Editing Drums/Live Recordings

[HeadCrusher]

How do you guys do it?
I mean when recording drums or a band as a whole every sound is in every mic.
For example if I wanted to retrack a certain part of a drumtrack there might be a cymbal sustiain of something I'd have to cut off. Or if I was recording a whole band and later wanted to fix only a certain guitar riff it would never fit in there again...
Or do you only work with musicians that can play their songs without any mistakes (well we should be doing so... )

 

[PhilR]

I personally wouldn't worry about it.

If the drummer screws up, it's his own fault. Editing drums is often more trouble than it's worth.

 

[ffaudio]

If they're playing live they should be able to minimize the fuck ups for this one time.

What are you talking about overdubbing? I find overdubbing drums as a whole is pretty difficult due to the cymbal problem, but it can be done. I don't know how easy it will be when it's live though with all of the guitar and bass bleed.

 

[HeadCrusher]

sorry, i probably didn't make myself clear. i was talking about two different things:

1) editing drums: can't figure out how to do it so that you wouldn't here it (for example because of sustains you'd be cutting of or something similar).

2) recording the whole band live: what if i wanted to change just one guitar riff for example. probably impossible because of bleed, right?

 

[ffaudio]

I usually don't edit drums that heavily (oops, I mean I don't punch in drums). I make the drummer play it until he gets it right. If there is a break somewhere you could have them play it up until that point and then have them punch in the next part, etc. I've done that on a couple of songs and as long as you get the cymbal fades or whatever crossfaded it will sound fine.

Other than that sample replacement and such works easily enough. I mean what are you editing here? A bad snare hit? Copy and paste a good snare hit in there from the same point of the song (earlier verse or chorus) and crossfade so the cymbals don't obviously vanish or get cut off. Make sure you get it sounding good in the OHs.


As for recording live. Changing riffs probably won't work because of all the bleed that will be playing something different. It may be possible but I'm not the person that knows how. Haha.

 

[ArtGarceau]

When recording with bleed you can be very limited to the amount of editing you can do. Editing drums and doing punch ins on drums can be sketchy at best, but then factoring in bleed from other instruments.....

I wish you a lot of luck!

 

[alexrookie]

hmm...,

no prob with editing drums.
just make sure your cuts are quite clean and you do not cut into hits (hihat and ride as well).

funny thing is that many people i know worry about the cymbals when they try to edit drums.
i never had issues with cymbals, although i do not use crossfades.
just my bassdrums pops quite a bit sometimes - in a mix you wouldn't hear it but i tend to crossfade those pops.

i use logic 5.5, so this is a while ago this program was written and i think every sequencer can do it! - with crossfades or without.

i don't mean it is really easy, it took some time to get authentic results, but now i can edit every sequence i want, if it is not too far away from the click.

so, play to a click, play as close as posssible and play the same figures while overdubbing - a lot of the drummers i recorded forgot that they used this cymbal there and that cymbal there when we were trying to record some parts that didn't fit in the take before.


click, grid, drummer with a brain - that's it!!!

good luck, just try it.

 

[greyskull]

click and beat detective