I was working on some stuff today, just fookn about with some breaks in ReCycle and was just wondering when it came to getting the rex into your DAW, do you then split the hits onto individual channels and treat them with EQ etc separately or do you treat the break as a whole and apply general EQ to clean it up/change the sound? I tried out both ways and got very different/interesting results.. Came to the conclusion that splitting them off on different channels give you greater flexibility, but treating them as a whole keeps it gelled together..
I might be stating the frickin' obvious here, but yeah
anyone wanna comment give opinions, methods, or even give a hint into the super secret way you treat your breaks?!
ez mate, yeah in the past i always used to just load up a loop in the rex player and eq / etc the whole thing just for pure ease (and a lot of stuff i put in the rex i hi-pass anyways and do all teh bigger more prominent hits in a redrum or NN-XT), although recently i tried to do it separately load the loop in the NN-XT and eq each channel separetely - loooong! i didn't really get the results i wanted and it seemed a lot more long winded, having said that i haven't played around with rex loops in the NN-XT enough to make a fair comment, so i will keep on experimenting in that department!!
Cut up the breaks then do more "corrective eq" with the single hits like high passing any rumbling out or cuting some frequency out of the snare i dont like but not too much otherwise you loose the breaks characture. Maybe adding some slight compression to the kick and snare to give them more snappy attack.
Then group the break for more global eq such as boost the highs a little so that the whole break has a more uniform sound. I find it always sounds unnatural and a bit poo if you only boost the highs on the hats for example.
Maybe then some light group compression.
I also like to alter the envelops too, pull down the decay and sustain tho make the break a bit more choppy and punchy.
this will depend on where i want the break to sit and how much of the original recordings ambience i want to keep
If a break needs to get EQed in a special way I load it 3 times in a slicer (working in FL, but you'll understand what I mean).
In one instance I just keep the kick drum hits, in the second instance I keep the snare hits and in the third instance I keep the other stuff. This can than be EQed as desired. If I need to EQ every single hit then I'm not sure if the break is worth using. Don't lose yourself in turd-polish sessions.
If a break contains one special percussion element that needs treatment I might also split it off into a different channel and adjust it.
When I want to layer on another snare I immediately have the snare hit positions at hand so I know where to play the extra snare.
I never layer on an extra kick as they could start to cancel eachother, I'd rather replace it or layer on an attack of another kick or a 100Hz sinewave.
When finished layering/EQing/... I bounce the break again and reload it so making edits of the break is easier.
__ Check my soundcloud (exclusive tracks on there)
I always have a solid kik, snare, ghost snare and hi hat on separate channels.Then I will layer drum breaks over the hits.It takes more time but it does improve the overall quality of the drums.
Oh and if you have a way of runnin your drums thru a pre-amp,you should.
Originally posted by Wally D
I always have a solid kik, snare, ghost snare and hi hat on separate channels.Then I will layer drum breaks over the hits.It takes more time but it does improve the overall quality of the drums.
Oh and if you have a way of runnin your drums thru a pre-amp,you should.
Can you expand on the pre amp thing? I got my Kick Snare Hats all as one shot audios and sequenced in the arrange window.. how could running that through a pre amp help?
anyone wanna comment give opinions, methods, or even give a hint into the super secret way you treat your breaks?!
