Important drum editing quantization tip for those of you using Reaper...

[digitaldeath]

AWESOME TIP

if someone does a video quantizing 30 or 45 secs of METAL DRUMS
(all the videos explaining elastic audio or beat detective only use 4/4 pop drums...)
i would be his whore for all eternity...
seriously......

Try the files above that I was working on to get the hang of the basics before trying more complicated stuff.
I'll see if I can get a video done up soon.

 

[Ancient_Acolyte]

I've just registered to post my gratitude for your 'workaround' (hi all!). I've been lurking here for a couple of months - mainly reading and learning - but I felt I had to express my gratitude for this

Like I said before though, I'm concerned that if they do update it to work this way, there might be some other undesired result I'm not expecting and I'll be back to square one trying to get it to operate the way I want... At least I have a solution with the way it works now, I'm afraid to risk it not working anymore by updating the quantize function with the proper functionality...

I hear you. The whole software industry is full of helpful bods who try to make life easier by adding a 'feature' which invariably fucks with your workflow that you have had for years/10 minutes...

That's what worried me about my convertion to Reaper - the diarrhoeic spewing of 'updates'...but then again I'm an old cermudgeon who longs for my Atari and Cubase 3 back again...

Anyway, good stuff sir!

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

I've just registered to post my gratitude for your 'workaround' (hi all!). I've been lurking here for a couple of months - mainly reading and learning - but I felt I had to express my gratitude for this



I hear you. The whole software industry is full of helpful bods who try to make life easier by adding a 'feature' which invariably fucks with your workflow that you have had for years/10 minutes...

That's what worried me about my convertion to Reaper - the diarrhoeic spewing of 'updates'...but then again I'm an old cermudgeon who longs for my Atari and Cubase 3 back again...

Anyway, good stuff sir!

Just an FYI - Reaper 3, Release Candidate 1 has been released.

I hear you about the rapid fire updates, but, I would rather that, than one "upgrade" that I have to donate a kidney to science to afford, which didn't fix anything anyway. I think the Reaper developers are spot on with their business model, and honestly, that's what attracted me to their software.

 

[Erkan]

Gojira_ might be able to knock something up quick, he drums and is sloppier than shit

Hahaha, just got back from my first day at summerjob and boy is this what I needed to hear right now or what? Awesome Haha, nah just kidding.

I do actually have some drum tracks, being even EXTRA sloppy on purpose but it seems like you've already found something to toy around with. Let me know otherwise, I can dig 'em up if you need 'em... maybe.

Yea yea, I'll start practising drums again over summer and after that... *mumbles*

 

[AdamWathan]

Hahaha, just got back from my first day at summerjob and boy is this what I needed to hear right now or what? Awesome Haha, nah just kidding.

I do actually have some drum tracks, being even EXTRA sloppy on purpose but it seems like you've already found something to toy around with. Let me know otherwise, I can dig 'em up if you need 'em... maybe.

Yea yea, I'll start practising drums again over summer and after that... *mumbles*

Hahaha, I kid I kid, the only tracks I heard were the ones from the black metal project you did and they were tight as fuck man, I was ultra impressed! If you have anything to share please do, the stuff we are playing around with is a garbage 4/4 rock beat, I'd really like to try something more metal!

 

[digitaldeath]

Since I can't make a video with sound here in work (and I don't have a lot of drum tracks handy) I decided to throw together a quick screenshot tutorial. Click on the thumbnails for full resolution shots.

First, I've uploaded a .zip file which has the same tracks FORBIDDEN uploaded above (cheers dude!). Since we were focusing on the start of the track, I've chopped out everything else and just left the start there. The Reaper project file is "DrumEdit Test.RPP". There's also a second Reaper project in the .zip file, "DrumEdit Test Corrected.RPP" which shows what it's like corrected.
---> GRAB THE ZIP! (33MB) <---

1. Unzip "example_1.zip" and open the "DrumEdit Test.RPP" project. It should look like it does below. Notice how the kick and snare tracks do not align to the grid.



2. Select all (CTRL-A) and group the drum tracks (G).



3. First we're going to quantize to the snare. Click near the start of the snare-top track and hit TAB on your keyboard (TAB to transient). This will snap us to each transient. Hit 'S' on your keyboard to split all of the grouped tracks at this point.



