Midi or Audio for Drums

Should I use midi, such as drum rack, simpler, and other devices for my drums or should I only use audio samples for the task? Seems this question is constantly being asked across the internet. In this video I demonstrate why both approaches have advantages and perhaps why a hybridized approach is perhaps best.
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[@SeedtoStage]

1:10 - Midi Overdub Mode 2:47 - Hot Swap Mode 3:55 - Coping rows of notes in piano roll 4:40 - LFO settings in Simpler 5:40 - Random Pan in Simpler 6:00 - Sidechaining from within Drum Rack 7:51 - Extract Chains 10:47 - Grooves 12:40 - Drum pitch editing within Drum Rack 15:30 - Fades 17:00 - Warping per sample 18:01 - Conceptual advantages of Audio 19:20 - Stretching and Warping Per Sample

[@shaked41]

If you add the timestamps to the description, KZbin will parse them, and embed them in the video player as chapters. :)

[@SeedtoStage]

@@shaked41 oh snap! I've been wondering how the pros have been doing it! Thanks 🙌

[@zebulinshelton760]

You are quickly becoming a favorite among KZbin producer/teachers. Thanks.

[@finonomastropiero4261]

He truly deserve it

[@eclatvibes5255]

"Extract Chains" Literal gold... Thanks Anthony!

[@user-tw9pq6ti3h]

Yeah, that brings such a productivity boost for me

[@Ferrichrome]

Don't forget about reversing audio by hitting R! It's a great trick for transitions or wonky sounds!

[@Rokushiiki]

the extract chain function revolutionized my work with drumrack. I seperated them manually via drag and drop or started with a drumrack for each type of drums. thank you very much!

[@muzaarnold]

YO! HOLDING SHIFT TO STRETCH THE SAMPLE! Bruh I needed this AGES AGO

[@KidGhost23]

I’m pretty sure they added that in Ableton 10, so you haven’t been missing out TOO long

[@cneillinson_]

Bro that’s how you do it ?

[@muzaarnold]

@@cneillinson_ yep! Even add cmd (mac) ctrl (win) so it doesn’t lock to the grid! You can stretch it freely

[@michaeldodson1160]

thanks and congrats on the new album, just listened all the way through and it is incredible

[@graphene1487]

Your video is FULL of great Ableton tips. Thank you so much for this!!

[@mjulio71]

Very helpful tips, man - Thank you and keep them coming!

[@devine_noise]

Hey homie you might see a lot more views if you added Ableton and Drum Rack into your title. This is the exact kind of video I needed and I couldn't find it until someone on Reddit recommended it when I had this exact question about drums. Thanks for making this.

[@koalahabits3605]

Loving your tutorials dude! Thank you

[@dpadilla1127]

Best 2 videos on KZbin for these subjects, so helpful and knowledge able man thank you!

[@alecrosenberg2656]

Thank You! ive been trying to look up how to midi overdub in ableton and this first ive seen it. love your videos

[@Pa93mu]

More mixing videos would be amazing! Love your stuff man, great work!

[@Andy-Kach]

Great video! I find your tutorials very useful. Thanks!

[@mayapunkful]

Very good man, as always, thank you so much! Saludos desde Colombia!

[@danlook8732]

Thank you so much for this tutorial!

[@lelandbobpalmer]

GREAT STUFF, dude! Been following you since your last upload about drum rack. Thanks a bunch :-)

[@lydkunst]

I Love this Guy. Vav so many things i learned. It`s so different small things i did not know. Amazing..Thank you

[@brodieseymour9178]

Aww man, Extract chains has changed my life. Another awesome video!

[@eclatvibes5255]

Also, you can apply groove to your audio tracks the same as midi as well as extract groove from both audio and midi files

[@davidleasterlingjr2038]

That last stretch trick on audio file is crazy. Your work flow and abelton's well thought out daw is insane

[@Tommy-dx5dg]

This is a top-quality explanation. Thanks man. 👏👏👏👏👏🔥🔥🔥

[@locksh]

Thank you for such quality content.

[@stevieasdfghjkl]

so much knowledge in one video. thank you.

