Using Drum Samples In A Mix | FAQ Friday- Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

[@duderadley6296]

In Reaper I use Dynamic Split Items. You access it by right clicking on, for example, the kick track. You can the set where the track is split based on transients or a gate (or both). You can also set min slice and silence lengths and the gate threshold etc. You can also set the transient sensitivity. This then splits up the track into individual "hits" rather than one long waveform. Once split, you highlight all the sections on the track, open Reapers Media Explorer, find/select your sample and choose "Use as media source for selected items". This replaces the original audio with the sample. All that being said, make sure you make a copy of the track you're going to split and replace with samples. Not only does this allow you to blend the samples with the original audio but it also ensures you have a backup of the original in case things go south with the sampled track.

[@wongsanggar]

Yes reaper does good job with its customizable actions

[@drjazz7278]

Thanks mate, always good to hear a fellow reaper user

[@TheKitemann]

This makes sense. Sometimes I use ReaGate to send a midi signal to the particular midi channel in my drum host. Then I either use sounds directly from a host or make a record of my midi signal to correct velocity or timing.

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much for your wonderful comment Nicholas! I love hearing how everyone works and your message contains so much great information that helps others!! You Rock! Thanks for being an amazing part of our community!

[@magisterwarjomaa3858]

Yep, and re: where does Sonarworks (and/or other plugins, which are meant to aid the mixing process, but not be printed) go? In Reaper, that would not be the master buss, but "Monitor FX". Hopefully other DAWs have this feature as well. In short, it's a "buss" where you can put gain plugins, spectrometers, goniometers, playback system emulations, headphone response "levellers" etc. without affecting the printed/exported/rendered final mix itself.

[@Kyro_Gaming_Channel]

Among the endless ocean of videos on KZbin, I only get excited for new uploads from Warren. What a great channel. I've created/recorded music for 15 years as a passionate hobby. There's nothing more enjoyable than learning new things!

[@michaelc3625]

Thanks Warren for answering my question on a FAQ Friday! You and the Produce Like A Pro community are awesome, glad to be a part of it.

[@KennethACrashwaggonMusic]

For creating midi for drum replacement Superior Drummer 3 is by far the best option for me. Especially if you have a lot of ghost notes. The Tracker in that software is amazing. Using Trigger or similar with wave files and avoiding mistriggers I'll typically do it in this order: Duplicate track, high/lowpass, exaggerate attack using a transient shaper, gate it and then use Trigger or similar software. Works great most of the time.

[@lorenzowoodmusic]

I use logic’s drum replacement/layer tool and it has worked MARVELOUSLY for me

[@jimmiefarmer3022]

I've yet to actually replace any drum parts, but I also use Logic and it's drum replacement tool seems incredibly easy to use and accurate.

[@ShiningHourPop]

Indeed. Logic’s drum replacement is very good.

[@shashankchauhan5009]

Are you guys talking about stuff like velocity layering and round robin in EXS-24 or is it something else? Please provide a link if possible. Thank you.

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much Lorenzo! I appreciate your insight!

[@bzqp2]

Warren, I just wanted you to know, that your videos provided a huge inspiration for my creativity. Thanks to you I've found strength for months of composing, recording and mixing work and I feel that you kickstarted me from a "wannabe musician" to a being real "begginer musician". Now that you've made me profficient enough to create my own music I feel competent enough to share my 1st, humble attempts to the world. I'm sending one demo I've prepared to a radio broadcast competition tomorrow. I am sure there are thousands of people feeling the same way out there. Thank you.

[@CarnivoreIntelligence]

Wow! Cool! Keep it up! Creativity is fantastic! 😊🎺🥁

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much my friend! I really appreciate it!! You are very kind! I am glad to help inane way I can my friend!!

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much Music Nerd Revolution!!

[@CarnivoreIntelligence]

Produce Like A Pro 😊

[@3forparker]

In Reaper, I use "JS Audio to MIDI Drum Trigger" - just apply it as an FX on the track you want to convert, and it will create a MIDI track based on the wave sample in the track. So you get the dynamics of each hit - BUT when I do it, it's very low volume, so I simply select all and boost them to the proper velocity, while still keeping the dynamics. The result is a MIDI track that I then add EZ Drummer to as as FX. If I need to change the sound to a different part of the kit, such as kick instead of snare, I simply edit to the proper note in the piano roll while everything is selected.

