Drum Sequencing - Normalization/Compression/Session Transfers etc

[Defluo]

Hi,

I've been struggling for months with the drum sessions on Acoustica Beatcraft (a basic sequencing program) for my band's upcoming debut. When I first programmed the drums I went overboard on the accenting. The album is 68 minutes long and it's fast paced progressive extreme metal so it is seriously going to take me weeks to go through and manually adjust each individual step to make the volume levels consistent. To give you an idea here is a link to our page with some roughly mixed tracks: MySpace.com - Amidst Haze - Christchurch, NZ - Black Metal / Progressive / Experimental - www.myspace.com/amidsthaze

I posted a thread on the Acoustica Beatcraft forum but they advised that there was no feature that enabled the user to bring each individual step to a certain volume level. I thought I could use a compressor on Adobe Audition to fix this problem but due to a tempo bug (I won't even begin on that one!) I can only mixdown every drum track - toms, snare, cymbals etc - into one master wav. If necessary, I could manage two, one with drums, one with cymbals, but no more.

I really need help on this one, I'm stuck. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. Here are my questions:

Is there a way to open sessions from Acoustica Beatcraft (extension .bcproj) in another program so that I can normalize the volume levels at the click of a button?

If not, is there some sort of compressor I could use on Adobe Audition 1.5 to at fix this problem or at least normalize the cymbols that jut out all over the place? I know nothing of compression - I've been doing home recordings for years but only demos which didn't require much expertise so any settings you could advise would be a great help.

Thanks

[brandondrury]

The album is 68 minutes long and it's fast paced progressive extreme metal so it is seriously going to take me weeks to go through and manually adjust each individual step to make the volume levels consistent.

I'm not sure exactly what you are attempting to do. Are you talking about the individual volume of each song?

[Defluo]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I'm not sure exactly what you are attempting to do. Are you talking about the individual volume of each song?

Hi, no I'm talking about the individual volume of each individual step. Every time a drum or cymbal is hit the volume is different ie: 50 - 80 - 30 - 150 etc.

[brandondrury]

Every time a drum or cymbal is hit the volume is different ie: 50 - 80 - 30 - 150 etc.

Variation is a good thing, within reason. If each and every drum hit were the exact same velocity, you'd have the machine gun, early New Order sound which most people hate for most genres of music.

When I program drums for anything serious, I spend about 10x the time on velocities that I do actually choosing the drum being struck. That part is relatively easy. I find that getting the velocity variation right is VERY time consuming.

So do you find the variation excessive? Is that the problem?

Brandon

[Defluo]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Variation is a good thing, within reason. If each and every drum hit were the exact same velocity, you'd have the machine gun, early New Order sound which most people hate for most genres of music.

When I program drums for anything serious, I spend about 10x the time on velocities that I do actually choosing the drum being struck. That part is relatively easy. I find that getting the velocity variation right is VERY time consuming.

So do you find the variation excessive? Is that the problem?

Brandon

That's exactly it - it's so excessive that some steps are deafening whereas others are barely audible.

Any ideas?

[ferguson66]

A good drummer will monitor his/her own dynamics. For example the crash hits during the verse should be relatively close and maybe the crash hits leading into the chorus are smashed harder. The drummer should also have a relatively constant sound level coming from the snare drum unless doing a ghost note or intentionally smacking it harder like a flam accent or something.

Is it the drummer that is all over the place on velocity or is the same velocity getting recorded differently each hit? I would think that if the drummer hits the drums in different spots each time you will get different levels as well.

[Defluo]

Originally Posted by ferguson66

A good drummer will monitor his/her own dynamics. For example the crash hits during the verse should be relatively close and maybe the crash hits leading into the chorus are smashed harder. The drummer should also have a relatively constant sound level coming from the snare drum unless doing a ghost note or intentionally smacking it harder like a flam accent or something.

Is it the drummer that is all over the place on velocity or is the same velocity getting recorded differently each hit? I would think that if the drummer hits the drums in different spots each time you will get different levels as well.

Hi - it's actually a sequencing program I'm working with where I went overboard with velocity while programming. I'm trying to find out if there's a way to deal to this with a compressor on Adobe Audition or by opening the drum sessions with another program...

[brandondrury]

I'm of the opinion that this really can't be automated. While a real drummer does have a hint of randomness to their playing intensity on any given hit, there are definitely patterns that are easily noticable from take to take. So I don't think there is any real way to automate this, unfortunately.

This is why I have an edrum kit up high on my list.

Brandon

[Defluo]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I'm of the opinion that this really can't be automated. While a real drummer does have a hint of randomness to their playing intensity on any given hit, there are definitely patterns that are easily noticable from take to take. So I don't think there is any real way to automate this, unfortunately.

This is why I have an edrum kit up high on my list.

Brandon

Okay, well thanks anyway. It just seems so simple to me for a program to have a feature which allows the user to bring every step to the same level. Ah well, looks like I have a hundred hours or so of "click, click, click" ahead of me...

[brandondrury]

t just seems so simple to me for a program to have a feature which allows the user to bring every step to the same level.

Oh. You mean you want that? I thought you wanted your drums to sound natural (and what I consider to be good.)

This very easy to do in Cubase SX3. It's as simple as drawing one line. Again, I spend hour after hour adding variation so the drum performance sounds real (if I'm trying to simulate a real drummer). I have to say that I'll be shocked if what you are attempting to do doesn't sound pretty bad. Have at it, though and figure it out for yourself.

Cubase SX3 also has some MIDI plugins that allow you to apply "compression". You set a threshold and a ratio and it allows you to reduce the velocities that go past the threshold. You could use that to knock down the biggest peaks and then use the "make up gain" to post the overall velocites of everything.

Brandon