Producing real drums for hiphop...

I was wondering if anyone knows a good way to do this...
I'm not talking about the mics or mic placement, but more about timing and layering...

When listening to stuff like the Roots, the drums are live but they still sound tight, and you can hear that the drums are layered sometimes.
How do they do it?

I'm thinking that they play the drums live first and then play samples (live again) to layer on top.
Or probably they play the drums to a metronome first. This allows them to layer easier, because they can just sequence the layering to the beat.

I'm gonna be trying to do something like this. Any suggestions?

There's a plug-in for ProTools called "Sound Replacer"......it allows you to take a live drum track and layer it (or replace it) with samples exactly on beat.

It's not used just for hiphop, in reality, just about every big major label rock record you hear on the radio these days is using this technique to some degree.....even going back to records like Nirvana's Nevermind (Butch Vig is big into this technique.)

The last rock recording I played drums on, we used it.....you can't really tell - it didn't really sound "layered", it just allowed us to get a different sound in case the one we originally recorded wasn't cutting through the mix right, and makes it so that every drum hit sounds more consistent.

Even if you track to a metronome (click-track) you won't be able to just sequence in the layering, unless your drummer plays like a robot. They won't line up exactly, and it will sound all "flammy."

You'd have to sequence the layering in...put it on a track in ProTools....and then by hand (by mouse) chop up the layer drums and move them around slightly to line up exactly with the live drummer's track.

......OR.........
Import your snare sample into ProTools....then copy it, and using an empty track, just paste a snare in every time the drummer hits his snare....and line them up exactly.................then do the same process with the kick.
I've done that on a track before.

In addition to the other guys suggestions, they make Midi triggers that attach to a drummers kit which can drive the tempo of your MPC. Some of them work pretty good. 90% of my drum rythms are combinations of live acoustic drums and Samples off the MPC. You get a much more organic feel simply by adding just one "real" drum or cymbal...For those of you who have never tried this, it's worth 50 - 100 bucks to pick up a used snare / cymbal / hihat / or latin percussion piece to add to your arsenal. Or for that matter a can with some pebbles in it if you're that broke. I use a shaker or latin stuff more than anything.

itchyvinyl: "There's a plug-in for ProTools called "Sound Replacer"......it allows you to take a live drum track and layer it (or replace it) with samples exactly on beat.
It's not used just for hiphop, in reality, just about every big major label rock record you hear on the radio these days is using this technique to some degree.....even going back to records like Nirvana's Nevermind (Butch Vig is big into this technique.)"

How do you replace sounds if you've recorded to tape? Would you use some sort of trigger? Do you know any companies that make these?

AND

fader-pro: "In addition to the other guys suggestions, they make Midi triggers that attach to a drummers kit which can drive the tempo of your MPC."

Do you know what company makes such a trigger? Can you recommend one?[/b]

I believe Roland Yamaha and Akai all make Triggers that convert your live percussion to sync...

Do you have to use the trigger during recording? (Set it up on a snare drum, for example, and then record?)

Or can you replace sounds after they are recorded (analog) with some device?
If so, what machine/hardward/outboard is capable of this?

Yeah I'm Sure there Times When Quest will Trigger Samples From His Drum SET.....................



.. .. ..

u can convert hit points from audio into midi hit points in cubase sx 3 and save it as a groove template. most of the roots stuff that sounds sequenced is sequenced or replaced and shifted in software. it's really not that hard just time consuming, but jobs like these are usually given to interns to do

Anders wrote:How do you replace sounds if you've recorded to tape? Would you use some sort of trigger? Do you know any companies that make these?

99.5% of the time when you record to tape you'll drop it into protools to edit, editing on tape is too much of a pain to even think about these days.

morgan wrote:

Anders wrote:How do you replace sounds if you've recorded to tape? Would you use some sort of trigger? Do you know any companies that make these?

99.5% of the time when you record to tape you'll drop it into protools to edit, editing on tape is too much of a pain to even think about these days.

Okay, but is there a machine (not software) that can convert audio to midi after the audio has been recorded? Can you send an audio signal through a machine which then converts the hit points to midi points?

sounds like recycle to me.

There's a plug-in for ProTools called "Sound Replacer"......it allows you to take a live drum track and layer it (or replace it) with samples exactly on beat.

Anyone manage to pull something like this off in Ableton yet?

I'm sure its possible, havent figured it out yet tho.

When listening to stuff like the Roots, the drums are live but they still sound tight, and you can hear that the drums are layered sometimes.
How do they do it?

I'm thinking that they play the drums live first and then play samples (live again) to layer on top.
Or probably they play the drums to a metronome first. This allows them to layer easier, because they can just sequence the layering to the beat

Can it be that Quest love is actually a great drummer and he can really play like that? have you ever listen to him play live? he's as tight as you can get.

Quest Love IS a great drummer... That's not the point.


This is my situation: I've recorded some instruments including drums on a 24 track Studer tape machine at my workplace. Now I wanna try to replace the snare hits with samples instead.
I could record the tracks into protools and then use a plug-in like the "Sound replacer", but I don't wanna convert my audio to digital until the final mixdown to stereo-track.

I wanna be able to send the snare track out the console (soundtracs jade-s) through some "machine" that replaces the audio with a sample of my choice, and then send this new snare track back into the console on another channel.

Now, does such a "machine" exist?[/u]

Some old drum machines like the LINNDRUM had audio trigger inputs.....where you could feed your tape machine's individual outputs into the trigger jacks, and each time your recorded drum would hit, it would trigger the Linndrum's sound.

There's bound to be a more modern sampler with this capability if you search around (?)