Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

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Killahurts
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Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by Killahurts »

I don't do a lot of this kind of thing, so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or if I just got lucky. I recorded a live stereo percussion track, couple of ethnic drums. I selected the soundbite in the TO and did this: Audio/Audio from Beats/ New sound file from beats. Within a second I started playing the sequence and it sounded spot on. I have a pretty good sense of rhythm when playing, but not this good.. did it really go in and fix my drums that well?

If it did, I'm stunned by the accuracy and transparency. I did not know DP had this under the hood.

If I didn't do it right, then I am, of course, stunned by my own talent..

So why not use undo to find out? Because I do not want to change anything about the track, it's perfect, and I don't trust the ghost in the machine, lol.

Was that the right procedure for doing this?
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labman
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by labman »

"If I didn't do it right, then I am, of course, stunned by my own talent.."

:rofl:
That line is such a keeper! We have all been stunned that way.
AMPGUI themes - Andy rocks!, 3 macs, MacPro 768GB ram, 16core OS11.7.10, DP11.31, all Waves, all SLATE, PSP, IK multimedia & Audioease plugs, all PAlliance, Softube, tons of NI VI's all air Spitfire, all Audiobro, all Berlin, EW PLAY, LLizard, MachFive3, Kontakt5, Omnisphere, RMX, LASS, all Soundtoys, Lexicon AU's, melodyne and others I know am forgetting, cause I'm old...Also mucho outboard rigs, MTPs, DTP, antelope WC, and 4 control surfaces with Raven.
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Shooshie
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by Shooshie »

Killahurts wrote:I recorded a live stereo percussion track, couple of ethnic drums. I selected the soundbite in the TO and did this: Audio/Audio from Beats/ New sound file from beats. Within a second I started playing the sequence and it sounded spot on.

Could you describe this a little more in detail? Don't assume that I know what you're talking about! This sounds important, and if I haven't already put it in the Tips Sheet, it needs to go there. In fact, for that reason assume that I know nothing (which is accurate, depending on the time of day). If you'll describe it for a beginner, it'll be easy to make a tip out of it.

Shoosh
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Killahurts
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by Killahurts »

Shoosh, it turns out that operation did nothing because I had not done the analyze beats command yet.

Yes, I really played it that well, apparently :wink:

I'm trying to learn right now all the steps I need to go through to quantize drums and other audio material. It's somewhat complicated and not very straight forward. It's easy to get this confused with tempo mapping and correction, which is a different procedure.

Guess I need to just take the time and get my head around it. I've read that section in the manual 50 times..

So it's not a one-click operation after all.. but it should be.
DP11, 2019 16-Core Mac Pro, Monterey, 64GB RAM. RME HDSPe MADI FX to SSL Alphalink to SSL Matrix console, and multiple digital sub consoles. UAD Quad PCIe. Outboard stuff.
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dave pine
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by dave pine »

don't bother, it's a nightmare, tried on and off for years.... nada
mac pro 2.26 octacore 24gigs of ram/ El Capitan10.11, dp 10, mackie dxb, 3-2408mk3, waves mercury 10, ozone 3&4&5678, sound toys, izotope rx, melodyne editor, uad 2, bluetubes, 22" polkadotted dildo, omnishpere 2, trigger 2 deluxe, addictive drums, komplete 9, e/w ql symphonic orq platinum, ql choirs, ql stormdrum 2, ql gypsy, ql ra, ql goliath, ql pianos, superior drummer 3, ez drummer 2, garritan bigband, amg kickass brass, ztar, wife, dogs, droped my protools rig at the city dump
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Robert Randolph
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by Robert Randolph »

dave pine wrote:don't bother, it's a nightmare, tried on and off for years.... nada
I've had no trouble doing it during my DP8 demo time. It's not as straightforward as some other software's implentations (PT, S1 and Logic come to mind), but it's definitely not deficient.

Since this was something that is really important to me I spent a lot of time looking into how it works in various DAWs.

Would maybe a tutorial of some sort be helpful? What specific instances of use should be covered?
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dave pine
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by dave pine »

well, for all the hoops you have to jump through to have it automatically do it, you can do it much faster manually
mac pro 2.26 octacore 24gigs of ram/ El Capitan10.11, dp 10, mackie dxb, 3-2408mk3, waves mercury 10, ozone 3&4&5678, sound toys, izotope rx, melodyne editor, uad 2, bluetubes, 22" polkadotted dildo, omnishpere 2, trigger 2 deluxe, addictive drums, komplete 9, e/w ql symphonic orq platinum, ql choirs, ql stormdrum 2, ql gypsy, ql ra, ql goliath, ql pianos, superior drummer 3, ez drummer 2, garritan bigband, amg kickass brass, ztar, wife, dogs, droped my protools rig at the city dump
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Robert Randolph
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by Robert Randolph »

dave pine wrote:well, for all the hoops you have to jump through to have it automatically do it, you can do it much faster manually
If you have the time, can you list the steps and commands you use to do it manually? If you can supply a sample track that would be helpful, or I can.

I would like to compare it to the 'automatic' method that I use. The workflow I use is similar to what's outlined in this series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fXMpWddPwg (specifically part 5).