[@sweeterthananything]

another great tutorial. personally i love keeping everything MIDI except single long events as you demonstrate, using different velocity settings for different layers of a sound and also using both one-shots & note-on layers fed from the same sequence - which i’ve usually recorded with limited quantization and zero note-off quantization. there’s also all the possibilities of nesting parallel MIDI effect chains within a drum pad, even with max4live devices like envelope follower. on an older computer that’s the sort of thing where i try to commit and render the output to audio/MIDI quickly and it all takes some fine-tuning, but it’s worth it for being able to generate so much character with just one recorded finger drumming sequence and a good library of foley/noisy sounds

[@travesdymusic]

Spectacular man!! I always forget about the groove 🤦‍♂️ Idea though...I know a lot has to do with our own commitment issues, but a video on when to use midi vs audio for the other song elements...bass, synth, pad. Or when it’s best to convert the midi to audio.

[@cneillinson_]

This is the video I needed thank you.

[@SanSanAAO]

Helpful video thanks!

[@wiggesobk]

Thats very helpful!

[@charlexguitar]

Another great tutorial, thanks a lot, gracias y saludos!

[@alanshewitt]

Man, such advanced level stuff, but laid out like it is the simplest, most obvious. I commend you.

[@michaeljohnson8131]

Best tutorials in the game right now. Thank you.

[@federicogoez]

Amazing!!! Thanks a lot!! 🔥🎹

[@francesco5061]

nice tutorial, thanks!

[@sterkurmeningsson5305]

Thank you. Perfect!

[@frankcoffey]

When I'm done with my composition I like to bounce to audio everything I can, even some effects if they are key to the sound and I may not have them in the future. I have so many old projects that I only have the MIDI from my old Windows XP machine but the software or hardware that made the sound is long gone so I can't do a remix now and recreate the sound. So many plugins and virtual instruments have been abandoned and not updated to work with the latest VST technology or version of Windows or Mac OS. I really miss Gigasampler but on one song I was smart enough to record the output to a track as audio so I have that GigaPiano part that is key to the song. The sample was so realistic you even hear the "konk" of the sustain pedal recoiling at the end of the song as it decays to silence, yes there was a sample included just for the pedal recoil triggered by the up pedal event in midi. GigaPiano was fantastic. It also takes a load off your computer at mix time and makes sure there are no timing issues you can't "see" like you can if you zoom in on an audio wavform.

[@denglee1060]

Thank you for sharing. I beginner to learn ableton I very like your channel.

[@JamesRamboPearce]

This is pretty much how I evolved using it, I'd use drum rack to get the jam or performance side down and then one off FX or resampled bits I'd use audio - I always use the side chain from drum rack!

[@natematthews915]

I didn’t know you could extract midi!! Nice tip to separate tracks!!

[@chrisdominguez9744]

Very helpful 👌🏻

[@TheGuitarist562]

The time stamps are honestly making me love this channel way more than others

[@danieljcallaghaniv1567]

Thank You and finally....!!!. I had abandoned Ableton after purchasing 10 live Standard moving to Logic approximately four months ago. I was fighting the software, frustrated seeking tutorials, etc. not finding what I needed. Finding your Chanel was providential.😊Your instruction is concise comprehensive yet not overwhelming: a fluid and organic way of instructing that helped my brain retain of information you presented. Well done.

[@xoxo-pp7ru]

Bruh just read the manual 🤦🙄

[@Kruse1]

What a legend, I'm going to get your courses soon just to pay for what I've already learnt from these youtube vids.

[@jammanmcguin]

I did the same thing for that same reason

[@adamsilber-gniady6326]

I use ableton for almost 10 years now. And this is the first time i saw the possibility of "extract chains". I always did this manually by hand. OMG. What a cowaard i was

[@camillofriedrich8299]

Man I often forget to show support. I just want to say that I’ve learned so fuckin much from your channel it’s crazy. 1000 times thank you und thumbs up!!

[@camillofriedrich8299]

Forget to say that your videos are so full of input that I do watch them several times still every time I find something new... crazy!

[@HowardCharlesUK]

This debate has been going off again on twitter recently. It never ends 😂

[@janairo1883]

8:35 just magic... Thanks

[@DaCashRap]

I consider myself an Ableton power user and mostly watch your videos to prove that to myself. But I always find a thing or two that I didn't know. Very informative and well-structured. Keep up the good work!