[@wongsanggar]

You should put JS: Midi Velocity Scaler/Compressor after that trigger so then it will be louder and consistent. Watch Reaper Blog video entitled "Practice Pad Drum Trigger"

[@BengtSkogvall]

I also use the JS Audio to Midi Drum trigger and then scale the dynamics up with the JS: Mide Velocity Scaler / Compressor. That scaled Midi I use to trigger my sample in ReaSamplOMatic5000. There I can easily import my sample of choice and have it trigger with the dynamics of the original hit.

[@blakecurtis7809]

Did that the last time in studio. Had a trigger on kick. Took a few "keeper" natural kick hits and used those to replace the trigger hits. I like that technique since it's kinda meeting halfway. You are not using the same Alesis DM5 metal kick trigger that almost EVERY metal drummer uses still having a great kick sound that is pretty consistent sounding. Good thing we did that, halfway through recording i noticed the the first ply of the drum head split where the beaters hit the head. Had it broke it would have taken 4 hours to get a replacement head since we were way out of town. Brand new evans 2ply head with kick patch and it STILL ripped. I must have been playing pretty aggressive in the studio that day. Love metal, music and this channel. Thanks Warren!

[@blakecurtis7809]

Used ProTools, Roland trigger, Alesis DM5, two great mics on kick and a homemade subkick on resonant head.

[@splashesin8]

Yay! This has been a great refresher of my mind. Thank you Warren and thanks to those who also added helpful comments here! I'm catching up from being away a few weeks. Ready to try and make my recording inputs work again. Missing my mom. 💙🕊

[@Noeway22]

I use Slate Drums Trigger 2. I love it. It's an incredibly flexible tool for replacing a poor kick sound or adding samples to a mix.

[@Mikahaan]

Warren, the application of the word "stodge" is, quite simply ... brilliant, in this FAQ. Thanks for the wealth of knowledge you give us ... with a bit of humour and UK colloquialism added-in as well. Wonderful.

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi Friends, thanks ever so much for another week of amazing questions! I would love to know whether you use samples? If you do, how do you put them in place? Do you use the software that comes with your DAW, a Third Party Plug In such as Slate Trigger, Addictive Drums etc or do place them individually by tabbing to transients? Thanks ever so much for all or your great comments!

[@CarnivoreIntelligence]

Your episodes are exciting to watch! Keep it up! Never stop :)

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much for your great comment my friend!

[@CarnivoreIntelligence]

Thanks! :)

[@carlossotomurrugarra]

I've found that the best way to replace drums in Pro Tools is Massey DRT. It is amazing how faithfully it translates not only the right transient information, but also the amplitude of each hit, reflected in MIDI velocity. Because of using it so much in demo mode, I've grown used to removing unwanted hits manually. It really does its job well. Once I have the MIDI imprint of the drum performance, I can use samples or virtual instruments.

[@alexeypolevoybass]

I use Ardour DAW (that's what Harrison Mixbus is based on, it's opensource, works on at least three OSes, and has awesome routing system). I know at least two flexible and convenient ways to do it: 1. Using a MIDI trigger and an external sampler. This is done by putting it on an audio track, setting up an output note and routing it to a sampler bus. This way you can use anything you want, including full-blown drum samplers like EZDrummer. This way you can also sum all triggers' outputs on a single MIDI track and do with whatever you want. Awesome. 2. Using a trigger plugin. The one I have in my Favorites category is Triggersensors Stereo by LSP. This thing lets me to use up to eight samples for each triggered track (eight different snare hits, for instance), distribute velocity among them, control trigger output dynamic randomization and even pan each sample differently. This is my preferred way if only a couple of instruments are recorded poorly. Besides that, this allows for more crazy stuff like making a mono recorded shaker or tambourine sound really stereo. I'm amazed by how today's technology lets us do things we only dreamed of.

[@sean_shimmer]

tip from ian mackaye and steve albini conversation: when double tracking vocals do the 2nd track without monitering to the first to get a powerful performance on both tracks, rather than a a powerful first performance and less confident one ( you spend the energy and thought listening and trying to match the first vocal track instead of just spending the energy on the performance itself and backing music.

