Tight audio recording.

  • Thread starter Thread starter jerberson12
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jerberson12

mucis procedure
So I tried to copy paste an audio clip (ex. Kick and Snare) all over the project, aligning/snapping it to the grid.
When I play it, Why does it sometimes sound like off the beat? Im pretty sure snap is on.
Sometimes for the few seconds it sounds pretty tight then suddenly one clip will sound delay like a millisecond and then sounds pretty tight again.
Im sure the clips are the same and it looks like the clips are perfectly align/quantize with the grid
I notice it more by adding another tracks since it will not align with the new track anymore.
also there no effect running on each track.

I was thinking maybe it has to do something with one of the listed below.

-Hard drive performance low?
-PC needs optimization?
-background software running?
-maybe i was just out of timing with my acoustic guitar strumming

My specs:
Intel Xeon 1033 Dual Core 3.0 Ghz x 2 (QuadCore)
4gb RAM
Windows 7 professional 64bit
Protools 8
Digidesign 96i/o
 
When you recorded that guitar part did you have a metronome or drum beat going to keep you on tempo? You can't hear a millisecond difference, so maybe you are hearing MUCH BIGGER differences?
 
I agree with Mike...you can't hear a millisecond difference....but you maybe "feeling" it relative to the other parts.

This is where I get back to the "use a click" endless debate where I say you need to follow a steady reference for all your individual tracks....however, when you start moving/sliding those other tracks around...even a millisecond can affect the feel...which further proves that you can be in time with a click yet still be able to "play around" the click beat.

Example:
When you strum a guitar chord...you have many options for which part of that strum is going to be "dead on the beat". You can make the first note of the chord strum be on the beat or the middle notes or the last notes...and that's the choices that allow you to "dance around" a steady click/beat while still being "on the beat".

That is what I think you are experiencing if you're snapping every leading edge of every note to a grid.
So, use a click...but if you are going toslide stuff around to a grid, you have to sometiumes go more on feel/sound than just the visual "snap point". The auto-quantize will not know which part of the note/strum/beat is supposed to be "dead on".

Additionally...if you rarely play with a click...and then snap all your beats to a grid...it will sound weird at first, like it's not in time, even though it is. That's why some people have problems with clicks when they first use them, but after awhile you develop a much tighter playing style when you use a click (and yes, you can still play "around the beat").
 
Did you record an acoustic kit, with overheads/rooms? You'll run into syncing issues if you start moving kick and snare hits around.
 
Yeah...you have to move ALL the drum tracks at the same time...not just the close-mics...etc.
 
It will never sound right, the feel of the playing is destroyed. It's Ok to move a hit ever now and again to fix a mistake, but to do this to the whole track?

I used to programme drums in a band that used drum loops and samples with live instruments on stage, and the hits were never exactly on the grid. I did this to get a human feel for example the hats, kick and snare would never be exactly hit at the same time by a real drummer there would be a slight delay across the them which makes it sound human. Also the feel is achieved by the drummer and band playing ahead and behind the beat to change the feel of the song.

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
Also the feel is achieved by the drummer and band playing ahead and behind the beat to change the feel of the song.
Click to expand...

Of course...there's nothing wrong with achieving "feel" by actually playing ON the beat too.
Does it only have "feel" and/or sound "human" when it's off the beat....? ;)

Anyway, I agree that you DON'T want to grid-align every hit with a "razor"...but I'm talking about sample-level differences...nothing huge.

Also...even if you play ahead/behind the beat, you still need to be on/with the beat consistently throughout the whole song. When you're ahead for 3 beats, on for 2 beats and behind for 4 beats, randomly throughout the song....that's not "feel", that's sloppy...which is how most drummers/musicians play without a click. :)
 
miroslav said:
Of course...there's nothing wrong with achieving "feel" by actually playing ON the beat too.
Does it only have "feel" and/or sound "human" when it's off the beat....? ;)

Anyway, I agree that you DON'T want to grid-align every hit with a "razor"...but I'm talking about sample-level differences...nothing huge.

Also...even if you play ahead/behind the beat, you still need to be on/with the beat consistently throughout the whole song. When you're ahead for 3 beats, on for 2 beats and behind for 4 beats, randomly throughout the song....that's not "feel", that's sloppy...which is how most drummers/musicians play without a click. :)
Click to expand...

I think we are trying to make the same point, in front and behind the beat playing is just that, it's not people playing out of time it's the feel of the song, if you play a song behind the beat it has a laid back sort of feel, it you play in front off or hard on the beat (almost pushing ahead) it has that driving feel. I am talking about playing in time not sloppy playing.

Unfortunately nowadays bands think you can edit everything to make it sound like they can play, even if they can't play in time. Then they suddenly want to play to a click track which of course they can't do and it all becomes a mess. When I get bands like that in the studio I talk to then about practicing to a metronome at home.

Alan.
 
How do you know it's off the beat? Isn't your drum sample "the beat"?

Sure it's not everything else?
 
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