Time Alignment of Recordings and Drums

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Tim Brown

Tim Brown

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Do any of you guys "Time Align" your drums?
Or know what I'm talking about?

You can Delay the "Click" of the Kickdrum, to be in perfect time with the "Boom" of the drum (You use two mic's to do this).
Or do you time align the highs of the Recordings (So that lows and highs hit you at the same time)?

Just wondering,


Tim
 
Well I suppose that's an option, but aren't you killing any semblance of human drummer feel by doing that??? (Unless it's dance tracks, in which case they're probably quantized to death anyways!)

Unless there's *real* timing issues on a drummer's track, I wouldn't mess with the feel of the track that way, but that's just me... ;)

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound
 
Bruce,

When I was running a Sound System, I would Time Align the Highs and Lows (via a delay), so that they Hit the listener at the same time, and I'm wondering if people do this in recording. (It's what a BBE actually does-it delays the high frequency content so that the Lows and Highs strike at the same time, whcih causes the sound to have more of an "impact".), I just wondered if anybody does this sort of thing.

Tim
 
Oh I see... in a Live situation... in that case, forget I said anything!! ;)

I've heard of that technique before, but I'm not a live-sound guy so I can't comment other than to say when I read about it, it made sense!

Bruce
 
Isn't that just something that is nesseracy in live situations, because people are far away from the speakers? Thats what I though, but I might have misunderstood completely.

In that case, it makes no sense in recording situations at all...
 
Well, time aligning the tracks in a drum recording can get rid of phasing issues. If you have a digital workstation you can simply zoom way in on the tracks and line them all up exactly so they're more in phase.

You can do the same thing using a delay on an analog machine - change the comb filter between tracks by changing a delay length. But since you're only using the delayed signal, if you have anything but a high end delay unit this can really cheese out the sound.

Unless you've got a digital station (and really, even if you do, because you wouldn't be able to really hear the result until after the fact), I find it easier to just move mics around to change the phase relationships.

As for time aligning the highs and lows, yeah I agree this isn't something that is normally necessary in recording, unless you've got a room mic that's way down the hall from the drum kit! :)

--Lee
 
Hmmm...

I have succesfully used the track delay option on my ADAT's (only available via the BRC controller...) and have been able to really fatten up the sound quite a bit. On stereo overheads where a hi hat mic was also used, I could improve the imaging quite a bit too.

It is not a rule. If the recording doesn't need track delay/time alignment of the drum tracks, then don't do it. Lee has some excellent advice he is offering there, move the mic to fix phase.

But if it is already on tape/harddrive, and you are not getting good beef on the drums, or the imaging sucks, by all means play with some track delay to see if this improves things.

Also, I have had drum tracks where the drummers kick might have been a little too ahead or behind, but consistenly. I have found that an up to 10ms delay or advancement of the kick can really fit it in the groove much better.

Ahhhhhhhh...the world of digital recording! :)

Ed
 
An apology...

I owe Lee Flier a very big gender apology here!!! Sorry dudess! ;)

Ed
 
No prob, dude! My name does not make my gender terribly obvious I'm afraid. Then again, on the Internet there are no gender or race distinctions... no ugly people or beautiful people... no prejudgments... just... a lot of really bad spelling. :)

--Lee
 
Heeeeeeeeeeey!!!

I resemble that remark! cus i dunt no how to spel to gud ;)

Ed
 
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