Slip editing bass...

[BLUElightCory]

I'm still curious though, Cory, you say you put the bass JUST after the drums...do you edit every note by hand?
the only automatic way I could think of would be to grid the drums AND bass 100% and then slide the bass back a tiny bit...but if you're not quantizing 100% you'd be fucked?

Hey Lasse,

I like to keep things from getting TOO robotic, but usually I'll push the bassist to play as tight with the click/drums as possible (my drums are usually quantized 85-100% depending on the music) - most players will play on top or just in front of the click/drums, at that point it just takes a small nudge to push the transients in the entire performance into the pocket right behind the kick, and then maybe slip edit a few notes here and there to get the feel right. Some players (we call them badasses) will naturally play in that pocket and don't require much editing. You just have to kind of feel it out, it's not always necessary (and certain parts benefit more from it than others) but it's worth the time it takes when it comes time to mix and the kick/bass are locked in really well - things just mix themselves.

 

[drew_drummer]

Thanks for all the contributions to this thread - very interesting reading how everyone works.

 

[AboutBlank]

Thanks for all the contributions to this thread - very interesting reading how everyone works.

+1
and just at the right time for me

 

[Machinated]

i never put drums on the grid, but always behind it at different amounts (a couple of ms, just doing it by eye nothing too precise). having it behind the beat makes it relaxed and having it a bit random keeps it more natural. same with bass. its annoying as there is no quick way to do it, but I can edit a bass track in around 30 mins to an hour max per song. the difference is noticably good, tightens things up really nicely. I'm using polyphonic mode on complex and just got to be careful not to stetch transients in a weird way.

 

[colonel_claypoo]

hey guys, i'm having a really hard time with slipping guitar&bass DI tracks.
my problem is with slipping notes that are early.
i work in reaper.

i make the cut, ALT-drag the transient to the right (to the grid) but that also reveals the transient that's before the actual first transient of the note i want to slip. this gives me a very quick flam with the end of the previous note and it's very annoying.

i always end up having to time stretch the tail of the previous note to the first transient of the slipped note which takes forever and doesn't always sound good.
i've never noticed that problem with drums except for hit's that are way of. if that's the case i notice the flam in every note that is sustained i.e. cymbals.
since bass and guitar notes are also sustained notes most of the time, i'm hearing flames with every slip!

am i doing something wrong?

please help me, i'm in the middle of a production.

thanks a lot!

 

[colonel_claypoo]

no ideas?

i'd make a video but i don't know any other programs then camstudio to do screen capturing which didn't work properly on my computer.

the problem i described above should be anybody's problem unless i'm doing something really wrong right?

i'd really appreciate your help.

thanks

 

[colonel_claypoo]

ok, since I really need to understand what I'm doing wrong I made three screenshots in order to illustrate my problem:

in the first picture I identified the note that was way too early.

in the second picture I made a cut with a crossfade before where I thought the transient of the note to be slipped was

the third picture shows that having slipped the note to the right caused part of the tail of the previous note to repeat itself. I highlighted that part with the time selection. this part causes an annoying flam type of sound.

my questions are:

firstly, shouldn't everyone of you dealing with sustained notes (guitar, bass) have that problem?

and secondly, am I doing something completely wrong here or do I just have to time stretch the previous note to the corrected one?

if that were the case slip editing bass and guitars would be very, very time consuming because not only does the wrong note have to be slipped into place but it the previous note has to be time stretched as well.

ok, I hope that helps clarify the problem.
I really appreciate your help.

thanks

 

[Fama]

I think you should use longer crossfades.

 

[colonel_claypoo]

I think you should use longer crossfades.

what's your setting for crossfades?
i have them set at 10ms.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Claypoo, I have the same exact problem.

What I try to do is this:

Make the cut before your edit. Slide the note to where it belongs, then, cut BEFORE the flammed note, and remove that note altogether. Then, make a cut even earlier, so that you can time stretch JUST a tiny bit of audio......and time stretch the area before the flammed note to fill the gap that was created by deleting that section.

If this is completely incorrect, someone let me know. I had the same issue with kick drum hits that bugged the hell out of me.

 

[Fama]

If that's 10ms, sounds like it's pretty badly out of time. Maybe consider cutting the same notes from another place in the song?

I think I use 15ms, but in cases like that, you could just manually drag the crossfade longer. Sometimes I cut a part of the decay of the previous note and insert it there. What bryan_kilco proposed would probably work too (maybe even better, depending on the time streching and possible issues).