Like myself, do you have a multitude of stereo drum loops that you really like but seemingly no way to change the volume of any part of the kit? Or maybe you want to change out one or more drum sounds in the loop and leave that great rhythm without having to recreate it in a sampler like Reason's Redrum?
Well I got thinking about just that problem today and how I would go about rectifying it utilizing the tools at hand. I think I came up with something fairly affective.
You'll need 1) the loop to work with, and 2) Melodyne Editor (or an equivalent plug-in).
(This is all assuming you own and are proficient in some sort of DAW system and Melodyne)
It's a very basic principle and method from here on out.
To start, you'll place the drum loop(s) in your stereo track exactly where they need to be. Duplicate this track. You'll be working with the duplicate tracks, not the Master Drum Track you started with. The Master Track is to return to for each part you want to extract from the loop.
Within the duplicated track you need to open the Melodyne plug in, transfer the entire stereo drum track into Melodyne. Make sure Melodyne is using its "Rhythmic" algorithm to analyze and split out all the constituent parts of the drum track, e.g., the snare, the kick, high hat, crash, ride, toms, COW BELL, etc.
Here comes the only arduous part to this whole endeavor...
You'll need to play through what Melodyne has transferred and look for mistakes while sifting out and making note of each kit piece. Lets say we want to take the high hat out and put it on its own track. Isolate what you see and hear as the high hat, select everything else and delete it. Next, export this information from Melodyne as MIDI data. Return to your DAW, import the MIDI info to a new track and assign something like Reason or another drum instrument that you'll use to replace that kit piece with another (preferably a better sounding one).
What you're ultimately doing here is creating a MIDI template (map) that Pro Tools (or what ever DAW you're using) will need to replace/trigger the new samples with.
Now, if you have your heart dead set on that original high hat sound, no worries mate, just leave well enough alone after the "deletion" step, OR if you don't want to get into assigning an instrument with the imported MIDI data and happen to have a program like Drumogog, you can let that program do the heavy lifting by having it insert a different high hat sample and never get your hands dirty with MIDI routing/assigning/etc. This may be an easier way to achieve the same result as the whole MIDI mapping (my term, not legitimate lingo), but it'll cost you another $XXX.xx to go that route. Just a heads up.
You need to repeat the process of creating a new track, pasting the aligned drums, transferring, selecting, deleting what you don't want, exporting what you do, and at this point, using something like Drumogog or exporting the MIDI data to an instrument track and reassigning the sample. Either way, once you're done you will have your very own set of individual tracks of every piece of the drum kit that was once all mushed together in a stereo sample all split apart to do with what you will in your mix!
Exciting, isn't it!?
Well, I suppose if you're not an audio engineer/producer/musician/lunatic it could sound pretty stale, BUT I assure you, if you are, you'll realize the potential of this little technique.
Oh, also, if you want to get really creative with this, try it with a vocal track! Analyze a vocal melody, export the MIDI data and assign it in a separate track to a totally different instrument, like say... a string quartet!
Anyway, that's basically the solution I was able to come with today. I hope it helps.
Enjoy!
~me.
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