Tracking Drums? what's your way....

faze1 wrote:In the MPC i do drums on 1 track. (No need 4 me to do them on seperate tracks cuz you can send each pad to its own output) I do variations on different sequences. I then track out via the assignable outs to record into my DAW. All future editing such as track mutes, automation and fx are done inside reaper.

i agree.. this method seems to be the most effective if you use any kind of daw or outboard effects.. with hardware its just a matter of resampling your drums back into the mpc using the record inputs after sending your drums out through the assignable mixouts for processing.. as an added bonus if you have decent hardware you will not only process the sound with the effect(s) you use but also color the sound in a nice warm way that is pleasing to the ears.

Anamorphosis wrote:

faze1 wrote:In the MPC i do drums on 1 track. (No need 4 me to do them on seperate tracks cuz you can send each pad to its own output) I do variations on different sequences. I then track out via the assignable outs to record into my DAW. All future editing such as track mutes, automation and fx are done inside reaper.

i agree.. this method seems to be the most effective if you use any kind of daw or outboard effects.. with hardware its just a matter of resampling your drums back into the mpc using the record inputs after sending your drums out through the assignable mixouts for processing.. as an added bonus if you have decent hardware you will not only process the sound with the effect(s) you use but also color the sound in a nice warm way that is pleasing to the ears.

There's something about the method of routing the pads or samples to the assignable outs after programming, which somehow is unsatisfying. I usally create the Drum Pattern on one track, too and route them to the stereo out and assign the Master EQ and Compressor to it. What really sucks is, that once you start routing your drums to the assignable out, you lose the EQ and the Compressor, so that the Drums don't sound as before when tracking them. I didn't know that befor I got my 003 Rack and it leaves some bitter taste behind, for tracking into a DAW.

Maybe I've gotta compensate this by sampling the man out sounds, and replace the original sounds by the processed ones and then track out...

stan steez wrote:

Anamorphosis wrote:

faze1 wrote:In the MPC i do drums on 1 track. (No need 4 me to do them on seperate tracks cuz you can send each pad to its own output) I do variations on different sequences. I then track out via the assignable outs to record into my DAW. All future editing such as track mutes, automation and fx are done inside reaper.

i agree.. this method seems to be the most effective if you use any kind of daw or outboard effects.. with hardware its just a matter of resampling your drums back into the mpc using the record inputs after sending your drums out through the assignable mixouts for processing.. as an added bonus if you have decent hardware you will not only process the sound with the effect(s) you use but also color the sound in a nice warm way that is pleasing to the ears.

There's something about the method of routing the pads or samples to the assignable outs after programming, which somehow is unsatisfying. I usally create the Drum Pattern on one track, too and route them to the stereo out and assign the Master EQ and Compressor to it. What really sucks is, that once you start routing your drums to the assignable out, you lose the EQ and the Compressor, so that the Drums don't sound as before when tracking them. I didn't know that befor I got my 003 Rack and it leaves some bitter taste behind, for tracking into a DAW.

Maybe I've gotta compensate this by sampling the man out sounds, and replace the original sounds by the processed ones and then track out...

yeah i agree, ive had some issues in the past with drums mainly. Like you Stan i would use the master eq and compression in the unit and track out thru the mains but i realized that for some drum samples the eq or compression colored the sound way too much or not enough.. the flexibility was just not there, recently though i have been using the assignable outs to only track out the drums lets say and resample them back into the mpc after i have processed them through external hardware or some vst's in my daw... a word of caution when using this method is to only process the sounds you think are troublesome such as the lack of sizzle on your hats or the depth of your kick sample. by layering the processed sound (in the mpc) with the original should do the trick in most cases.. after all if you need to process everything then you should probably take your kit sampling duties to a better sounding source.

Anamorphosis wrote:
[...] by layering the processed sound (in the mpc) with the original should do the trick in most cases.. after all if you need to process everything then you should probably take your kit sampling duties to a better sounding source.

That's nice... It's like a parallel compression type approach.

i don't know i like to keep it simple. i record the basic beat all to 1 track in the mpc, then i move each sound to it's own track. after that, i go in and q-link tweak each track seperately with both realtime & note-on tweaks - giving each sound it's own life and movement. you can get your original sounds radically different this way.

after that, i fire up my DAW & just jam the tracks live into Cubase. doing track mutes, changing sequences, simult sequences, GPE tweaks, etc... all on the fly as the tape is running, so to speak. i just record the stereo outs of the mpc (i don't seperate the sounds out different outputs and i always use the master compressor & FX.) and i also record the midi output of the mpc as i'm jamming.

after i'm done, all i have in Cubase is one stereo track of my beats as i performed them and 1 midi track of what i recorded. after that i will do eq & vst treatment of what i recorded. edit it down as necessary, and then go in and add synth parts, etc.

sometimes i'll do crazy stuff like play the midi i recorded back into the mpc, load up a totally unrelated project & let all those sounds get triggered and record that on another audio track in Cubase. i'll tweak the hell out of things in GPE as the sounds are playing back and you can get some really interesting results this way. it sounds different yet still works rhythmically with what you originally recorded.