Drum recording help

[Steinmetzify]

How do you guys match up waveforms for loops? Say I start with a beat, want to add a fill and then go back to the original beat or something different?

Completely new to this, so any advice would be useful. I'm finding myself with either moments of silence (which I've figured out how to get rid of) or the best skips or doesn't match up exactly.

I'm using GarageBand on an iPad; is this something I'm going to have to get used to or is it just trial and error? Is there a studio/pro trick(s) that you guys do for your tracks? Or is it just that you've been doing this so long that it's not work anymore?

Just noob recording thought. Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

[nakedzen]

I'm not sure I follow? Are you recording programmed drums or real acoustic drums?

With real acoustic drums if you want to do punch-ins and heavy editing the drums need to be played to a metronome, then set the tempo in your daw the same, and use the grid to line up your copy-pasted takes / punch-ins. Also do a short cross-fade on the overhead and/or room mic tracks to make the transitions unnoticeable. And gate your kick/snare/toms.

[Steinmetzify]

They're programmed loops man. Was trying to butt splice a beat and a tom loop but they're different tempos....I've never tried to cross fade anything in GarageBand before. I'll give it a shot later today. Thanks!

[RustyMetal]

I think I understand what you're talking about, but not sure. The grid in my daw is my reference then maybe time-stretch a loop or segment to adjust/blend the tempo? Or maybe do a short fill between one tempo and the other? I have no idea how to do something like that in Garageband.

[Steinmetzify]

I can adjust the tempo in GB to have all the loops be the same, but I was wanting to do a slower intro and then up it a bunch, you know? Butt splicing the wave forms together wasn't working; I changed the tempo for the entire track and that changed the slower one to the same as the faster one lol. Still a noob at this stuff; I'll get it figured out. Was just wondering if there was an easier way, you know? A lot of times I'll beat my head against a wall for days until I get so frustrated I ask for help; was just looking to circumvent that this time.

I have a grid in GB but it's not great with time markers; do you splice grooves or fills by time or do you actually match the wave form up in yours?

[nakedzen]

Well in Reaper at least you can simply add tempo markers on the project, and the midi track adjusts the tempo according to those?

[Steinmetzify]

Good idea.....I'll have to see if I can adjust the tempos for each track; more work, but hey, whaddaya gonna do?

I appreciate the ideas, guys....this is stuff that you know and I don't, so whatever you have that you think I already know, I don't. Throw it at me, I wanna get better at this.

[RustyMetal]

Something like you're wanting to do may be over GarageBand's head, but don't quote me on that, 'cause I really don't know. In Reaper I would put the intro on a track by itself and just time-stretch the whole thing horizontally until it got to the tempo I wanted, and then the regular drum pattern would start on another track(s). Is that something like what you mean?

GarageBand is meant to be easy for beginners and easy to use. To that end I would think it would be limited in more complicated editing and such.

I'm just guessing here, but it could be time to take the plunge in a deeper pool.

[Steinmetzify]

Lmao...just started with GB the beginning of this week. I'll give it some work and see what the limitations are for a while. I don't want to quit on it until I'm sure it won't do what I need it to. Thanks man!

Far as time stretching, yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. Had to put it on a different track and adjust tempos for both of em.

[RustyMetal]

There's nothing at all wrong with using GB for the simpler stuff then starting to learn a daw for the more complicated things. I do that somewhat with Audacity & Reaper.

[Steinmetzify]

I hear you. I'm going to stick with this one for a minute; I really like the simplicity of using the iPad for all of it. Guitar, drums, and recording on one device that I can stick in a bag and drag to a friends house with my guitar for song ideas is really cool.

[JerEvil]

There's nothing at all wrong with using GB for the simpler stuff then starting to learn a daw for the more complicated things. I do that somewhat with Audacity & Reaper.

Garage Band got me started and the transition to Logic was super easy. GB is a GREAT place to start. I know guys getting really good recordings out of it.

[Steinmetzify]

Nice Jer. Gives me some hope; all your tracks sounds really good.

[JerEvil]

Nice Jer. Gives me some hope; all your tracks sounds really good.

Well thanks!

[RustyMetal]

Nice Jer. Gives me some hope; all your tracks sounds really good.

I'll definitely second that. So many great players in here with awesome sounds.

