what do u do with ur drums?

Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
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what do u do with ur drums?

By T.R.O.Y. 718 Fri Nov 12, 2010 3:09 am
i was just wondering what u guys do with ur drums. when u find a nice snare hit or a dope break, what do u then do with it? whats ur process?

if it sounds good the way it is, i dont over complicate things, ill just sample it directly itno my mpc and use it as is. But if i wanna fat'in it up a bit ill record into my computer, and then eq or compress it in fl studio, then sample it back into my mpc. i currently dont have a mixing board or pro tools or anything liek that so i gotta use what i got.

any tips or good info on how to beef up drum sounds?
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Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By DPM Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:29 am
with pretty much 95% of my sounds (bass, percussion, etc.) i'll sample it into my 500, which i have running thru my Sp 303 and I use the EQ from it. I also layer most of my drums and snares.

i dont think i've ever used a sampled one-shot AS-IS. i always tweak in some way, shape or form.

Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By ghosty Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:22 am
DPM wrote:with pretty much 95% of my sounds (bass, percussion, etc.) i'll sample it into my 500, which i have running thru my Sp 303 and I use the EQ from it. I also layer most of my drums and snares.

i dont think i've ever used a sampled one-shot AS-IS. i always tweak in some way, shape or form.


Break the sample down, extract each sound with my fav plugin from izotope, Eq , NYC compresson, bitcrush,amp it, shape the transients, adjust decays, attacks, then save each soimd as a wav and remake the loop from scratch in the mpc one. It sounds better than using a loop that has a static unchagable swing. You can re create the loop with your swing and groove. And way fatter kiks, snappy snares, wet claps and.tight closed hats with open hats that have air. Its hard work.. but when people say you kinda sound like dre, you over kill everything. Good luck.
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Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By Jfalconcrest Fri Nov 12, 2010 12:45 pm
Layering. Put a copy of the Snare onto two pads, Simult them bitches, then adjust the Attack of the main Pad to about 4, and make the velocity sensitivity of that pad very low, like 40 - 50 percent (so that even if you hit the pad lightly, it still plays the sample relatively loud), then, isolate the attack of the sample on the second Pad using Decay (or ASDR) to entirely remove the tail of the sample. Now set THAT pad at 100% velocity sensitivity. The Result is that when you hit that first pad, it plays the snare with light attack, and as you hit harder the isolated attack on the 2nd pad plays louder, mimicking the dynamic realities of an actual snare drum. After that, throw on an additional White Noise Layer (not the clean-baby synth stuff, that dirty World War 2 helicopter static, tuned to perfection), and voila. Awesome, dynamic snare drum with dirty overtones.

Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By T.R.O.Y. 718 Fri Nov 12, 2010 1:45 pm
Jfalconcrest wrote:Layering. Put a copy of the Snare onto two pads, Simult them bitches, then adjust the Attack of the main Pad to about 4, and make the velocity sensitivity of that pad very low, like 40 - 50 percent (so that even if you hit the pad lightly, it still plays the sample relatively loud), then, isolate the attack of the sample on the second Pad using Decay (or ASDR) to entirely remove the tail of the sample. Now set THAT pad at 100% velocity sensitivity. The Result is that when you hit that first pad, it plays the snare with light attack, and as you hit harder the isolated attack on the 2nd pad plays louder, mimicking the dynamic realities of an actual snare drum. After that, throw on an additional White Noise Layer (not the clean-baby synth stuff, that dirty World War 2 helicopter static, tuned to perfection), and voila. Awesome, dynamic snare drum with dirty overtones.


That's a crazy technique...sounds complicated, though I'm
Gonna try it out!
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Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By Jfalconcrest Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:07 pm
Well, I'm talking about snares, but I'm intrigued as to what you mean... Do you mean be careful when you use multiple layers in ONE sound, or when playing that layered sound over other sounds, like a kick drum?
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Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By drukqs2369 Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:16 am
sample sounds out of a synth, just play around with it.

little blips and pops, clicks & bassy bits to add under your drums n shit

experiment with it

Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By roxstar Sat Nov 13, 2010 2:27 pm
Just get your drums to bump whatever way possible. Sample it loud, and layer to suit your needs. Besides that, let the recording process do its thing. You'd be surprised what some compression/limiting/eq'ing will do. Finding the right drums is the hard part. If you need a kick with lots of low end, find one, and the editing will be minimal. Don't be like some of these dudes that spend $$$ on vintage gear trying to justify its warm gritty sound (but the music sounds like schyt!) haha!

Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By briskisgoodforu Sun Nov 14, 2010 6:19 am
also you can use multi band compressors to pull out specific frequency ranges in the hit without completely crushing it with regular compression.
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Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By Coz Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:14 am
roxstar wrote:Just get your drums to bump whatever way possible. Sample it loud, and layer to suit your needs. Besides that, let the recording process do its thing. You'd be surprised what some compression/limiting/eq'ing will do. Finding the right drums is the hard part. If you need a kick with lots of low end, find one, and the editing will be minimal. Don't be like some of these dudes that spend $$$ on vintage gear trying to justify its warm gritty sound (but the music sounds like schyt!) haha!



Good advice. 8)
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Re: what do u do with ur drums?

By Menco Sun Nov 14, 2010 9:13 am
I run it through a DJ mixer and 7bands graphic EQ. Sample as loud as possible. Tune layer filter, set attack and decay. No complicated techniques but I really take my time and focus to make them sound exactly how I want my drums to sound. Sometimes I resample with FX but most of my FX are added in the post-production stage.
Changing the start and end points of the sample can also make a difference. U can truncate the reverb tail or that little bit of air in front of the sample for some more punch or leave it as it is so drums hit just a little bit late.
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