Beatmapping audio files, tempo changes and drums

Hey everyone,

I come here seeking help: If I can't figure this out, I'll have to give up on recording a demo for my band. I've already recorded a couple of our demos with semi-decent results, for a home studio standard of course.

I start by recording the drums (two mics, one for the kick and the other one for hi-hats, cymbal, crash, etc.), so I get 2 separate audio files. With a bit of work, using beatmapping, I managed to match the tempo to the drum beat without resorting to quantization via flex.

This song I’m recording now is a bit trickier. The former ones were all 4/4 steady bpm. This one has a few tempo changes: it starts with 129bpm and goes up a bit when it reaches the chorus, then it goes back down but not to the original tempo, then it goes back up again for the 2nd chorus and the final solo. This was a wanted effect, but the drummer also$&@+% up a bit.

Using beatmapping, I manage to have the drums on beat up until the first chorus, then it goes off and never comes back. I’ve tried splitting the audio regions and adjust the tempo using beat detection starting from the changes, to no avail. After a few more things I tried, I ditched the tempo changes concept and now I just want to keep the beat to a steady 129bpm throughout the whole song.

I’ve tried using flex time (monophonic, rhythmic and slicing), different quantization settings, follow tempo and other things but to no avail. The drums go offbeat after the first verse and that’s it, they don’t come back even by forcing it.

I thought that using quantization could force this to work out, I’ve used it on guitars and drums a few times with good results. But it’s definitely not working now.

so, do I have to trash the drum track and record again or is there a way to fix this that I’m not seeing?

Any input will be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

To be honest, I don't understand what/how you managed to match tempo using beatmapping. AFAIK, beatmapping is used to obtain a map of tempo changes from a recorded performance.

You mentioned that you recorded the drums with 2 mics. Are those two audio sources recorded on distinct tracks in Logic? If that is the case, are you using group editing?

You mention different audio edition techniques used to achieve your goal. But we don't know how you actually used them.

Perhaps working on different audio files (created from the original recordings) instead of regions could ease up the flex/quantization process...

To be honest, I don't understand what/how you managed to match tempo using beatmapping. AFAIK, beatmapping is used to obtain a map of tempo changes from a recorded performance.

You mentioned that you recorded the drums with 2 mics. Are those two audio sources recorded on distinct tracks in Logic? If that is the case, are you using group editing?

You mention different audio edition techniques used to achieve your goal. But we don't know how you actually used them.

Perhaps working on different audio files (created from the original recordings) instead of regions could ease up the flex/quantization process...

Hi Atlas007, thanks for the reply

I used beatmapping to match the audio region position to match the tempo: Beatmapping--->move---->move selection with first transient to nearest beat.

No, I did not use group editing nor did I know about this feature and yes, there are two different tracks for the drums in Logic, it looks like this: https://pasteboard.co/GT8ABng.png. I'll try this out today and see how it goes. I just did it to both audio sections individually.

about the edition techniques, the one which puzzled me the most was the quantization using flex time. I simply started with the audio regions in place---->turn on flex---quantize 1/4 using monophonic. I also tried, like I said, other types of quantization. In the past, when I did this with other kinds of audio files (guitar recordings, bass recordings) that followed a simple beat (4/4 downstrokes for example) it worked flawlessly, albeit sometimes deteriorating the audio quality if the changes to be made where too drastic, but it literally forced the audio track to follow the project's tempo, not so much in this case.

Anyway, thanks for the input, I'll try the group editing thing and see how it goes. Thanks!

It's not clear to me what you are trying to do - are you trying to get the drums ( not recorded to a click) to match Logic's metronome?

Or are you trying to preserve the time set by the live drummer and get Logic's metronome to follow that?

If it is the latter, you want to play in a midi track with drum sound and make sure each beat corresponds accurately to the original audio. Then you can use Beatmap to match Logic's bars to the original audio

You can also use Stretch the audio Regions to conform to existing bars. If the tempo difference is not too large it should sound fine.

So, you need to get the CURRENT tempo mapping done and as correct as you can....before ANY Flex is enabled anywhere. I do this all the time.....you say Beats From region got it up until a point and then veered into being "wrong"? So, delete all the tempo markers after that....use manual beat mapping to get it through whatever oddness threw it off, then split the drum part at that point--do the Beats From Region on the rest of the audio file. See how that does.

But, you mentioned wanting to "Fix" something with Flextime--you HAVe to get the map as is done before enabling Flex, or this will be beyond a mess. Worst case, you map the bar lines manually....it's a 15min job, if automating doesn't work.