Lordy lord I need to visit macmusic more. Such an amazing knowledge base.

Problem:
I just tracked some drums for a stoner-metal album using an inferior kick mic. The rest of the album production is top notch, but I'm really dissapointed with the kick oomph. I'd like to beef it up a lot more to get it to punch through the wall-of-guitars-sound, but no combination of EQ, compression and layering will suffice.

Question:
Is there a way in Logic 6 (or 7 for that matter) to take the audio kick track and utilize it like a drum trigger, thus triggering a high-qual kick sample in EX24?

I know that if nothing else you could play a sample in time with the drum kick track if nothing else. Or you can probably paste in a sample of your choosing from a drum loop disc with one shots wherever the kick event occurs. It may take a little while but you will get the same results. There are drum replacement plug ins out there as well.

If the kick is well isolated, just open in the Sample Editor and go to Functions>Audio to Score. This will generate a midi part that should have a single note trigger. If there are tone variations in the kick track you may end up with slight note variations, mbut it should be pretty easy to sort these out.

The new midi part will be placed either on top of or underneath the original audio part in the arrange page so you'll need to drag it to a new midi or audio instrument track before using it.

Another idea that just came to mind is to create a sine tone on an audio instrument (EXS24 with no loaded instrument is pretty good, otherwise the ES1 will do). Create a continuous trigger (ie a note that lasts the length of the song) and load a noise gate on this instrument. On the gate, select a bus input to act as a sidechain input. Then send the kick drum track to that bus. By tuning the sine wave you should be able to lay a nice fat sub underneath the original kick.

I often use this method with a pink or white noise generator underneath a snare or hi-hat for a more electro feel.

The only draw-back is that you have to play the song from the beginning of the trigger note each time to hear the result. ProTools has a signal generator which requires no trigger which makes it somewhat easier, but the editability (?) of Logic instruments means you can be a little more creative.

This post has been edited by Jim Hoyland: Wed 13 Dec 2006, 13:23

Wow Jim, Logic really is THA' SHIZZNET! I am saving up my grand as we speak.


www.myspace.com/mortal_engines

TIGHT. Thanks for the ideas, Jim.