TIP: creating layered drums / quicker Kit resampling

creating layered drums / quicker Kit resampling
for example:

I want to layer a subby thud 808ish kick drum / a roomy acoustic kick / and a short hard kick to help it punch.

I also want to create, through layering: a new clap, snare, hats..etc

rather than using the 4 layers per pad on the 1000 (forcing me to share the envelope and filter setting for all 4 layers), I use as many pads as needed and adjust settings for each sample to help them fit together better.

now I have a good kit 8 piece kit that uses 20 or more pads to play..no good..and if I want to use my new sounds in another kit..Im screwed cuz I have to do it all again

This isn't accecptable
so first make a new sequence playing through the new layered sounds, either go though overdubbing each layer untill you have your new sounds stacked...or you can copy, paste in the step editor and set the duplicate to trigger the other layers.. however you want to do it. the only important thing to bother about is the order that you play the drums..

once youve completed this process,the first sound you play will end up being on pad1 the next will end up on pad2 so be sure to think about where you want your new layered sounds to be.


now,I open up an audio editor/recording program (I use soundforge)
and record one long audio file of that sequence playing each drum one at a time with full level turned on. the result being a long audio file with a new layered drum, a bit of silence followed by another new drum..silence...new drum..so on and so forth.

I load that file into recycle and place a divider at each hit and export the file as an AKP.
now import the AKP into MPC1000 editor program... make any additional adjustments/ additions there..and boom..Im sure you know the rest.

[if you use velocity switching, you will need to cater for theses sounds a bit differently, but if you are already going through all that.. you probably know what needs to be done..i don't want to get into it here]

I spend alot of time layering samples to get my drum sounds right.
At first I thought the 4layers per pad and built in resample feature was going to speed up my resampling process, and leave more pads open (in the 2000xl, layering meant using the simultaneous pad function to trigger additional layers of other pads)

Although the layers and the re-sampling are usefull for one-off operations, if you are doing extensive kit design this method seems to be the quickest route to a new resampled kit. It may seem long-winded, but I tried to give a clear view of the method.

..in practice the whole process ( except for the actuall tweaking and sample selecting) only takes a couple minutes and opens up more possabilites stemming from having the samples in an audio editor..

....quickly make reverses, drastic eq changes, distortion, and big reverb'd hits... attach those to the end of your orig big audio file before going to recycle, and then you'll have a bunch of "FX" samples to trigger occasionally for added variation.

Pure slickness young Jedi...

Ok, forget about layers, let's say I want a Kick to have 3 settings, the first is filtered, the second is normal, the third has reverb. I want that kick to trigger these settings depending on the velocity that i hit the pad.

Can I set these specific settings independantly using velocity switching? or do i have to resample my kick 3 times with the diffrent settings and then load it up to velocity switching in the editor???

You'd have to resample your kick 3 times and use velocity switching to get what you want. If you didn't need the reverb in there, you can assign velocity to control the filter directly, and then only use 1 sample.

unless you can assign velocity to fx send level as well?

Now that would require a Jedi...

it sounds like your working to much just play the thing then figure out what works best for the song rather than worring about the sound... most people dont pay much attention to notation i mean you can have all of the pimpest sounds in the world but it wont make a song groove if there is no groove...

not saying your stuff doesnt groove but yeah take it how you want... peace

Jabba.....please don't tell me you came into a thread Titled "TIP:" to talk a little trash and not even offer up any info on the subject. an I did read your step-back post too, more wasted space. I'll get back to you at the end of this post, but I want to copy some related shizmo that i just posted in the production techniques forum.

how I do:

turn off quantize, ignore full level an do-re-do-re-do till its damn close..then rather than quantize all the hats {or whatever} I adjust only the hits that stick out too much. I usually will step edit or quantize the first kick drum, just to make sure its right on 1 .. that helps me avoid weird **** when I chain patterns together.

Most times I end up running all the layers to different outputs..like my 3 kick samples into 3 channelss on the desk + any outboard gear...it makes it easier to invert phase if needed and sometimes EQ works better than filters.

OK jabba back to your straightn'n:

I will agree rigt off, that getting too caught up in sounds can take away from your work flow.. but after some time... it doesn't really take all that much effort and for me, on personal, the sounds I use influence the beats, puzzy drums= puzzy beats. but thats me.

I'd like to hear your stuff cuz yu may just have that golden samplist ear that picks the perfect drum right off...OR if they are weak and you just don't like to tweak, you could mail me a project folder from your mpc and I'll remap your kits with my samples and you can tell me if its worth the xtra 1/2 day before trackn your beats to have the sounds punchin.

I know that I'm gonna take some shlt for this, but one of the best reasons for havin badazz sounds from the drop is for selling beatz. You can mix and master a beat and make it popoff...put a few on a cd and givem as demos, but 9 out of 10 buyers are most likely gonna have you come in and vibe withem and have you make a beat with them for them.... when you break out the box and start loading kits.. you want to the shlt to sound good, only the engineer WANTS to sit an watch / wait for you to make it sweet.

Many artists don't have the lingo down or even know what they want before they hear it, and your sweet high-hat pattern with the wrong sounds may get a thumbs down.. because it doesn't feel right to the guy who in the end is going to have to be inspired by the finished product...enough to feel good about the time and effort (or hopefully money) he/she is going to put into your beat to make it THEIR song.

I don't do vocals, I don't play shows, for me .. pushing tracks is the way I rationalize spending the cash for my gear, cuz thats my passion, I just love making cool sounds and music