[@sean_shimmer]

i havent watched it in full but there is a drum recording albini clinic on youtube not sure if he gets into the mix its like 30 mins

[@sean_shimmer]

@sallygo1234 if you find anyhing let me know, i tend to lean to big black for inspiration of interesting sounds musicaly and shellac 1000 hurts to be blown away by drums sounds. doesnt get better than albini drum sounds

[@soundman1402]

Regarding the pros and cons of mixing using your PC's headphone jack... The best external interface will beat the best internal sound card. But here's what's at play when mixing with headphones, or the headphone jack. 1. Most DAC chips are really good -- even the cheap ones. Keep in mind, too, that even the best "audiophile" grade TI DAC chip, which supports DSD, costs about $8. Part of the reason only audiophile level gear uses these devices is because a more pedestrian grade (but still good) DAC costs less than a dollar, and at quantity, this adds up. 2. The analog circuitry after the DAC is a big deciding factor. At a minimum, you'll have an op-amp buffer on the way to your line output, and probably some sort of headphone amp. Op-amps being linear (analog) devices, quality does matter here, but like DAC chips, some are cheap and some are more expensive. An OPA2134 (just over $4) is an exceptional device, compared to an LM386 (around $0.90). It is also 4x the price, so if making sound is the only requirement, a manufacturer will save some money and use the cheaper devices that aren't as good. CODEC chips on computer mainboards and on sound cards will have headphone amps printed on the silicon, rather than using discrete devices. Not necessarily a bad thing, as most of these CODEC chips (used in phones, MP3 players, laptops, etc.) sound pretty good. Higher-end add-on sound cards will have better headphone amps and output buffers. 3. Ideally, you want your audio circuitry to be away from the (electrically) noisy environment of a computer. Computer and mainboard manufacturers are getting better at isolating and shielding the on-board audio devices, but time was you'd get lots of staticy noise on your audio outputs. 4. Interfaces have dedicated headphone output controls, which are probably analog. A sound card's volume is controlled in the digital realm... At low volume, you actually are getting effectively less bit depth, and thus you're losing some resolution. This is mostly theoretical, and you're not likely to notice unless the volume is at a whisper.

[@janminor1172]

soundman1402 that was interesting, thanks!

[@frederickthorne2496]

In Logic replacing or adding a sample to a kick drum (for example) is as simple as selecting the kick audio track, and in the edit dropdown menu options; 'replace or duplicate' drum track. - a popup will provide options for analyzing transient level as well as a 'prelisten' button which will aid in fine tuning detection sensitivity. I use this function all the time, it is super easy, very intuitive and highly effective drum sample plug in.

[@darrenross9168]

Hi Warren, thanks for FAQ Friday, I have got Cubase 9.5 pro and I love using groove agent 4 but I also use propellerhead reason 10, I think that reason doesn't get mentioned much as a DAW because it used to be just midi and samplers but you can record audio and use third party plugs in it now. Seriously how propellerhead has advanced over the years is amazing, not for a replacement for your daw but as a creative tool man the possibilities are mind boggling, I find that Cubase has some advanced tools that are awesome but for creative stuff reason is a breeze and a definite product worthy of investment. Thanks again Warren, I am forever learning (better than the experts) stuff from you because its always awesome and really works, all the best, Darren Ross.

[@mwintersteinsmith]

I use Pro Tools as my main DAW. As a Drummer/Producer myself, I have used (and own) copies of Drumagog, Melodyne and Addictive Drums. I have used these drum replacement plugins many times. However, as a drummer, none of the software worked %100 for me. Somehow, they always triggered early or late and changed the "phase" between the original track being triggered. SO, I always replace any drum samples "by hand!" Yes, it is time consuming, but overall, it produces the best results and (for me) always sounds more natural. So therefore, manual drum replacement suits me the best.

[@JayJ1095]

In Reaper, I put a JS audio-to-midi trigger plugin (where you can set open and close thresholds, re-trigger interval and output midi note), followed by reasamplomatic (the sampler in reaper) with the sample loaded in.

[@ryKirwan1]

Been having good luck with Logic’s drum replacer. Also with Slate trigger as well. As always Warren Thanks for everything you do. Great faq Friday. Cheers!

[@MarkDonnison]

I often use tools such as superior drummer but there is also a great method in Reason that seems to do away with miss triggering and makes it easy to control velocity dynamics automatically and in real time. Insert a Pulveriser onto your snare track and bypass it, the bit of the plugin we want is still active in bypass. Create a new Kong Drum machine track and load in your sample/samples. Connect the Follower of the Pulveriser to the gate in of the sample/linked samples using cv around the back of the rack. Adjust the follower threshold to get the sample triggering properly, then on the Kong NN sample player, adjust the velocity level to reduce the velocity dynamics to taste. It looks tweaky but it only takes a min when you have it down. Reason also has audio to midi functionality built into the sequencer section if that's how you prefer to roll.

