Lo-Fi Drums

matt i often side chain to duck the bass outta the way and get a good groove relationship between my bass and kick...

on my dbx i take a direct out from the bass drum's mixer channel feed that into the sidechain input of the compressor over the bass channel and then tweak the levels until the bass is ducking the right amount on each bass drum hit...

for an eq side chain just take the out put of your eq and put it into the sidechain input.


greg

Dub thanks for the advice... I really wasn't sure how to use the sidechain... Thank you for explaining how ducking works... This will be really cool to work with on my dbx...

once you learn to side chain and gate with a key input you can do alll sorts of crazy shit....

greg

Matt, why dont' you sample your loops in the lowest bit rate on your sp, was it the 303 or 505 you had? Then trigger the loop and take the kicks and snares (sampled as single hits)?
Some dude was talking about how not cleaning my records when sampling drums is bullish... I do it all the time and it works good for me, if there's too much hiss or crackle or noise I filter it out with the lowpass filter... works fine for me, how can you say it's bull when I'm telling you that's what I do? Do you live here at my crib?

Seek an Emu, or... Roger Linn...

Toecutter wrote:Matt, why dont' you sample your loops in the lowest bit rate on your sp, was it the 303 or 505 you had? Then trigger the loop and take the kicks and snares (sampled as single hits)?
Some dude was talking about how not cleaning my records when sampling drums is bullish... I do it all the time and it works good for me, if there's too much hiss or crackle or noise I filter it out with the lowpass filter... works fine for me, how can you say it's bull when I'm telling you that's what I do? Do you live here at my crib?

I have done this on certain tracks... I have the 505... It's definitely Dirty, but it actually loses some sound quality... Like sometimes it loses punch that was initially there...

What I was referring to was that Madlib somehow has really lo-fi sounds, but regardless you still feel every frequency... It's a fine balance between lo-fi and a clear sound... He has a clarity in his lo-fi sounds that I can't seem to get...

Not just him... I mean, Premo, Pete Rock, Diamond D, etc... They all have this sound...

I'm just experimenting tryin to figure it out... Though some people on here helped with some useful tips...

I have been experimenting and will continue to do so... I'll learn the same way I learned everything else about production.... By myself, through trial and error...

It's called an SSL.

elmacaco wrote:It's called an SSL.

Yea LOL that'll happen...

Yeah they'll run it through that and get the compressor on the channel to really make it knock.

Some don't like it's sound, but they do big things.

Oh I love that sound... Not knockin that... I'm just sayin that it's out of the realm of possibilities for me...

Maybe when I start really puttin my sh*t out there.... I'll bring it to a studio and have it mastered through an SSL board...

what the hell is an ssl?

a very very expensive mixing consule. Like the big ones in a huge studio. They start at 250,000 i think

MattMatiks PG wrote:

Toecutter wrote:Matt, why dont' you sample your loops in the lowest bit rate on your sp, was it the 303 or 505 you had? Then trigger the loop and take the kicks and snares (sampled as single hits)?
quote]

I have done this on certain tracks... I have the 505... It's definitely Dirty, but it actually loses some sound quality... Like sometimes it loses punch that was initially there...

What I was referring to was that Madlib somehow has really lo-fi sounds, but regardless you still feel every frequency... It's a fine balance between lo-fi and a clear sound... He has a clarity in his lo-fi sounds that I can't seem to get...

Not just him... I mean, Premo, Pete Rock, Diamond D, etc... They all have this sound...

I'm just experimenting tryin to figure it out... Though some people on here helped with some useful tips...

I have been experimenting and will continue to do so... I'll learn the same way I learned everything else about production.... By myself, through trial and error...

I really don't believe Madlib is being totally honest about his methods, and I can respect that.
The lo-fi sound on the SP-303 (sample rate and the effect) have a sound that's really similar to the MPC and other samplers bit rate conversion.
It lacks that glue that old samplers have with the 12-bit/40k (MPC) or 12-bit 27k (SP) rates.
With a lot of layering and indivdual EQing it will achieve a similar type of sound but why would he go through all that when a SP12/1200 or MPC-60 already sounds like that?
MattMatiks, elmacaco pretty much gave you the right answer when he said

Seek an Emu, or... Roger Linn...

An 1176 or LA-2a as well as going somewhere that has a SSL and lots of outboard will give you the best sound possible from the source you use.
What you are hearing in those drums starts with the sample that the machine creates.
EQing, compression, limiting etc can only mold and manipulate the available sound not create what's not there.
Remember Primo, Pete Rock, Diamond D and a lot of others have tried the MPC-2000/2000xl but still dip back to the old 12-bit machines because they are gritty but still full.
My SP-303 will be on eBay before the week is out.

Not hating on the SP-303 (or 202, 505)

c.e.p. hiss reduction. works like a charm (believe it or not)