Sound Replacer
 

I'm looking at buying Sound Replacer but I'm not totally clear on a couple of things.

1. What format will my samples need to be in? (.wav, .aiff, etc.) So I know what sample CD's to buy.

2. Won't replacing the drum sounds get a little screwed up in the overheads? I'll still hear a bunch of the original sound. How do you guys deal with this?

Re: Sound Replacer
 

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1. What format will my samples need to be in? (.wav, .aiff, etc.) So I know what sample CD's to buy.
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SoundReplacer currently supports WAV and SDII files. I am a little vague on how well the SDII support works on Windows since SDII saves information in the resource fork.
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2. Won't replacing the drum sounds get a little screwed up in the overheads? I'll still hear a bunch of the original sound. How do you guys deal with this?
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The solution to leakage from undesired drums is to set triggering threshholds.

Frederick Umminger
Digidesign PlugIn Engineer

Re: Sound Replacer
 

As far as triggering goes, you've got a couple of options here: If all of the drum tracks are on a pair of channels (submixed), you can make a couple of copies of the tracks and simply chop out the stuff you don't want triggered for that instrument (ex: chop out everything but the kick and trigger from that).
I would plan on using it for augmentation (not replacement) until you get the hang. If your snare sucks hugely then use a sidechain comp and compress any stinky ring by something like 60 db. Use Sound Replacer to add a snare sample that has qualities the real snare now lacks and blend them together... Line up the triggered snare and the real snares by nudging until they're right - the overheads should still be useable in some way....
In general, you have to decide which is the worst of two evils (remember those thresholds...). If you're "replacing" the real kit, then I assume either the sounds are not great or you're going with a new idea. If you're replacing **** sounds then you'll have to deal with some of the pitfalls of triggering. If you're going with a new idea then go all the way: if it's a ride-based groove and you want to make it sound tighter and more wack , replace the kick and snare with tighter/nastier stuff, and then add something like Bruno (or Mondo Mod set to swish followed by Amp Farm..) to the ride track. Re-invent it instead of trying to re-create it....

Hope that helps...

Sean H