I need to specify that this article is intended for dealing with real drummers. If you are using a midi sequencer and a sampler, the rules are totally different. Editing in a sequencer is as easy as moving a mouse because each individual drum is independent (unlike real drums, which be explained later). Moving a kick drum takes no thought, brain power, or even luck. Editing loops is fairly easy as well when on the grid in a program like Cubase SX3. For the majority of this article, I will be referring to using Vegas, which I always considered to be more like a tape machine.

I remember years ago I was doing a recording for a younger band. (I was still pretty new to recording too). They were into what Avenged Sevenfold was doing quite a bit. This was back before Avenged Sevenfold was nearly as mainstream as they are now in 2006. The drummer of the band wasn't the greatest and there were massive speedups and slowdowns all over the place. Well, when it came time to track guitars, we were in for a total nightmare. While the drummer was finished with all his tracks in 2 or 3 takes, the story was different for the guitar player. It took hours to get some parts even close to right. Why? Because the drums were all over the place and it was nearly impossible to t tightly play over them. In fact, we had to adjust the guitar playing to speed up and slow down with the drums.

If we would have taken an extra 2 hours on drums, put the drummer on a double timed click track (not all drummers require this, but most do) and really worked with him, he could have came out with tracks that grooved a lot better. Most drummers who haven't not practiced with a click have a hard time with it. That's okay. If you double time the click, the process is much easier. Let them practice with it for a while. The entire band will be glad you did!! Most drummers give in to the click drum after less than an hour and actually embrace it. If your drummer grooves the way a drummer is supposed to groove, not only will your songs magically come to life, but you'll save tons of time when overdubbing other instruments.