[@Ninja-pc3gd]

After watching this. I automatically subscribed.

[@andreumateulamas]

I think you are missing to comment about tools like Captain Beats or X0 Where you have the best of both worlds because you can work and finish and export your work in both.

[@francesco5061]

extract chains!! thanks!

[@moonfireknight]

4:08 - You are able to just click and drag the midi notes onto another row and easily duplicate the notes with the laser effect. When I tried to do that in Ableton 11, when I selected all the notes, held ALT, and tried to move the notes up to the other sample in the drum rack it ended up just changing the velocity of all of the notes. Which was also a cool trick I didn't know, but would love to know how to do what you did at that moment as well (I'm on a PC so I don't have a Options button, alt is the equivalent key right??)

[@ultimatebullsfan1]

No, it is control on PC

[@azzafadaly]

Real great

[@frascar]

Genius!

[@giantessmaria]

Another great lesson. Thanks my friend. I can't help but thinking that there are literally infinite parameters to affect each part of the sound that folks start spending so much time with this aspect, and spend less time on the actual musical composition itself. Guess theres a tradeoff with everything. Learning the balance is so key. For me, I like spending more time on my compositions musically, and not worry so much about if my kick drum has 50 million different parameter changes.

[@randymiles7023]

Why not use faders/attack parameters in the drum kit? (Unless you want to change it every sample)

[@finonomastropiero4261]

Thankiu Senpai

[@The_wiz_daniel]

Ctrl+Shift. You can drag the audio or midi in the clip on the timeline.

[@Do..on..astic_s]

Fu*king Fantastic!

[@MrSchmidtypop1]

What drum pad do you use for drumming?! Struggling to find one that tracks well & feels good.

[@_banja]

Have you done a video about gate sidechaining? That can be fun like if you sidechain a saw to stuff with cool rhythm

[@_banja]

Or if you sidechain loads of stuff to one percussion/hat midi or whatever

[@SeedtoStage]

Yep I gotcha covered: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nV7FgH-Aidefms0

[@_banja]

@@SeedtoStage yesssss nice

[@Robozveria]

What theme? Nice transparency on the clips.

[@Robozveria]

Got it. Just automation is on.

[@vadikboychun8249]

When cors be available?) Thanks for the video))

[@SeedtoStage]

I am trying to make the best and most in depth courses available on the topics i mentioned. I am most of the way through "composition and songwriting" and I'm still not even sure whether to release each one separately or to combine them all into one super course. So to answer your question, i really don't know cause i'm focusing on absolute quality instead of blasting through it!

[@vadikboychun8249]

@@SeedtoStage thank you for answering)

[@SeedtoStage]

If you're interested in the Ableton Online courses I'm creating, sign up to be notified when they come out here: mailchi.mp/a6892b61ffb2/seedtostage

[@alexw1681]

For 8:30 wouldn't it be simpler to process the chains within the drum rack? You can just add effects to the individual chains.

[@SeedtoStage]

I agree and I commonly do that myself. I just think folks are wanting the visual of having the drum parts in individual tracks and the whole "extract chains" thing makes that easy and streamlined.

[@fietjeschlegelmilch1701]

Does anyone use other ways to transposing Hats than automation? Like the piano roll in Fl Studio

[@sewnixltdofficial7687]

I don't have that plus icon here in 10.7

[@KhanMDOmarFaruk]

Use kick in audio and hihats in midi

[@juwonnnnn]

👌

[@xradical89x]

just one thing i feel like i have to add to this great video is that simpler/sampler mess up the phase and especially the transients of samples so keeping the drums in midi (especially kicks and snares) is not the best idea. unfortunately. i usually start with simpler/sampler to do whatever i want to do with the sample in terms of sound design like pitch envelopes etc. and then freeze/flatten any tracks that i want to make sure remain crisp and punchy (like kicks and snares) and copy the audio or consolidate and loop the audio sections to make it faster and easier in case i need to make some adjustments later. that way i know that the sample is going to sound exactly the same every time it plays as opposed to it being triggered by midi.

