Editing Overheads for the first time! Need some general questions answered....

[HerbieSwizzle]

This is my first post along with my first mix I am doing ever!!


Okay I am using Adam Wathan's reaper slip edit to edit my drums. The drummer is doing 16 note kicks and 1/8th note blast beats at 227 BPM on the most complex parts. On the blast beats I am getting ALOT of flamming with the kick and the snare, both are not together on beat, either early or late. So I am just locking the snare into place and looking to take care of the kicks later, and seeing if the paragraph below would work.

If I transfered the tracks (unedited or edited) through Pro Tools LE 8 and use a default plugin (AIR EQ ?) on the overheads that sweep anything under 300hz, it would practically take the kick mostly out of the overheads, or when everything (guitars vocals bass) comes in, you won't be able to hear the overhead kicks. In doing so, I can edit the kick track seperately from the
rest of the drums and not have to worry about artifacts/flamming in the overheads and in the track overall.

Is this a good idea so I can go in and redit the kick track seperately without having it being grouped to the rest of the track, so I can fix the original flams without messing up the whole drum track and the overheads?


SIMPLY PUT:

Basically, I have flamming of the kick and snare in certain areas and cannot lock them both into place/tempo without getting artifacts. I want to remove the kick from the overheads using an EQ in order to go back and reedit the kicks separately into tempo. Is this a good idea?



Also I am going to use drumagog after I edit the drums to replace/trigger the drums up. I heard of Trigger FX and read positive things about this... are these the same type of drum replacement plugins? What is the differences between the two...


Thanks!

Herb

 

[JeffTD]

Yes, this is exactly how you do it. Just highpass the OH track as usual, and the kick bleed become an inaudible blur.

Don't use drumagog - it's not at all accurate. Get apTrigga or Trigger, instead.

 

[HerbieSwizzle]

Yes!

So I guess I am on the right track ! Simple question though, should I EQ and consolidate the OH(s) before or after editing the drums in reaper? Or does it matter really... ? Also do you guys gate the snare, kick, and tom tracks in between hits? Thank you very much.

 

[jaredistheman]

A 300hz highpass? That might seem a bit harsh huh? Anything above 150 for me seems thin? :/

 

[Skinny Viking]

^ Not at all unusual for OHs

but of course, it all depends on the sound you're going for

music like he describes is best suited by pulling as much out of the OHs as possible, leaving nothing but the cymbal hits, especially if he's gonna be replacing everything after anyway

 

[JeffTD]

A 300hz highpass? That might seem a bit harsh huh? Anything above 150 for me seems thin? :/

I filter up to 600hz all the time in metal.

Yes!

So I guess I am on the right track ! Simple question though, should I EQ and consolidate the OH(s) before or after editing the drums in reaper? Or does it matter really... ? Also do you guys gate the snare, kick, and tom tracks in between hits? Thank you very much.

Just leave them as is and stick an EQ on the track itself while editing. No sense committing to any eq before the mix starts.

I gate toms manually by editing/fading, and if I'm using the natural kick/snare as the main bit in the sound, I'll gate them with midi.

 

[Force666]

I filter up to 600hz all the time in metal.

I was doing that for a while too. But lately i've been feeling like it eats all the body from the crashes. Our drummer plays mainly dark crashes, and it's definitely thinning them. Fortunatly, he's been playing tight enough to not have to edit the fuck out of everything, but what can you do about this for those untight drummers that the kick needs basically full-rebuilding? Obviously spot-micing the cymbals would surely help, unfortunately, currently I don't have enough mics for that. Any tips?

 

[timislegend]

when you say "flamming" do you mean comb filtering?

if that is the case... try using the polarity (phase) switch.

that's what it's for.

 

[AdamWathan]

No, he means the kick and snare were meant to be played at the same time but they weren't, so without editing them separately the transients don't line up and they flam between each other.

 

[Trevoire520]

If you've only got overhead tracks then this should work fine.

If you've mic'd the whole kit then you might find by the time you've compressed and eq'd everything you have alot of kick spill.

I'm starting to pack the kick with a duvet to mute it and just triggering it for metal stuff now as with untight drummers it's just not worth the hassle of keeping the kick natural.

 

[timislegend]

No, he means the kick and snare were meant to be played at the same time but they weren't, so without editing them separately the transients don't line up and they flam between each other.

oh! ...ha! i see. :zombie: