question about audio editing programs

[Boseph]

I have a couple songs recorded, and I want to find a program that allows me to add electronic drums to the already recorded tracks.

Any suggestions?

[spfreak]

get some drum machine software.... create a file w/ the drums alone, and mix it w/ what u have

but to the song itself... im not too sure

[ChristHimself!]

Firstly it will be pretty impossible unless you recorded your songs with a metronome on because otherwise your timing will probably have shifted very slightly from time to time.

If you did use a metronome or a drum machine in the background or something while you played, try using fruityloops (easy) or reason (pretty difficult) they let you add synths too, with everything in reason being better quality.

Then use a program like Ntrack Studio which will let you import your song and drum track as separate .wavs and lay them over each other.

[Thoughtless]

yeah do what spfreak said. sometimes i will use midi drums, they don't sound too bad.

[Boseph]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'm trying to use fruity loops, but one problem is that it seems like all I can make is one continous drum loop, but since the song i'm trying to add drums to is long and has many different parts, I don't just want the same drum loop for the whole song.

My aim is to get drums that sound kind of aphex twin-y, I guess you could say.

The other problem with using a program like fruity loops is that since I can't import the song into the program itself and add drums, it's mostly just guess work.

There must be some kind of program that lets you import an mp3 or a wav and add drums etc.

[Boseph]

Like, for example, how would a band like Radiohead, who mix electronic drums with guitars, do it? A song like Airbag, for example. There must be some easy way to do this.

And yeah, I recorded my songs using a metronome, so timing isn't a problem.

[spfreak]

im kinda having hte same drumming problem... well not really... i use reason, its hard to get used to, but it works miracles if u can use to good

the only problem is, drum tracks are not going to sound like a drummer, thus i want more of a electronic (but not technoey) drum sound... but kinda figure out how to do it =(

but in reason u can program different patterns and have them play at different times

[Boseph]

And in Reason can I import a Wav or mp3 of the song into the program and lay drums over it? Because that was the main problem I had when trying to use Fruity Loops. And my computer wouldn't even let me play the song in quicktime or anything while listening to the drums, so there was really no way to match them up.

[spfreak]

Originally posted by Boseph
And in Reason can I import a Wav or mp3 of the song into the program and lay drums over it? Because that was the main problem I had when trying to use Fruity Loops. And my computer wouldn't even let me play the song in quicktime or anything while listening to the drums, so there was really no way to match them up.

no u can't import wave files or mp3s

[Boseph]

I just spoke to someone who gave me advice about using Reason. Maybe this information would be useful for you, too.
Here's what he said:

There are quite a number of programs that let you experiment with combining
Wav files and constructing an electronic beat.
This is what I use (and is probably the best solution for PC users).

Steinberg Cubase SX 2, along-side another program called Reason 2.5.
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products...ndex.php?sid=0
http://www.propellerheads.se/product...tion=mainframe

Basically, the two programs can talk to each other using an interface called
Rewire, both have incredible functionality and flexibility.
Reason can't deal with Audio files, but has some truely amazing synth and
drum sounds.
Cubase has the ability to use something called plugins, when it comes to
producing a good drum track, you'd want to use something called a VSTi
plugin. This means that you can use your MIDI keyboard to trigger the
sounds. A good drum VSTi plugin I use is called LM-4 MKII (more geared
towards acoustic drum sounds though) and also another plugin called Native
Instruments Battery (which is a digital based software sampler). Both
programs have great support where you can actually purchase and/or download
sounds for it. These are just examples however, there are loads of them out
there. Native Instruments have 3 programs capable of using samples to
trigger sounds VIA MIDI, Kontakt, Battery and Kompakt.
www.nativeinstruments.com
I see that you are more geared towards Aphex Twin stuff, you might benefit
from purely using Reason for the drum sounds, it has some great electronic
sounding stuff, then you can use Cubase to import the Audio and trigger the
sounds on Reason.
To my understanding, Thom and Jonny both use Macs to do their sounds on a
program called Pro-tools. A friend of mine composes a lot of electronic
based music using a program on the Mac called Logic Pro Audio Platinum and
uses tons of samples for drum construction.
http://www.apple.com/software/pro/logic/
Hope this is of some help to you,


So yeah, I guess the answer is to get those two programs and use them together.

[Orchestra]

Fruity loops + cool edit pro

[noyen]

why not get a copy of acid pro and use the beatmapping function. that is the closest you're going to get to dragging and dropping. granted, you're not going to get amazing results by having a program do all the work for you, but it doesn't sound like you have your head around digital recording quite yet. start small and work your way into using programs like cubase and reason.