[Steinmetzify]

Think I'm getting the hang of the splices....it's coming easier to me...I know they're loud, but I was trying to make sure I couldn't hear the splices.

https://soundcloud.com/steinmetzify/dr-om-testing

[JerEvil]

Can you screenshot your DAW? When you say "preprogrammed loops? do you mean they are .wav files or programmed midi files? I am guessing .wav or some other sort of audio files. I used those for a while but honestly, it is SOOOOO much easier getting midi loops and editing them. Some of the Steven Slate Drums packages are very inexpensive and sound legit.

I program most of my drums now but sometimes use the Groove Monkee loops as a starting point.

[Steinmetzify]

Jer, they're preprogrammed loops from an app....two bars of this, two bars of that, you know? I copy them to the pasteboard in the app and then paste them into GB from there; I can adjust the tempos in GB after I'm done and then butt splice them together. I don't have any amps atm because they're just too loud for my living situation, so I'm doing everything on an iPad.....explain to me midi drum loops, if you don't mind...is this something I can use on the iPad, or drop as sound files into Dropbox or whatever and then use them from there? Can you bring midi loops into GB on an iPad?

I have gotten some loops from various sources and thrown them into GB on my Mac, but wasn't very happy with the results....I work at home and usually mess around with riffs during the day and it's just easier on the iPad with all the apps right there.

[JerEvil]

Jer, they're preprogrammed loops from an app....two bars of this, two bars of that, you know? I copy them to the pasteboard in the app and then paste them into GB from there; I can adjust the tempos in GB after I'm done and then butt splice them together. I don't have any amps atm because they're just too loud for my living situation, so I'm doing everything on an iPad.....explain to me midi drum loops, if you don't mind...is this something I can use on the iPad, or drop as sound files into Dropbox or whatever and then use them from there? Can you bring midi loops into GB on an iPad?

I have gotten some loops from various sources and thrown them into GB on my Mac, but wasn't very happy with the results....I work at home and usually mess around with riffs during the day and it's just easier on the iPad with all the apps right there.

Gotcha. Not sure about the iPad. I can send you some of my midi loops via email for you to try. There are standard drum kits in Garage Band that you can use. Basically, open a new Midi track and use the option to have a software instrument. There is a section for Drums, pick one of the acoustic kits. I believe there is a "Rock" kit. When you play back the track it will sound like drums.

The benefit is you have total control over ALL the drums. You can make some hits softer or harder, swap out which Tom is being used, take a part with a closed hi-hat and switch that hats to opened. Possibilities are basically endless AND there will never be a glitch in sound between loops.

I have only ever used GB on my Mac Pro so again, I can't speak for the iPad version. I assume those drum kits and piano roll (where the midi data is laid out) are available.

Here a basic vid on creating loops on your own.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWzUVLe4NPs[/video]

I don't do separate tracks and then merge like he does. I make it all on one track from the get go but he explains it very well at a basic level. This was VERY intimidating for me at first but after a song or 2 you should really be able to pick it up. It also helps if you are even a FUNCTIONAL drummer and understand the mechanics of drumming. By that I mean, the first few songs I did had the drummer playing the snare, hi hat and cymbals all on the same hit. Physically impossible.

[Steinmetzify]

Just watched.....nice dude! So the SSDs would get dropped into that part where you select the drums, and instead of selecting 'rock kit' or whatever, you'd select that as a plugin and use those instead, right?

Is there anything else you'd need to do as far as setting up your computer/iPad that you know of or is it pretty self-explanatory?

Also, are there loops in there to get me started or is it pretty much DIY?

[nakedzen]

I'd suggest getting guitar pro, if you want ready made midi drum tracks. Just download any tab (911tabs is a good site), delete everything but the drums (select track, ctrl-shift-del), press export as midi from the menu, and you have the drums for that song. Then just import the midi into your daw.

[JerEvil]

Just watched.....nice dude! So the SSDs would get dropped into that part where you select the drums, and instead of selecting 'rock kit' or whatever, you'd select that as a plugin and use those instead, right?

Is there anything else you'd need to do as far as setting up your computer/iPad that you know of or is it pretty self-explanatory?

Also, are there loops in there to get me started or is it pretty much DIY?

You got it. Super self explanatory. Click this link:
http://www.groovemonkee.com/en/free-midi

Some free loops to get you started

I'd suggest getting guitar pro, if you want ready made midi drum tracks. Just download any tab (911tabs is a good site), delete everything but the drums (select track, ctrl-shift-del), press export as midi from the menu, and you have the drums for that song. Then just import the midi into your daw.

This works really well too

[Steinmetzify]

Nice, thanks guys......I'll give it a shot and see if I can load it up into the iPad kit and post up what I get. Appreciated.