I've had quite good results even with complex, odd-time, 30+ track drum sessions. I've still yet to figure out a more efficient workflow than what I was capable of in PT11 however.
labman
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by labman »

Killahurts wrote: Yes, I really played it that well, apparently :wink:
Nice. So your talent DID stun you !

:)
AMPGUI themes - Andy rocks!, 3 macs, MacPro 768GB ram, 16core OS11.7.10, DP11.31, all Waves, all SLATE, PSP, IK multimedia & Audioease plugs, all PAlliance, Softube, tons of NI VI's all air Spitfire, all Audiobro, all Berlin, EW PLAY, LLizard, MachFive3, Kontakt5, Omnisphere, RMX, LASS, all Soundtoys, Lexicon AU's, melodyne and others I know am forgetting, cause I'm old...Also mucho outboard rigs, MTPs, DTP, antelope WC, and 4 control surfaces with Raven.
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cbergm7210
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by cbergm7210 »

Robert Randolph wrote:
dave pine wrote:well, for all the hoops you have to jump through to have it automatically do it, you can do it much faster manually
If you have the time, can you list the steps and commands you use to do it manually? If you can supply a sample track that would be helpful, or I can.

I would like to compare it to the 'automatic' method that I use. The workflow I use is similar to what's outlined in this series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fXMpWddPwg (specifically part 5).

I've had quite good results even with complex, odd-time, 30+ track drum sessions. I've still yet to figure out a more efficient workflow than what I was capable of in PT11 however.
That video series helps out quite a bit to get the process down.
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dave pine
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by dave pine »

till you try it on some sloppy heavy metal drum track
mac pro 2.26 octacore 24gigs of ram/ El Capitan10.11, dp 10, mackie dxb, 3-2408mk3, waves mercury 10, ozone 3&4&5678, sound toys, izotope rx, melodyne editor, uad 2, bluetubes, 22" polkadotted dildo, omnishpere 2, trigger 2 deluxe, addictive drums, komplete 9, e/w ql symphonic orq platinum, ql choirs, ql stormdrum 2, ql gypsy, ql ra, ql goliath, ql pianos, superior drummer 3, ez drummer 2, garritan bigband, amg kickass brass, ztar, wife, dogs, droped my protools rig at the city dump
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Robert Randolph
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by Robert Randolph »

dave pine wrote:till you try it on some sloppy heavy metal drum track
That's pretty much all I worked on when I demoed DP8 recently. I went through around a dozen projects that all had multi-tracked drums in various styles of metal. The most extreme was 33 tracks of drums with frequently changing meter. Most of the projects had meter changes and abrupt tempo changes.

I had very few problems. The only thing that bothered me was that doing manual adjustments was much slower than workflows I have used in Pro Tools. If there is some sort of workflow for manual adjustment of beats inside soundbites that is faster than the automatic methods, I would be extremely happy to know.

It would also be useful to know exactly what problems you had. Beats being quantized late or early? Beats not getting markers? Bad sounding? Speed of the workflow? Something else?
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dave pine
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by dave pine »

well, was your stuff recorded to a click track, or did you try to synch up to one after... like i had to... that's probably the problem now that i think of it.
mac pro 2.26 octacore 24gigs of ram/ El Capitan10.11, dp 10, mackie dxb, 3-2408mk3, waves mercury 10, ozone 3&4&5678, sound toys, izotope rx, melodyne editor, uad 2, bluetubes, 22" polkadotted dildo, omnishpere 2, trigger 2 deluxe, addictive drums, komplete 9, e/w ql symphonic orq platinum, ql choirs, ql stormdrum 2, ql gypsy, ql ra, ql goliath, ql pianos, superior drummer 3, ez drummer 2, garritan bigband, amg kickass brass, ztar, wife, dogs, droped my protools rig at the city dump
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Robert Randolph
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by Robert Randolph »

dave pine wrote:well, was your stuff recorded to a click track, or did you try to synch up to one after... like i had to... that's probably the problem now that i think of it.
All the projects were recorded to a click. Badly in some cases, but it was still there.

I don't know of any software that makes syncing up it up after the fact easy. I know it's fairly easy to conform the tempo to a recorded track after the fact, but conforming a 'free-tempo' track to a fixed grid has always been a pain in any software I've tried.

I shudder at the thought of having a metal track of any style played freely and being expected to map it to a grid after. :vomit:
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Tesionman
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Re: Quantizing Drums.. really this easy?

Post by Tesionman »

A forum user (don't remember user name) posted this a while back!
Hope this helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8us0jUiubDo

I actually don't go through the create kick and snare track, copy beats, etc...

- I group and select the tracks, then Create Beats from Soundbites(Ctlr+B) and choose the kick track in the dropdown menu. I adjust the sensitivity to catch every hit and click apply.
- Then I do the same for the snare track.
- Sometimes I do the same to the hihat track in certain HiHat heavy sections. (and the tom tracks in tom sections)
- I quantize to the necessary note value and then fill the gaps just like you did in your video.
- I listen if theres any deformities and apply crossfades. Thats it.

I never had problems.
Keep in mind that I don't frequently quantize my stuff. And when I do its only if a certain section or fill that I feel could've done better. But many times I prefer to redo it than correct it.

cheers
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