emusonacid! legacy

okay, i typically convert my drums down to mono, so i can chop them up easier, it seems when i have a break in stereo, it is hard to find a zero crossing, like the left channel clicks, but the right is fine... whatever...

but since i convert to mono, i lose volume, and even when i normalize, the drums are still really quite.

so here is my problem, how do i make the drums sound louder with out flatting them in a compressor. i am concerned about the noise floor being so close to the signal that when i go to record the drum track to audio i am going to hear the mixer, the computer and all the other electrical equipement along with the normal noise that is present. if i turn up the volume the noise floor of course rises with the signal, and is really the same, but if i compress it, then i could actually make the signal drop down to the same level of the noise floor. so i am kind of stuck.

the only solution i can think of is use a parametric eq to try to decrease the noise... do you think this is the best solution?

tell me what you guys think. i ask you guys because figure someone runs into the same problem.

cheers

Why not keep the samples in stereo but taper them to get rid of the click?

It depends on how you want to use the break. I'd imagine that it is not your "main" source of percussion and that it is a bit that is thrown in on top of a kick, snare, etc. pattern. If this is the case, I would say that you would want to keep it stereo simply to increase your stereo spread (I would even say emphasise that with a bit of chorus from the tuning page). Then just taper/fade the start bit to get a zero crossing.

OK, if you're using the break as the main percussive element (using freqs below 350hz - using the kick, etc of the break as main element) then you do want it in mono. So, yes, use EQing to reduce noise (I like the EQs in the EMU - in the filters section). Also, you could split the break in 2. Ride one section in stereo above 1000hz (I'm throwing out numbers here) and another in mono below 1000hz. This way, the elevated noise floor from the converted mono track doesn't peek its head above 1000hz and is barely recognizable, just be sure that you don't have any overlap in frequency.

My favorite thing is the 2nd order bandpass for breaks (of the variety described in the first paragraph). Gets that baby sitting nicely in the midst of a full (programmed) break and takes off the high freq noise in addition to removing the generally muddy lower freqs. Both freqencies are then replaced with other sounds.

BTW SnH (this pertains to a topic on DOA) I was looking at an 808kick wave last night and it seems like its a bit more than a pitched sine that's snipped at its maximum Y. looked like it was mixed with a very short mid freq sound to give that initial "transient."

thanks guys...

hey madmax, yeah, i actually have never really heard, for real, as far as i know, an actual tr 808, the only time i will ever even consider saying i have is when i have the little silver box infront of me

i had read somewere that that is were the tr 808 kick came from, was just a sine, there might be some added stuff, but that is simple enough to add to a raw sine. was thinking a square wave maybe an octave or so above, might just do the trick, keep it normal and you might get that happy hardcore kick, low pass it and you might just get that transients that you were talking about.. i don't know. it would be kind of how i got the snare to sound the way it does, i took white noise from my tv and set the enevelopes right and it sounded like a snare. but i would say, if the snares that i have heard are 808, are different a little, eqing might make it up. i beleive on my sample, i said there was eqing that was needed.

oh and another thing, i actually have a tr 808 emulator on a sound disc i bought for the emu, and the kicks there sound worse then just a straight sine cut into a cosine. but anyway

i have been really playing around with the test tones alot latley, i might start posting interesting sounds that i am creating from then on hear so you guys can play with them too. but i wonder if anyone would actualy be interested...

but anyway.. thanks for the responses. i will try them out.

geode, one reason why i don't set a release or decay evenlope to cover the clicks is that i am concered of losing the flow of the break, if i have an amen going i don't want to have gaps in it because of click. i want the "silence" to stay normal so the break sounds connected, you know what i mean. i'll play with that too, maybe i am over analysing it and thinking something will happen when in reality that is not the case at all...

cheers