JakeDiamante

Q: Quantize live drums - Recorded WITHOUT click track, tempo varies, but I want it locked...

I have spent two days researching, using beat mapping, quantization, flex etc...and still keep running into massive problems, there must be an easier way??

 

Using drum parts cut and assembled from various takes, I rearranged our two drum tracks (1: kick mic, and 2: overhead mic) so they flow how I wanted, with perfect fills in the right place, and good takes of specific sections.  It's a bit of a "Frankenstein" piece, i realize.  But after flattening, I thought I could use a combination of beat mapping and quantization to smooth out tempo inconsistencies.

 

Here's where I'm at:  I beat mapped the tracks (took FOREVER since I had to manually snap every 1/16th note to the grid) and now the grid follows the drums, but there are a TON of tiny 1/16 note varying tempos all strung together (see pic).  Screen Shot 2016-10-05 at 2.51.56 PM.png

 

HOW do I change all these little tempos to, say, 98 bpm?  So the whole song just has one tempo of 98 bpm?  I have tried several ways with quantizing and using flex, but each time value I use sounds horrific. 

 

Am I going about this the right way?  I have used flex time with another couple song's drums, that I DIDN'T cut and assemble, and it just snapped everything into a solid time, no problem. 

 

Is there an easier way to do what I'm trying to do here?  I loved being able to cut and assemble a "perfect" drum take from good parts of various takes, but in the future is it basically impossible to do this without using a click track?

 

Thank you so much!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Oct 5, 2016 1:59 PM

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Q: Quantize live drums - Recorded WITHOUT click track, tempo varies, but I want it locked...

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  • by JakeDiamante,

    JakeDiamante JakeDiamante Oct 5, 2016 2:03 PM in response to JakeDiamante
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Audio
    Oct 5, 2016 2:03 PM in response to JakeDiamante

    Maybe what I should be asking is how can I best quantize 2 tracks of live drums recorded without a metronome (so they don't match a LPX grid)? Again, thank you, I really appreciate any feedback on this.

  • by oingo boingo,

    oingo boingo oingo boingo Oct 5, 2016 10:21 PM in response to JakeDiamante
    Level 1 (97 points)
    Audio
    Oct 5, 2016 10:21 PM in response to JakeDiamante

    I am not an audio editing expert, but I'll take a first stab at your question.

     

    The first thing you have to consider is that there are 2 inputs here: your audio (with its tempo) and the project tempo/"click". Only one flexes, the other one stays steady. You need to choose whether the audio is flexed to the project tempo (i.e. quantised to a click grid), or whether the project tempo is flexed to your audio (which has a changing tempo).

     

    Your question is "how do I fit (i.e. quantise) my audio to a given project tempo". However, you chose a method, beat mapping, that does the opposite: it makes the project tempo flex to your audio.

     

    If you want to quantise your audio to a tempo, you first need a project tempo you are happy with. So you've got to set a  set a fixed tempo (say, 98bpm) and then quantise to that. You then take each audio region and assign a flex mode to the audio track. Then select the Flex parameter in the Region inspector for that region.

    In the audio editor, you need to check that all relevant beats have had a transient detected, as only the detected transients will be quantised to the grid. You can manually add transient markers in the audio editor.

     

    In the user manual, check:

    - "quantise regions"

    - "Flex time algorithms and parameters"

     

    That would be my take on it.