Specifications

Audio Plug-Ins Guide498
Mapping The Same Sample Into
Multiple Amplitude Zones with
SoundReplacer
If you are performing drum replacement and in-
tend to use just a single replacement sample,
mapping it into multiple amplitude zones will
ensure more accurate triggering. Here is why:
Imagine that you are replacing a kick drum part.
If you look at the waveform of a kick drum, you
will often see a “pre-hit” portion of the sound
that occurs as soon as the ball of the kick pedal
hits the drum. This is rapidly followed by the
denser attack portion of the sound, where most
of sound’s weight is.
With a sound like this, using a single amplitude
threshold presents a problem because typically,
in pop music, kick drum parts consist of loud ac-
cent hits and softer off-beat hits that are often
6 dB or more lower in level.
If you use a single amplitude threshold to trigger
the replacement sample, you have to set the
threshold low enough to trigger at the soft hits.
The problem occurs at the loud hits: The thresh-
old is now set so low that the pre-hit portion of
the loud hits can exceed the threshold—trigger-
ing the replacement sample too early. This re-
sults in a replacement track with faulty timing.
The best way to avoid this problem is to set mul-
tiple threshold zones for the same sample using
a higher threshold for the louder hit. Soft hits
will trigger threshold 1 and louder hits will trig-
ger threshold 2.
To set the precise threshold for louder hits, you
may need to zoom in carefully to examine the
waveform for trigger points (indicated by color-
coded trigger markers) and then Command-
drag the Threshold slider for more precise ad-
justment.
A kick drum with a pre-hit preceding a denser attack
A single low threshold causes the second, louder kick
to trigger too early, as evidenced by the trigger marker
at the very start of the waveform.
Using a second, higher threshold for the louder kick
will make it trigger properly, as shown by the now
properly-aligned trigger marker.