[@sunblooom]

that clap sounds like the clap from Eden - icarus

[@DEADBUNNYMUSIC]

Your music is dope! many tutorial makers music is shit u know what I mean xD

[@harrisfrankou2368]

I use RMX which has real Drummers and Midi. You can chop up and modify the beats. Different snares are in one groove.

[@Amatteus]

Minute 0,50. just the beginning......I look and I wonder... How did he play that?.. Clicking with the mousse over the instruments of the drum rack?.. pushing his fingers towards the computer keys?.. with an external midi keyboard he has on his table? . With push2?.. with Akai controller? with a Novation controller?.. Something else?...I do not know. And would like to know... And now, after studying hard for more than a year I know these posibilities.. at the very beggining I didnt.

[@scorpiondev]

hoooooly shit

[@Winamp_]

From my understanding, Midi is almost always superior unless the CPU is overloaded. (Could be a VST plug-in or similar that is hard for the CPU and Ableton to handle sometimes with midi). It can sometimes save like 90% of the overload on the CPU. So if you have a crappy laptop this is a good thing

[@dannyrawner1897]

Really that that said "trampstamps" are in the comments at 0:21

[@drowse9327]

TLDR someone help

[@Amatteus]

Yes.. you ask and i answer.. You missed something,....If instead of face you show your hands it will be easier to understand how you do it. You just have to point the camera to your hands. Thanks.

[@SeedtoStage]

LOL you wanna see me click my mouse like a ninja? Maybe I'll do a video on my mouse.

[@Amatteus]

@@SeedtoStage I would like to understand if the sounds I hear come from the midi, from audio files, from you playing a midi keyboard, playing computer keys, push2, mouse or whatever you do with your hands to fully understand how it is done. To you it´s very obvious, to me, as a beginner, most of the times also, but not always. Seeing your face does not give any value. Seeing your hands, at certain moments, it does. No one teaches how to drive a car covering his arms and hands when he makes a turn to the right... No one should teach driving a tool like Ableton without showing his hands, who are, at the end, what is driving the program. Many piano teachers do, some gear reviewers do, some others do not.. If your goal is to teach, and be good at it, I think you should show your hands. Here you have one of the best youtubers teaching music gear. kzbin.info/door/-RA5BzE_BnZhf5iVdNF1hA

[@Amatteus]

Also, good to learn shorcuts from the pros.. See how they drive can be very informative and educational. If i see I will know, if I do i will learn it, and if i practice a lot I will master it.. but first I have to see. .... If i do not see, I do not know..

[@SeedtoStage]

@@Amatteus I have many lessons where i show my hands. In this video, it is immaterial what my hands are doing. If you feel like you'd benefit from a different channel, you can watch that channel instead. I am not going to waste the hard drive space and resources for 10 seconds of playing in this video. This video is about editing midi or audio after its been laid out. Thanks for the feedback.

[@Amatteus]

@@SeedtoStage If I see that you only click your mousse and you are not using shortcuts with the keyboard, a midi, a controller , etc.. I will know that everything is done with the mouse... Now I do not know... If I see that things that I know can be done faster with shortcuts or a midi keyboard or any other controller, I will probably ask you why you do not use shortcuts or why you do not play notes with the computer keys,..or whatever. And however you do it, and whatever you answer, for sure, i will learn things and learn more.

[@PaulJBurns]

I'd go with audio for drums, as MIDI doesn't actually make a noise. It's a communication protocol. Regards.

[@beytullahkeskin1153]

no love and sound ... devil

[@brighton09100]

Nothing beats a real drummer. This stuff is basically like a robot

[@Generative_Midi_]

Part of the fun of processing and arranging midi drums is getting them to sound like they're being played by a real drummer. Can be done quickly once you know how.

[@randymiles7023]

Also fun is creating percussion that is impossible or extremely impractical to create with classic percussion. Embrace the computer, if you love the creativity available. If not, just play drums, and focus your creativity there. Both are valid.

[@SourDiesel69]

Who cares?

[@regularchickens]

helpful comment

[@beytullahkeskin1153]

They're trying for nothing

[@beytullahkeskin1153]

a silly program

[@beytullahkeskin1153]

ableton is a very poor program. no one should take