New Workflow with Live drum loops... How to do best?

Support & discussion regarding DAWs and MIDI sequencers.

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

Post Reply
User avatar
GMaq
Established Member
Posts: 2774
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:42 pm
Has thanked: 520 times
Been thanked: 555 times

New Workflow with Live drum loops... How to do best?

Post by GMaq »

Hi,

Full disclosure, I cross-posted this on the Ardour forum since Ardour is my main DAW, but perhaps my original question is better asked here with the diversity in DAW Users..

I want to do a new album project this winter and I want to do it differently than I have previously and I'm not sure if Ardour can do what I need..? I'm well versed in recording more or less live takes and putting them together but I'd like to do an acoustic based project and instead of laying down a live drum track from start to finish I'd like to play the drums live and organically and then take portions and created looped sequences to structure the songs from. I do not like playing to a click so I'd like to play the patterns live and then import into Ardour and match them up to the grid after importing. I'm most interested that the looped segments will paste cleanly at the beginnings and ends and not too concerned if every transient within the looped bars are perfectly glued to each grid beat.. I can play with steady tempo and I'm confident that I'd rather play with the feel I want and figure out the grid/click stuff later.

So... how best to.. (a) Discover the BPM or at least get close? (b) Map the transients to the grid in a way that doesn't require an hour of cutting and dragging segments.? (c) Time stretch or shrink the drum pattern in the event that I want to alter the tempo with out degrading the sound..?

Is this essentially what beat slicing is..? Is there any facilities to quantize Audio, even if a Plugin...? I have a pit of dread in my belly that this is not Ardour's forte, or is that what Rhythm Ferret does..? Help and objective advice would be very much appreciated!

tavasti
Established Member
Posts: 2047
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 6:56 am
Location: Kangasala, Finland
Has thanked: 369 times
Been thanked: 208 times
Contact:

Re: New Workflow with Live drum loops... How to do best?

Post by tavasti »

GMaq wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 6:41 pm

So... how best to.. (a) Discover the BPM or at least get close?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrr9lr_Pbkg

Linux veteran & Novice musician

Latest track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycVrgGtrBmM

User avatar
magicalex
Established Member
Posts: 193
Joined: Sun Jan 24, 2016 6:34 pm
Has thanked: 129 times
Been thanked: 7 times
Contact:

Re: New Workflow with Live drum loops... How to do best?

Post by magicalex »

I was going to post a link to the same video, Glen. I've done it myself and it worked very well.

User avatar
GMaq
Established Member
Posts: 2774
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:42 pm
Has thanked: 520 times
Been thanked: 555 times

Re: New Workflow with Live drum loops... How to do best?

Post by GMaq »

magicalex wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 7:43 pm

I was going to post a link to the same video, Glen. I've done it myself and it worked very well.

You guys are right, it does work very well! All these years and I had no idea... :oops: Thanks for the info!

bootrade
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2022 8:01 am
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: New Workflow with Live drum loops... How to do best?

Post by bootrade »

magicalex wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 7:43 pm

I was going to post a link to the same video, Glen. I've done it myself and it worked very well.happy wheels

I tried it and it works great. Thanks and have a nice day!

sharase
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2023 3:49 am

Re: New Workflow with Live drum loops... How to do best?

Post by sharase »

tavasti wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 6:54 pm
GMaq wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 6:41 pm

subway surfers
So... how best to.. (a) Discover the BPM or at least get close?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrr9lr_Pbkg

I tried and it worked, thanks a lot for your comment, it helps me a lot.

Haibara23
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2023 3:52 am

Re: New Workflow with Live drum loops... How to do best?

Post by Haibara23 »

tavasti wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 6:54 pm
GMaq wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 6:41 pm

So... how best to.. (a) Discover the BPM or at least get close?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrr9lr_Pbkg

Nothing is more enjoyable to edit than a multi-bar loop. There are drum loops that are longer than one bar in every single Beta Monkey sample library; in fact, there are plenty of two-bar, four-bar, and even eight-bar loops. And there are numerous one-bar loops that are ready to be carved out of those numerous measures.

Post Reply