Studio Drummer – DAW Recording – Beware of Editors

*YOU’LL RUN INTO EDITORS THAT ‘KNOW JUST ENOUGH TO BE DANGEROUS’ WHEN IT COMES TO DRUM EDITING.*

 

 I’ve had songs and performances sent back to me that were slaughtered by someone editing the drum performance who didn’t know enough about what they were doing. 

 

Drum editing is almost an art form. There are many ‘ins and outs’ pertaining to it.   I’ve had engineers or editors edit my tracks that have slightly shifted things out of time and made entire performances sound stilted and awkward if not just plain terrible at times. 

 

Other common mistakes that occur in editing are cymbal decays being cut off, bass drums being cut off or lost because they often fall just a fraction before the downbeat of the click.  These are most common since editors

   edit drum performances on ‘a grid’ so that the tracks align to a certain  beats per minute or bpm.

 

These editing mistakes were committed by professional people quite often too.  I’ve even had them come back at me afterwards saying that it was my fault in my performance!

That’s a terribly frustrating situation since it is completely out of your hands at that point.  A bad editor has the ability to destroy your performance and sully your reputation at the same time.

 

*SO TAKE PRECAUTIONS TO GUARD YOUR PERFORMANCES.*

 

I would recommend a couple of things here.  If you’re going into an unfamiliar studio to record bed tracks bring with you one or all of these things.  A blank CD, a blank DVD, a cassette and a hand held recording device.  Once the song is recorded ask the engineer or producer if they’d mind if you had a rough mix copy of the bed tracks. 

 

One of these formats they are bound to have.  And if they don’t have that capability use your hand held recording device.  That way you have a record, you have evidence if you will, of the track and your performance as you left it.

 

I always keep rough copies of the tracks I do for people these days for this very reason!   I’ve had a number of occasions where this has not only saved my reputation but has helped to narrow down the cause of the problem. 

One very memorable occasion of this happening was the result of a very good musician who happened to be a really bad editor. He was skewing my tracks without realizing it.

 

FINALLY…

 

I would recommend that if it’s a performance that you really care about or if you have concerns about then ask if the engineer/producer/ artist would mind if you sat in on the editing session. 

 

Often times they won’t have a problem with it if you’ve shown yourself to be respectful and low maintenance and your concern is for the ultimate good of the material.

 

Either way these approaches give you some insurance against the editing sabotage that can unwittingly occur.