Chug Syncronization With Kick (Quantizing, etc...)

[submersed]

So after recording guitar to a midi drum track (superior 2.0), it tends to be imperfect. What I'm wondering is, in addition to better playing skills, what can I do to correct the guitar so that it fits the drum track more appropriately, and is more in sync with the tempo? I realize the biggest part of this is playing the section more accurately, however, with pure chug parts, I seem to get extremely close, but not perfectly in line with the kick for example.

I apologize if this has been asked before, but both a google search, and a search on this site didn't lead me to what I was looking for. Perhaps my searching skills need some work as well.

With that said, what can I do, using Cubase, to properly align chugs with the kick drum, or even re-align individual guitar notes to be near-perfect? I'm a newbie to quantization, so if it involves that process, please explain it as if you were explaining it to someone who didn't really understand the process (if you have time).

 

[JeffTD]

With single chugs and stuff with stops in it, I line up just after the kick, basic pocketing.

 

[alan1990]

I usually cut out the groups of chugs and slip the group so the first chug is on beat. keep in mind that when your looking at the wave forum the first wave or two is just pick attack and not the actual note.

If you find that you need to edit every note in the group because the spacing of each chug inst correct the part hasn't been played tight enough at least in my opinion. when you get into editing every note on time you end up sounding to fake way to quickly. I think most people on here will agree that its a waste of time editing everynote not to mention that it starts sounding goofy pretty quickly, mr. Sturgis said himself that he doesn't do this and he has arguably the tightest sounding recordings on the forum

 

[mrbean667]

Get it as close as humanly possible to the kick while tracking, what I do is solo the kick to get it completely in time.
To me it sounds too weird if the chugs and kicks are 100% in sync.

 

[submersed]

Alan, can you explain in laymans terms what you mean by cut out the group of chugs and slip the group?

Mrbean, thanks for the tip, I'll try recording with just a kick to try and get the timing as close as possible. If I want to edit single chugs in a near-perfect recording though, is there a particular professional way to do that (in cubase particularly)? I'm not exactly sure the proper way to do something like that without messing up the rest of the recording. (Sorry, I'm still learning.)

 

[Line Level Recordings]

Get it as close as humanly possible to the kick while tracking, what I do is solo the kick to get it completely in time.
To me it sounds too weird if the chugs and kicks are 100% in sync.

+1111111111111111111111

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

If I want to edit single chugs in a near-perfect recording though, is there a particular professional way to do that (in cubase particularly)? I'm not exactly sure the proper way to do something like that without messing up the rest of the recording. (Sorry, I'm still learning.)

If the part before the chugs is in sync...then you wanna cut right after that....if the part after the chugs is also in sync then you wanna cut before that...its pretty basic

Simply put- Measure Twice Cut Twice

 

[The Unavoidable]

I've experimented with using the guitar DI as trigger input for synched kick parts. Haven't gotten it to work perfect yet, though it's pretty cool.

 

[greyskull]

ive actually been tempted to use beat detectives groove quantize for this, but when it needs it i do it by hand

 

[darthjujuu]

if you're editing DI's, you can use time-stretching techniques such as protools' elastic audio, or the cubase5 equivalent (haven't tried it yet though.) don't care what anyone says, it's perfectly fine on DI's. the ampsim / re-amping covers all the edits and makes it totally transparent. this is especially easy in protools as it usually detects the transients on the DI's really accurately, and you can literally just touch them in grid mode and they fall into place. don't ever try this on anything other than a DI, though. i edited every single guitar/bass transient using this method and then sent the DI's off to ryan for re-amping in this project: myspace.com/caulfieldvt

and believe me, they weren't very tight before editing.

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

In scientific terms: The synchronicity of the chug is equally proportional to the tightness of the take.

Long live the chug.

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

synchronicity

Is that a word? Wouldn't it be "synchronization"

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

haha. I think it is a word. The state of being in sync!

 

[SocialNumb]

Why not?

n. pl. syn·chro·nic·i·ties
The state or fact of being synchronous or simultaneous; synchronism.

Coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related, conceived in Jungian theory as an explanatory principle on the same order as causality.

 

[alan1990]

This is for cubase 5, all steps will work in any other DAWs im just not sure of how to bring up the crossfade box but that shouldn't be to hard to figure out lol.

first of all here is a before and after DI sample for comparison as well as for follow along purposes.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3374294/CHUGZ.zip



anyway lets begin

1..Import example and set session to 120bpm and go ahead and make cuts between each grouping as shown

2.zoom in to where you can see the first chug and a few following chugs as well as the some of the detail in the wave forum

3.slide the first section over untill you have a good compromise between each of the 3 chugs second peaks being perfectly on time. Ive marked the second peak of the 3 shown chugs so you have a better idea what im getting at. Also note that in the example the first chug is just a hair early still but thats fine we are just going for a good balance between the chugs anything more then this can start to sound goofy.

4.do this to all sections and zoom out and you will have this. notice that there are gaps in between the sections that we will fix next

5.select these sections

6.now drag the beginning of the selected wave forums back to slight overlap the ones before it

7.now select everything and double tap x to set the following crossfade. some may argue that in this case this step isnt necessary as there is not anything playing in the track at that point but I feel its good to get used to doing it.

8.one last step! select everything once again and go to audio then bounce selection to consolidate all the edits to one file.

note that this is just a basic run down and that you can get way more in depth for example in longer sections of chugs such as the first in the given example I would make another cut in the middle of the section to get the later chugs as on time as the ones in beginning of the section.

just be careful when you start making cuts where there is an actual note ringing out as the position of the crossfade and amount of overlap needs to be set carefully to not mess with transients, In this case I find that the best bet is to try and place the crossfade in the middle of the 2 chugs as to not mess with the very begging of the next note and the transient of the first. one more thing its always best to make edits in the spaces that the instrument isnt playing!

This is my first tutorial so its probably not written the best but i hope it helps and will do my best to explain anything more if anyone needs it

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Yes, synchronicity is a word.

Cool post Alan!

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

Back to english class i go

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Synchronicity is also an awesome album by the Police.

 

[submersed]

Alan, thanks a ton for taking the time to do that, I really appreciate it. Very helpful. What exactly does the crossfade do in this example? That was the only thing that confused me.

 

[FloridaRolf]

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...-guitars-using-sidechaining-ie-veil-maya.html