Beat Detective Fans, I Have a Process That May Interest You.

Question

Hi All,
As you may have realised by now, I've been trying to obtain Beat Detective functionality in Logic for a while (not sure why because I try to use it as little as possible but, I was bored), and have posted a few different techniques to do with this matter.
I've found a way to get similar results, using Logic, and a mixture of Audio to Score, Beat Mapping and regular Quantize. Please let me know if this process works for you.
I started by taking a drum track, recorded with multiple mics. It was recorded to a click and was quite tight, but not machine like tight in the way most A&R like things now (sigh). So what I did was this, and I only investigated this briefly ok so forgive me if it doesn't work for you:
-Take the bass drum channel for this instance, could be snare, could be a mix.
-Open up the sample editor.
-Open Audio to score, and get it to create a score/midi part from the bass drum hits and sit it on a channel nearby.
-Then using the beat mapping Global Track, analyze the midi file, NOT the audio file of the bass drum track using 1/4 bar division.
-This SHOULD create a tempo map making every 1/4 beat land on a bass drum beat.
-Select all the audio that is to be Quantized, eg Kick, Snare, Toms, Overheads, etc. And Option+Scissor cut a 1/4 beat into the region, causing Logic to cut on every 1/4 beat throughout the song.
-Now you see the drums seperated at every bass drum beat throughout the track.
-Then Lock all these regions to SMPTE, use the tempo track's alternative tempo to switch it back to the tempo the song was recorded at, in my case 130BPM. The midi and beat map will look odd now, but the audio should stay where it was and fit back the original click.
-Now you can use the event list to quantize all the regions to whatever division you want and all the channels of audio will stay in sync and maintain phase accuracy.
What I like to do then is while selecting all applicable regions roll back the left corner a little to smooth out any double attacks or gaps, and fade the lot with small (5ms-20ms) equal power fades.
You can of course create multiple midi parts from the kick, snare and whatever else and merge them before using beap mapping to trigger from more than just one channel.
Do let me know if this works for you, like I said I tried it briefly but think it should work.
Dave

Answer 1

Hi
I've been trying this method, combined with the Tab to Transient ideas on another thread, for cutting up drums that are a bit 'wobbly' and not played to a click.
I've found the simplest solution is to marquee the bass drum and snare drum tracks, tab down the song cutting on the transients (apple backslash cuts everything on the screen), skipping over the breaks to adjust later. Then locking to smpte, I highlight 8 bars or so and find the average tempo and set the grid to near that, and hard quantize the lot, or maybe verse by verse if I want to keep an eye on what's happening..
This way I have all the beats hard on the grid as a starting point, and I can play with the tempo, add midi drums easily or apply a groove template, but I can always get back to a recognizable rhythm.
Before this method, , I would cut the beats using strip silence, but the transients were inside the cut sections so they did not line up exactly to the grid which made adding midi drums difficult.
And when i tried the audio to score and make a beat map out of the midi notes then cut on the quarter notes, I still found it faster to cut on the transients than dragging the yellow lines to the beats. in fact i managed to sidestep beat mapping altogether.
One question though,
-Then using the beat mapping Global Track, analyze the midi file, NOT the audio file of the bass drum track using 1/4 bar division.
-This SHOULD create a tempo map making every 1/4 beat land on a bass drum beat.
implies a simple button press, but I can't find it so reverted to manually doing the beat mapping similar to beat mapping audio.
Is there a fast solution to beat mapping midi or is it the same as audio?