4. Click on the snare track again so that it's the only track/item selected, we don't want to tab to transients on other tracks. TAB and split for all of the remaining transients. You'll have to select each item after a split to TAB to the next transient. When complete, select all (CTRL-A) and it should look like this:



5. Right click on any item and select "Item processing -> Quantize item positions to grid..."



6. Check the 3rd box down, "Shorten earlier items..." and set its value to 0.

7. Now right click on any item and select "Item processing -> Quantize item positions to grid..." again. This time select both the 2nd and 3rd check-boxes and set their values to 10.

8. Our snare is now quantized, but our kick is not.

9. I like to increase the grid resolution when quantizing the kick. Right click on the "Grid lines visible..." button highlighted here in red and set the line spacing to 1/2.

10. Split the kick in the same manner that we split the snare (TAB and 'S' - the increased grid spacing helps here).
You should have something the resembles the following:



11. Repeat steps 6 and 7 to quantize the tracks again.


12. Select all items, right click and select "Glue selected items".

13. Our corrected track should now look like it does below.


If anyone's got any suggestions for improvement, I'd love to hear them!

 

[AdamWathan]

Nice man! Much easier to follow than my "EUREKA!!!" rant in the original post

 

[digitaldeath]

Should probably post this over at the Reaper forums...
Edit: Done!

 

[AdamWathan]

I posted the text version from my first post and got 2 replies, one dude saying "Cool, good tip," and another guy pointing me to the Pipeline Audio tutorial that's been around forever ( http://www.reaper.fm/~pipeline/REAPERVideos/basics/11_Auto_Drum_edits2.wmv ) saying basically, "uhhh, have you not seen this already...?"... Apparently no one realizes how completely inferior that method is to the one we are using :/ Okay guys, have fun losing half of your transients and manually editing all of your crossfades!

 

[digitaldeath]

Yeah, I saw that thread already dude and the one where you're trying to automate the parameters etc.
But you're right, PipeLineAudio's tutorials are well old and your way seems much better to me, it's as if people are saying "get over it, we already have a way to quantize drums..."

 

[AdamWathan]

I much prefer our fully automatic drum editing to the "semi automatic drum editing" presented in their tutorial

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Yes, they're outdated.

Hey - I think I was the guy that said "good tip" and linked the vids - no matter - I think your way is definitely better. Maybe you should post up an updated vid so the old Pipelineaudio vid can be laid to rest.

 

[AdamWathan]

Nah it was some dude named Shredder...
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=36104

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Right on - Shredders a good guy. Although... you should definitely do some updated vids.

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Now... if we could get some grid options and a groove quantize feature in Reaper... then I would be set.

 

[AdamWathan]

Now... if we could get some grid options and a groove quantize feature in Reaper... then I would be set.

They did a lot of serious improvements to the MIDI quantizing in version 3 if that's your thing, but yeah with audio we are still limited. Although I don't expect to really ever have a need for quantizing things in any way "off the beat" with audio so it doesn't bother me at all, but check out the humanize function in the MIDI quantize menu now, some cool velocity and position options!

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Yeah man - I've been using the humnanize functionality for a bit now. Definitely a SHIT TON of improvements MIDI wise. I do all kinds of music though man, metal is definitely my passion, but I like to play around with sound - I am really digging on some electro industrial shit now.

 

[digitaldeath]

Yeah man - I've been using the humnanize functionality for a bit now. Definitely a SHIT TON of improvements MIDI wise. I do all kinds of music though man, metal is definitely my passion, but I like to play around with sound - I am really digging on some electro industrial shit now.

Interesting, I've been meaning to play around with more MIDI stuff in Reaper. What kinda plugins are you experimenting with for the electro stuff?

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Interesting, I've been meaning to play around with more MIDI stuff in Reaper. What kinda plugins are you experimenting with for the electro stuff?

Definitely MANY improvements in the MIDI department in the new version.

I'm still trying to get a sound that I like, really. Mostly freeware stuff right now - I think I might pick up a copy of Battery soon though, it's just too good for the electronic stuff. In the synth department, I've been really getting into Helix, and Genesis (CM version). They're really good IMO. All of the Krakli synths are great, as are the UGO and Novakill synths.

Really just messing around seeing what I can do. Nothing concrete yet though - haven't had the free time!!!

 

[FarBeyondMetal]

Thanks for this tip it's really useful. It would be really cool if you could somehow bind a shortcut to this long process of quantizing twice with different settings, but I can't seem to set the macro. Does anyone know if it's possible or am i just stuck typing 0 and 10 and clicking checkboxes everytime i wanna quantize ?