How I EDIT DRUMS

Editing Drums from start to finish
Instagram / coltcapperrune
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[@acoustictreatmentservices9926]

I used to work as an engineer for a big rock producer in LA. He started tracking drums for a popular band using their drummer and called me to come in. He said something like "can you be nice and record him playing drums for the rest of the day, I don't have time for this. I just called Josh Freese to do the drums on this record because we will never be finished with this bands current drummer". Basically it cost less to have a pro (Josh Freese) do the whole record in a few hours than to have to use the bands drummer and spend days working on those songs. It was about 14 songs of which 10 would be on the record. It was an eye opening experience. I got to record Josh and edit his drums. Josh came in his prius. He brought some sticks, snares, a few cymbals, and went to town on the studios drum set up. I think it was like 5-6 hours for all the songs.

[@lllazarrr]

Cool story, makes me wanna be that cool pro guy that saves the day :)

[@bridgestreetdesign]

A really good drummer will get things done efficiently. When The Byrds recorded basic tracks for their first single “mr. tambourine man”, it was just roger McGuinn and the wrecking crew. They got the job done in 2-3 takes. For the next single, “turn turn turn”, the basic tracks were done by the byrds themselves and it took an astronomical amount of takes to get something releasable. I want to say around 73.

[@fernandojoseph352]

You prolly dont care but if you're bored like me during the covid times you can stream pretty much all of the new movies on InstaFlixxer. Been binge watching with my girlfriend for the last couple of weeks :)

[@judedash9930]

@Fernando Joseph Definitely, have been watching on InstaFlixxer for since november myself :)

[@LukeZajdel]

This is sick! I drummed for Brenna at a BusCall recently and that song was hands down my favorite to learn and play. Insane drum sound and playing. Love what you (and Lester) do! Cheers!

[@pascalmerschaudio]

when i watch your videos colt, it feels like i´m looking a video from a good old friend, thanks Colt

[@ColtCapperrune]

Love it, thanks so much!

[@ninjaturdle69]

Yes! more DRUMS

[@ColtCapperrune]

You got it!

[@johnpilling741]

A heavy days work buddy but fascinating to see how you pull it all together. Love it.

[@ColtCapperrune]

Appreciate it! Thanks for watching

[@TroubadourMusic]

Awesome, Colt. Brilliant comment: " early and sharp build intensity and anticipation. late and flat are kind of chill and relaxing." I tune vocals the same way. Love to see that you do most of this by hand when you could quantize the whole thing in 10 seconds. Even just a few tics early, while inaudible, can feel so much better, and you have to listen to it. You have great musical instincts. I would like to see how you deal with cymbal bleed in other tracks like the hi hat, snare and toms.

[@aidanbrown2529]

a “how you track drums” would be so helpful! Amazing video as always keep it up!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Great idea! Thanks for watching!

[@davidtriesthings2862]

I just got done mixing for a metal band and cackled a bit when you mentioned putting a KZbin video on as you flex align all of the drum hits... 😂 I must’ve spent a good 2 hours making sure the drums were totally polished, especially it being Deathcore. Such a great video!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Hahaha yea man, a 7 minute metal tune is mind numbing LOL. Thanks for watching!

[@wynton765]

Colt I have been fiddling with beat detective, losing my mind cuz it doesn’t work right and it always screws up the cymbals! How did I not see this video?! I’m so upset I didn’t see it sooner! Thank you my man!!

[@TonyThomas10000]

I remember the good old days when we recorded the band live on two tracks and used the other two for vocals and solos. No editing at all. LOL!

[@ColtCapperrune]

I’ve threatened going back to tape many times hahaha

[@TonyThomas10000]

@@ColtCapperrune Times were simpler then. We cut two songs in 4 hours.

[@ajcohen2621]

Thanks can you do budget monitor review like kali etc

[@ColtCapperrune]

A budget monitor shoot out is definitely on the list, just have to get someone like Sweetwater on board to send me all of the monitors. Thanks for watching!

[@terrymiller111]

@@ColtCapperrune I will get it going. "Chuck, c'mon. You owe me from last year."

[@Stefan-fv7yj]

Fun thing, just came back from the studio tracking drums for a new song with my band. Was setting up my stuff to do some editing and this popped up in my recommended. couldn’t be timed any better!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Nice! Hope it helps!

[@SeraphinaHicks]

I am a drummer and I think his advice on creative interpretation is spot on.

