Recently, I have been dabbling in attributes in Pro Tools that helps quantize drum beats; two options I researched were Beat Detective and Elastic Audio. Today I will explain the articles I researched on these two and share my own experience using the two quantizing options.

First I read an article on Beat Detective on Ask Audio. Generally the article explained how to use Beat Detective. It showed that using Tab to Transient you can select the amount of bars you want to quantize. Once you have your selection, you go to the Event Tab and select it from there. Then you make sure that the beat and bar that you have selected matches the one in the window of the plugin. From there, you go to Separation and make sure sub-beats is selected and start to change the percentage value to dial in all the transients in the selection -- once done hit "separate". Next, you go into the Conform tab and hit "conform", and there you go to Edit Smoothing, select "fill and crossfade", and hit "smooth". The selection, then, should be quantized. This article was helpful in explaining what it does and how Beat Selector worked, but it didn't give any information as to what could be cool about using the plugin. There wasn't much about any cool methods to use this in a mix; just mostly how to use Beat Detective. 

The next article I read was based on Elastic Audio, a feature that allows you to individually move the transients, on Sound On Sound. This one also explained how to use the feature. Once you have a drums selection you change the tracks into Tick mode and change the way it's read to Rhythmic for drums since we're handling a rhythmic section. Next you change the Waveform view to the Warp view in order to see the warp markers on the track. You can either manually select the transient that's offbeat and drag it on beat, or you could go into the Event tab and select Quantize then follow the instructions in the menu and hit "quantize". If you use the latter method, you must have the correct tempo already put into Pro Tools. If you don't, you can deselect the conductor icon on the Transport Menu and select the tempo and tap out the tempo you want to conform to with "T" or type it in manually. This article was a little more informative with a real life example. It also did not give any special tricks or techniques with the feature, but mostly just how it works. I did appreciate the tests that were conducted with the other Elastic Audio reading options and how those worked.

When I was testing out both features on Pro Tools myself, I realized that I liked the Elastic Audio into Quantize method a little more than Beat Detective because Beat Detective sometimes has problems reading and conforming drum fills. When it does have problems reading and conforming, it's basically trial and error with the beat selection and sensitivity until it conforms properly. With Elastic Audio it was able to read and conform with relative ease and without having to go back and retrying things until something worked. Below are pictures of both my Elastic Audio and Beat Detective projects.

I had the pleasure of recording a friend of mine for a song we’re doing together, and decided to do a mic shootout with his verse as well. My friend goes by Cody Brinx and, like myself, he’s a rapper, so I will be recording rap vocals for his contribution on my song. His verse is simply a braggadocio styled verse, as that’s how the song’s vibe goes. Within this you’ll see the four microphones we used for his verse, and only partial parts of his verse as we agreed to not release any full material of the song until the whole project is finished, so first let’s review our research before we record.
                In the ProSoundWeb & SoundOnSound articles I used as research they explained the basics of vocal recording. The main points both touched on are understanding your surroundings, mic selection, the client themselves, microphone placement, and the takes as a whole. Although you don’t need a huge room to record vocals in, it’s still best to have the flattest (deadest) sounding room possible so the reverb and reflections of the room doesn’t bleed into the recording (good headphones help as well). Having an isolation booth is helpful, but not necessary, a reflection filter would work just as well to deaden the area around the vocalist. Knowing which mics work best with your vocalist is also a huge factor (and what this article is for). Depending on the vocal styling of the artist mic selection is imperative. Knowing if the artist has a higher or lower vocal range will determine the best mic for their vocals as well as the strength of their voice as well. Some engineers prefer to have the microphone just above their mouth so the vocalist doesn’t sing directly into the capsule and reduce the amount of plosives and sibilance their voice will have (also use a pop filter always). Of course getting the best performances out of the artist goes without saying. Making the artist comfortable in the studio while recording will allow for the best takes from them. Within this session, I had Cody in the big tracking room with a reflection filter around every mic when recording into it with a pop filter as well. I did have him record directly into the capsule because capturing the clarity in his voice was the priority.
                The four microphones I chose for Cody to record into were the Blue Kiwi, Rode K2, AEA R84, and Shure SM57 while the preamp I used was the Chandler TG-2. The Blue Kiwi and Rode K2 are both condenser microphones, while the K2 is a Tube Condenser. The difference between a tube condenser and a normal condenser is that a tube condenser has its own power box that acts as the mic’s personal phantom power, while a standard condenser mic requires phantom power from a preamp. The AEA R84 is a ribbon mic, which has a ribbon instead of a carbon capsule that captures and records soundwaves. Ribbon mikes are also notorious for being more sensitive (fragile) and more expensive. The last mic used was the Shure SM57, the classic dynamic multi-purposed microphone. Dynamic and ribbon microphones do not require phantom power to run. If you used phantom power on a ribbon mic the voltage would destroy the mic and dynamic mikes are already at line level so they do not need a boost of voltage to run.
                Both the Kiwi and K2 were very clear and crisp on Cody’s vocals. The Kiwi accentuated the clarity of his vocals, while at the same time gave his plosives and sibilance a boost to the front and very obvious. The K2, on the other hand, was extremely clear and captured the clarity without increasing the amount of sibilance and plosives in his voice. The AEA R84, being a ribbon microphone, gave his vocals a darker and more low end sound to it, so the clarity was still there, but not as crisp, and kind of muddied his vocals. Granted, the R84 was being processed through the Chandler TG-2, which is a darker sounding preamp as well, so the mic gave his vocals double darkness to its tone. The Shure SM57, gave the flattest tone of all not really accentuating any specific part of his voice, but still very clear to the ear. It was a very stereotypical sound for the SM57 overall, with some dark tones brought out by the Chandler.
                In order, the microphones that sounded the best to my personal tastes basically go in the order I listed the mikes with one change; Blue Kiwi, Rode K2, Shure SM57, then AEA R84. The Blue Kiwi and Rode K2 are both in a tie for my personal favorite, with this recording specifically I wanted a little more of the plosive and sibilance from Cody’s vocals, and so the Kiwi fulfilled its job. Although the K2 captured his vocals perfectly without any flaws, the sound wasn’t exactly what I was looking for in the recording, but any other day of the week the K2 might just beat the Kiwi. The Shure SM57 sounded exactly how I pictured it sounding, so I wasn’t surprised by the way it came out. The only reason it made it higher than the AEA R84 was because the preamp I was using didn’t compliment his vocals through the ribbon mic, but on other instruments, vocalists, and preamp this mic could sound amazing. Examples of the recordings are located below.