RECORDING INTRO OF A SONG WITH MUTED DRUM PATTERN

Last week I received a question from a musician and a Zoom HD8CD owner who had heard my instrumental version of the Beatles tune, Day Tripper. He wanted to know how I recorded the intro without the drum pattern and then started the drum pattern right when the intro was complete using my Zoom HD8CD. I thought exploring the different methods of recording music with a Zoom multi-track recorder where the drum track should be silent at various locations of a song would be a good topic for my next blog. So here I am..!

Here is the intro to my Day Tripper for your reference:


(The entire version of this song is in the archive section of my blog pages and it follows another Beatles song - From Me To You)

There are several ways to do this but first let me explain how I did it in Day Tripper:

I recorded the entire lead guitar part including the intro with the drum pattern turned on. This provided me to keep up with the rhythm and proper tempo. When I was recording the final master track I brought down the fader of the drum track down to mute it. It should be noted that I did not mute it by pressing the “PLAY/REC/MUTE” button. I quickly brought the fader to the desired level at the end of the intro. It was that simple. This simplicity is also used in the other methods that I will explain in this article.

NOTE: In this case since the muting of the drum track happens only once at the beginning of the song. I could have used the “PLAY/REC/MUTE” button to mute the drum track at the intro and press it once when the drums start. However if there are multiple places in the song where you have to mute the drum track this will not work. The reason is that once the drum track is in “PLAY” mode (Green) next time you press the button it goes to “REC” mode (Red). 

Method 1: Muting the drum track when it is not needed
I already explained this method in the beginning of this article.  It can easily be used in different parts of the song. You simply select the drum pattern that you desire and let it play continuously during your recording sessions. When you are recording the final master track just use the fader to silence the drum pattern when you would like it to be silent and raise it when you want the rhythm to be heard. The only drawback is that you must do it precisely and very quickly. However if you are even slightly a better musician then I am your timing and speed should be good enough.

Method 2: Creating a rhythm song
Zoom HD8/16 both allow the creation of a rhythm song using the built in rhythm patterns. There is a rich selection of patterns with drum intros, endings and fills. If the selection do not include the pattern that you desire you can also create patterns and save them into an empty pattern number. While there are many built in patterns in Zoom HD8CD, there are several rhythms that I like such as bossa nova, samba, a basic swing or a Texas Swing which I could not find.

When you create a rhythm song you can have your silent parts also in it however using that would also be a little bit difficult especially when the silent area is longer than one measure or is in the intro. My solution to this is to add either a metronome click sound in these silent parts or even a rhythm. In this way when I am playing the other instrument parts I have a continuous rhythm to keep up with the tempo. I can delete the undesired metronome or rhythm sections later before creating the master track or I can use the drum track fader as in method 1 to silence.

Method 3: Using a software to create a rhythm song
In this method you can use Cubase LE which comes with the Zoom HD8/16 and  R16. I use my Cubase VST V5. Any MIDI editing software can be used. Ther are a few rules to follow:

• The drum song must be created at channel 10 Midi track, 
• Must be saved or exported as a “MIDI Format 0” file 
• The file must have the file extension “.mid”. 

If you are using Cubase LE you can use either the “Key Editor” or the “Score” editor. I usually start by inserting quantized notes using the score editor then switch to key editor to fix the imperfections. I find it easier this way.

Once you have finished and tested the rhythm song and created the MIDI Format 0 file with the extension “.mid” you will have to transfer it to Zoom HD8/16. You can do this in two ways:

1. Using a CD: On your computer, save the MIDI Format 0 file to a CD and then insert the CD to Zoom HD8/16 CD drive then follow the instructions in your Zoom manual at page 158 "Reading an SMF into a project"
2. USB connection: Connect your computer to the Zoom using the USB cable. Copy the MIDI Format 0 file that you created using CUBASE LE,  to the proper Project directory of your new song in your Zoom HD8/16. For instructions about activating and deactivating the USB connection refer at page 161 of your Zoom manual.

After copying the file to the Zoom HD8/16 follow the instructions in page 158of the Zoom HD8/16 manual "Selecting the SMF output destination" and on page 159 "SMF playback" to make it play at the rhythm track of the Zoom HD8/16. One important thing to know is that you must select one of the empty rhythm patterns between #473 and 508 otherwise when you play your rhythm song you will also hear the rhythm pattern that is selected all at once.

I recommend that you create some metronome sound even during the parts of the song where the drums are silent. This will help you keep proper tempo when you are recording the  the other tracks. You can mute them when you are creating the master track just as I described in Method 1.