This is an age old problem which I know I've added to in the past. I often find HD tracks don't align and the most common cause, in my experience, is whether you use your DAW's metronome or not. I use the metronome whenever possible when I record as some tracks, especially bass templates, get very muddy at the volumes I need it at in my headphones to be heard over my drums (I use noise-isolating headphones so it doesn't have to be stupidly loud but it's still loud!).
More often than not, templates are recorded to a metronome/guide drum track in my experience. But often the generated MP3/HD track doesn't line up with 'bar 1' in my DAW when I import it. Making it worse is that people have been known to post the wrong BPM so be prepared for that too! Anyway I find I have to move the wav/mp3 about to get it to 'line up' in my DAW and be in sync with the metronome.
Do not adjust the start of the MP3 to make it line up - move it to the right to line up with the next available bar! It is vital - for everyone else - that you do not adjust the start point of the original track or you just make things worse. If people have used a count-in, then that's the perfect way to check you're aligned as it's obvious on the waveform.
Add the other HD tracks. If they do not align with the original track, look for obvious peaks in the waveform and see if you can work it out that way. Sometimes I have to go back to the Loops and just listen to the mixed track to work out where a part should sit relative to the template. When using HD tracks,
always work relative to the original template track otherwise you change the fundamental position of your add and have just made the problem worse! As TG above suggests, use the MP3 mix download as a guide if necessary.
Once all that's done, do your recording, mixing and any editing.
Of course, if you've moved the original template away from bar one in your DAW, you need to realign it otherwise you're adding blank space at the start and making the problem worse. The last thing I then do before rendering my mix is a Select All on the wavs and drag the lot left so that the
template lines back up at bar one. Then I do the mixdown. And there's been a few occasions where I've forgotten to do this and my HD tracks have been out of alignment.
The ease with which you can do this depends greatly on the software you use. I can imagine this being difficult in something like Audactiy but it's pretty straightforward in Reaper which is what I use.
Hope all this helps!
Edited by
mpointon on Februar 25 2016 13:11
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