Possible with drums wav files?
I could use advice on whether crossfading drum wav files is possible.
Our swell drummer has some difficulty playing with a metronome during some long fills. There are a couple places that I can splice and move some sections of the stereo drum wave files so that they are in time with the metronome (and the rest of us). This works well when our drummer plays a staccato part on the highhat. HOWEVER, when he is playing a ride cymbal I cannot get a clean splice. I have never used CROSSFADING. Is this a feature that would help smooth out a splice during the use of a ride cymbal??? If so, is the explanation of crossfading in the n-track manual sufficient? If not, can someone help by modifying those instructions so they are more clear???
Thanks.
crossfading might help, but my guess is it will be difficult to make an edit like that in the middle of a cymbal hit and have it sound natural… you might be able to get away with it if theres enough other stuff happening in the mix, it will be harder to notice. personally, i do not use the crossfading tool but prefer to duplicate the track in question and use a volume evolution to have more control over the fades… a little more work, but i like it a bit better.
i’ve dealt with your situation a number of times, and i’ve done a few different things to try to correct it.
here’s one: when i do a drum tracking session, i ALWAYS make sure i get the drummer record a bunch of “one hit” samples on all of the instruments: get the drummer to hit each drum/cymbal at different velocities (make sure you leave alot of the resonance after each hit)… then cut them up into individual files and name them well. these are a BIG help if you have to cut out a big section of drums and wish you had that trailing cymbal, etc.
in a lot of cases, especially with drums, it might be too difficult to do a nice edit and you either have to live with it or you just have to do another take. once you’ve done it a bit more you will find yourself listening for these things during tracking.
this may not have helped in your case of editing during a long section of ride cymbal though…