Making good drum kits from scratch

[silentsteve]

Hi,

I have a decent library of drum sounds, but I can never create a set of kick, snares and hats that sound like they match together. Does anyone have some advice on how I can match drum sounds so they sound like a good wholesome drum kit? Im just going for some fat drums for boom bap style beats. I have experimented with using the ISO and EQ effects on the 404 to try and match sounds, but I'm still struggling with it. Any advice would be appreciated.

Something I've done for example which has sort of worked is playing 2 different kicks at the same time, resampling them to a new pad, then I mess with EQ and ISO to sort of "glue" the 2 kicks together. But a lot of drums I hear from good lo fi beats do not sound like they have been layered a ton or anything, but they hit hard and have good snares that smack, and thats what I want.

New to the SP Forums, show some love!!

[baaskaT]

hi dude,

i always follow one of these two methods:

chop a break: if you listen closely and chop a break 'small' enough, you have each hit seperate, thus leaving you with a drumkit that most of the time sounds good together, because it was recorded together.

pitch some hits: if you just select kicks/snares/hihats/percussion etc yourself, you gotta make sure you tune your hits correctly!
set a loop playing only kicks... while its playing pitch-tune your snare so that it sounds good to the kick or visa versa. Same goes for the hihats/all the rest.

hope this helps

[Living Bate]

Yeh the most obvious one is to chop all the elements from the same drum break.

The second is to just learn how to choose what sounds go with what and then tune them to each other. But don't overdo it...you don't need 4 kicks, 4 snares, 4 hats etc....

Third is a bit of a simple idea but can be effective. You can make a kit out of 3 basic samples. E.g 1 kick, 1 snare, 1 cymbol. By envelope, pitching, reversing, filtering etc….

[silentsteve]

cool, thanks guys! yeah i guess in chopping loop breaks I usually don't chop them to individual hits, but I'm going to experiment with that. I think I've tried it but then my kick and snare usually sound like they are cut off. I'm gonna try it though, and maybe try to use filters and adjust envelope attack, decay, etc. to try and help.

And yeah, pitching sounds makes sense, for sure. I think I get overwhelmed with laying out drums in general. I have a good ol time chopping up a sample and making a sequence, but when it comes to drums, I feel like I can't find the right drums to do the sample justice, if that makes sense.

Based on the advice you guys gave me, I'm just gonna start messing with breaks more, instead of searching a vast library of one shots. That's why I like these SP beat battles b/c they limit the samples you can use, and I can just work with what I'm given rather than having to search through a huge library.

Both of you guys thanks for the response. And yo baaskaT I've been listening to your shit I discovered you a few months ago been bumping Flickshots and Quickscopes since man!

[baaskaT]

...
And yeah, pitching sounds makes sense, for sure. I think I get overwhelmed with laying out drums in general. I have a good ol time chopping up a sample and making a sequence, but when it comes to drums, I feel like I can't find the right drums to do the sample justice, if that makes sense.

Based on the advice you guys gave me, I'm just gonna start messing with breaks more, instead of searching a vast library of one shots. That's why I like these SP beat battles b/c they limit the samples you can use, and I can just work with what I'm given rather than having to search through a huge library.

don't forget sometimes it's easier to just choose something/accept something you hear and take the best out of it instead of searching for a sound that you didn't hear yet if that makes any sense..

Both of you guys thanks for the response. And yo baaskaT I've been listening to your shit I discovered you a few months ago been bumping Flickshots and Quickscopes since man!

no problem and thank u 2 for the support homie, that's dope !!

[Living Bate]

envelope is everything when chopping drums....

if there is reverb on the drum break you are chopping, don't try and ride off that reverb in your drums.....curve the kicks / snares / hihats off and put your own reverb on them....

you gotta get that decay right for each hit......

[silentsteve]

don't forget sometimes it's easier to just choose something/accept something you hear and take the best out of it instead of searching for a sound that you didn't hear yet if that makes any sense..

Right, definitely makes sense! thank you

envelope is everything when chopping drums....

if there is reverb on the drum break you are chopping, don't try and ride off that reverb in your drums.....curve the kicks / snares / hihats off and put your own reverb on them....

you gotta get that decay right for each hit......

Thanks, Living Bate! I think i get what your saying, if i understand correctly your saying not to work with the reverb within the sample, but chop it off, create a good envelope, then add my own reverb. I'll experiment with it!

[Euclid Ov Oåklånd]

Long reverb tails on snares usually roll into other elements of the drums or track and if the are chopped short they sound really unnatural and bad. If you chop the drums nice and tight they will be easier to program in the step sequencer. For instance a kick with too much dead noise before it plays in the sample will be off time in the sequencer slightly, but this fact can also be used to put swing on a hi hat too. Chop a hi hat sound really small and don't truncate it, program it in the sequencer to eight notes and while the sequence plays adjust the samples start time with the start/end button and you may notice it change the groove in relation to the snare or kick.

[Lou-E]

The thing I do with drums is I have it run through an equalizer and I bring the mid pretty high and I resample it when I pull the mid down super quickly when I hit the drum pad, gives it more of a snap that dilla had with his drums.

I also resample it by lowering the volume at the tail end of the sample to give it a more natural decay.

Finally, I just hit Hi Hats or Snares with a phaser that has the first two knobs all the way down, and the 3rd one at about 1/4 up. I dont know what that shit does but it sounds so fucking nice.

[mr.thraz]

The thing I do with drums is I have it run through an equalizer and I bring the mid pretty high and I resample it when I pull the mid down super quickly when I hit the drum pad, gives it more of a snap that dilla had with his drums.

I also resample it by lowering the volume at the tail end of the sample to give it a more natural decay.

Finally, I just hit Hi Hats or Snares with a phaser that has the first two knobs all the way down, and the 3rd one at about 1/4 up. I dont know what that shit does but it sounds so fucking nice.

i'd love to see a vid of that process.

[ryba]

Finally, I just hit Hi Hats or Snares with a phaser that has the first two knobs all the way down, and the 3rd one at about 1/4 up. I dont know what that shit does but it sounds so fucking nice.

3rd knob - Resonance - Adds a particular undulation to the sound (acc to manual).
This seem that it adds some resonation frequencies with no phasing effect.
Anyway... WTF is particular undulation?

[Lou-E]

From what I can guess, the third knob acts like a stationary phaser, instead of it going up and down automatically, you can do it manually with it.

[ryba]

Yes. Seems like that. Knob1 is speed, but turned fully Counterclockwise phaser is in manual mode, you can tweak Knob2 (cutoff) and Knob3 (resonance) manually.

[u alright bro]

you could put a certain effect on all the drums.

[THEGREAT]

chorus . reverb . give extra dimension when creating your own sounds . always sample drums in mono . polyphony and all that jazz.plus kick and snares hit harder in mono

layering multiple sample 'takes' of same sound .

note . plosive mouth sounds can make some great distorted kicks (if done right) .. especially on condenser mics . not sure if it will damage the diaphram on mic . if in doubt,buy a £20 condenser specifically for samples