On 02 Aug 2012, at 08:54, Mike Carlyle wrote:
You bring up an interesting idea, placing hats and rides in the same group. Good logic, I think, since both are really timekeeping cymbals more than accent or coloring cymbals. But I choose to keep rides together with all other cymbals in group 4. I am careful to delete hi-hat strikes that would co-incide with ride strikes, and I use the same thinking for fills that involve toms. If there's a fill that uses toms, I'll drop out the hats (except for maybe a pedal) and any cymbal strike that would be nonsensical alongside whatever is going on with the toms. If you're using the export multiple files feature, you could, do a sub-mix of whatever's on the group 5 and group 4 channels. Of course, you can't mix 'within' each of those channels, but you can balance whatever's there.
Yes, I do the same: trying to "think like a drummer", despite quite limited experience acting as one, by not "virtually hitting" more stuff than I have limbs! :) But although I have so far placed my rides with the hats (thinking of them, indeed, as time-keeping things), I am now thinking that they might be better off with the other cymbals -- as "stuff that would be picked up principally by overhead mics" with a real kit. Accordingly, the rides might come out better in the mix if treated as a treat the other cymbals. (Based on my current practices, which are to dump the Groups to separate AIFFs, and then drop each AIFF into a separate track in GarageBand, each of which is processed distinctly.) This is also making me think I should check where I've placed things like the tambourine and the cowbell (neither of which I have used _so_ frequently, but I do use them here and there), and whether they would be better off living with the hats or the cymbals ....
I find it a little bothersome that, if I strike two toms at the same time, one of them bounces to group 3 by default, forcing me to have to think about how to handle that in the mix when a tom all of a sudden ends up on a hi-hat channel (using export multiple files).
Does the other simultaneous tom hit _really_ bounce to Group 3 (as reflected in the output AIFFs), or is that only a visual artifact of the way that Doggiebox needs to display two simultaneous hits for the same Group when the UI only allows space for one? My sense is the latter -- though I am not sure that I have definitely tested this!
There is no easy answer, but there's no wrong answer either!
Well, another thing might be putting the toms in the same Group as the snares (I find that I tend to process my currently distinct toms and snare tracks quite similarly), leaving hats in their own Group, leaving cymbals _except_ the ride in their own Group, and then put the ride cymbal in a Group of its own (distinct from hats and other cymbals). Dunno if it might be overkill to give the rides their own Group, and thus output AIFF/track .... :) Cheers, Carl -- Carl Edlund Anderson http://www.carlaz.com/