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Exporting individual drum stems in NanoStudio 2 Slate?
Is there a way to export the individual drum stems in NanoStudio 2’s Slate? As of right now Slate is considered one instrument so exporting the audio stems means the kick, highs, snares, and any other samples are exported as one audio file.
As a workaround I just mute all the other drum pieces except for the one I want (i.e. the kick) and then export, but this takes a long time because I have to individually export the kick, open hat, closed hat, etc....
The other workaround is creating multiple instances of Slate using the same drum kit, linking each MIDI pattern, and then exporting as normal. This is probably the best way right now but I’m not sure if the additional instances of Slate use up more CPU, plus it feels a little sloppy or too much.
So how do y’all export each drum piece in Slate?
EDIT: BTW I’m aware Slate has a very nice built-in mixer but I want to do additional effects on the kick. Making a copy of whatever instrument I want to do additional effects on and exporting it solo is also an option.
Comments
If I wanted the stems, then the second way would be best. Unfortunately Slate doesn’t have multiple outs, I’ve got into the habit of using multiple instances where required and it’s good practice really, especially when mixing internally.
The cpu hit of many Slates is minimal in my experience, infact everything built in is phenomenally efficient.
I haven't dug deep into Nanostudio 2, but here's what I'd recommend if the first one seems to happen.
Record a MIDI clip of each of the notes being triggered and put it in the track of the drum.
Get the audio file so that it plays the samples at equal lengths
E.g
Kick...Snare...Hi-hat...tom... all separated by the same time.
Use a tool like Reslice which I believe is still on sale. Auditor also works, as well as Beatmaker 3 slicer. But I recommend getting some sort of slicing tool and chopping up the samples per equal divisions. You could even use Audioshare via the tools menu, although it'll take a bit more work, but tempo locking could work.
Then you can manipulate the sample or get the section you need.
Don’t overthink it just use multiple instances.
You have additional options this way including keeping the midi separate too. I prefer this method to using multiple outs in Logic and Logic has had multiple outs for forever.i like the extra control I have over each midi note by having them in separate regions. They can be different pattern lengths for each hit.
it makes it easier to arrange the drums through the song by taking Individual hits in and out just by muting/unmuting regions for example without having to go into pattens and delete notes.
I don’t think using multiple instances is sloppy and there’s no worry about a performance hit using slate. Slate is very efficient.
You can group the tracks to keep things tidy.
What is a stem?
Thanks for the reply. This method is for getting samples to use in a sampler, whereas the OP is asking about exporting the individual final audio stems from Slate, which is NS2’s drum machine/sampler, for each sample (kick, snare, CHH, OHH), once its piano roll/MIDI has been completed for the entire song. NanoStudio 2 already has a built-in audio slicer so Reslice/BM3/Audioshare is not needed.
@klownshed
Ya, I was hoping that Slate has some sort of multi-output feature like Ultrabeat but it seems like it doesn’t. I’ll prolly just export the NS2 drum MIDI to Ultrabeat and tweak it there since I want to do all audio mixing in Logic anyways. I also want to do an Auria Pro mix so I’ll prolly export the drum audio from Ultrabeat and then decide once and for all whether point-and-click Logic plug-ins are “better” than touch FabFilter plug-ins 😀 Oh, and by “sloppy” I mean having multiple MIDI regions for drums since that takes up a lot of visual real estate on an iPad, even my 12.9” Pro...but then again I might just adjust that workflow have a sort of a piano roll/MIDI library of common beats such as a 4/4 kick, 16th note closed high hats, upbeats for open high hats, etc...so I can just paste those rather than link the same MIDI pattern for each multiple Slates...so many options!
A stem is the exported audio of each individual instrument for the entire song/pattern.
EDIT: Fixed typos.
@trancespotter - Did not know that about Nanostudio 2. Thanks for the tip. Haven't had time to deep dive into it but I'll look into it further when I do.
Oh, and by “sloppy” I mean having multiple MIDI regions for drums since that takes up a lot of visual real estate on an iPad, even my 12.9” Pro...but then again I might just adjust that workflow have a sort of a piano roll/MIDI library of common beats such as a 4/4 kick, 16th note closed high hats, upbeats for open high hats, etc...so I can just paste those rather than link the same MIDI pattern for each multiple Slates...so many options!
Yup many options. :-)
You can group the tracks and fold them up to shrink the mixer view
Also, before you put things on duplicate instances, if you keep all the drums as separate regions you can actually stack them so that they take up less room.
So for example you can drag the kick region into the snare lane and then each region will be half height.
Alternatively you can keep all the MIDI on one track and use the MIDI send function to send it to the child tracks.
Then I duplicate the Slate kit (copy and paste the kit) and just mute the pads that aren't needed for each instance.
You can group the tracks if you need global insert FX.
I would just export the midi file for the drums from nano and recreate the kit in Digistix which supports multi outs
and record all the stems in AUM. Depending on how you have your samples organized Digistix allows you to select and import multiple files at once so it extremely fast to build kits.
If you do this, you can also put a dummy Slate on the MIDI track, so you still retain the note naming in the MIDI editor and combined pads for all hits.
Non of this gets round the fact that the developer of NS2 created a drum sampler with only one output, in the DAW with the best routing on iOS, this pretty much covers his NS2 completely, brilliance mixed with utter stupidity.
Yeah I have a template that allows me to use a blank slate template as a controller for subfolders. I had to write a mozaik script to get it to work properly for me, but that's because I like to use a combination of samples and Obsidian instances.
I mostly use Drambo for drums now - another groovebox that doesn't support multiple-out
Though I'm sure it's coming.
Yeah this works great. If I need to split my drums out I do this.
But I’ve discovered, I never end up doing this anyway. Slate has enough internal processing that I take care of mixing on one channel. Normally I have a few drum tracks that handle different kits and processing on a single track has worked out ok for me.
But sure, if you need stems, @richardyot has a simple and effective solution.
You don't need tomcopy clips
to all skre instances, if you want, you can hold clip just on parent track, add multiple slate instances as child tracks (one with kick, one with snare, one with hihats, etc) and then tou can just send MIDI from parent slate track with clip to all child slate tracks...
Then every slate have loaded cust parricular sample / pad - kick, snare, open hihat or closed hihat
because by default NS routes audio automarically to parent track, parent Slate track works effecrively also like drum bus ... btw you can collapse child tracks in mixer to have more space (thia collapse feature is planned also for sequencer view)
here example project
https://www.dropbox.com/s/amzamxd3pln88ox/ExampleDrums.nsa?dl=0
Thanks for the info.
Those are the annoying little bits that get mixed in with your weed. They have little THC, make the taste harsh, give you a headache, and smoking them is bad for your health. They can be pain in the butt to separate from the bud and leaf but it's a good idea to do so.
I use my stems for baking firecrackers 😁
They can be good in tea too.