Adobe Audition + TD-3 KW - Separating drum tracks?

[andyjee86]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, great forum.

I have a Roland TD3 KW kit which has midi (left/right) outputs. I bought with the hope i could import the midi into audition and have a seperate track for each drum head, so i could edit properly. However i have 1.5 and have been told it is not possible on 1.5, so i am considering upgrading to 3.0, but i need to kno for sure this type of editing can be done and what i would need to do it?

For example, at present i just have a standard trust soundcard, what midi cards would work well with the td3 kit and audition 3.0? and how easy is it to set up this type of recording? is it even possible?

Just to re-iterate, i'm aiming to successfully record a drum piece and then have a seperate track for each individual drum pad (snare/kick/hi hat/ride etc etc).

Many thanks in advance ,

Andy

[Blastbeats]

I'm a Cubase user, and in Cubase you have an function called 'Dissolve Part', which having recorded your performance onto one MIDI track allows you to dissolve the data into individual MIDI tracks by pitch.

Now I'm not an Audition user, but even if Audition is lacking this function you should still be able to acheive the same result by doing the following:

1. Record your drum take on a single MIDI track.
2. Copy that track to as many tracks as are needed for each instrument you are seperating.
3. Go into MIDI edit mode on the first track and lasoo all MIDI notes except the kick, and delete them. On the next track delete all bar the snare, and so on....

Good luck!

[Rrrob]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, great forum.

I have a Roland TD3 KW kit which has midi (left/right) outputs. I bought with the hope i could import the midi into audition and have a seperate track for each drum head, so i could edit properly. However i have 1.5 and have been told it is not possible on 1.5, so i am considering upgrading to 3.0, but i need to kno for sure this type of editing can be done and what i would need to do it?

For example, at present i just have a standard trust soundcard, what midi cards would work well with the td3 kit and audition 3.0? and how easy is it to set up this type of recording? is it even possible?

Just to re-iterate, i'm aiming to successfully record a drum piece and then have a seperate track for each individual drum pad (snare/kick/hi hat/ride etc etc).

Many thanks in advance ,

Andy

It seems you haven't quite grasped the difference between midi and actual audio data, as you say your module has midi (left/right) outputs, and you are talking about isolation of individual drum tracks using midi,

if you have midi, seperating the drum parts is the least of your worries, you're using MIDI, it is seperated into noteon events and as such it is inherently split up into "tracks" (of notes!) Think of midi like a score or notation that your pc reads, it can play this score with any instrument (synth or samples) it (or you!) want! you can make the snare sound like a piano note or you could make the low tom sound like that fart sample you just recorded, they're all just samples (or notes from a synth) assigned to specific 'note on' events,

to answer your question in short, if you are sure you are recording midi data, you have everything you need to isolate the seperate parts, if you really want to you can use a sequencer to grab all the 'snares' or kicks and put them onto their own track, but it will be mostly down to what vst's or softsynths you are triggering with that data as to how will be best to manipulate it afterwards, some will easily let you assign a different sample to a different noteon, or perhaps you /do/ want different vsts triggered from different parts of the same original performance, in which case you will need to split out the midi parts,

[Rrrob]

also to answer your other qiustions, youll need a midi interface of some description, depending on your budget and what you need to achieve, you might need a proper audio interface, it will be easy enough to record the drums along to a click to a midi file on the pc, but i assume you'll also need to record some actual audio on top of the drums? you'll run into a nasty world of latency using a cheap soundcard and without ASIO drivers it'll be pretty much un-usable so you'll probably want a recording audio interface,

[andyjee86]

hi thanks for the replied. for live instruments i have always used audition. for example, i usually record drums using a sequencer, fruity loops, and save that as a wav, import to audition and then layer my other instruments etc over the top, this works fine. i wanna do the exact same with the drums, but instead of the whole lot being split into 2 stereo channels (ie recording through the line in), i want to be able to manipulate each drum track. my sound card isnt that bad, it just has no midi input. maybe im asking for too much.
its just id hate to mix everthing and then listen back and think "hey, the kick drums not loud enough", coz then id have to re-do everything. :Z

[LiamSlack]

Hey Andy,

Rrrob is correct in that MIDI is the way to go for what you're looking to accomplish. Unless your module has an audio out for each drum, and your soundcard has enough ins to handle them, MIDI is your best bet.

I'm using ProTools with an original MBox for my demo sequencing (no sense draggin out my big interface if it's just me), and it has no MIDI interface built in either. I just use a USB to MIDI interface in addition. This one is only $30, and will do the trick.

Hope that helps.
-Liam

[Mixxit]

I'm also not sure that Audition has MIDI capabilities, at least through version 2.0. I'm not positive of this because I'm not a big MIDI dude but that is my recollection.

[andyjee86]

ah damn when i sed the drum module has midi out (left/right), i actually meant it has midi in/out, i have just checked this now haha. sorry for being thick.

so i think i get wot your saying, i cud record the drums via the midi but it wont sound like my drums do unless i get the exact same midi sounds from somwhere and apply them to the midi track? if thats the case, i dunno how i'd get round that coz the hi-hat (for example) has around 3 different sounds and i would need all 3 of em to sound realistic, or would there be a sepearte midi track for each of these?

im well confused now,

[Rrrob]

yeah that sounds more like it!
you might want to have a look at your midi data you're recording or look in the manual to work out what noteon's your module generates for different events, open/closed hats in are usually assigned to different midi noteon's and as such your hats in different positions will probably show as different notes in the score, but not different 'tracks' as these are generally used for different intstruments or voices within a midi file, i know on the td-9 you can go in the options and change which note each pad, bear in mind there is also a midi CC value coming from the pedal which can be used to manipulate the hat through software that supports it

[LiamSlack]

Your best bet (and the easiest fix) would probably be to pick up a VST instrument that plays nice with your kit, and use its sounds. EZDrummer is famous for playing nice with Roland kits, sounds incredible, and supports the data you're trying to preserve.

Plus, it's only $99. And SUPER easy to use.

The only issue is, as Mixxit stated, Audition doesn't support MIDI. To use Audition, you'd have get one of these free MIDI sequencers, and use Audition's ReWire function to route the audio output from the sequencer into Audition.

But it can be done.

-Liam

[Roger Wilco]

according to http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/ Audition 3 supports MIDI and VSTs.
and here is a free one (which I haven't tried):

http://www.bluenoise.no

[Blastbeats]

ah damn when i sed the drum module has midi out (left/right), i actually meant it has midi in/out, i have just checked this now haha. sorry for being thick.

so i think i get wot your saying, i cud record the drums via the midi but it wont sound like my drums do unless i get the exact same midi sounds from somwhere and apply them to the midi track? if thats the case, i dunno how i'd get round that coz the hi-hat (for example) has around 3 different sounds and i would need all 3 of em to sound realistic, or would there be a sepearte midi track for each of these?

im well confused now,

MIDI is just your performance data, so you would record your drumming into your computer sequencer via MIDI out. You would then split the instruments into individual tracks like I explained above - but you are right your hats are different in that all Hi-hat variations (pedal, open, half open etc) should all be on the same 'hats' track.

You would then swap your MIDI cable so that it is now sending the performance data from your computer sequencer into your drum module, but now you can mute/solo each drum track on your sequencer. So now it is possible to, for example, mute all drums except the kick drum, send the MIDI data into your module, and out of your module's audio outs back into your computer sequencer where you record it as audio. This will give you your bass drum recorded in isolation allowing you to level/EQ/effect it as you see fit.

You then do likewise with all your other drums in turn.