Improving Drums

Anybody know what I can do to improve my drum programming, selecting the right drums, etc. Any good tips and links ??

Listen to a track by another producer and try to listen beneath the drums to hear the programming.

There are some articles written about drum programming, try a search on "theory of drum programming" for example.

Sample more, make more beats, practice more!

Listen, listen , listen! Try focussing on one drumsound at a time. For instance: spend a whole day doing hihat variation with quantize off. Spend another day creating the perfect kickdrum.

dont use timing on your snares and kicks. sometimes i dont use for my hats...but up to you. it'll make it flow better

like what everyone else said. "listen" just listen to some of your favorite producers, or someone who you don't usually listen to, to pick up on how they program their drums.

To find a good drum to go with your beat what I do is have the sample ready and fit into the sequence first, and then try different kicks snares and highs to see which ones fit best with that sample. You might have a real clean sample, and not want to have grimey sounding drums, or you may have a grimey sample, and want to have grimey drums...

Listen!! I Listen to the sample, from there its on how u program your drums ,and what type of sound drums compliments the sample.....

Good lookin out peeps I know am not the only one thats got to work on this IMPORTANT part of constructing a good beat, keep em comin

Cheech wrote:There are some articles written about drum programming, try a search on "theory of drum programming" for example.

did you try this? if you did, good.. If you didn't , well here's the link anyway!




http://www.alandmoore.com/ramblings/TheoryOfDP.htm


You're welcome!

in some weeks i'm sitting before my TR909 an 606 day by day ... playing the same 4/bar loops until it sound's like it want it to. IMHO parametric eq's and some effects like reverb an delay are often a must , if you want to create real cute drumsounds

just make sure your kick is on the first beat!!!

yeh don't rely to heavily on quantising.. if you got ableton or something have a look at some drum loops and see where the groove marks are. you''ll see the snares and hats are often later than the grid. but the kicks are always on the first beat.

ive been noticing that my kicks stay on the 1s and dont vary too much from the basic boom bap.

ive been swinging the snares a few notches later. And doing differant hihat swing and patterns......otherwise my kicks and snare stay the same.

its not how complex it is, its how it grooves/swings and thumps, ya know?

focus on timbre and on your swing settings.....or not even swing settings, but no quantization.

try this


Oxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx - 808 kick
OOxxxxxo0xxxxxxxx - Vinyl Kick
xxxxOxxxxxxxxOxxx -Snare/clap
OxOxOxOxOxOxOxOx - Hi-hats


O= spots where you place your drums
o0= means double kick. half followed by a full.

always put ur snares on 2 and 4/5 and 13

but it ain't about the drum pattern it's mostly in the drum samples you use that give the drum track life.