Members Tele The Truth Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 My band has had a tough time with drummers for one reason or another in our area. We may be losing the guy we have now. I'm tired of having setbacks and am considering finding an alternative to a human drummer. We are strictly a cover band, so I was thinking that there may be a way to get drum tracks to the songs we play and use them. I have a drum machine, but don't think I could actually program in a cover song and have it sound right. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastplant Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 You could probably get away with this if you have a really good and natural sounding drum machine, or drum track. You might want to look into Frooty Loops. I don't think anyone makes just drum tracks for known songs, I could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tdempsey Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 On Sat I'll be trying this out - but mostly on a few tunes where a small repeating pattern suffices. I'm using the Boss DR-880 and tunes like Blues Traveller's "Runaround" or Paul Simon's "Late in the evening" seem like likely successes. But indeed, all the pop is out there in MIDI format [EDIT: quality varies a lot] but this poses two problems: I've already maxed out the memory with a dozen tunes, and it's too contricting to play along with the song. Case in point Goo Goo Dolls "Slide"... if we vamp too long on one bar it will all go out of sync. The other challenge is that I'll need to tap out the tempo on the drum machine, so if Runaround starts out faster than usual I can catch up the drum machine before it starts playing with my footswitch. I have to admit I'm looking forward, but - not to resume this tired thread - I'd rather have the real thing. It's just not an option because our friendly pub owner won't pay for four-piece. All this and premiering a new singer. I can't wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MrKnobs Posted October 5, 2005 Moderators Share Posted October 5, 2005 Pebblestar / Julie and I sometimes play as a duo, and sometimes use backing tracks. We have the best backing tracks imaginable - the mix minuses from our own albums. Usually we just use the bass and drums from the album, though sometimes we'll put in a little B3 organ in the background. Fiddle, string section, and horns seems a bit much. If you get too cheesy with backing tracks, the Austin crowd will defiinitely turn on you! Terry D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Search for MIDI files for the songs you play and use the drum tracks from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastplant Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by GCDEF Search for MIDI files for the songs you play and use the drum tracks from them. Won't that sound awful? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by fastplant Won't that sound awful? No. Why would you think it would? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tele The Truth Posted October 5, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by fastplant Won't that sound awful? I think that depends on what you play it through. I found this computer program called Decomposer . Has anyone ever used something like this before, and if so, what did you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by Tele The Truth I think that depends on what you play it through.I found this computer program called Decomposer . Has anyone ever used something like this before, and if so, what did you think? It wouldn't work for what you want. There's no way it could clearly and cleanly isolate a single instrument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastplant Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by GCDEF No. Why would you think it would? midi drums aren't known for being very realistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tele The Truth Posted October 5, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by GCDEF It wouldn't work for what you want. There's no way it could clearly and cleanly isolate a single instrument. I figured there would be some bleed through. I listened to some of the clips where they took out guitar or vocals on their web site and any bleedthrough is pretty low in the mix. Since we cover everything pretty much dead to rights, I wounder how much of an issue this might really be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members squealie Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by fastplant midi drums aren't known for being very realistic. It depends on the quality of the sequencing, and the samples you use on playback. They can sound great. Or {censored}ty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by fastplant midi drums aren't known for being very realistic. No reason why they wouldn't be. Electronic drums and triggers are MIDI drums and I never heard anyone say they aren't realistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by Tele The Truth I figured there would be some bleed through. I listened to some of the clips where they took out guitar or vocals on their web site and any bleedthrough is pretty low in the mix. Since we cover everything pretty much dead to rights, I wounder how much of an issue this might really be? Sound sample that they cherry-picked played through computer speakers aren't likely to be representative of the quality you'd need live. MIDI is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastplant Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by GCDEF No reason why they wouldn't be. Electronic drums and triggers are MIDI drums and I never heard anyone say they aren't realistic. Hmmm, maybe I just haven't heard a midi song that sounded realistic in any way. I do konw that many technologies for elec. drums, keyboards, etc. use midi. But the songs you usually find on the internet are maybe a 1/2 step above Nintendo songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tele The Truth Posted October 5, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by GCDEF Sound sample that they cherry-picked played through computer speakers aren't likely to be representative of the quality you'd need live. MIDI is the way to go. Cool. Thanks for the info! I know bits and pieces about how MIDI works, but how abundant are songs in a midi format? Are they as available as mp3s? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by fastplant Hmmm, maybe I just haven't heard a midi song that sounded realistic in any way. I do konw that many technologies for elec. drums, keyboards, etc. use midi. But the songs you usually find on the internet are maybe a 1/2 step above Nintendo songs. What you play them through makes a huge difference. You've probably heard all sorts of MIDI drums done well enough that you didn't know the difference. I would imagine most modern pop is sequenced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GCDEF Posted October 5, 2005 Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by Tele The Truth Cool. Thanks for the info! I know bits and pieces about how MIDI works, but how abundant are songs in a midi format? Are they as available as mp3s? MIDI files are all over the net. Some are really good, some are really bad. You either have to play and record them to get MP3 or get a sequencer that can convert MIDI to wav. The cheapest I know of is Power Tracks Pro. You'd need a sequencer to turn off the other instruments anyway. The other advantage to MIDI is you can have other instruments such as horns and keys too. If you want really good sequences try http://www.petersolleyproductions.com/. They aren't free though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tele The Truth Posted October 5, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 5, 2005 Originally posted by GCDEF If you want really good sequences try http://www.petersolleyproductions.com/. They aren't free though. You ain't kidding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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