[@clintjames7327]

Thanks for the great advice.marvellous stuff!

[@BegemotionRecords]

Hi everybody. I am on PT since 2006, I think, still using that Digi002 Rack that was the only I/O the DAW would work with back in the days. The reason why I still use the soundcard is mic's preamps. Since the last two years I figured out that my internal sound on MacBookPro is no less worse than Digidesign. There is definitely some kind of a difference in sound, which I would describe mostly as some psychological satisfaction that I have everything done the right way. However, believe it or not, when I send the masters back to the studios and they're done entirely on MacBook, no one ever notice that! Internal sound is easier, requires less RAM, so I can use more heavy plugins. It's better only because I need no thunderbolt/firewire cables, all I need is the output! Man, studio production has never been this easy before!

[@AMB666]

Very valuable FAQ Friday!

[@JamesGorman2]

First thing I ever mixed was from my laptop's headphone out into a consumer stereo. Sent it to a mastering engineer, he was none wiser and it turned out great. Moral of the story is knowing your gear is more important than expensive gear.

[@georgekay372]

In Logic Pro X there is a built in replacer. You click on the track, edit and go to drum replacement (or similar), choose what kind of track it is (snare, kick etc) and then it produces a new track with midi information and a generic sampler instrument loaded. Very easy and fast!

[@MartinLuxen]

Thank you ever so much again! I use KTDrumTrigger (a free VST) within FL Studio 20 for drum replacement. It creates MIDI notes that I then use to trigger Addictive Drums.

[@urltom]

Crammed full of excellent content once again! Thank you ever so much! 1) 0:35 If you are using a kick sample, to avoid actually placing the sample manually for every kick hit, is there a program or method you use so that the sample you are using with lines up with each kick hit? 2) 2:50 Is it better to edit and mix songs with headphones connected to your pc or to your interface? Is there a big difference? 3) 7:07 What if you only have the backing track and not the actual vocal how would you mix it while still leaving the space for the vocal? 4) 8:14 How do you set the volume of multiple pieces of equipment? Such as your computer vs monitors/speakers vs audio interface. Do you set your monitors and computer to 100% and use the interface as the master volume? 5) 10:06 Should I "edit first" and then align and check phase on all the tracks? or align fix any phase issues and then do all my edits? 6) 11:25 Regarding clarity, could you illustrate the conflicts that you address when trying to get clarity in a mix? (i.e. accentuate them somehow so we can hear them clearly? As clear as KZbin will allow anyway.) 7) 14:05 In what situations would you use a dynamic, condenser, or ribbon on a kick out? 8) 15:15 When mixing multiple songs for an album, how do you get them all at the same volume level? 9) 17:15 Does the Sonarworks go on the master bus or where does it go?

[@drjazz7278]

Really pleased to hear you mention Reaper. Quite simply the best value d.a.w. I can find. It's a little challenging on the eye perhaps but once you get past that it's quick and powerful. Love the way it can be downloaded superquickly, and starts up very quickly. Would be very interested in how often you come across this d.a.w. in the professonal world. The numbers on the mixer are hard to see... got to squint... so I found some guy has done a ProTools skin for Reaper .. you download the file and it gets added to themes ( go to options in Reaper...then themes) so you have a nice protools looking mixer in Reaper. The rest of the skin doesn't work for me so i've created a simple shortcut on the hash key to cycle between the different skins. Takes about 0.1 second to go to the protools skin to see the mixer easily, then back again. Interesting question about computer soundcard vs interface. My computer has dysfunctional headphone output ...massively loud and bass heavy even at 1/10 ( probably an hp envy brand specific problem, according to search results on ecosia ). There is a product called dragonfly.. a usb digital audio converter with a headphone socket ..so essentially a simple space saving interface. Haven't bought it yet myself but be interested in people's experience.

[@mikesparks3398]

thanks for all your info Warren, iv'e been helped in tons of ways!!

[@GaragebandandBeyond]

I just made a very similar video using your samples that you give away when people sign the mailing list! Obviously based in Garageband. Great video man, looking forward to talking soon!

[@veryhairylarry1036]

Very helpful as always, Warren.

