, you are aware of the GS set of sounds in the Edirol as well as the GM set.)

As for Kompakt, so far I have only used it for strings and electric piano. I like having it available - but I'm hestitant to recommend spending $179 for it. It seems to me that when I am auditioning samples to use in a mix, I end up discarding Kompakt more often than I actually use it. It does, however, play sound fonts as well as its own samples, so that is something worth having.
 
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