[@Nahhh868]

Happy to see the Huntsville interstate sign - that’s where I grew up! Great video as always, from a mix engineer now in Phoenix!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Nice! That was right downtown Nashville

[@ROKZLEON]

Just impressed at how many tunes you’re working on!!! You’re a working man!!!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Haha thanks!! I feel very lucky to always be this busy. I’ve currently got about 35 songs in progress. That’s about as much as I can handle lol.

[@joebuckley9181]

Great Video, I use these function alot, but didn't know about the warp function, that's new to me, thanks, keep up the good fight, God Bless!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Awesome! Glad it helps!

[@jstnfrzr]

I knew this video couldn’t be about editing Lester’s playing. He’s basically programmed drums plus more. Great video once again my dude.

[@carpentemusic]

Your advice helped with my latest mixing. Helps make tracks come alive, yet also restricts excessive. Thank you!

[@jjvinceofficial7131]

I love these kinda video's, the perfect college work break

[@zazoomatt]

Priceless to this 63yo Rooky Colt ! Just getting started.

[@ColtCapperrune]

Thanks for watching!

[@noir4659]

a quick tip so you don't have to switch between grid mode and slip mode all the time. When you are in grid mode, hold down command and then every move you make will be in slip mode. Vice versa

[@OriginalRaveParty]

This is such a valuable video. Top notch advice. Thank you Colt.

[@chrispendergrass5829]

Wow as a beginner in music production I have tons and tons to learn didnt know it was this "deep" lol Thanks Colt, a true mentor for sure.

[@troyalcorn9459]

Very cool video Colt it is like sitting in the room with you and just learning all this stuff as you do it thanks I jus mess around at home but learn a lot from your videos

[@ColtCapperrune]

Appreciate it! Thanks for watching 🙏🏻

[@coreystopperan9555]

Thanks colt! Looking forward to the upcoming videos on drums!

[@ablackshedd]

Hey Colt, stoked for this series. My world is drums. lol.

[@suyash62]

Excited for the whole drum series! Peace!

[@allaboutaudio_tv]

i love your videos so much. really helpful from a production standpoint and really entertaining.

[@SmokeM2D6]

YOU ARE KILLING IT

[@moorlandmonster3540]

Hey Colt this is a great video! I am looking forward to seeing the rest of y9our series, drums are a weak link for me and part of the process of making music that I find hardest. Looking forward to the rest of your series :-)

[@ddrummer1821]

poor tuckness getting throwin under the bus lol! Also you seriously didn't have to edit Lester AT ALL?!?! Just find it hard to believe I watched Nir Z absolutely kill a session and they still edited his shit!

[@darrenvanniekerk1044]

I never comment on stuff, but I'm a stickler for acoustic drums and I've found that I cannot use elastic audio to any great effect without compromising what I've layed down... In percussive mode, there's always a dip at the end of the cymbal decay unless adjusting the decay in the plugin which typically winds up leaving erroneous audio bits from having to stretch too small a sample leading into the next hit... whereas in polyphonic the punch in the drums always disappears - like a shift in phase or the fundamental of the drum seems to swim and the impact is gone. Completely destroys the impact. So Beat Detective it is - and it's awful :D The workflow in Elastic is next level though. I can only assume you're replacing the drums with samples in the mix stage? Anyhow, from all I've heard your stuff sounds tight and I absolutely love your channel. Incredibly informative while also feeling like coffee-talk with your studio bud. Really enjoying your style.

[@tomic_luka]

Learned something new, interesting and useful today. Thanks dude 🙏

[@ColtCapperrune]

Thanks for watching!

[@kylekrysadrums]

Hey Colt, awesome video! As good as high caliber studio drummers are, do you find yourself still editing drum tracks from guys such as Lester? Or, do they often play a perfect take to your liking in one to two takes without additional edits needed? Thanks!

[@antcall6779]

Great video! Keep these types coming!🤘

[@ColtCapperrune]

Hope it helps!

[@jaytonlening]

Such a well done video man! Love love love your content 👊🏼👊🏼🔥🔥

[@Moka8]

Pretty much the exact same way I go about editing drums. Haha. The only thing I do differently is that if it's a metal band with some pretty technical kick parts; I'll sometimes create a second kick group and do some of the editing on that separately. Mainly on parts where having to edit every kick hit on the main group would mess with the other drum tracks too much.

[@abhinavjoshua]

“You didn’t do anything!” Hahaha 😜

[@ColtCapperrune]

😂😂😂

[@matthewjones8510]

Thanks for your work, Colt!

[@PradigyMusicman]

I did this for a horrible drumming performance on an album and it took forever I even resampled the drums too. I learned a lot tho

[@JesusArmasOficial]

Great video Colt. Another way of working on drums. I've worked mostly with Beat Detective, but it's never too late to learn another technique for that same task. By the way, how's your experience has been since you upgraded to Big Sur. I knew it on IG. Big fan of your work. Greetings from Spain.

