D.I.T.C. drums

I love D.I.T.C. drums! I'm trying to reach that level with drums in my beats, but I think I still don't have the result I want.



Here there's a drum loop with bass that I made in a minute, just to show you my sound; I sample in the 950, a bit louder to get a little nice distortion, than resample in the mpc 2500, chop in the mpc, and use only mpc effects; the drum loop I embed is recorded straight out of mpc.

Now, my questions are: in order to get closer with ditc drums, what I need in your opinion?
- maybe a daw with many effects, to make separate tracks (kick, snare, ...) and mix better than only on the mpc?
- more work on mpc effects?
- that expensive outboard gear?
- a mixing board?

Thanks a lot!

maybe compression. sounds good to me already...

sounds quite nice already. Try parallel compression on the drumset. Can easily be done in your daw. Sent the drum samples (kick, snare, hats) plus the bassline to a Bus. Then apply heavy compression on the signal, boost up the frequency at 100 and 12000 hz, then send the signal back to the original source. Like you "add" the compressed signal to the original drumloop. This way the musick will sound fuller or more fat. have a try

what are"D.I.T.C. drums"???

Oooooh, yur talkin bout diggin in the crates... Course I heard o them.. Just didn't get the "D.I.T.C."
Well, then it's a rather stupid and annoying question to ask...
Why do you want to know how to sound like somebody else? Why do you expect people to tell you how to sound like somebody else???
If you want that D.I.T.C. sound then go and get urself D.I.T.C. records... You don't need a sampler for that..
Just stick to yours. be inspired or whatever, but do ur own thing. for **** sake!

By the way the drums sound fine, so ur good to go

i agree man...

anytime i listen to diamond, finesse, showbiz, buckwild...all them dudes got the illest drums, id only put dilla, pete, q tip, and rza up there wit em. and premiers kicks, his kicks hit so f'n hard its crazy. but that reverbed out snare that ditc gets is incredible and they hit mad hard.

Your drums sound good IMO. Like RepRSP mentioned EQ, compression, and parallel compression are good options dial things in a bit. Also try listening to a D.I.T.C track that you like before you mix your drums this way you'll have a FRESH reference in your mind while you're applying your EQ, compression etc.

Thanks, thanks to everybody, I'm really happy that you say my drums sound already good, I like my drums too, but i'm trying to get the illest sound possible, so it's great you mentioned those tecniques, I absolutely have to try this parallel compression, eq and compression.

Now I have only Cubase 5 Essentials, so no effects, no dynamic or eq'ing plug-in, just the mixer and not much more, and that's the reason why I use only mpc internal effects and than I record the finished beat from the mpc main out.

Do you think I have to go straight to Pro Tools? Reading in many places, I learned it's the industry standard... And do you know if there's a mixing guide on the web, just to start learning about mixing?

And just another question about cassette deck saturation: how it works? I mean, I have to record the drum set to a cassette deck, and than re-records from the tape into my daw? And can I use any cassette deck? Also the home stereo, or I need a special cassette deck, maybe with eq'ing on it?

Thanks a lot guys!!

you won´t need a pro tools to get the parallel compression thing to work. If you already have Cubase 5, why not just upgrade to a full version of the program, Cubase 6 just came out a few months ago. Do you have a lisence for your Cubase? Steinberg offers cheap updates, you might wanne check the shop at steinberg.net
other than that, there´s plugins out there who will add saturation to your musik. I can recommend the "MixSaturater" from the PSP MixPack collection.

Maybe instead of resampling from the S950 to the MPC, just use the MPC to trigger the S950.

Chris Cassius wrote:Maybe instead of resampling from the S950 to the MPC, just use the MPC to trigger the S950.

That's a good suggestion, those dudes did all their work on SP1200's and MPC60's, and the S950 is closer to that older sound than the 2500. Maybe sample some drums at 45 rpm and then pitch them down like on SP1200.

great sounding drum loop, honestly...

the sound u may b lookin for could come from mastering the final track

Yeah, in the past I've tried to leave drums in the 950 and trigger them with the mpc, but I've noticed that the workflow was too slow for me, in particular for chopping drums in the 950, I found that choppin in the mpc is so much faster, but maybe I've got to reconsider it, in order to get the best sound possible, even if the workflow is a lil bit slower. Because yes, I have to say that drums leaved in the 950 are more powerful!

I've also tried the sampling at 45 rpm and than slow them down, but I found that the sound will not be effected so much...

And I got this tape saturation thing, thanks Wal Martian for explanation, I definitely have to try it, it sounds mechanical and cool to me!!

And thanks es-k, yeah, maybe you're right, maybe I've got to realize that in my home studio I can reach only that level, and than to add punch and achieve the phat sound we love I've necessarily have to go to a studio for mastering...!

Thanks to everybody!!