Hey guys....im curious, when u guys layer your drums, do you use quantize or just take it 1 step at a time. Sometimes I have a hard time layering my drums the way I want them 2 sound and I dont want to quantize them because then they would sound robotic to me lol. Do you guys only quantize your snares at 4 and off quantize for kicks

I set the quant to 16ths or 32nds if its really slow and bang away. I kinda dig the robotic sound though.

16.3 quantize works fine for my kicks and snares.

I always layer my drums using resample. Try it if havent already.

for me it depends on whats being layered. It seems to never be exactly aligned when layering with quantize, but that can sound good when layering certain things together. Usually I use resample

speaking of which-why is it that when you layer a couple snares,kicks,whatever-& adjust adjust them to where its not peaking before resampling,the resulting snare is so much quieter than the original?i dont get that-if you sample & resample your original snares and the layerd ones at the same levels according to the peak light,shouldnt they end up being the same volumes?
also-i did a track yesterday where i layered a rimshot,regular snare & clap,put them down with quantize,& then went back with a different rimshot over them unquantized..it came out really dope,almost every snare hit sounds a little different.but if you dont use resample,it'll eat up the polyphony mad quick.

It has everything to do with.. um think of it like sharing the same space of sound. That and the algorithms used when you layer sounds over eachother cause the change in volume.

Using the (extra) polyphony doesn't only secure the sound tone-wise, but also volume-wise as they are independent sounds.

I've seen people on a few different occasions talking about making drums using resample. They say there is a way to record your drums to one pad? Can anyone elaborate further on this? It sure would save a lot of time doing patterns.

^
im not clear on what your asking.

if you're talking about the resample feature then you just hit resample, then record, then the pad you want to sample to and then hit record again. the recording won't start until you press a pad and you can press several pads at the same time (eg. 2 kicks) to create layered drums.

but i use the resample to actually make my drum loops. i get my drum sounds ready and then i resample to 1 pad (the kick and the snare first) and then i resample that pad again to another pad and add the hats. then i get everything to loop correctly and that gives me the BPM. i prefer this method for creating drum loops (in fact i create most of my tracks like this) because it's super fast and it's like have a tape recorder or some shit. plus from constantly starting patterns again (sometimes i play 24 bars live) i have gotten pretty good at pad playing. i test my timing by getting my drum pattern looped perfectly and then go into pattern mode and set the BPM to the same value as the pad. then i put it on 4 quantise and hit the pad straight away. from there i can see how "on-time" i am. im usually not that far off and don't drift away into madness!!



since this topic is about "drum-layering" i thought id throw my 2 cents into the mix. sometimes people confuse production terms and although it really doesn't matter (calling a sound module a synth for example) sometimes this disinformation over a term can cause mass confusion and lead to a lot of mistakes.

2 terms used commonly in regards to "beefing up" your drums are the words layering and compresion.

compresion is a while different discussion (but i admit im like flying lotus in regards to i compress everything to the death ).

but drum layering is a misunderstood term.


some people take 4 kick drums and trigger them all at the same time and call it layering because that is what they think layering is. nothing wrong with it but they are not practicing the form properly.

what some people do is "over-layering". that is what music is based on, just layers. if i have a kick, snare, hi-hat combo going all the sounds are being over-layered on top of each other. if i had another kick drum to the mix that is again just being over-layered.

a lot of the time when i see "beat tutorials" (im addicted to them) on youtube i see people layering 5 kick drums for NO REASON. if you add 2 weak kicks together then it ain't gonna make a banging kick. sometimes 2 dope sounds layered together will sound wack. layering your drums is like mixing records. the sounds should meld together well, they should compliment each other. you are taking aspects of the different drum sounds and fusing them together in order to get a more audibly pleasing result.



im sure most people on this forum already know this or have just found it out themselves while experimenting in resampling various sounds together but i thought id just clarify that point.

[quote="Hot Sauce"]^
im not clear on what your asking.



but i use the resample to actually make my drum loops. i get my drum sounds ready and then i resample to 1 pad (the kick and the snare first) and then i resample that pad again to another pad and add the hats. then i get everything to loop correctly and that gives me the BPM. i prefer this method for creating drum loops (in fact i create most of my tracks like this) because it's super fast and it's like have a tape recorder or some shit. plus from constantly starting patterns again (sometimes i play 24 bars live) i have gotten pretty good at pad playing. i test my timing by getting my drum pattern looped perfectly and then go into pattern mode and set the BPM to the same value as the pad. then i put it on 4 quantise and hit the pad straight away. from there i can see how "on-time" i am. im usually not that far off and don't drift away into madness!!


that was what I was asking about.

cool glad i could help.

this way of doing your drums also gives them a very wonky and organic feel IMO. shit is dope

The problems are no different than mixing a multitrack.

Some sounds just get in the way of others.

If you used 2 identical sounds exactly together, the level doubles ( 6dB boost) - 2 different sounds produce a level that's anywhere up to 6dB louder. Result is you can't avoid clipping without cutting each sounds levels. This means the quieter parts of the individual sounds get turned down compared to the total level of the combination, making them less distinct - so layering sounds does not mean they will get more powerful, it could go the other way.

So, the trick as I see it is to layer complementary sounds.
You have a kick drum with a good beater click but it's body is too soft - so you put a sample which has plenty of body (probably a "synth" bass drum) but no click in with it. Now you've added 2 different sounds that won't get in each others way and give you the best of both. In contrast, layering 2 snares with similar amounts of "crack" is unlikely to make anything more useful that one on it's own - would be better to alternate them.

Jim

Good mix tips Jim Y.

nice info man.

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