Replace Drums In Premixed Audio In Three Moves
With the right tools, drum sounds that are baked into mixes can be changed after the event. We show you how.
In the days before drum replacement, the engineer had a stark choice when recording drums: get it right, or don’t. While it goes without saying which of these options is the aim in any recording situation, things happen. No truer is this than with a multi mic drum recording where the potential for things to go astray is higher compared to other sources. Time constraints, or loss of position, as well as the odd time when a drum mic does actually decide to stop working can all conspire to derail things. When any of the above happen, drum sample augmentation and/or replacement can be viewed as a tool for repair. For most, however, it can never form the foundation on which the sound is built.
Replacement During Production
Sometimes, recreating the magic of a demo or live recording for a record can lead both engineer and artist to a simple conclusion: if chasing the demo is so difficult, why not just use it? There of many examples of artist-lead recordings making it to the final cut, but historically some of these have been presented as ‘rarities’ or B-sides owing to the rough nature of their sound. Sometimes, existing audio could have so many extra uses if it weren’t for factors such as poor capture or other technical flaws. Replacing drum sounds in this context can bring useful musical contributions to a production that may otherwise have ended up on the floor. This could also include bringing in live recordings taken during pre-production.
Replacement During Mastering
Being able to extract and replace individual sounds within premixed audio has many obvious advantages, with applications spanning remixing, repair, or as an alternative mastering technique. Questions of getting the mix right in the first place aside, the technology affords the mastering engineer a way of dealing with specific mix elements where access to stems may fail to provide the required level of precision. No more apparent can this be than on an album project where the same kit has been used across multiple recordings. Being able to bring in more suitable sounds where a change of gear is needed could be just what is needed.
Using Intelligent Extraction
More recently, the industry has started to see an increasing number of versatile tools that promise the engineer the ability to rebalance, or ‘unmix’ audio. Tools such as iZotope’s Music Rebalance module for RX 9 was one of the first providing full ‘stem’ functionality, following on the heels of Zynaptiq’s UNMIX::DRUMS, providing the facility to raise or lower drums’ levels on mixed music. In terms of replacing drums in premixed audio, using an ‘unmixer’ with MIDI functionality is the next step. Watch in the video how we use Hit’n’Mix’s RipX Deep Audio to replace a kick drum in three moves:
Unmix a stereo recording in RipX Deep Audio
Export kick MIDI and mix minus kick from RipX Deep Audio
Import extracted files into the DAW to replace kick with a virtual instrument
By using this tech we have the best of both worlds. It’s true that MIDI will sometimes need tweaks, and that there can be some audible artefacts, but overall the results are good, and will only improve with future updates.
The convergence of both artist and engineer roles has created a rich seam of creativity, and the whole business of getting music recorded, mixed, mastered, and distributed is undoubtedly becoming easier for the independent artist to undertake themselves. That said, there is no doubt that there will be a place for the dedicated engineer armed with the right tools for when drum sounds or any other element falls short.