Editing Drum Tracks in Pro Tools?

[BJohnston]

I've been working on a project with really shakey drum tracks. We laid them down to a click, but I'm having a trouble getting seemless edits. What's the trick? Are there any drum editing software available for such applications?

BJohnston

[84K]

Cross Fades. Grid Mode. Click.

[chuckj]

A quick suggestion would be to make sure you are implementing a crossfade option at your edit points. Avoid "gaps" in your edits when shifting tracks. Make your regions overlap. Be careful when editing across all of the drum tracks. An ideal edit point to shift a kick drum may not be ideal for the overhead or room mics. Try using the "tab to transient" option help find the beginning of a transient for an edit. Hope those suggestions help. A final suggestion is to purchase John Keane's "A Musician's Guide to ProTools" It has a CD with PT sessions that have drum editing lessons. John does a great job of explaining the process in a step by step fashion.

[djui5]

If editing drums, edit all the tracks at once and make the edits as close to the beginning of the kick as you can. Helps a lot. I learned this recently :)

[BJohnston]

Thanks for the help. I've been editing drum tracks for 2 days now. I've never had to do quite this much editing before. I'm really trying to push the bounderies of my editing skills.

Try using the "tab to transient" option help find the beginning of a transient for an edit.

Where does this option reside in PT?
Again I appreciate it.

BJohnston

[84K]

Up in the top left area of the Edit Window (to the right of the 'Grid-Shuffle-Slip-Spot' selection). If no one else explains it, I will post a screen shot later tonight.

You should use that feature to find the exact downbeat. You can compare the difference (in samples) to the click by using that tool... Very useful!!! Cross fades will take care of your 'click and pop' problem. After you get that down, consolidate your regions. Your hard drive will thank you.

[Kestral]

1. Group drums you want edited
2. Command-0 (Beat Detective)
3. Do it
4. PROFIT

[BJohnston]

Muchos Gracias.

[drew]

book a few hours in your local studio and see how they do it. good for everyone involved.

[redroom]

I second the advice of buying a training video then you can always go back to it and probably learn a whole heap more ont he way.

[7rojo7]

Make an edit group with all the drum tracks. Cut (seperate region) all drums at the transient of the drum you want to move Tab to next transient or spot where you want and cut again (seperate region) move the drum and all of the drumtracks at the same time to the place you want them to be.
If it's a late hit and you've moved it forward you'll create a gap at the endpoint of the moved region and the startpoint of the next region. Use the trimmer to extend forward the starpoint of the region after the moved region.
If it's an early hit and you've moved it back you will have created a gap at the the starpoint of the moved region and the endpoint of the previous region and covered the startpoint of the next region. Use the trimmer to extend forward the startpoint of the moved reason and to extend forward the startpoint of the next region far enough to uncover the transient of the next region.
Use batch cross fades if you're doing a lot of editing it saves a lot of time, you'll have an occasional crossfade that you'll have to adjust.
Using the Tab to transient and the shift key can make fast selections also but then all the drum tracks get the same name for their regions. I found that the apple-E seperate regions command is much easier to use in the long run, I find it a bug that selections of multiple tracks and seperating that selection that all the seperated regions become named the same.
Before making crossfades, suspend your edit group, look at the editpoints to make sure you haven't covered any transients from drums or cymbals that may have been hit before that of the drum that you cut on. Use the trimmer to uncover the transient of any drumtrack region which needs it
Make sure to seperate and move short regions and not shift the whole end of the song after the first move. You'll be there forever trying to figure out how this drummer can be so off and you'll have to do a lot more editng.
Use the Save session as command after every major step like after the batch crossfades, so you'll have places to skip back to if you get too involved at some point. when you finish the job name the session with edit or de at the end of the title. toss all the intermediates.
BD is a blast if you've really got to tear a song apart, if not the editing thing goes pretty fast if you only have a couple of spots to fix.

[BJohnston]

PHP Code:

Use batch cross fades if youre doing a lot of editing it saves a lot of time 


How do you make batch crossfades?

B

[7rojo7]

You make a selection that includes all of the edit points that you want to crossfade, even across multiple tracks and apple-F, select your fade, hit return.