[@SupunTheStrummer]

In Studio One you can create hit points from a kick track and convert it to MIDI, then use whatever drum plugin. I'd usually go through the MIDI output carefully to make sure all hits are captured correctly.

[@patrickfouhy9102]

mixing on your headphones through the computer's headphone jack or through the interface? I agree with exactly what you said, use what you've got available to you. As the question is posed, you'd be mixing on headphones anyway, and I think we can all agree that you'd want to double check your mix through monitors before you finalize it. Then finalize your mix through your interface's converters. If you're mixing in the box, you wouldn't typically be doing anything that can't be undone anyway, you're essentially changing the code within the digital realm. But what you run your mix through to finalize it, that's the product you're going to be releasing, or giving to your client, so that is more important to me. I actually enjoy editing (and some mixing) outside of my actual studio. I've edited a lot tracks at a coffee shop down the street from my house, so obviously I'm not going to pull out an interface there, so I just use the headphone output. Again, to me, the more important part is using your interface for it's final mixdown. And, like Warren, I'm not a tech expert on this stuff, I just go by my ears, and what works at the time. I'm sure if I did a mix down through my laptop's sound card, and through my interface that a handful of people could properly hear the difference, I mainly do the mix down through my interface because I like to check all my mixes through my studio monitors that happen to be connected to my interface.

[@Honzinus78]

Cubase, sample editor, hitpoints. Works great. ;)

[@danielpicard3994]

I use Logic’s stock Drum replacement tool with very satisfying results. Thanks Warren !

[@robertlottmann]

After recorded a guide track, I use Reaper and EZdrummer to build a drum track in and save every piece of drums separate. After that I load everything in Adobe Audition CS6 to record all the other instruments...

[@rolaca11]

In Cubase, for editing, I use TrackVersions a lot. It's like having multiple playlists in PT. I can leave my freshly recorded tracks on one version, make a completely clean one for the editing, and another one for phase aligning. I can quickly go back and have all the takes of what I've recorded, but can also edit from a clean start, with only one track

[@joeguammusic]

Thanks Warren, another fantastic FAQ! Can’t wait to try your tip on cleaning up 350Hz on the drums. A question please: What are your thoughts on over-producing a song beyond the artist’s ability to perform it live? I’ve heard some folks say they were quite disappointed at a live concert after hearing the artist’s recorded version first. As a producer, do you limit yourself to within the artist’s or band’s abilities to perform the song live? Would appreciate your thoughts, thank you!

[@perrypelican9476]

I like the way you say you don’t want to think like a mastering engineer by not worrying about each track because you can just fix it all in the master track. But the other way of looking at it is that fixing the master track could be preferable in some cases or do you think it’s always better to not need to fix at the end. I guess there is no perfect scenario. There are infinite possibilities. Reaper.

[@stephenzeagman9985]

Great video Warren! With regards to the question about having all the music recorded without vocals and keeping room for the vocals, can I simply turn down my master fader (in logic), or is it better to turn down the stereo fader or should I be turning down all faders? Thanks

[@josephvalo]

Awesome FAQ Friday video Warren! I was wondering about the sonar works, if you had to mute the plugin or leave it in muted. Thanks for answering it. I hope you have a wonderful day and weekend as well.

[@timjonesguitar]

Thanks for all the great tips! I use Slate Trigger and seems to do good for me. Cubase has an easy way to use replacements as well for samples that I haven't made into trigger files yet. Do you have any kind of system for naming songs, that you don't yet have a name for yet?

[@benroe]

just out of curiosity, how do you prefer dealing with a drum kit with two kick drums? do you prefer just using a mic on one (double pedal) or using both kicks?

[@khronscave]

5:08 "Unfortunately"(?), that's a Mac-specific thing, where the OS has the facility of "ganging up" all the audio devices you have connected (regardless of brand and model, to the best of my knowledge), and present them to the DAW as a single device with all the total ins & outs together. In Windows, (most?) DAWs will only let you use ONE device at once, so the "inputs from one device, outputs from another" is a total no-go right off the bat. Unless you go the Asio4All route, but that's more for oddball case use.

[@matthewstauffer7052]

well said sir.

[@fairairmusic258]

I use Pro Tools, the latest one. I have also used Sonarworks headphones for about a year now and LOVE it. Extremely helpful. I also have the Focal Alpha 65’s. I have looked online how to volume calibrate monitors, but there is no main volume knob on the back to put at zero to then pull up the volume to unity on my interface/mixer. My other pair do and basically all the other monitors I’ve seen have that volume control on the back. There is a Lows and Highs knob on each of the Focals. Is there a way to set that with monitors that do not have a main volume on the back of them?

