Starting a take mid song

[Ericlingus]

How would you go about doing a drum take halfway or whatever in a song with different tempos. Do you start right in the beginning where you want to record or a measure before it? For example if I started right on the first measure of the section, then couldn't some of the attack get cut off? If I start recording before then it will use the tempo for that part and then change for the part in which he wanted to record. It would be nice to do the count off in the tempo of the section he wants to record. It was kinda hard for me to explain this. I hope it makes sense.

 

[Trevoire520]

You need to get a decent amount of pre roll and have the drummer play along to it so you get the energy in the room before the punch in.

 

[amarshism]

I use count off

 

[Ericlingus]

are you worried about any of the attack being cut off? If you start the recording say a measure before where you actually want to record, you can prevent that. Is that something you guys worry about?

 

[Trevoire520]

If you use quick punch mode in Pro Tools it actually starts recording in the background as soon as you hit play, so once the take is finished it's easy to trim/slip to before the actual punch in happened.

 

[Ericlingus]

How about for cubase 6.5?

 

[Trevoire520]

Don't use cubase so afraid I can't help you there man.

 

[Ericlingus]

yeah just curious what the norm is when starting a take. If people actually start right on the point they need to record or not. Something I didn't really think of before. But I can see how the attack could be cut off slightly.

 

[ZanetheVocalist]

Everything Trev said is right on the money. I use REAPER and it has an auto punch-in record mode just like PT. I'm sure Cubase has one as well. Definitely a good idea to give the drummer some preroll time before to get in the groove.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Everything Trev said is right on the money. I use REAPER and it has an auto punch-in record mode just like PT. I'm sure Cubase has one as well. Definitely a good idea to give the drummer some preroll time before to get in the groove.

+1.

REAPER here, and I do "Auto Punch In Time Selection" I think its called.

Just have him play a few bars beforehand to get the right energy, like Trev said. I've been doing this the past few weeks with my own drummer and I'm actually really amazed at what I can pull with this method.

 

[Ericlingus]

yeah but what if the part that needs to be recorded is a different tempo. Say I want to start a take over at the verse but it's at a different tempo from the part right before it. Seems that would be difficult to get in the groove of the part before it and then when he actually records, it's changes tempo.

 

[bryan_kilco]

I know exactly what you mean. I think REAPER has a workaround to this, but I could be wrong. (and I understand you aren't using REAPER/I have no clue about Cubase, sorry)

Adam Wathan may be able to help out, but I haven't seen him post lately.

I normally just let the drummer run through it a few times. He SHOULD be okay playing his own songs, anyway.....if not, then he needs to practice more to a click track.

 

[mva801]

I normally just let the drummer run through it a few times. He SHOULD be okay playing his own songs, anyway.....if not, then he needs to practice more to a click track.

This. The normal workflow is to hit play a few bars before when you want them to start playing, have them play along, and then punch in. Any modern DAW should be set up to run this way, and you can edit the regions and fade later. If there are drums before the part you're punching into, you MUST have him play along, or you can lose cymbal bleed from the previous part and it will sound wrong.

They should be able to nail any tempo change in a few takes. If they can't play their own songs, then practice more!

 

[006]

If you are using Cubase, just enable "Pre-Record" in the Preferences. Set it to like 5 seconds. What happens then is anytime you hit record, it will show the event starting there, however if you drag back the front of the event it reveals the 5 seconds up to when you actually started recording. Then you just edit it however you need to sound right.

 

[Plankis]

If the drummer is terrible and can't nail the tempo changes you can in Cubase change the number of bars it pre-counts in Metronome Setup. The pre-count will count in on the tempo on that spot so add one more bar to the pre-count than the usual, force the drummer to start one bar before the actual take -> ??? -> Success!

 

[ZanetheVocalist]

yeah but what if the part that needs to be recorded is a different tempo. Say I want to start a take over at the verse but it's at a different tempo from the part right before it. Seems that would be difficult to get in the groove of the part before it and then when he actually records, it's changes tempo.

Adam, get in here! lol. Yeah this is a huge pain in the ass especially when recording scratch tracks for guitar. Alot of the time the guitarist will fuck up on the first bar of the tempo-shifted riff because of this. Luckily they repeat it a few times so I can copy and paste, but it would be much better for them to have to correct tempo temporarily until after I'm done punching in.

 

[Ericlingus]

thank you very much guys. You were really helpful! And wouldn't it be nice if the band practiced their songs before recording and not learn them as they record!