[@ColtCapperrune]

Thanks for the compliments! Big Sur does have some small glitches for me, but it has been stable, with no crashes. As of right now, all my plug-ins and software are working fine.

[@kregtaylor]

Wait..... lester from pillar? Dudes a beasttt!

[@ColtCapperrune]

That’s the guy! He plays on between 30 and 50 songs a year for me!

[@kregtaylor]

@@ColtCapperrune thats awesome! One of my fave all time drummers! Ive seen him live more times i than i can count! Hell of person to have in your back pocket to track with.

[@jamesrivera3426]

Indeed the Lord is upon you 😂 I was just wishing you’d make a video like this! 🔥

[@ColtCapperrune]

Hahaha thanks for watching!

[@fremistudios]

Great video man!!! I learn a lot. 🤓👍🏻

[@ColtCapperrune]

Awesome! Thanks for watching!

[@aeiplanner]

Man, some great content you've been putting out lately. On this question on drum editing, I've always done it the way you do except I work in Mono or Poly until I'm happy and then switch to X-Form to ensure I don't have artifacts. It's not really a problem for direct mics but since I group and phase lock all tracks while editing if I don't use X-Form my cymbal sustain sounds choppy when I move warp markers.

[@Gowingmj]

Amazing video, really enjoyed this, although not intentional some of your tips using pro-tools were really helpful, would love to see you do some more detailed pro-tools worklflow / processing type videos

[@ColtCapperrune]

Glad it helped! That’s not a bad idea for a video. Thanks for watching!

[@vojtechkuchta6070]

Well recorded, edited and mixed drum kit is alpha and omega of the song. Do you as producer/ audio engineer also take care of the tuning?

[@briangowerhc]

This was rad and super helpful. Thanks man!

[@ColtCapperrune]

I’m glad it helped! Thanks for watching!

[@krushaudio]

Interesting...always have used Beat Detective but it definitely has its drawbacks as well. Will try this next time. Cool video

[@ColtCapperrune]

That certainly works fine for a lot of people! Thanks for watching!

[@Fexiheit]

For the algorithm :) You're awesome!

[@pwrmac7600]

I do mostly Rock, leaning more towards to hard rock side of things. I always struggle with treating my main L & R distorted electric guitars. Do I treat them with a touch of room verb to try and help them meld into the mix better? or do i leave them dry so they are more in your face, and save my ambience for the color guitar tracks? I constantly feel that when I add the touch of ambience to my main guitars that they lose that raw in your face vibe, but when I leave them completely dry, they tend to sit on top of everything. Why am I putting all of this into a drum editing video? lol because my point is, I would love to see a video on how you treat your heavier rock guitars, and when I saw heavier, I don't mean metal.

[@timphelan2873]

Very cool and useful vid. Thanks!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Thanks for watching!

[@joemurphydrums]

this is a great tutorial, THANK YOU !! was wondering if you found poly better for drums than rhythmic for tones or better "feel" and less mechanical sounding ?

[@bubinga_basher]

This is quite a bit advanced for where I am in tracking drums, but I'm certain will make a great reference in the future. Do you do the mastering as well? Thanks from my future, even older self

[@RickK1988]

This intro with all the gear shots is just so damn sexy and scandalous. That gear could get me to do anything.

[@Nahhh868]

ANYTHING? 😏

[@RickK1988]

@@Nahhh868 you heard me.

[@ColtCapperrune]

😂😂😂

[@RickK1988]

Work smart. Not hard. Making the drummer recut the take is best. Helps you out in the long run while making the drummer better at playing to a click. (I'm not a click professional)

[@ColtCapperrune]

100%!! Thanks for watching

[@dstagl]

If you're going to grid 1/4 notes with elastic audio, is there a reason why you don't just option-0, set the quantize to 1/4 notes, and quantize them?

[@ColtCapperrune]

Great question! The reason is because I want complete control over what’s happening. If there is often drum patterns that leave certain 1/4 notes open while playing the 8th or 16th notes. Without doing it all manually PT will confuse the closest 8th or 16th hit for an out of time 1/4 and force it into the wrong spot. That has happened to me so many times that I just do it all one hit at a time now. Thanks for watching!

[@dstagl]

@@ColtCapperrune That makes sense.

[@electroKrunch]

I appreciate all you are doing, Colt! Don't get me wrong! I love making the players work to get it right... Maybe this doesn't work today.... Been outta the business for a long time, but shouldn't a band be able to be able to play together? Where's the groove? With the band or the studio?? Thoughts?