[@Beatledave7]

Hi Warren, love the FAQ Friday’s! When using a condenser, how do you decide if the source may or may not damage the diaphragm, or at least not overwhelm it. Is it a matter of checking it’s spl on the specs? Your example of using the u47 fet on the outside of a kick for instance...(Geoff Emerick broke the rules... and started doing this against EMI’s guidelines because they didn’t want their expensive Neumann condensers blown.)

[@Matthias138]

I use Massey DRT for creating midi triggers but also so I don't have to paste one shots manually. It has a gate function which works awesome, just one slider to adjust and you don't have to worry about mis triggering that's happening because of bleed. Unfortunately DRT is only for Pro Tools.

[@laurencecoch6023]

In Cubase you can put Sonarworks on the speaker outputs Ned headphone outputs in the control room. And have different profiles on each speaker. And you dont have to remember to turn it off as it is not on the master bus

[@DoItYourselfMusician]

I'm super old school so I use my MPC slaved to the DAW by MTC or if it's a single drum I'll just sit there and tap it in live.

[@wongsanggar]

In Reaper you can put it monitor FX, a special slot for effects that only affects the monitoring only, not the printed mixdown.

[@andreweadie3206]

In Ableton you just extract the audio to midi and it does a pretty good job at detecting everything only having to do a few tweaks after

[@chrisstixmartin]

In Studio One I use the groove clipboard to convert audio to midi triggers and then use Slate Drum samples. I then render the midi back to audio files when the desired sound has been achieved to ease up on the cpu load. Done deal!

[@MarcBecker_Music]

Thank you Warren. Very helpful FAQ. When it comes to produce and mix a backing track to send it to a singer later, would you record many instruments, fills and fairy dust, before the vocals are being added or rather just record the basics and then cut the vocals, maybe to give the singer more artistic freedom? For drum replacement I use Superior Drummer 3 and I have to say it works like a charm and does the transient detection very well. Referring to the monitor questions, I always have my monitor volume on 100%, since they don't even have a build in volume control. I have learned to work very carefully with the volume control on my interface :-)

[@iiitomnorrisiii]

Hey from France ! I think it could be a very good idea to speak in a video about creating a drum sound with only using samples. I know it's not a very common question but it's what I try to do. I haven't succeed yet to make it sound realistic. Thanks a lot for the videos, Thomas.

[@ShiningHourPop]

Logic’s drum replacement tool is pretty good. Like all of these things it needs a little bit of human intervention to correct some anomalies. Thanks for another informative FAQ Friday. I’m going to test out the Sonarworks Reference 4 this weekend which I won in the giveaway on Tuesday. Thanks so much Warren, Sonarworks and the Plap Gang! - Mark aka Shining Hour Pop.

[@royglennie]

Warren, marvellous video as always! Going to try adding samples in Reaper soon. A question for the next faq Friday if I may - what height do you put the mic at for a very nasal singer, to reduce the nasal quality? Is it higher nearer the nose and looking down to the chest or down nearer the chest looking up towards the nose? Thanks!

[@musicting2767]

Another good video warren. Not sure if you know but Cakewalk platinum has recently became free, I was looking to upgrade to Cubase 9.5 but thought i would give it ago and so far im hugely impressed, so many ace features. Perhaps it would be good to do video on this?

[@OOTJmusic]

Cubase pro 8.5, free Drumtrig VST for toms and snare, and an Alesis DM5 for Kicks

[@necrodogs]

Thank you for sharing all of this useful info. Very inspiring and educating. If everyone would be a bit like Warren, that'd be useful. Btw, when do you work to make money? When do you sleep :-D

[@theddie5457]

Hi Warren. I used Ableton live. Individually moved drum kick, snare, hi hat etc in tracks. One drum piece per track. Very time consuming but happy with overall result. Any drum software you suggests?

[@catfinger]

I use KTDrumTrigger (it's free) in FL Studio super easy to use once you learn to set it up and works a dream :)

[@Hogman666]

Drumagog in Cubase, I've created layer sets in drumagog for the quick demos and if I need to replace shells I do that with midi in cubase n use superior and own samples.

[@axelbezzi]

Logic's Drum replacement: fast and smooth!

