I've got a drum recording and I'm working on replacing ... well, everything. Mostly for technical practice. The drums are an easy replacement. BUT, there is ONE overhead mic. I'd really like to replace all the cymbals and get some seperation. Now, I'm thinking that I'll try to isolate each cymbal on its own track, using EQ, before I slap drum replacer on it. But, I'm wondering if there are better ways. It seems like this might take days, removing unwanted transients, adding wanted transients, and so forth. I really don't want to quantize the kit and add in my own midi hits. I mean I've got a real drum performance, why revert it back to something I can do with a piano role. I want to keep the performance.

Why bother? Why not just use some sample library like EZ Drummer & be done with it? Or an electronic kit?

It amazes me, today's obsession with this stuff. A drum kit is just that. A drum KIT. Everything is SUPPOSED to blend together. And I say this as a metalhead. The very genre that is probably the worst offender as far as drum replacement.

bdickens
Why bother? Why not just use some sample library like EZ Drummer & be done with it? Or an electronic kit?

It amazes me, today's obsession with this stuff. A drum kit is just that. A drum KIT. Everything is SUPPOSED to blend together. And I say this as a metalhead. The very genre that is probably the worst offender as far as drum replacement.

Too subjective.  Personally, I prefer wide open kits with good separation left and right.  Too much blending makes it sound boring and processed, to me.  Drums are the most disappointing instrument in most modern music today.  Flat, non-dynamic, overly compressed and straight up the middle with trash can sounding cymbals.  Can hardly stand it.  


And I don't know about expensive electronic kits, but I played an electronic kit for a couple years and it was just horrid.  I had to quantize everything, no matter how simple or complicated the track because of problematic trigger delays, ruining any sense of human feel.  What's the point of capturing a performance if you have to go right back to quantizing and hours of editing to recreate natural dynamics all over again? 

You're right. Like so much, it is subjective and a matter of taste. I prefer a more natural sound. Drum kits are not spread from one side of the stage to the other. I find drums that swim around my head distracting.

With Addictive Trigger you can easily separate everything but hats and cymbals. 1) keep a set of overheads for the main drum sound. 2) Make a copy of an oh track for each element i.e. kick, snare and each tom and place an instance of AT on each of those tracks. 3) Hone in on individual elements and trigger sounds from Addictive Trigger. 4) Tune the AT samples to the overheads that were kept in step 1. AT allows the use of sounds from your Addictive Drums library.
 
Rocky