A question about hiring someone to play drum tracks on a solo project

[ektia]

I have a project studio where I record and mix songs that I write. Since I record alone, I have had to learn how to play a lot of instruments myself. The one instrument that takes the longest amount of time for me is the drums. (I am a lousy drummer.)

So, I was thinking about hiring someone (for a per-song fee) to do play the drums for me. I noticed there are some really good session drummers for hire who will record drum tracks for you for a not terribly unreasonable fee. You send them your (drumless) WAV file of the song, and they record the accompanying drums in their own studios. However, all of the drummers who do this seem to record their drums as audio (WAV) files. I was wondering why they don't record to MIDI files instead, which would give me the ability, once I've received the MIDI files back from them, to select the exact drum sounds that I want from my library of samples.

[Smithcok]

Because you are hiring them to play drums.

I'd bet you could sit down and program MIDI drums just fine with some practice, and select the sounds you want. Or, just hire someone to program drums for you.

The whole purpose of hiring a pro drummer to track drums for you is to hire a pro drummer to track drums for you (with their nice kit, mics, room, pre's, etc.)

[Steffmo]

Some guys probably would do that if you asked them. I have some Pelton files here that have audio and midi.

Others, probably some of the best, feel that a big part of they do is their sound, therefore they want that to be represented.

They might also not want you messing around with their work....yet still put their name on it as drummer. They have no idea what your cababilities of tatses are.

Lastly.....buy Drum Agog, pr whatever, and replace sounds to your hearts delight. Or use a program to turn the audio into midi. Its very common.

[Dav Iridium]

Send an email to fallon.williams@jinglehouse.com.au

He'll help you out.

[talkshowman]

Best DRUM program... for someone who can't play drums

Have a look for chrislago on this thread, he does exactly what you're after from what I can tell. But yes, as others have wisely said, you can extract midi from an audio file, probably quite simply with something with a lot of transients, like a drum.

[msquared]

Playing the electronic drums effectively is a separate skillset. It is as big a difference from real drums as electric and upright bass are, and for the same reasons. A lot of drummers don't want to deal with learning to work with that difference, especially since the gear costs for a quality electronic kit can easily run into the thousands. Some of them will put triggers on every drum and output MIDI that way but ultimately it's best for augmenting an existing track rather than producing a MIDI version of it.

[brockorama]

Toontrack Drumtracker!!

[ektia]

Originally Posted by Steffmo

Lastly.....buy Drum Agog, pr whatever, and replace sounds to your hearts delight. Or use a program to turn the audio into midi. Its very common.

I didn't even know such programs existed. (I'm new at this.)

I checked out Drum Agog. Very interesting.

[drumrec.com]

Originally Posted by ektia

I have a project studio where I record and mix songs that I write. Since I record alone, I have had to learn how to play a lot of instruments myself. The one instrument that takes the longest amount of time for me is the drums. (I am a lousy drummer.)

So, I was thinking about hiring someone (for a per-song fee) to do play the drums for me. I noticed there are some really good session drummers for hire who will record drum tracks for you for a not terribly unreasonable fee. You send them your (drumless) WAV file of the song, and they record the accompanying drums in their own studios. However, all of the drummers who do this seem to record their drums as audio (WAV) files. I was wondering why they don't record to MIDI files instead, which would give me the ability, once I've received the MIDI files back from them, to select the exact drum sounds that I want from my library of samples.

Hi Ektia!!

It might be late with this posting, if not! So send me pm, I can help you with your needs. Working with what you are looking for every day to different satisfied customers

Kind Regards

Håkan Hansson

info@drumrec.com

[ChaNce144]

I have done both of these, and it is no contest: letting the drummer record real drums is so far superior to a MIDI kit.

Very quickly, my MIDI tracks came back fine, and I was able to move and change things till I was satisfied with the beats. However, it ended up taking about as long as it would have if I would have just used downloadable midi tracks and changed them around a bit!

On the other hand, the session drummer I used did four songs in about 3 hours, charged me 100$, and the parts, with all the little "feel" things in there (that would take FOREVER to do with MIDI) make the parts sound soooo good. Also, as most of us would probably agree, there is an interaction between the drums, cymbals, and overheads that is very hard to capture with programmed drums.

You have to be REALLY clear about what you want, especially, if you are sending the mp3s to someone else. In my case, I was at the sessions, but the drummer was so good, he came up with parts and was able to "build" the song without my input. I did, however, have him play a few sections 3-4 times (where there were numerous fills and changes in the beat), and then I went back and listened to all of it on my time and put in the parts I liked the best. It was a testament to his ability that, with very few exceptions, I took his first effort, rather than chopping a bunch of stuff together.

[buscemi]

I haven't used their custom services but their grooves are top and the drummer really is great: Custom Shop | OddGrooves

They provide MIDI or audio for you. Worth having another option out there.