Page 1 of 1

Panning Midi drums

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 2:54 pm
by MagusCT
I'm using Midi drums in one of my songs and sometimes I will pan the drums all the way to the right or left. When I convert my MIDI trakcs to audio all at once, the panned drums are either loud and dont pan or are very soft. WHy is the pan not working?

Posted: Tue May 18, 2004 11:21 am
by andychap
Dunno. Why do you bounce all your drums to audio in one go? Surely it would be better to bounce each track individually and then apply panning etc to the audio tracks.

I always bounce to each individual track (mono) so that I can compress the kick drum and leave it center, up front. Compress and EQ the snare and leave it in the center. EQ Hi Hats and pan slightly left and add a touch of reverb. Crash and Ride, EQ, pan slightly right and add a touch of reverb. Toms compress and EQ, pan left, right and centre, the left and right with a little reverb.

Once I am happy they sound right in the mix I bounce them down to a stereo track and add a bit more reverb to sit them back slightly in the mix (picture where a drum kit would be on a stage).

I know it doesn't answer your question but you might get something out that. :D

Posted: Tue May 18, 2004 2:46 pm
by MagusCT
Thanks for the reply. I've really just started working in a little more depth with audio....atleast MIDI to audio, so I have to get used to everything and understand it a little more. Ill try different methods and try what you suggested also and see what happens. Thanks again.

Posted: Tue May 18, 2004 3:49 pm
by andychap
It is a long drawn out process but I always think of the drums as the back bone of a track and if they are weak or just not right then they ruin the whole lot.

I have just started using my drum machine and triggering it with midi and recording each drum back in on it's own track. I don't know if it's just me but they always seem more realistic than using a soft synth.

I also like to mix the drum sets up as well. I find jazz kick to be a bit weak for my tracks so I switch to the standard acoustic kick and I also like a rock snare.

I think it just makes it more personal and unique.

midi drums

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:26 am
by jack_the_ex-cynic
i think a lot depends on your midi drum kit - i have several free drum soundfonts (stereo, velocity layered, etc.) i use with my soundblaster live! card (the next thing to get upgraded) and they are all panned properly already. i record the kick and snare mono, each by themselves, and then record the stereo toms and stereo percussion (hi-hats, crashes, rides, etc.). i've gotten them to sound alright, for being tape-quality samples run through the sb live's terrible recording hardware. if you have a soundblaster card, consider http://www.ibiblio.org/thammer/HammerSound/. there are a lot of free soundfonts here, and some decent (free) drumkits.

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2004 1:14 am
by GretscGuy
I have to agree with Andy. When I use midi drums, I use a CAL script to split them out and then record the kit (as audio) onto seperate tracks.

This allows you to process each piece of the kit seperatly.

tracking each part of the drumkit

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2004 3:04 am
by jack_the_ex-cynic
i mostly agree, but with the soundfont kits i have, the toms and cymbals (hi-hats, crashes, etc.) are already panned where they typically would be. however, i should clarify what i said earlier about recording the toms and cymbals in stereo - i make a separate mono track for the left and right channel. that way if i feel like panning them closer together, or adding reverb, i can pan the reverb on each channel all the way out so it doesn't mud up the mix. with my recording equipment, that is always a chief concern. =)

if i had the money i would definitely go with a drum machine, because i'm pretty sure my soundfonts are 22khz samples (making my sb live complaint less applicable to my drums setup but anyway...). but because i don't experiment with non-standard drum panning that much, and i have stereo drum samples, and i don't feel like tracking a bass drum, a snare drum, a hi-hat, a couple rides, three cymbals, and three toms (11 tracks total) and running pantheon reverb on all of them at once, or spending the time it takes to record all of those tracks, i like my way the best =). but that's not to say it's the master plan for everyone.

i must add that i found a drumkit that was so perfect for a song that i didn't change a single thing about it - recorded it straight to two mono (l/r) tracks and that was it. but if you are going to do something unique with each part of the kit, then you would of course record each part of it seperately.

if you are interested, you can hear some of my songs at http://personal.southern.edu/~anderson/music.html - they all use kits i've gotten off the net. 'jack loved jill' uses the kit that i did nothing to - not even reverb as the kit had plenty (almost too much) of its own. in the future i will be re-recording these with better equipment, but considering what i have to work with, i don't think they are too bad. =)

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:25 pm
by MagusCT
Thanks for the replies. I am going to look for some drum kits i can download first. I was also looking at a drum machine but my music teacher from my old middle school has one and I tested it out. I cant really play the drums so it was kinda hard but nothing a simple quantize couldn't fix. Anyway, thx again for the replies.

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 9:07 pm
by GretscGuy
hey jack,
i like your stuff. You may want to spend some money on some mastering. I think the arrangements are well thought out and the performances seem pretty good!