[@pwrmac7600]

I don't think it's so much about the band not playing together anymore, I think it's more about the fact that the industry is just demanding stuff that is more and more polished. And truthfully the amount that he is shifting stuff, although it looks visually like alot, it really isn't, he was zoomed in really close on those wav files. He really was shifting such a minute amount to just tighten here and there. Just makes the entire mix sound a little punchier.

[@svarogstudio]

Great video Colt. I'm glad you mentioned metal, it's all fun and games till you have a fast death metal piece and the drummer who struggles to keep up. You turn on transient detection... but it misses bunch of blast beat hits because they are played way to light, and the drummer misses a hit here and there, turning a 4/4 beat into 3/4... at the end of the chorus you realize you are five hits short hahaha

[@Lvaudioworks]

Can’t you highlight and snap them all to your grid??

[@stevenewtube]

Stress factor maximum, ..... Samplitude!

[@AlexeySolovievMusic]

Fucking love all of your videos Colt! You bring so much value and learning much from you! Thank you so much for this video! Also would like to ask you for an interview for my channel but you don't respond to my DMs on Fb! Anyway you super duper Rock! Thanks so much for all of your great content you do!

[@aya_mixing]

Hey Colt! I was just wondering why you wouldn’t use Event Operations to automatise a little bit this manual grid work you do

[@maciejtreppa]

Mad Glenn is gonna love it

[@mniart]

What, wait? You didn’t use playlist editing? Is there a reason you re-recorded that drum fill on new separate tracks instead of using playlists? 🤔 Did I miss something?

[@ColtCapperrune]

So I recorded several takes on the different playlists. And then I would punch problems spots on each take in its respective playlist. That way I had a mostly complete performance on every playlist. Then I would comp drums altogether on whatever playlist is the best from start to finish. Then I fly that entire playlist up to the main track. Since there are generally only one or two spots that I’m changing something, I don’t playlist edit drums in the same way I would vocals. Hope that helps

[@bobbieoneal]

What about phase issue? 😢

[@kadenstevens8213]

Do you grid guitars the same way? If not, why does gridding improve the feel? For example, if the guitar pushes the verses, is dead on in the chorus and lays back for the bridge, how is it better for the drums to follow none of those timing variations?

[@ColtCapperrune]

Good question! In my opinion, and for the music I work on, drums are the back bone. They ARE the metronome. For the music I work on the kick and snare at least should be dead on. Where The drummer places the symbols in between the beats still create the groove. Stretching guitar audio never sounds good to me. I can get away with it on drums like I showed in the video. And I can sometimes get away with it on vocals. But that’s about it. Everything else tends to get unpleasant artifacts when stretching the audio. So with guitars specifically I will cut, slide, and Crossfade. Exactly how I showed The first technique of editing Drums. Hope that helps!

[@kadenstevens8213]

It helps a ton. Thank you very much!

[@mcsweet1966]

Can you extrapolated on flat fee for mixing do you look at the session first so you know what need to be done for exemple if all the drum have to be work on or quantized ?

[@andrewwhitworth612]

Hey colt, Big fan of the channel I’ve been watching for about a year now. I have a question regarding 500 series gear. After I saw your what’s in my rack video I’ve been wanting to put together a rack of my own and was wondering one thing. How do you route your preamps to where they can be used on a mix bus and still be used for recording as well. Do you reroute everything as necessary? Some of the 500 series chassis have aux sends and out as well as mic ins and outs could I use this as well? Thanks for your time colt, Andrew

[@ColtCapperrune]

Thanks for watching! So everything I have runs through a patch bay. So I can easily connect any input/output of any piece of gear to any other piece of gear. I am in the planning stages of a video specifically on this. Hope that helps!

[@andrewwhitworth612]

@@ColtCapperrune can’t wait to see it !

[@officialWWM]

Meanwhile, I'm over here playing finger drums on my midi controller 😂😂

[@ColtCapperrune]

Hey man, rock what ya got! No shame! Thanks for watching

[@officialWWM]

Colt Capperrune thanks bro :)

[@TheProgSchool]

How to edit Metal drums: 1. Record drummer attempting to play inhumanly precise parts 2. Sit in front of computer for 3 days editing 3. Replace drums with samples 4. Wonder why you recorded real drums at all

[@ColtCapperrune]

😂😂😂 true story

[@riczarro6805]

Hi Colt, I didn't notice do you add the overheads, room, and ambient mic tracks to the group or just the direct mic tracks?

