What is THE best way to record a drum part ?

Hello,

I’m starting using a new controller and I would like to know what’s is the best way to record drum part ?

Are you planning to jam and then select the best take among multiple tries?

Then use the AutoClonePatterns tool, it’s great for jamming on top of a backing pattern.

In any case, mapping the edit/record button to something on the controller is essential, as this avoids having to reach out and click a mouse or keyboard. Doing that will probably mess with your groove, it certainly does with mine.

Next, think about the quantize setting. You have a realtime trigger quantize (instrument properties) and record quantize (pattern editor toolbar).

Realtime/trigger quantize is the one you hear as you hit a pad. Record quantize affects the timing of the final recorded note, and they can be set to different values.

Basically - if you desire a human feel, turn off quantize for both input and recording.

Otherwise, leave both at a small value - I usually have good results with just one line, but then I rarely go beyond 8 LPB.

Also, consider if you want/need to have some sounds cut off each other (mute groups, like open/closed hihat), or keep playing (one-shots, like crash cymbals).

Hello Danoise,

Thank you very much for all those answers !

I ask this question because as I’m not very familiar with drums editing, I would like to know if there is a way to records drums the more intuitively possible. I explain, when I’m making a song, While listening to it, I imagine how and when the drums should be and hit (intuitive way) but when I want to record the drums that I want, I have trouble because he take too much time to find where it should be on the matrix.

Sorry for my bad English. I Hope that you even understand me.

Probably not the exact answer you’re looking for but a real simple trick is to just record yourself beatboxing (or banging on a table or something) a simple kick - snare pattern while your song is playing. Import it into renoise, loop it and let it play along side your song, then trace the kick snare beatbox pattern audio with drum samples in a separate track.

Primitive approach but it’s fast, it’s fun, you get a human feel, and you can record yourself in an instant instead of having to sit and figure out note positions in the editor. Maybe it’ll help you get used to the pattern editor better. After a while the editor becomes second nature and you just know what goes where.

I work in intervals of 16th notes, which means every 6 lines using the song settings below, I use these settings on pretty much all my songs and it makes pattern creation much easier. You’ll have to get used to the screen scrolling at a faster speed if your not already used to it.

Set your LPB to 24 with 96 lines per patterns.

Each 24 lines is one beat.

Each 12 lines is a 8th

Each 6 lines is a 16th

Wanna make triplet: 8 lines, 16 lines, 32

48 is half bar, 96 is one bar.

Hope it helped

I have trouble because he take too much time to find where it should be on the matrix.

Ah, then Noodletrap might be the answer. It records into instruments instead of the pattern, meaning that you don’t have to make room in the song.

Obviously, if you’re not familiar with phrases you’ll have to wrap your head around that as well. So maybe that’s too much new stuff at once, I don’t know.

So let me just add to my post above that, apart from mapping the edit mode to a physical button, you probably want the ability to select tracks. Just something like “previous/next track” should be sufficient if you’re recording layers of drums.

And obviously, if the recording you just made sucks, then perhaps “clear pattern” or “undo” as well. I think you catch my drift here… :slight_smile:

Also, what Redman said - but I believe that’s not why people buy drumpads? It WILL take practice to convert what you hear in your inner ear to something which is just approximately the same in actual sound. When you’re imagining things, you can just make up the sounds on the fly. A little bit harder to restrict oneself to the drumkit you just loaded onto the pads :walkman:

Thank you very much guys !!!

I will try everything you’ve tell right there and I will tell you ! Yes I agree with you Danoise, It’s not easy to convert imagination into actual things… But your methods is a good help