[Boseph]

Originally posted by Orchestra
Fruity loops + cool edit pro

How would one do that? Make the drum beats in Fruity Loops and import them onto Cool Edit Pro and match them up to the song on there?

So that would be a good way of doing it?

[Boseph]

Originally posted by noyen
why not get a copy of acid pro and use the beatmapping function. that is the closest you're going to get to dragging and dropping. granted, you're not going to get amazing results by having a program do all the work for you, but it doesn't sound like you have your head around digital recording quite yet. start small and work your way into using programs like cubase and reason.

Yeah, I don't really know about this stuff at all, so sorry if i'm annoyingly naive about all of this...but what exactly would the beatmapping function be able to do?

[Orchestra]

Originally posted by Boseph


How would one do that? Make the drum beats in Fruity Loops and import them onto Cool Edit Pro and match them up to the song on there?

So that would be a good way of doing it?

Its the way I do it
or just write and compile the song by importing the original wav into fruity loops and lining it up in there.

[noyen]

Originally posted by Boseph


Yeah, I don't really know about this stuff at all, so sorry if i'm annoyingly naive about all of this...but what exactly would the beatmapping function be able to do?

acid is painfully easy to use. it also accepts VST plugins so you could link rebirth or reaktor, or absynth or whatever. you drop your full song in on one track and use it's beatmapping function to create a click track. when you load loops into the project, they are matched to the click track of your original song. it sounds more up your alley.

[Boseph]

Originally posted by Orchestra

Its the way I do it
or just write and compile the song by importing the original wav into fruity loops and lining it up in there.

Fruity Loops won't let me import wav's.

But i'll give the Cool Edit Pro + Fruity Loops hing a try.

[Boseph]

Originally posted by noyen


acid pretty much works with loops, and it's painfully easy to use. you can drop your full song in on one track and use it's beatmapping function to create a click track. when you load loops into the project, they are matched to the click track of your original song. it sounds more up your alley.

Sounds good. I'll try that.

[mewl]

i use acid. it rules.

[JPK]

I personally use leafDrums (www.leafdigital.com if I'm not mistaken) to build my drum tracks...

the easier way would probably to build your drum tracks first and then record over it, with a multitrack recorder (software or equipment)... I used to use Quartz Studio 4 (browse the web for qstudio4.zip), though I'm sure there are much easier and better softwares out there...

or if you are sure your whole track is in beat, you can do as the others said above... in CoolEdit there is a function that lets you MixPaste, and you can decide how loud you'll add your drum tracks in the mix... and if you're not satisfied, you can still undo and try again until you have it right
(I'm still using CoolEdit96 -yes, I know- so CoolEdit Pro may be different)

Well, while we're on the subject of drums... what are cool effects that can be used to them to make them sound better? I pretty much like the drum hits I found, but they sound kind of dry and too harsh... (P.S. I can add effects individually to each hit separately, and use a small digital drum kit - snares, cymbals and bassdrum, basically)

[mewl]

Originally posted by **********
wow, a ton of you make music.

post some of it!

i owuld but it's all in wav format i need to get one of those wav -> mp3 things. where can i get one??

ps: I AM SUCH A DUMBASS! when i was tripping i threw alway all of my old demos. they fucking ruled and i'm sad for being sto stupid

[mewl]

and i'm a loop whore. anyone know where i can get some for free?

[gpub]

goto

[mewl]

Originally posted by **********
i think i have a list of sites at home.
i'll look when i get there.
i'm at my girlfriends now.


um, try download.com for the wav>mp3 converter.
thats where i got mine.

TAHKNS YOU x29873456789!!

[ChristHimself!]

Originally posted by Boseph
I'm trying to use fruity loops, but one problem is that it seems like all I can make is one continous drum loop, but since the song i'm trying to add drums to is long and has many different parts, I don't just want the same drum loop for the whole song.

Use the playlist editor in fruityloops, it lets you choose multiple channels / loops at once, or make a big playlist of the ones you want to use, then make sure you have the song button clicked instead of the loop button.

Originally posted by Boseph
The other problem with using a program like fruity loops is that since I can't import the song into the program itself and add drums, it's mostly just guess work.

What I used to do is write down the structure of the song, how many bars it does each thing before it changes, and then once you've finished the drums a bit at a time try taking them in ntrack studio or acid like everyone else said and laying them over each other.