There are only 2 main parts to filtering on the 3000.
1. Freq, add freq & resonance
2. the filter envelope: attack, decay and amount of effect on the filter.
Now this is just listing how the 3000 filter is set up. The way I, and I guess quite some ppl (not only dilla), use it for drums is pretty simple:
Layering the same, or also different drumhits & sounds, adjusting the volumes, pitches, filters, filter envelopes and normal envelopes. This is bascily sound designing. Just be creative man. A painter might use a brush, fukc he might even use his wifes ass to get his paint on the canvas.
Same goes for music. You can layer several snares and it still doest sound right... You put a simple "needleclick" sound or just anything you can record that is accented on a certain freq on top and BAM. Like most things in producing this is all about experience and feeling:
Look at your winamp the next time you hear a drum solo on a sick beat and compare it to yours.. Yes of course those are professionally mastered beats, but you can still see the range the snare/clap /whatever takes. This just takes time, patience and feeling. Since I'm mixing and (unprofessionally) mastering an album I acquired a lot more feeling for whats missing or what needs to be accented.
Now you may be asking for the kicks..
Try this for starters: copy the same kick onto 2 different pads. Make the first one simultaneously trigger the 2nd. Now filter the 2nd pad to like 0-20 and pull down the volume of it. Actually try and find a balanced sound between the 2 kicks. Woah, its like double as hard now, you might say...
But wait untill you try playing a bassline over it...
1st problem comes in here: Distortion due to Frequency overlapping...
So after fattening your kick, you need to reduce some lowend again to make space for the bass. For all this I can say is: Use a frequency analyser. It will show you which parts are characteristic for certain sounds.
You will build your own preference when it comes to frequencies.
Before you get at it though let me give you one final hint:
Boosting is something that should be done precisely and carefully. Dont over do it, leave a little headroom and most importantly: Frequency cuts are MUCH MORE important than boosts. You can do all this in wavelab and a few plugins. Nobody needs a 3000 for this. IMO: the 3k filter sounds hella dope, but its only a personal prefernce. Use what feels best. Perhaps try an emax just for drums
Mixing theory knowledge really helps alot: give each sound its place, but keep the sound natural.
Hope this is not too confusing, but this is what helps me to get drums hard enough.
.toon
