woke up with in idea to create my music more organically . . .

Is this possible?

I'd like to record myself banging on a bucket, can, washing machine, whatever, then replace those "drums" with high quality samples.

I've heard of drum replacer software. Is that what I need? Is there software that can analyze my plastic bucket hits and replace them with a sample of my choice?

Thanks for any info . . .

 

Depends on how you want to record it. There are a multitude of drum replacers in the market (I use the UVI one), but what makes they work is the fact that the drum kit is multi miked, so usually you're going to replace the kick in the kick track, etc. If you want to record your "drums" with a single microphone, then it gets much harder to replace. The UVI plugin can do separation (great to get rid of bleed), but it expects real drums in the algorithm, so your method won't work.

If you're going with this route, I would suggest to record and then remake it in midi. Drums are pretty straightforward to remake anyway, it's all patterns and you don't need to gauge pitch, only timing.

 

I'd be using one mic. The most I'd record at once on one track would probably be Kick and Snare, then I guess I'd have to separate the onto two tracks. I'll look into the UVI drum replacer. Do drum replacers work well if it's a straightforward replacement?

 

A drum replacer is in essence just an envelope filter. If it can hear the hit clearly, it can replace it. The issue happens when there is too much bleed in the recording: the replacer can't distinguish between a kick or a snare if they are very close together in volume.

I guess the best thing you can do is try it and see if it works for you. I highly recommend the UVI replacer, but it's not that easy to use at first glance. Check the official video on YouTube and it should explain most of what you need to get started.

 

I like the idea, but "drum replacers" like Addictive Trigger, Steven Slate Trigger and other alternatives are great mainly for drums recorded on multiple mics. On a single one, they are really unusable. I know it, because I've kinda tried it too. One thing that comes to my mind (which I've similarly used for sidechaining one-mic drums to a bass) is using EQ filters. This may/may not work. In your case, how about you duplicate your single track, to let's say additional 2 tracks. One for "kick" and one for "snare", both with EQs on them. For "kick", keep only low frequencies (i.e. 40-80 Hz). For "snare", you have to find the sweet spot in your sound and again EQ everything else out. Now set these 2 tracks, so they receive the signal from your original track, record it and you should get hits separated nicely. If yes, now comes the Trigger software into action, make a Ludwig Supraphonic from that washing machine door!

 

Thanks, shin and dirty. ;-)

 

I've been having kind of the same idea but ultimately the goal will be just to keep the organic weird sounds, not replace them with predictable boring ones. Since I don't really know what music you're doing or what your approach is going to be to it I can't really say but you might want to actually consider just keeping the crazy sounds and then you might have more interesting music and the technological issue will just go away...

 

Yeah, it would be kinda cool to have randomly inspired sounds instead of traditional drums. The problem I would have with that is many of my recordings will be performed in a noisy classroom setting.

 

drummer here, I love your idea!

if you manage to isolate different "instruments" (using EQ, gates, AI whatever...), you can very easily replace them by whatever you want,
there are plenty tools to convert (single) hit to MIDI note + velocity, then you can throw any VSTi you desire (during the process you gotta decide if you want to normalize volume of MIDI velocity OR input audio OR output audio),
another principle is to use hit (transient) detection to add markers, cut/chop/split audio in those points, and replace by samples (such as "one hits") directly (AND optionally blend them with original garbage!),
ProTip aside - nobody is no one is stopping you from combining layering stuff above^^ just clone the shit out of it an enjoy the meat xD

if you're starting from scratch, then get (free trial) of Reaper, try plugin "Audio To MIDI Drum Trigger"
if you'd prefer second option, again get (free trial) of Reaper, experiment with "Dynamic Split Items" feature (and perhaps check sister site for "drumforge drumshotz" to get an idea for "replacements")

 

Last edited: Dec 9, 2024 at 8:06 PM

While you're at it, take a look at apTrigga. It can do what you're requesting with "single mic". Not sure how well, but you can adjust your method and figure it out. As a bonus, the below VST should still be on the "other" site.

https://www.apulsoft.ch/aptrigga3/

 

Yes. You can glue/double-sided tape 0.5$ piezo mics on various objects and send them through individual inputs and trigger them with free of commercial plugins (Audio2MIDI), which then go to any sampler, synth or sample player (like Kontakt, etc).

Or you can use something like the ApTrigga3 mentioned above, which does it all in one plugin. If you only have one input source/channel, and bang on different things that have different resonances, you can use a bandpass filter inside ApTrigga3 to separate the different tonalities/drum samples. Pretty nifty.

 

Last edited: Dec 9, 2024 at 10:17 PM

I tried this with Superior drummer and it works.
There is only one criteria - each sample you import to replace kicks, snares, cymbals toms etc... must be aligned right on the very beginning of the sample. You can make your own kit in it from your own samples.

You can then either play them manually, use a MIDI file you created, quantize or not.... so on and so forth.

 

From my experience, this is the best algo around. Incredibly fine, precise, on point. However it does not render out MIDI. So any edits you could make will have to be done in the audio file, which, for my workflow, makes it unusable.

 

Ah, ok

 

Seems like a LOT of extra effort to replace recorded audio hits with midi samples. Why not just make it easier and record yourself hitting a drum pad or keyboard pads? It's still "organic" since you are the one hitting the pads making the notes. It's hell of a lot easier replacing midi notes with different or multiple samples when they are already midi.

re: the original question, I have used WaveMachine Labs DrumAGog in the past to replace original drums with other sounds/drums, etc...

 

UVI Drum Replacer is a very nice plugin, and you can also layer with it. But you can also sidechain a noise gate for that. Fuse Audio Labs DrumsSSX is another handy plugin to have around. It is basically a realtime separation plugin like Acon Digital Remix, but for drums. You basically multiband separate the drums, and you can always bounce in place any individual element. SPL Drum Exchanger is decent too. Sometimes trial and effort is your best bet.

 

Yes, they're all envelope fillers in some sense.
UVI Drum Replacer, Steven Slate Drum Trigger, mDrumReplacer, and plenty others.

Your multitrack recordings have to be super clear in order for the signal to trigger tho.
But yes, it's possible.

 

Yes, it can work. Just make sure that the objects that you are hitting have distinct frequency ranges / tones, so that drum replacers can distinguish the sounds. For example: use a glassy object that produces rather high tones and something like a bucket that produces a more dulled sound. Then you can assign a kick to replace the dull sound and a snare to replace the higher sound of the glass and so on. Bottom line: sounds must be distinguishable.

 

I just wanted to post something similar. Simply glue some cheap piezos to your "buckets and cans":

 

I ordered these and will do as you suggested. ;-)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BX5NKKGH?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title