Editing rhythm guitar tracks in X1 Producer ?

Erik,

I'm no guitar hero, but I having been playing guitar for for nearly 50 years, and a lot of studio session work, the best way is to just practice your strumming along with a drum loop or metronome for just a few minutes a day. I promise, just 15 - 30 minutes of practice a day will provide vast improvement in just a few weeks. I was in the same boat years ago, and I know what I am talking about. Using software to tighten-up your rhythm track can work to a point, but learning to strum in time will provide you with much more.

I hope this helps!

Audiosnap is prolly the best solution for this, as you can slightly move parts of a clip while leaving other intact, and use a good algorithm for offline processing. It's how I edit my own guitar playing, which is for ****e.

I don't recall if it's default or I key-bound it, but I use "Y" to turn my snap on and off and do it a lot.

I have played around with settings in audiosnap several times during the years but it always destroyed the sound of my guitar tracks. I must say though, that I never really sat down and examined it further, since the help file indicates that it is supposed to be used on percussive material.
Are you guys saying that  it's possible to make minor timing corrections throughout an entire acoustic guitar take (with up and down strums) that are not audible - with audiosnap?

JSGlen


Erik,

Audiosnap, Melodyne and several other programs allow you to adjust the timing of many instruments, as long as the program can detect transients. Some programs work better than others, but there will be some artifacts if significant changes are made. I use Melodyne, and have adjusted some notes on my electric Bass guitar tracks with some success. If you are not careful you will get artifacts though! Also, I have tried adjusting acoustic guitar tracks with Melodyne, and depending upon how prominant the guitar is in the mix, you can get away with it.

Hi Glenn,
I would be a lot less concerned using audiosnap on a bass track since it's mainly single string notes. But rhythm guitar parts with actual chords by nature are a lot more complex. I can manage to edit an acoustic rhythm guitar part into something acceptable, but I have to do it manually and spend a lot of time. It would be neat to have audiosnap doing all the work, if that's possible.
 
Based on replies in this thread I just re-watched the SONAR Explained video on audiosnap with new eyes and I'm definitely going to mess with those algorithms and see how it turns out.
 
Thanks a lot to all for your response so far.

There is a function on the "move" too where select a portion of audio hit shift+alt ( I think) and drag audio within a clip. It's pretty cool and yo don't mess with the whole track.

There is a lot of good feedback here. 

I haven't had the luxury of always working with tight guitar players. I've had to get good at editing. Here is the way I do it.

* enable auto-cross fades
* make cuts where you need to edit (in X1 this is simplified to alt clicking - yay!). Make your cut a little before the initial transient and right before the next major transient.
* enable the mouse scope view (can't remember the name), by hitting the 'x' key in X1.
* click on the snipped clip that you need to move.
* line up the mouse vertical bar to where you need to line your clip transient to
* If you haven't already changed it, change your key pad nudge to use a very small rate. I think my 1 and 3 are defined to 10ms, but I'd have to check.
* use the key pad nudging to know your clip in place. 

Afer you have moved the clip in place, you may have to slip fade the prior and latter clips to make it smooth, but that's where auto cross fade whoops the llama's ass =)

This may seem tedious, but ti's the best way to have artifact free edits. And once you get good at it, you'd be surprised how fast you can edit. 

You can always use audio snap, but I've found that Audio snap end up stretching the sound in little ways as opposed to taking a chunk and realigning it, which keeps your attack and sustain unmodified and natural sounding.

Also, you may want to verify your timing isn't off by a constant value. I recorded a drummer who was consistently just a hair behind the beat. Instead of editing all of the beats, I found just nudging over 4 - 8 bars at a time fixed the issue. He'd sync up and then get behind and sync up and get behind. 

But the most important rule is: USE YOUR EARS!!!

They are the best gauge of whether your cure is worse than the disease. After editing, I ALWAYS solo out the track, close my eyes and critically listen. If your edits are transparent while solo'd out, they'll sound flawless while in the mix. 

Hope that helps mate,

Be aware though, once you bounce a clip, you can't go back. Be sure it's what you want before moving on

For that reason alone, it pays to work on a clone or copy of your original track, just in case things don't go as planned (do they ever?)

Hi Erik,
 
 
FWIW, I think it would be quickest (and least tedious) to strike a balance between replaying a part (till its mostly correct) and editing.  You can spend hours trying to massage a part's timing... and wind up with somthing that ultimately feels terrible.
I'd spend time recording multiple takes... and comp those into a final track that's at least mostly there.
You can then "rein-in" the odd late/early notes.  I'd just slice them (isolate as separate clip) and manually move them until they're in the pocket.  If you have a drum/percussion track, you can use the Waveform transients as a visual reference (instead of snapping to grid).  The Nudge command is perfect for making small Clip movements...