Humanizing drums

Ask questions and get answers about how to make music in any particular way. Hardware or songwriting or whatever.
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fluffy
Eruption
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Humanizing drums

Post by fluffy »

Moving the discussion from the Meat Grinder reviews.
fluffy wrote:
Toby Roktot wrote:Fluffy,
The correct word is 'meet'....
You had me racing to the lyrics archive to sea if I had f-ed up...
TATJ
Thanks for the review. How would one "humanize" the drum machine?
That would depend on what you're using as a drum machine and how you're recording. If it's an actual physical drum machine device that you're recording to a multitrack recorder, see if it has any sort of humanize/randomization settings, or you can wibble the tempo knob while you're laying down that track or something. If it's a virtual drum machine or a stock loop that you're dealing with on DAW software, there's almost certainly a "humanize" button that will add in random variation to the drum hits.
Toby Roktot wrote:Thanks again fluffy. I usually work with my old zoom so, I'll check for a humanize button. cya !!
What model of Zoom are you using? And what's your recording setup? Like, are you recording into software, or into a hardware multitracker/4track cassette/etc.? There's a bunch of approaches you can take to make the drum rhythm not so regular, but the easiest/cheapest ways will depend a lot on how you're recording it in the first place.
Toby Roktot
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
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Re: Humanizing drums

Post by Toby Roktot »

Hey Fluffy,
Just saw this thread. On my way home now and will look over the zoom and get back to you. Thanks
Toby Roktot
Somebody Get Me A Doctor
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2014 6:54 am
Instruments: Drums
Recording Method: Zoom, two turntables and a microphone....
Submitting as: Toby Roktot
Location: North Carolina, Colorado

Re: Humanizing drums

Post by Toby Roktot »

Hi Fluffy,
Happy Holidays and hope you have great fun this festive (festivus) season.
My zoom is the R24, interface:controller:sampler.....whatever that all means.
I plug my mics directly into the zoom and record, usually everything at once. I like to do it like I would on stage.
The drums, when used, are off the drum sounds on the zoom. I looked in the instructions for a 'humanize' function or, anything resembling and didn't find much. I'll go on the web and search when I can. Quite honestly, I don't want to put that much time into the songfight process. I just don't have a lot of time to spare. I love the challenge of writing something on a whim, and do with almost every challenge. Often I don't have time to get the submission in before the deadline, but I do revisit the project and finish it, eventually.
This weeks fight is a good example, I have two different versions of the challenge, however, I may not submit either.
God, I'm sorry for the monologue, didn't see that coming !!
At any rate, thanks so much for the advice and I'll try to be a little less mechanical on the drum stuff. Good advice, thanks again.
Toby
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fluffy
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Re: Humanizing drums

Post by fluffy »

Okay, I'm not sure how you'd be able to use any of my usual tricks in that setup - if you are able to do an effect send on the drum track you could try piping it through a tape delay where the tape is all stretched to heck but that's getting too fiddly already.
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