Audio Snap in X2 is FUN!
I've been getting my feet wet with Audio Snap 2.0 ... and, I must say it is pretty fantastic!
I'm taking drum tracks recorded in a rehearsal room with 2 overheads + a kick mic and a snare mic and transforming them into a really nice sounding kit!
The first order of business was fixing the kick. It was miked improperly and sounded like someone banging on a piece of cardboard. Seeing as it had it's own track, Audio Snap set up was a breeze. The default settings were enough to copy a clean series of midi notes to a Session Drummer 3 Track, I had set up. Less than a minute later, I had me a new snare drum!
Once I had the kick & snare sounding pretty, I realised how awful the overheads were sounding. The cymbals were stinking up the place and there was no chance to get a decent sound. That's when I decided to use Audio Snap, again. This time, I wanted to see if I could replace the cymbals, hihat & toms.
So, I copied a new midi note from Audio Snap using the hihat. This time around, I lowered the threshold a bit to make sure I got a good selection of transients, just to make sure I triggered every beat. Now, I'm just spending a lot of time in the PRV, sorting out my midi notes: throwing out the kicks & snares I already have, and moving the others to correspond with ride, crash, open hihat, pedal & toms. This is SO cool! The drums are kicking some major butt, now, and it has cleaned up the mix a LOT!
Another thing: the drummer was not spot on, on a lot of upbeats & fills. Sometimes he even missed a kick or snare beat, completely. Well, now nobody will ever know
All I needed to accomplish this, was the 5 minute tutorial video on Cakewalk's website and Scott's Sonar X2 Power Manual. This is so great! I can't believe how much fun, this is!!!
I am LOVING Sonar X2
