This is a follow up to my MIDI to audio bounce thread from the other day. Just to recap I plan to bounce my BFD drum part to audio so I have wave clips for each kit piece. That way I can just edit/mix it/etc just like I would a real drum kit recorded live.
 
So... I have BFD Eco which has limited outputs. I have two cymbals and two toms both jammed together to the "cymbals" and "toms" outs respectively. Simple enough I'll just mute one piece or the other, bounce, reverse, repeat. I don't think that will be a problem.
 
Here is where I'm getting confused. The Overheads and Room mic channels have the left and right on the same channel. I would like to separate the left and right of each so I have independent tracks for each side of each mic.
 
If I pan them left, then bounce, then pan them right, then bounce will I be getting the full signal as it would appear normally if they were independently recorded as separate mics? Like if I center pan the resulting bounce will it truly be centered like an independently recorded mic or will something be missing?
 
I have a few other ideas but I'm not sure how they work either and don't want to make this too long winded. If anyone has some insight into these type of pan concepts I would appreciate some insight.
 
Thanks and have a great day.

Okay, perhaps that was a little too long winded anyway. I just need to know what is the best way to separate the stereo room and overhead mic channels in BFD so the left and right sides have their own track.
 
Basically the stereo mic channels should, in theory, be like two recorded mics that have been blended. I want the two full mic inputs set to center without any crossover signal from one to the other.
 
Hmm... maybe if I use Channel Tools I can turn down one side then then use those spread controls to center the other.
 
hmm...

Can't you just bounce using the split mono format?

I bounce my stereo overheads to split mono creating two tracks. I leave the faders at zero and the panning straight up. Then I adjust the bounced tracks.

scook
Can't you just bounce using the split mono format?

This is one of the things I was contemplating but I wasn't sure whether this would result in bleed from one side to the other and/or make it so the resulting files would only sound hard left/right even when center panned (but I could correct that with Channel Tools using the spreader thingies).
 
Basically I don't full understand pan as well as I should. It's something I thought I knew all about (left and right, simple, eh?) but as I learn more I realize it can be much more complex so I just don't want to get inferior signals or get a signal I didn't intend to.
 
But perhaps I'm over thinking it (as usual). I'll try it your way and see what happens. Thanks.

Barczar
I bounce my stereo overheads to split mono creating two tracks. I leave the faders at zero and the panning straight up. Then I adjust the bounced tracks.

Cool. Thanks.

You can certainly separate the left and right halves into two mono tracks, but I can't think of any good reason to do so. If your overheads are too wide, you can use the Channel Tools plugin to narrow them. If you want to shift them out of center, CT will do that, too. If you want to widen the overheads, separating them into split mono won't help. Separating them makes effects more difficult, as you'll have to either duplicate any plugins on both tracks or route them to a bus, un-doing the separation.
 
Of course, I may just be running short of imagination this morning. If you've got a scenario where overheads need to be split, I'd like to hear about it. I just can't think of any good reason not to keep them as a stereo track.

Hi, bit. I'm glad you dropped by.
 
I'm not sure if there is indeed any sonic benefit to this but I would like to treat them as independent mics so I have the extra options. This is more of an educational experiment as I have some recordings I need to work on that were recorded in studio with live tracked drums. I want the BFD tracks to basically be as much like a live recorded drum kit so I can get my routing/mixing chops down before plowing into stuff I intend to release.
 
I could also see the benefit of being able to process the ride/floor tom side independently from the hi-hat/hi tom side if need be. Like say the cymbals on one side are overpowering the rest of that side's signal but I don't want any processing I do to affect the other side where that problem doesn't exist. I'm used to a very wide kit (metal stuff with lots of kit pieces as opposed to a smaller, more centered kit). The room mics I could see leaving alone but the overheads, in my mind, would/could be pretty different from each other. Technically this shouldn't be an issue while using BFD because there are so many options to fiddle with to avoid such things but as I will be dealing with many live tracks that may not have been recorded under such ideal circumstances just getting a feel for how all this type of thing would work I think it's a worthwhile exercise.
 
Basically I'm just attempting to learn using a more true to life example of things I'm more likely to encounter in the real world. Also it's been an interesting and educational experience just contemplating the processes involved in extracting audio from MIDI, MIDI from audio and all the crazy stuff that can be done along the way. I'll be trying out a ton of concepts I've learned this past year on this one project because although I may understand much of it I have actually never DONE any of it. It has almost all the elements I'll be dealing with except vocals but the lead guitar tracks will kind of take the place of the vocals in the mix and vocal processing doesn't really confuse me that much anyway.
 
Kind of like a self imposed final exam/review. I'll probably be a little more annoying than usually over the next couple weeks as I run into the inevitable roadblocks so I apologize to the forum in advance but I am quite happy I can FINALLY sit down and start working like this.
 
Cheers.
 
;-)

Oh and duping plugs doesn't bother me. Between Ctrl dragging, creating track/PC templates and/or combining in a bus (which I know defeats the purpose of separating them in the first place but that's what I'll have to do with a real drum track) I'll get where I want.
 
In fact this is the EXACT type of thing I need to get comfortable with.
 

Also take into consideration if the samples themselves are stereo... Splitting or recording them to a mono track loses the stereo image of the drum piece...

I might opt to creating separate stereo tracks for each piece in separate passes from what I understand you're trying to do...

I typically opt to create a stereo tom track and stereo ride etc and work with them as I might in a typical live situation except realizing where stereo samples might require some exta thought...

I find that toms blend together well in re-creating a kit as do ride(s) and crashes.... I don't really need to record each piece separately... In the past I always wanted them discrete, but the option of returning to MIDI and correcting such made it a moot point...

I know you said that you don't want to return to MIDI to correct performance, but in this case it's returning to correct mix issues if/when they arise...

...jut a thought

Keni