[@ColtCapperrune]

ALL the mics that were recorded are in the group. It’s really important that every change you make happens equally to all tracks. Hope that helps!

[@riczarro6805]

@@ColtCapperrune yes it does. I just saw the overhead track above the tracks you were editing and didn't notice them being edited.

[@meekoloco]

Very cool, savvy stuff

[@ColtCapperrune]

Thanks for watching!

[@meekoloco]

@@ColtCapperrune Being a drummer, I really appreciate your approach to editing, trying to keep the vibe of the drummer’s performance. As you obviously know that’s a huge deal.

[@mwangiwaruguru]

Sup! What are the specs for the mac laptop you used to track?

[@teslatravels4197]

Great stuff.

[@ColtCapperrune]

Thanks for watching!

[@DavideGuerri]

you really use the tools like this instead of the smart tool? or is it just for the sake of the video and trying to be more clear about what you're doing? same goes for zoom commands, i barely touch the upper bar in pro tools, it's all in the shortcuts

[@paulbessmusic]

Hey Colt, Logig pro x user over here. You talked about using elastic audio, if i unterstood correctly. Is this a Pro Tools built-in plugin, or third party? Thank you for the video, learned a lot!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Elastic audio is built-in to ProTools, logic should have something comparable built into it. Any sort of time stretch, or expansion/compression. Pretty much all DAW have it built in. Thanks for watching!

[@adamregan4921]

Should be DAW built in. Cubase has it built in too.

[@Nathan_Lundstrom]

The Logic equivalent is Flex Time. Works great!

[@paulbessmusic]

@@Nathan_Lundstrom Yes, thank you so much! I used Flex Time before, but really never really got the sound out of it, i wanted.. What kind of algorithm do you use?

[@paulbessmusic]

@@ColtCapperrune Alright, thank you Colt! I did use Flex Time in Logic, but maybe it's the sam thing like you said, when the drummer is way off, i should cut it out and put it where it belongs first.

[@kaiulrich6185]

The speed of consolidating tells me that I need a new mac😏

[@bridgestreetdesign]

Hi Colt, got a question if you don’t mind: when you edit drums to tighten up the timing do you ever simultaneously edit other instruments that were cut live with the drums to keep the whole band cohesive? Or do you just layer every project?

[@ColtCapperrune]

Good question! I very rarely record a band live together. And editing drums like this is one of the primary reasons. I want to make the drums as polished as is appropriate for the song, but I also don’t want to edit every note that the rest of the band plays to the drummer after I’ve changed the timing of the drums. So my workflow on 99.9% of projects is track drums by themselves to scratch tracks like you saw in the video, then bass guitar, then guitars, whatever order makes sense for the project. Thanks for watching!

[@bridgestreetdesign]

@@ColtCapperrune Ahhh, that makes sense. On the flip side, the basic tracks for almost all the projects at my place are cut live. Different approaches, I guess.

[@jasonmare33]

thanks

[@jasonmare33]

worked great! Do you put the tracks back to waveform from warp and remove group after all the snaps are complete?

[@jazzzfer]

@Colt Capperrune do you phase align the OH/Rooms with the snares before doing the comps?

[@ColtCapperrune]

Nope. I work to get it correct in tracking. And then I want to maintain that phase relationship between everything while editing.

[@jazzzfer]

@@ColtCapperrune makes sense. Get it right at the source.

[@michaeltinker2543]

Hi Colt, thanks for doing this! When you were editing the fill towards the end, do you ever worry about ruining the transient of the snare hit when you pull it closer to the kick, or have you not found this to be an issue?

[@lencarmichael]

Almost exactly how I do it @coltcapperrune

[@DanielCrawford01]

Actual content starts at 3:08

[@crazyED231]

I need to figure out how to do all this in Reaper......

[@ColtCapperrune]

You should be able to! Pretty much all DAWs have all these capabilities

[@bendanielguitar]

Check out Kenny Gioia's tutorials for a couple good drum editing options

[@mathias841]

14:31 vs 16:51

[@morbidmanmusic]

Massive grid edits just turn you into s machine. Sounds like a logic drum program..zzzzz What is "appropriate" for anything played by a reason musician is to play it well. Just because you can....etc. plus all those slip edits cause new phasing issues as well. Not so into this as a drummer/engineer. It's not "appropriate" for anything with real players. That word needs to mean more.

[@jaredmarshall9439]

Great video, but am i the only one who notices artifacts (flammimg, phasing issues) when using EA to edit drums? I prefer slip mode editing. It takes a while. But preserves everything. I would reach for EA as a last ditch effort to fix something.