I’m looking to upgrade my cubase studio 5 to cubase 6 or higher ONLY to get the Multitrack phase-accurate audio quantization feature that quantizes audio just like midi. I’m using 2 drum overheads and a kick mic right now and from time to time, I add a snare mic. In anyone’s experience/opinion, would the overheads pickup too many drums for the quantization feature to decipher each drum properly? Is the quantization feature only for a single instrument? I want to tighten up my drum timing but don’t want to use a bunch of close-mics to make the quantization feature work right. I hope this feature will put anything picked up by the overhead mics in perfect time.I don’t want to waste $$$
Drums are difficult - always. Things to check out are mic’ing techniques. The best technique I have found for overheads is the Glen Johns method (Led Zepp). It time-aligns the pickup of the mics to the drum kit and works really well.
This said, I have found that the particular overhead mics and the drummer’s ability to hit the cymbals softer than the drum heads is a HUGE factor to getting good drum sounds from your overheads. In fact, this is how Bonham played and why his recorded sounds were so good. In my case, with a heavy hitter, I find that the best method is to use either a Blumlein Pair in front of the kit - about 6 feet - or a single KSM32 - at 6 feet. The typical dual overhead mic thing with a heavy hitter - any method you can imagine - does not turn out great results in regards to the overall sound of the final mixdown, although the phasing is good with the GJ OH method. A single sound source 6 feet in front of the kick drum (and 6-7 feet high/not in a straight line with the kick drum beater, BTW, if you’ve removed your kick head).
Just my experience. Good luck. It is also important to note that the room the kit is in very important, too, the bigger the better.