Tip for Drum Templates
We all create one track for each mic on a drum set. I put all these tracks in a folder. Fine. But what happens when you want to punch in a drums set? Well the drums themselves are simple but the overheads, hi hat, and any other cymbal tracks sustain much more than a drum hit does. And you don’t want to cut off the staining sounds when you overdub.
To solve this I do the following:
- Create a folder called “drums”
- Create a two sub folders under drums called “main” and “aux” respectively
- Create tracks for your drum mics under the “drums” folder
- Create a set of tracks for your cymbal mics under the “main” subfolder
- Create a second set of tracks for your cymbal mics under the “aux” sub folder
- Route all drum tracks to group tracks. (snare top and bottom to snares, 4 overheads(remember, there are two sets of overhead tracks in this scenario) to an overhead group etc)
- Add FX to group tracks instead of the main tracks. Mix primarily with the groups.
Main advantage:
When I need to punch in I hit the record enable on the “drums” folder and then disarm record on one of the cymbal sub folders (main or aux) that was recorded just prior to the punch in point. This way, the cymbal sustain from the performance just before the punch in point decays naturally and is mixed in with the new punched in drums and cymbals. Sounds seamless as if it were played in one take.
note: I use two bass drum mics, top and bottom snare mics, 5 tom mics, two hats each with their own mic, a ride mic, two overheads and two room mics. As a result, my groups are bass drums, snares, overheads, hats, rides, all routed to another group called drum sub. Finally there is another group for parallel compression and one for the room mics. I do most of my mixing in the groups rather than the individual tracks.
This has worked well for me. Hope it helps someone else.