Before uploading your .WAV file scratch tracks for Ryan to play to, here are a few important things to consider:
Only Upload high-res .WAV or .AIFF files
MP3′s are unreliable and contain artifacts and latency!
Please include only 3 – 5 separate bounces for Ryan to work with. (Please do not send over your entire 40 track session!)
Bounce 1: A bounce of just the guide drum/percussion tracks soloed.
Bounce 2: A bounce of just vocals and any background vocals soloed.
Bounce 3: A bounce of just the music (guitars, piano, bass, ect…) minus vocals and any drum/percussion tracks.
Bounce 4 (optional): A bounce of just the bass track soloed.
Please make sure that your bounces are stereo interleaved files.
Please do not send mulitiple mono bounces unless your files are truly in mono. This makes it very cumbersome to work with and takes up way too many voices that could otherwise be used for more drum tracks!
Please send all scratch tracks without buss compression and/or any mastering limiters enabled.
In a world where the loudest mix wins, it can be difficult to really hear and feel where your transients are when they are limited and/or compressed.
Please include the tempo and sample rate in the title of each file that you send.
Ideally, your files should be titled as such:
Song name or abbreviation, content of file, tempo, and sample rate. If your song is called “Beautiful Day” you would title your three files:
1. Beautiful Day (or B.D.) DRUMS 100bpm 44.1
2. Beautiful Day (or B.D.) TRACK 100bpm 44.1
3. Beautiful Day (or B.D.) VOX 100bpm 44.1
Please include a click count off with at least one of your scratch .WAV files.
The click should start at least 2 bars before the music begins and should stop as soon as the music begins. This makes it so much easier to line things up if necessary.
Please make sure the .WAV files you send are locked to the internal of grid of your DAW and not just to an external drum machine, sampler, or any other stand-alone beat making device.
Most drum machines have a drift factor and will not stay perfectly on time when lined up to a DAW grid. Please make sure that your files will lock to a grid before sending them!
Please make sure the .WAV files you send start at the absolute beginning of your song session.
Even if there are empty measures (measures where you are not playing anything before the song starts), the .WAV file should reflect the very beginning of your session, which is 1:01:000 (Measures:Beats:Ticks).
Your recording program may use a slightly different way of describing the very beginning.
Make sure the .WAV starts at the exact beginning time of your song/project file. By telling us the exact tempo of your project file and giving us a .WAV that starts at the absolute beginning we can easily line up your tracks into Pro Tools.
Please make sure you have told us the correct bit-depth and sample-rate of your session.
It is imperative that you do not change the bit-depth or sample-rate of your project after you have created your .WAV files. This will throw off the timing of the final drum tracks we send you, and they will not line-up with your other tracks in your song/project.
Play good scratch tracks!
After choosing a tempo for your song, play the scratch tracks you will be sending to us as tightly as possible to the click/metronome (or some other track or loop that is in perfect sync with the bars and beats of your project). This will allow us to use your scratch tracks to get a good “feel” for the groove of the song. We recommend that you play only the most simple parts that effectively get your ideas across. After you receive your final drum tracks, you can go back and re-record all of the rest of your tracks using the drum tracks as your timing source (this is of course how a band would normally play).
Important: Again, although we recommend that you redo your scratch tracks after you receive your final drum tracks, it’s very important you play as tightly as possible to the click/loop when creating your scratch tracks. This will enable the drummer to play tighter and create better drum tracks for your song.
A word about “You Send It”
We have discovered that for transferring large files such as drum tracks a service called “You Send It” is the fastest, cheapest, and most reliable way to go. Although you may have your own way of getting your scratch tracks to us, we would highly recommend getting a free account started with “You Send It”. The free account will only allow you to send one file at a time however, you can get a pro account for only $9.99 per month or you can use Ryan’s account to get your files to him. If you do not have a “You Send It” account, click here to get started: “You Send It”