[@toki_-_wartooth]

Studio One has strip silence also. I also use Slate trigger

[@Algabatz]

What's your opinion on recording in the red, Warren. Is that to be avoided at all times? I'm listening to Led Zeppelin II and that really jumps, and actually distorts at times, but it's still sooo cool.

[@oscarortegarey635]

Hello, Warren. I have a question for you: does it make sense to use a deEsser to control tracks that lead to conflicts in the mix? I mean instead of using EQ. Thank you!

[@bandsonline]

Cakewalk-Slate Trigger on a duplicated version of the track so it can be edited for proper sample detection/playback

[@cary3428]

Great stuff. Would love to hang while you tracked live pop rock beds.

[@erwinvandiggelen977]

Hi all. Should I keep the audiopath pure analog before hitting the audio interfsce and recording the tracks with a single ad conversion, avoiding multiple ad and da conversions breaking out of the interface to analog processing gear? In other words, will multiple conversions affect the audio?

[@mitcheltheelenmusic8858]

I made a midi track in studio one with the quantize tool. and then use the sampler, en that works great for me!

[@therealjonwaters2571]

Trigger is great but I find there’s not enough dynamics just seems to punch out same sample loudness. With Massey you can select a bunch of different samples to trigger at different midi Velocities.

[@jurgenschuler8389]

Wow, the number of comments is extraordinary. I didn't have much opportunity to replace live drum sounds with samples. So far, I used the gate in Studio One to create midi data I than fed into a sampler to create the audio. However, I only found your video on drum replacement using melodic and Addictive Drummer two days ago and haven't checked that out, despite PLAP having one of the best sorted KZbin playlists. With respect to the interface question, a Windows user like me, who wants to use a virtual instrument in real time, doesn't have a real alternative to using an interface due to the huge latency of the Windows driver. Having said that, I have never tested ASIO4ALL with the internal soundcard of my laptop. Perhaps I need to reconsider, what I just wrote. Last, I'd like to re-raise the second question: How do you mix without the lead vocal, but only the background vocals present frequency-wise? Do you anticipate from the background vocals where to leave room in the frequency spectrum for the lead vocal?

[@bluncco]

hi. in studio one its very easy ! gate what you wont trigger ,after use melodyne to make it midi ,end after use it in midi chancel with every drum vst or sampler

[@p.m-audio]

I use studio one, i let detect the silence , then i let detect transients open a Midi track with superieur drummer. drag my detected audio track to the groove window, then i drag my groove transient thing to the midi track with superieur drummer. whabaam there it is my replacement. then i transform the midi replacement into Audio, look the phase exactly with replace audio and then im finished. but what you say warren look all hits cause some hits has a flattering thats right.

[@AirwayX]

Where it comes to built-in headphone outputs; the biggest problem I always find is that the maximum output voltage is generally quite low. This makes them pretty much useless for high impedance headphones: the maximum volume will be too low.

[@tedgerard333]

In Reaper I use dynamic split to line them up and then media Explorer to put them in

[@khronscave]

4:15 More often than not, the soundcard built into most laptops (at least) is almost an afterthought, so odds are they'll be noisier than a, let's call it, bespoke device (the headphone output of an interface).

[@eriknilden9573]

Hey Warren! You talk a lot about samples added to "real" drums in numerous clips. However, would it be possible that you in the future could take a different angle on drums, like how you would mix drums, if you only hade a software like for instance Easy Drummer? This since a lot of us home recorders do not even have access to real drums. Love the work you do//Erik

[@lahattec]

I could listen to you all day. Can we just have lunch and I gaze at you longingly while you talk? ;)

[@damon_aaron]

Drum samples? I can hear your friend Glenn Fricker screaming from Canada LOL

[@lahattec]

I suppose you could consider the laptop headphone out as 'another' monitor source, as in, that's how many people might hear the mix.

[@antiHeroeCostaRica]

I use the drum replacement software in logic

[@BrettRader]

An external I/O will usually give you much better latency specs for recording.

[@MrVectrex]

I tell the drummer to play more correctly. if he/her don´t Roger that, i tell the band to replace the drummer! Thats about learning the hard way! No shortcuts for the perfect recording in my studio. ;)

[@DavidHudson]

If I'm monitoring with headphones and my sound is around 40% on my PC, will this become a huge problem when it's played at maximum volume after mixing?

