Replacing Snare/other Drum hits

[BillC15]

I'm just wondering if this is a common practice and how to go about executing it, because I believe I have seen this done. When you have a recorded kit where the snare hits, for instance, are a bit uneven, is it common to select one nice one from the entire take and paste it over the uneven/weak ones? If so, would you only paste in these hits on the snare track by itself or would you select both the overheads and the snare track and paste that whole hit since the snare does come through the overheads as well? What do you all know about this?

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

There is no one right answer to this, a lot depends upon the exact circumstances.

If it's just one or two weaker hits in a particular section, often times I'll just edit those hits, not by replacing them but by boosting the individual hits on the snare track. Maybe sometimes I might copy and paste a good hit, but that can get to sound real artificial real quick IMHO.

If it's pretty much a bad section in general, I'll punch in a re-track of the whole section.

For me (IMHO, YMMV) flying in one good hit to replace a multitude of bad hits is only a real option if the drummer just plain is a bad drummer for whom re-tracking will not help much, and even then only if using a session drummer instead is not an option.

G.

 

[dintymoore]

If the drummer is riding his hi hat it's possible. I wouldn't find one hit that was good and paste it, I'd just go through the bars and drag them right.

There's a function on Cubase where you can make "hit points" which are basically the volume peaks and then you can quantize them. I have used that before and it works ok. But if there's ringing cymbals they get cut off and it's horrible. If you know ahead of time that you will be doing that you can play the drum track with no ride or crash cymbals and overdub them.. it's a bit odd but in certain situations can work.

Generally I'd rather redo the drum track or drag a few bad hits.

It reminds me of putting up drywall - if there's too many goofs I'd rather lay a whole new sheet than spend the day mudding a zillion mistakes.

 

[Dark Imagery]

Just throw a bass drop or a MIDI dog bark in place of the weak snare hits. What type of music are you doing? Seems like unless you were doing rap or some kind of electronic music it would kill the nuances of human playing. If they're really noticable and detracting I'd re-track. Turning up the snare hits may not do it since drums sound so different depending on how hard they're hit.

 

[RAMI]

Replacing the hits in the overheads has got to be extremely difficilt, if not impossible. Replacing them on the snare track is obviously easier, but you have to be careful because now the snare hit in your snare mic isn't the same as the one in your overheads and the mix of the two won't always sound as good as you hope.

 

[BillC15]

Replacing the hits in the overheads has got to be extremely difficilt, if not impossible. Replacing them on the snare track is obviously easier, but you have to be careful because now the snare hit in your snare mic isn't the same as the one in your overheads and the mix of the two won't always sound as good as you hope.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. I guess it's really the ringing of the cymbals that thwarts this method.

 

[Dark Imagery]

You think anyone would notice? The hit in the snare mic would almost completely overpower the snare in the overhead, especially since he's wanting to fix the quieter hits. Don't mess with the overheads (speaking without much experience.) I still say throw a MIDI dog bark in it's place.

 

[RAMI]

You think anyone would notice? The hit in the snare mic would almost completely overpower the snare in the overhead, especially since he's wanting to fix the quieter hits. Don't mess with the overheads (speaking without much experience.) I still say throw a MIDI dog bark in it's place.

WOOF!

I guess it depends how one mixes their drums. I'd say 80% of my snare sound is coming out of the overheads, if not more. The snare mic doesn't overpower it at all. In fact, quite the opposite. Others will use more snare mic than overheads. But you're right about the fact that he's replacing soft hits with loud ones only on the snare track. In that case, the snare might be loud enough to mask the OV snare.

 

[rfahey86]

I usually just use drumagog on the snare track and sidechain it to a compressor on the overheads. Be careful tho otherwise the overheads will pump really badly.

 

[grimtraveller]

I'm just wondering if this is a common practice and how to go about executing it, because I believe I have seen this done. When you have a recorded kit where the snare hits, for instance, are a bit uneven, is it common to select one nice one from the entire take and paste it over the uneven/weak ones? If so, would you only paste in these hits on the snare track by itself or would you select both the overheads and the snare track and paste that whole hit since the snare does come through the overheads as well? What do you all know about this?

It's really weird because sometimes it works so well and you'd just never notice. But other times it sounds so fake. I've come to the conclusion that to cover the snare track and have it sound normal, the song itself and the way the drums were played have to be condusive. And sometimes they are, sometimes not. Some of my early efforts just make me want to cry. But you learn as you go on. For example, now I'd select three or four different hits to paste so that they don't all sound the same. And I'd leave the overheads as is. It can sound odd if there's a micro-second between the sound of the snare hits, unless you're going for that "rods" effect.

 

[witzendoz]

What I have done to fix a crappy snare sound (playing) is to trigger a snare sample every time the snare is hit and to add that to the original snare sound. With the 2 sounds mixed together, i.e., the original in the overheads and some snare mic plus the sample, you can get a very realistic snare sound that improves what you had.

I have also done this with the kick.

Cheers
Alan.

 

[BillC15]

Yeah, I'd just like to stay away from midi reinforcement, given that I don't really have much of a selection anyway (nor do I have a decent dog bark). But I also have hits that are too loud and as a result, the compressor lets by the loud initial transient, leaving an unpleasant pop in the hit. As it turns out, pasting a less snappy hit over this on only the snare track perfectly remedies the problem, since the problem is really in the snare track only, and the overheads are quite compressed anyway.