Editing Live Drums, not a typical question

[Ruggs Lake Studios]

Hello,
I am using Pro Tools 8 LE, on a PC with a 003 interface.

My question is this; I had a drummer track some live drums for me. He is a good drummer with decent timing. These are live drum tracks that were intentionally tracked without a click track, because we push the tempo up a bit towards the middle and end of the song.
So, is there a way that I can have Pro Tools analyze the drum tracks and correct the late and early snare and kick hits without having to quantize to a grid? I don’t want to change the natural increase in tempo or suck the soul and groove out of the song. I just want Pro Tools to help me fix the late and early hits, and even things out so they sound in time and natural.

Thank you!
Brett at Ruggs Lake Studios
Seattle

[elicious]

once they've been elasticised,
select across all trax and quantize to 1% strength.

that way you get warp markers on all hits without moving anything.
then go in adjust hits by hand, going off of feel.

alternatively, you make a tempo map,
and quantize to that grid (in sections)
thereby keeping the tempo changes.

b.o.l.
e
for the record studios

[Ruggs Lake Studios]

Hmmm? okay, thank you. Its starting to sound like creating a tempo map would get me headed in the right direction? If I understand how that works, it sounds like it would map out the existing tempo of the song with its changes and all.
So is the tempo map then smart enough to figure out where the beat should have been even with a changing tempo, so that if I quantize to the tempo map grid it will place things where they should have been in relation to the changing tempo?

Originally Posted by Ruggs Lake Studios

Hello,
I am using Pro Tools 8 LE, on a PC with a 003 interface.

My question is this; I had a drummer track some live drums for me. He is a good drummer with decent timing. These are live drum tracks that were intentionally tracked without a click track, because we push the tempo up a bit towards the middle and end of the song.
So, is there a way that I can have Pro Tools analyze the drum tracks and correct the late and early snare and kick hits without having to quantize to a grid? I don’t want to change the natural increase in tempo or suck the soul and groove out of the song. I just want Pro Tools to help me fix the late and early hits, and even things out so they sound in time and natural.

Thank you!
Brett at Ruggs Lake Studios
Seattle

[elicious]

yup, with many forms of indie rock,
and especially, anything metal or -core,
tempo maps are your friend...

then you can define where the downs should be,
as well as fine tuning the tempos for vs's vs choruses,
outros, even accelerandos and ritards.

then as i mentioned earlier, quantize by section and you're good to go!

So is the tempo map then smart enough to figure out where the beat should have been even with a changing tempo

just to be clear, the tempo map is as smart as you make it;
you're in charge...

and, once again,
you don't need to go thru all that drama if you just wanna fix a couplea stray hits;
just refer to my first paragraph in the earlier post.

best,
e

[Ruggs Lake Studios]

all right!

thank you very much for helping me get pointed in the right direction!

Brett

[alags]

I wouldn't use elastic audio like that, just my personal opinion. I would take your drum tracks and use identify beat to create a click track based on the drummers internal groove. This video explains it well. Obviously group your drums to avoid phasing issues.
http://vimeo.com/groups/protoolsexpert/videos/32619855

Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

[elicious]

just to be clear,
russ' vid and what i described above are one and the same;
(as i recall, he even draws in ritards like mentioned above)
creating a tempo map can be done with identify beat
or, alternatively you could use beat detective.
but, yes, you could use it in reverse;
use the drum part generated tempo map to quantize your overdubbed trax or for imported loops.
e

[cwsand]

I wouldn't use Elastic Audio on drums - EA can kill the transients. Create a tempo map using Identify Beat and create a Group for all of the drum tracks. Then you can use Beat Detective to quantize them, or do it manually. When you're done, apply crossfades across the entire track - sounds much better than Elastic Audio IMHO since you aren't altering the wave file, just splicing and moving regions and applying crossfades.

[elicious]

not to mention EA can mess with the phase, also.

but, really, it's pick your poison time,
as depending on how far off your drummer is
BD can introduce gaps that when conformed reveal the decay of the previous note.
and if time is an issue; if it's your own project or if you have paying clients waiting for you,
BD can take significantly longer.

many of EA's artifacts can be minimized by, of course, grouping,
as well as reducing event sensitivity,
switching to polyphonic mode and rendering with x-form,
and the old mixing stand by -masking.

still, if i have the time, BD is still a great go to...
so, prolly best if the o.p. tries both.

[Ruggs Lake Studios]

Thank you all, for your answers, I really appreciate it. You have all been very helpful.

Brett