[@Leotardoification]

Take a mixed and released song - any song that's in the radio or spotify or whatever - and put it in a project in your daw with the volume on the default setting. This way you can hear how loud it is supposed to sound

[@DavidHudson]

Thanks for the advice man. The reference thing is cool. At the moment, my song audio is fine but only when played through my headphones at 40%. The mix also sounds good at the same volume as other released tracks. However, to save my ears, I only play all music at 40%. This is the volume in which I listen to reference tracks and my own tracks. I'm just wondering (presuming professional mixers mix and master at maximum volume), what problems my tracks will have that professional tracks don't have since I only hear all music at 40% which. Thanks though man. I'll look around for some answers.

[@Leotardoification]

@@DavidHudson it's all good, man. Noone mixes at 100% because it would be insanely loud no matter what format you're using. I'm assuming you have your headphones plugged directly i to your computer, yeah? If you were to use an interface, your computer volume should be 100% (to make sure your software is not messing with the gain) and then gain down on the interface volume. But if you are mixing tracks that are supposed to be released and used in any way commercially, I would highly reccomend to have them at least mastered by a mastering studio. There are a lot of affordable ones, which are still way more skilled and better equipped for the task than almost all of us.

[@DavidHudson]

Thanks so much man. Like a lot and yeah I have my headphones directly outputted from my PC. I am guessing that continuing to mix as I do now shouldn't cause much commercial trouble or at least I hope it doesn't as I am literally broke at the moment. And if the 100% volume requirement only applies to when you are outputting from the interface, then it shouldn't be a problem I'm hoping. I at least hope that the mastering process is only a slight amount of compression and limiting to sweeten the sound as far as the mastering studio tools go. But yeah. Thanks again for taking the time to answer an obvious question since I'm familiar with mixing but as I am in a home studio, little concerns that not many people talk about come to my mind. You're a life saver. If you need any help with anything, I can give it a go. Cheers.

[@Leotardoification]

@@DavidHudson cheers, buddy. Glad I can help :) Remember your ears (or rather your brain) have some sort of natural limiter built in so if you listen to loud music over time it will seem less loud and more muddy. So you might as well listen at a comfortable level and get used to notice all the details then ;)

[@mikesparks3398]

i just turned on my pro tools, i have version LE 11.something and i don't have sound re-placer, i wonder if that's specific to HD or something?

[@thehumancondition3]

Only use superior drummer not got as far as recording drums and don't have the space yet. Also for those who haven't joined yet the academy is worth every penny

[@mondomusik]

I use GarageBand on my MacBook Pro. What is a master bus? What is a bus?

[@marc_leblanc]

Drum Replacer on Cakewalk by Bandlab.

[@Kevin-vq6rv]

I prefer not to do replacing drums with samples. If I do, I use Melodyne, but if I trigger a sample with the extracted midi track and I convert that to an audio file, 80% of the samples are not perfectly aligned. With a snare, the ghost notes are all over the place except on the right place. The dynamics are also disastrous. I always end up with slicing every hit and adjust the timing which is very tiresome to do. Maybe I'm too critical about that, but still ... I just want to have it right.

[@Karikaturist93]

Studio One

[@davidsynge7030]

The Ableton in-built audio to midi is terrible. I was so excited when they announced it but it gets things horribly wrong more often than not. So far I've not found anything that works as well as the tedium of placing samples manually.

[@NikroozHosseini]

Hey Warren, hey everybody! So, you’re mentioning importing songs in your session for referencing them against our mixes. Problem is, if you do not own the files (whether on cd, mp3 it does not matter) you cannot import them as they are going to be locked with drm and thus not readable by the daw. This happens to me when I want to reference stuff from apple music, spotify - which you talk about here - or youtube. Unless I have an unlocked file available I can only reference songs on platforms other than the daw. So (I am verbose, I know) I’d like to know how you and everybody here deal with artist that say “just listen to this” and then do NOT provide the files...

[@acmeyakko]

I'm not doing anything too exciting, just Pro Tools + EZDrummer 2.

[@JulianFernandez]

imhe the dac difference is quite big. If no interface, get some usb dac at least.

[@peterbrandt7911]

Speaking of interfaces and PCs. Even if you use Asio4all you will have problems at some point, when the trackcount raises and you use the internal soundcard. This can get so annoying, that you end making music, while fighting technic. Maybe that's not the case, if you use a Mac? Cannot speak for those.

[@AdamRainStopper]

I find it really hard to follow what you're saying about sound cards when I'm this baked. Might should be watch laterer.