recording drums in PT

krokit

Noisey B*****d
Dec 5, 2005
226
0
16
London
Hi guys

How are you organising your recorded drum tracks in Pro Tools? What I mean is: Do you record the different takes one after the other sider by side, or do you create a playlist and then record each take over the top of the other? Whats the pros and cons of each method?

Cheers :kickass:
 
i like to record them side by side if they are completely different takes. if it's just an overdub of a particular part or a drum fill of something, i would just record over it then. i know there is a way in pro tools to record everything on top of each other and switch between takes, but i don't remember how thats done and plus that just sounds scary to me.
 
playlists..
group the drum tracks.
Create a master take on the first playlist and then create new to do the next take,
Then edit and comp on the second to top take; then copy to the top and consolidate.
 
Anyone know if there's a feature like that in Reaper? Where I could record like 3 drum takes and then group the takes from each channel that belong together into one selectable take without toggling through each take manually on each track to line everything up?
 
Cheers guys.

Yeah, greyskull thats what Im thinking of doing thanks. So after the first take, I start with the kick and create a new playlist and name this kick 2, then the same with the snare, new playlist. snare 2 ect ect??

Ive done the same with guitars/bass and stuff but havn't tried it with drums yet, so I just wanna make sure I dont cock anything up!

Cheers buddy :kickass:
 
playlists..
group the drum tracks.
Create a master take on the first playlist and then create new to do the next take,
Then edit and comp on the second to top take; then copy to the top and consolidate.

I think i kinda understand but I'm also a bit lost still. If that makes any sense.

So are you saying record the drums on the master take then crate a new playlist and record drums again and then copy stuff from the new or second playlist and paste it on the first/master playlist?
 
Ive just always went back and punched in any spots that were bad and just re-tracked on the spot with drums.

Ive thought about tracking drums like 3 times on different playlist and just using all the best parts. Just seems hard though to switch through playlist and fine best parts. Seems like it could be a hassle but I'm sure there is some quick ways to skip around and stuff in protools that i have no idea how to do.
 
Cheers guys.

Yeah, greyskull thats what Im thinking of doing thanks. So after the first take, I start with the kick and create a new playlist and name this kick 2, then the same with the snare, new playlist. snare 2 ect ect??

Ive done the same with guitars/bass and stuff but havn't tried it with drums yet, so I just wanna make sure I dont cock anything up!

Cheers buddy :kickass:

Group the drums, and then you only have create a playlist on one drum and all the others will match it.
 
I do playlists too

It helps to take notes about what is on each playlist though.
ex- playlist 03 no toms in verse
- playlist 05 drummer fell off stool in 2nd chorus.
just to keep it organized for when you need to go through and comp them.
 
I do playlists too

It helps to take notes about what is on each playlist though.
ex- playlist 03 no toms in verse
- playlist 05 drummer fell off stool in 2nd chorus.
just to keep it organized for when you need to go through and comp them.

Do you do the notes on a note pad or somewere on protools session? Just curious but this is all great info!
 
I almost never use playlists on Protools I think I should!
When I did it the last time, I fucked up a lot lol of things lol!!!
I should work on that!
Right now I prefer to do separate takes on just one playlist and then playing with crossfades.
I mean I record over the previous bar if I want to re-record a roll, then I crossfade to have the previous bar back at the right place.
 
I just read a great tip for making notes in PT

MIDI tracks - Set it to regions view, hit record for a second to give you a blank region, extend the length and rename it. There's no limit to how long the region name is. Just write your comp notes on separate MIDI regions, recall notes, the song lyrics, whatever.
There is a place to write notes in PT besides the comments boxes, go to File> Get info, lets you write 5 short notes.
You can also use deactivated MIDI tracks to make dividers between groups of instruments for better visual organization.

I wish I could take credit for these ideas, but I'm not that smart.

I usually have a notebook beside me when producing/engineering. Essential when you've got 20+ playlists of 8 tracks drums for 9 songs in a session.
I use excel or other spreadsheet program for making any sort of chart, like editing progress etc.
 
Right now I prefer to do separate takes on just one playlist and then playing with crossfades.
I mean I record over the previous bar if I want to re-record a roll, then I crossfade to have the previous bar back at the right place.

That works well for some things. But for complete takes of a song I prefer playlists.

Generally when you're recording you stop when you get the best take, and you'll punch in to fix the bad spots. However if the latest take wasn't as good as the previous what do you do? You can undo, erasing the audio or you have to figure out which take it was from the region list and spot it in. :loco:

I love being able to select a section, right click and replace it with a different take.


I've seen some people take all their tracks and duplicate them for each take! so 8 tracks of drums easily becomes 48 and you're out of tracks, and out of your mind if you think you can keep all that shit straight. :puke:
 
ok....
let me try and explain a little better.

1) Group your drum tracks into an edit group
2) Once you've recorded a take create a new play list - P.t will create one for all drum tracks and automatically name them in a fairly sensible fashion.
3) Record the next take to New playlist
4) repeat 3) til you have kick ass drum takes.

After that edit and comp how you wish; but this is how the I do it, so ill always know whats what.

Create a new playlist to comp the drum takes to, i tend to use the third one which I normally keep clear before doing takes.. so i.e Kick_03 etc

Having done your comp, copy the entire comp to playlist 2 (kick_02) Then bring out the lord of the beats himself, the Mcgyver of meter; the Frost of Feel, the poirot of performance, the dick tracy of drums.

YES! Beat detective
BeatDetective.gif


Then having done all your B.D edits and fades, Copy this to the First Playlist (kick) and consolidate the regions (alt+shift+3)

Then having checked all is gravy and groovy with your drums... Backup the session as it is...to what ever medium you like;
Then save as Session drums Done.ptf or whatever.
then delete the unused playlists
Then go into the region list and click select unused regions.
Then Hit CLEAR and NOT delete!!
Then Save session copy in and save the edited comped cleaned up session wherever you save these sort of things.. and voila one nice clean drum session ready for bass/guitars
 
I've seen some people take all their tracks and duplicate them for each take! so 8 tracks of drums easily becomes 48 and you're out of tracks, and out of your mind if you think you can keep all that shit straight. :puke:


I never do that, let's say I have 8 tracks (sn,kd,tom1,tom2,tom3,hihat,ride,oh).
I just record over the bad spots (punchin in, I hit the start a bar or two before anyway) and play with the grabber tool (I hit on the keyboard f7 + f6 or f8) to adjust the bars.
Of course the drummer has to do the very same thing he has done the bar before, so it he hit a tom/cymbal whatever he has to do the same now.
I think I'll start using the playlist, there was a great video from Steve Vai doing that on youtbe!
I just have to master the techinique.
 
The only thing I would add to Greyskull's explanation is this
after tracking is done, do a save as called drum edits.
Your drums done session should just have the one comped, BDd fully edited and consolidated playlist.

(ctrl+shift+U to select unused ctrl+shift+B to remove)

Nothing slows your computer down faster than having 10,000 tiny regions with crossfades between each one.

have separate sessions for tracking, editing, and mixing. Saves your ass incase something gets corrupted.