The real way to quantize and shift

Hello Fellow Musicians,

First of all, who ever responds to this, all of you, I thank you. I really do. Like many of you, I get crazy excited when my drums are hitting and groovin. Here's my issue. I need to get some good solid steps of quantizing and shiftinf. A long time ago, I found here a blog that had shift settings and quantize settings, cannot find that post . If any of you have some settings and steps on achieving those , please respond. Here bnelow is what I do, and it only gives somewhat ok... results....

First--I drum it out- no quantize
second-quantize the kick at 59 and shift later 6
Then snare--quant--64 and shift later 1
then the hats-- question -- do the hats matter that much. in terms of groove?
Well I usually I note repeat those and theyyyyy suck...lolo

Now, I want you guys to know, I have had some success -done some movie stuff and tv and label stuff
But at the end of the day, I gott gazillion melodies with moderately hot drums.

DRUMS i LIKE---
I listen ofcourse all real hiphop drums
What I produce like
TREY SONGZ -SAY AHH--I feel like these drums shift later
KERI HILSON----KNOCK YA DOWN

Question--do any of you feel like drums shift earlier?

Anyway, thanks in advance-- peace to all

Prochic

Quantize settings really depend on the user and groove ur trying to create. A 56% off swing can sound perfect on type of groove while the same setting can sound horrible on another type of groove.
All I can say is experiment to find ur own settings and methods to create the groove u want.

And YESSS!!! Hihats do matter:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=124067&hilit=hihats

Most of the time I lay down my snares first with tight quantizing. After that I program my kickdrums without quantizing, and my hihats with the method described in the link above. All in double BPM. After that I shift my snares and do some minor tweaking. It took me quite some time to master the techniques to build the grooves how I want them to sound.

This is a method. My method. This is not the method. So again, experiment, repeat the techniques that gave u the desired results untill u've created ur own style of programming and quantizing.

Bro.. trying to use the same drum timing/quantize formula for every song is your problem.

Whatever happened to just playing the drums?

Lampdog wrote:

elevated wrote:Bro.. trying to use the same drum timing/quantize formula for every song is your problem.

prochic

...chic

Ahh man I should have know from the song selection

At the moment I

Quantize Kicks
Quantize Snares
Slightly shift a couple of snare beats then

do not quantize hi hats.

I'll probably try something else soon enough - but this works for me for now.
This is a good thread by the way. I'd be interested in what others quantize and not quantize.

Yeah you gotta mix it up. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Sometimes I'll quantize the first downbeat kick and the two main snare hits, and leave everything else unquantized. Sometimes I'll quantize the snares and nothing else. I like to shift the hihats back a few ticks. Shifting an element forward gives the beat a rushed feel, shifting it backwards gives the beat a more lackadaisical feel. And there's no good reason to shift your kicks, unless you really really need to in order to line them up to your sample or melody. They anchor the beat.

Most of the time my beats will have some of the main elements quantized. Most of the time my drums will have a lot of unquantized elements. And to nail them I replay them over and over until I get them right, scooping out the bad notes with the erase button.

Very rarely will I either go fully quantized or fully unquantized, but if I do decide to do fully unquantized, I like to use the quantize strength (JJOS2XL) at 25-50% to tighten it up a touch.

Sometimes I'll play with the drum sample, adding (or deleting) empty space before the attack portion of the sample... There's more than one way to skin that cat.

And on and on and on...

Thanks for the knowledge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for helping me out..There is some great knowledge here. I have been getting waayyyyyy better results mixing up the settings on everything. It s finally groovin!!!

Maybe someone can answer this. I said in the orignal post that I like these drums well ofcourse they are nt the only drums I like..... BUT they seems simple yet grooving. Would you say that the producer of those used losts of various settings just for those simple. I always thought the more settings used the more crazy the drums sound but what about those simple tracks -- you think they are doing all this to make them and yet they sound so smooth not really banging like a monster type just blaze joint....?

Pro Chic --The Lady Rockster

there is no formula you can follow that are guaranteed to work well every time.. But once you know what the pattern are going to look like it will be easier to know whats going to work and what isnt..

Not the easiest to get a feel for because changing something might sound shit until you put it in combination with other drumhits etc

Best to just sit down and experiment for the sake of it imo, and pay alot attention to what happens..

Hey Thanks mp3 for the insight.. I just have a couple of questions.

I have JJOS2XL--HOWor where can i quantize 25%. mines starts at 50?

Also lets say I need to do a beat like a 'LIVE YOU LIFE T.I.' how can i do a beayt withoutr quantize-- i mean would that kind be accomplished without it.?

do yall think the drums kik snare arent quant but the hats are so that they roll right?
Also what do yall think of J.R. ROTEM DRUM PROGRAMMING ?

Just wanted to know.

Pro

Jacpot wrote:Whatever happened to just playing the drums?

Exactly, I don't understand the whole 'swing' hype.

Just put the drums where you want em in the first place. I always quantize the 'kick accents', I feel like the kick is the pulse of the song and it should be steady, but he ghost notes can be wherever you want.

Maybe someone can answer this. I said in the orignal post that I like these drums well ofcourse they are nt the only drums I like..... BUT they seems simple yet grooving. Would you say that the producer of those used losts of various settings just for those simple. I always thought the more settings used the more crazy the drums sound but what about those simple tracks -- you think they are doing all this to make them and yet they sound so smooth not really banging like a monster type just blaze joint....?

Couple of thoughts, but first and foremost, I doubt there's any one method that all these producers use. In fact, I doubt that any one producer uses the same method all the time.

- Complex processes do not always give complex sounding results. Sometimes it will take ages to come up with the 'right' simple drum pattern, and sometimes you'll whip up a complex pattern is five minutes.

- Its as much about the samples you use as it is about the pattern. picking the right samples for that particular beat (to complement the keys/samples) will go a long way.

- I would guess that those producers didn't use a 'lot' of various settings on a given beat, maybe one or two, combined with a couple of unquantized hits that they played in realtime. You're rarely gonna use lots of different quantize settings on one beat. Its all about fitting the drums into the larger vision, the finished beat. So they will probably experiment during the initial stages, and then narrow down their settings as they get closer and closer to something that fits. Sometimes I will start off with a pattern, quantize it, erase certain hits, and re-record those same hits unquantized.

- Over time, every producer develops their own go-to strategies for every aspect of beatmaking. Just takes practice to find your 'pocket'. Not saying they don't borrow ideas or incorporate feedback from others, they just take it and make it their own. That's really the magic trick, expressing yourself through your creation. Like for example, the Neptunes have a very signature swing to their drum tracks.

prochic wrote:Hey Thanks mp3 for the insight.. I just have a couple of questions.

I have JJOS2XL--HOWor where can i quantize 25%. mines starts at 50?

Also lets say I need to do a beat like a 'LIVE YOU LIFE T.I.' how can i do a beayt withoutr quantize-- i mean would that kind be accomplished without it.?

do yall think the drums kik snare arent quant but the hats are so that they roll right?
Also what do yall think of J.R. ROTEM DRUM PROGRAMMING ?

Just wanted to know.

Pro

JR Scrotem drum programming is straight-forward, but always appropriate for the song. Effective. He tends to stay on the 1/16 grid. In a way his choice in drums sounds follow a similar trend. IE: following a trend. Overall I appreciate his work.