The secret to Booming Banging drums

[Heat Vision]

sample booming banging drums?

^^^

If not, then what kind of effects are you guys using to make your kicks boom and bang.

I guess theres just a certain kind of boom im trying to achieve but im wondering if its more a matter of sampling than adding effects.

[V-F!]

Goolge "New York Compression". I think it may have been explained on here as well if you search.

[halcyon_rave]

Getting the levels right can also go a long way.

[HxC]

This is a tough one. It also can't hurt to remove low frequencies from the other elements of your song- so the drums have more room to boom down there.
Has anybody messed with Toon EZ drummer software? I was thinking of getting it just to make loops to sample from, you can get some very realistic rocking drums with it.

[lodger]

choosing the right samples to begin with is important. Probably the most important.

EQ and compression are to producers what makeup is to girls... its there to bring out or gently hide details of the sample to make the most of potential that is already there. The same way that a ton of makeup won't get rid of ugly, high quality compression, eq'ing, mixing, New York Compression, etc. wont really add potential when there is none in the first place.

then again, potential is in the eye of the beholder and is dependent on the context in which the sample is being used

[V-F!]

choosing the right samples to begin with is important. Probably the most important.

EQ and compression are to producers what makeup is to girls... its there to bring out or gently hide details of the sample to make the most of potential that is already there. The same way that a ton of makeup won't get rid of ugly, high quality compression, eq'ing, mixing, New York Compression, etc. wont really add potential when there is none in the first place.

then again, potential is in the eye of the beholder and is dependent on the context in which the sample is being used

Very well put my friend. Being picky with your samples is lesson number 1.

[a.D.]

When talking about pulling drums off of records,or breaks-like what's already been said a lot of it has to do with the sounds you're choosing in the first place..once you're past that though,there's a lot of different ways to go about it. For snares,layering works well of course-as well as letting them clip slightly when you sample them in,maybe add a little reverb & of course some lo fi/bit/sample rate reduction-reducing the sample rate on snares is one of the most important things to get them sounding nice & crunchy.You also wanna usually take some of the lows out of them..and you definitely wanna take a lot of the lows out of hats. For kicks-again,you can layer multiple ones,& add eq'ing on the low end,taking some of the highs out..and layering with an 808 is a classic technique . I believe the 'ny compression" mentioned is what I do with kicks(U can also do this with an entire break,but imo it's much better to treat each peice of a break sepperately)-use a low end pass version (if you have access to a real low pass filter,like what I got on the sampletrak,it works much better than the sp's isolater) of the kick,compress it,eq it,and layer it with the original-then eq and compress the resampled layerd kick again. Obviously the compression and eq levels are personal prefference-but you'll know when you got the sound you're looking for.Also-with the sp's,you can add subsonic to kicks-I would do this on the low pass/compressed one before you layer it with the original. It's kinda like layering with an 808. Use the "default" setting-meaning how it sounds when you apply subsonic without adjusting any of the knobs. I did this on accident once and have done it a bunch since-works really well to add some more substantial but subtle low end.Also-when layering snares,kicks,or hats-you probably wanna try and make sure they have somewhat of a simmilar texture & pitch to them-although you can layer a clap over pretty much any kind of snare.

[admbmb]

Real talk. The reason it is hard to find info on how to make your drums bang is that very few get it right. Even some of the new mainstream stuff kinda has soft buttery drums with little dynamics.

I'd say the best is to use a limiter where the drums are right at the limit, but not squashed. Then, whatever you gotta do to the rest of the elements, be it side chain compression or eq scoops, have them accomodate the drums. Drums must be in tune to the track as well.

[halcyon_rave]

Real talk. The reason it is hard to find info on how to make your drums bang is that very few get it right. Even some of the new mainstream stuff kinda has soft buttery drums with little dynamics.

I'd say the best is to use a limiter where the drums are right at the limit, but not squashed. Then, whatever you gotta do to the rest of the elements, be it side chain compression or eq scoops, have them accomodate the drums.

Yes. This. ^ ^ ^

Recently been experimenting with methods similar to this.

[a.D.]

With respect to everyones methods-imo it's also important-if at the very least for the preservation of the art of beat making-to be able to achieve the results we want with our drums/samples without resorting to using software and /or thousands of dollars worth of hardware extras...Not a knock on using software,etc- but all the dopest sounds a lot of us are making now were for the most part created in a time when these options weren't available. Not to sound like that purist dude,but nobody should have to use software as a crutch.As an example-if many of us were able to make the "kicks" & snares bang hard in the battle a couple months ago that used a street drummer hitting buckets & cans using strictly the sp,we can no doubt do the same with drums from breaks or one hits pulled off vinyl.I'm not against using software by any means-but I think all beat makers should school themselves in techniques & methods the originators used as well..I have to admit though, in this day & age it's kinda annoying that if you make beats,it's a given assumption that some software is a part of your process.

[IIIII]

i'm getting tired of showing people my work and they're ask "so you use ableton or reason?" lol nooooo

[Sinapse]

I have to admit though, in this day & age it's kinda annoying that if you make beats,it's a given assumption that some software is a part of your process.

lol kinda funny but I just produced a set of beats for this kid out on the west coast, Soul Poet, he is pretty dope but anyway he asked so I was explaining to him how I made the joints...of course with no software...and he was having a hard time understanding. "so you don't use the computer at all??"...nah, only gets to the comp once its done..."how do you arrange the beats??"...I hit buttons where I want sounds to be shit was pretty funny, he is a dope young dude and all about Hip Hop but he had no fucking idea that you can make beats without using a computer at all...da youf

[IIIII]

if hardware was marketed a bit maybe peeps would know. b4 i heard of the 404 when i was a kid i was thinking "i wish there was some sort of box i could play any recorded sound out of with when i hit buttons." if you don't know anyone who does it, its hard to find anything out w/o the internet. look in music store catalogs all they have are mpc2500 and an mpd next to all the synths.
thread jack. back to bangin' drums. i sometimes resample the kick thru center canceler with the low all the way up, resample the og kick with isolator midrange up, then stack them all on a pad. takes a bit of tweaking and some compression but you can get a nice knock and thump. don't forget the octave filter, sometimes it does cool things to drums (im talking 404)

[Heat Vision]

thanks for the replies guys. Some good tips here

[lodger]

here's another thing about getting the best sounding and fitting drums- when you apply fx, etc, make your changes to make the drums fit into the sample. sometimes, people try to eq and set up drum sounds without auditioning the fx in the context that they intend to use it...

if its a sparse sample, you have a lot more liberty to modify your sample at will. however, if it is a dense sample, make sure that you have the sample modified so that it fits the context in which it will be used. Mixing drums to fit a beat may cause drums or any other part to sound odd played on its own, but when combined with the other parts will sound right and will have the punch and effect you're after.