Drum Replacement

[Tony HallParticipant]

Warren mentions in multiple videos that he uses Addictive Drums to do drum replacement. As far I can tell from the XLN website and other forums, AD doesn't allow the use of external samples, only the libraries built in. So that would lead me to believe that Warren can only be using the built in samples.. But he's shared multiple drum samples over the years- so how is he getting these into his sessions?

[Tony LoignonParticipant]

Hi Tony,

Warren also uses Superior Drums from Toontrack. I don't know if that allows for external samples. I use EZDrummer 2 which is not as customizable as Superior Drums, but I have created a set of samples from it, converting the midi to audio in Studio One. Perhaps this is how he does it.

[Tony HallParticipant]

Hey Tony, thanks for the info. I can't seem to find a definite answer on whether or not Superior Drums allows external samples, but I'm guessing it does if that's the program Warren is using. My research has brought me to 2 more affordable options, Drumagog for $199 and SPL DrumXchanger for $99. I might try a demo of DrumXchanger and see if it works for me.

[Mark HoldenParticipant]

Hello

Warren records his own drum samples and uses those If I've understood you. He will say at the end of a recording session he will get the drummer to play one shots so he has clean samples of the actual drums being used.

Here is just one example of Warrens help with links to the samples
https://youtu.be/O2qHViVMlsI

If your using Studio one I put them here

https://academy.producelikeapro.com/forums/topic/warren-drums-added-to-impact-xt-file/

I have the castle kit to finish yet keep getting side tracked 🙂

Mark

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Mark Holden.

[Tony HallParticipant]

Thanks for the info Mark. Do you happen to know what specific program he's using to replace drums with his samples?

[Keith FelsParticipant]

SD3 will allow importing samples at multiple levels. Soft hits, hard hits, rimshot off the same instruments. The Tracker function is incredible and I rarely have to dial in the AI for reading even live drums. Really the only drawback to SP3 is it is quite expensive.

The cheaper route is built into some daw. If you can convert to midi from a snare track for instance, you might have more work to get it clean but if you already own the software it can be worth the work. I know the method used by a lot of mixers was to use melodyne to convert to midi then that midi becomes a trigger track. The other “old school” method in pro tools is to snap to transient and hand paste a sample.

[Tony HallParticipant]

Thanks for the info Keith. I've been successful using Melodyne Assistant to capture and convert to midi. I need to pull the trigger, pun intended, on one of these replacement plugins!

[Tom JParticipant]

How do you guys use samples? Would you use them blended in the original track or sometimes use only a trigger track with a sample? I've got a live recording from the very small stage and all mics have picked up everything - such a mess. So I thought about creating trigger tracks for kick, snare and toms to clean it up at least a little bit by using those only with samples. What are your thoughts regarding the matter?

[Arthur LabusModerator]

It depends Tom.
Drums samples as blend with live drums is more the matter of making them "bigger".
In your case, complete drum replacement could be a option.

At least when you do drum replacement - you better should use multilayer samples, so the hits are different depending on trigger.
And, best option, also with round-robin so there are few samples for every velocity section.
So its not sounding like machine gun (every hit the same)

I personally replaced whole drum kit as it was really needed and did it with Reaper DAW, which is giving me an option to create MIDI notes trigerred by transients.
With some adjustments i got MIDI tracks with original timing and velocity for toms.
Hihat and cymbals had to be hand made due there is no way to use the tracks as triggers.
Then i was able to improve the MIDI file (missing hits or similar stuff) and to play the file via Kontakt with drum library.

Hope it helps !

[Tom JParticipant]

Thanks. I already used the same method available in Samplitude, my main DAW - created triggers by transients so velocity and timing is exactly like the original play. Just thought, that maybe this is crossing some line in audio engineering using only samples, though triggered.

[Arthur LabusModerator]

I think the line is your taste and common sense 😀
If you have added samples and it still not sounding "good" - then replace completely.
I would do that so.

[Tom JParticipant]

Good to hear it 🙂 Thanks for the feedback!

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