Hey guysbr
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Just wondering if anyone could share some tips and tricks on getting your drums to really stand out and give off alot of energy, when I put some toms into a track or hats they just sound weak an don’t flow to well, doesn’t create energy. I’m not sure if I’m side chaining then wrong. Or just my pattern lay out I the actual sample. Do I add reverb to certain drums? br
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Cheers guys.
If you could give an example of what you try to accomplish, we can better service you.br
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Looking at my own drums channel, I always start off with:br
1 Kickdrum with HP filter to roll off everything below 40Hz compressor if neededbr
1 Snare channel often with a few different snares. EQ, HP filter to roll off everything below 150-200Hz compressor to glue the different snares. The snares are rarely placed exactly on time. Depending on the sound and attack they’re a bit earlier or later.br
1 Clap channel often with a few different claps. EQ, HP filter to roll off everything below 250-300Hz compressor to glue the different claps. The claps are rarely placed exactly on time. Depending on the sound and attack they’re a bit earlier or later.br
1 channel with either claps/snares or both reversed reverb to suck it into the 2nd and 4th. Only 4th beat works as well.br
1 channel with closed hats (sometimes up till 6 different types just to give a bit more live feel). Layer the different ones and remove some on occasion so that every hit sounds a tiny bit different. Again the above effects are applied and the hats are hardly every exactly on time.br
1 channel with closed hats: see above with closed hats, but this time I play a bit with the decay (longer).br
1 channel for rides and one for crashes.br
1-4 channels with loops (you have to experiment on what to use (frequency- and sample wize).br
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You can now either group them all into one and slightly compress them to glue it all together. Or leave it as it is and apply EQ and some sidechain compression to attain the same goal.br
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Besides that, I have multiple return channels with reverb delay to give the different channels the same “room”.br
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Hope this helps a bit.
Here’s another link in which I explain in more detail the hihats and placing them:br
http://forums.sonicacademy.com/Topic91487-10-1.aspx#bm91492
wow thanks so much for your detailed response, this will help me alot, ill give it a shot and post up my drums ive done using these techniques, thanks heaps matebr
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Cheers
I don’t think you could get a better answer than Daniaans.br
Agreed a great answer from Danaan - but i would personally provide a much more simple answer that i think can get your drums sounding great.br
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It’s all about selecting the right samples - you can literally build a nice sounding, big drumbeat just by using the right kick, snare/clap, open hat, closed hat, and then perhaps one of two more closed hats filling some of the gaps left by the first closed hat, and one or two percussive sample hits.br
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Then just experiment for a bit by adding each of the samples of various 16th note grid positions - but keep it simple - try not to add too many hits, as you need to leave gaps between the hits to get a groove going and give all the elements space to breath!br
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If you combine the right samples and mix the levels properly - it really is amazing just how good your drums can sound just with these few, carefully selected elements in place.br
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From the way you have phrased your question, i would presume you are fairly new to producing, so my advice would be to keep it as simple as you can for the moment, and work really hard on finding combinations of the main drum elements that work really well together.br
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One you have this nailed, then maybe add a couple of carefully chosen loops, and then think about more advanced EQ, compression etc.br
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But to repeat - it really is amazing just what a great sounding drum beat you can get from just 5 or 6 very carefully selected samples - work on that first!
nice track supreme being, your hats are very subtle in the mix,br
do you add reverb to your hats or leave them dry and just compress ?br
i have ableton and never know how to get a little reverb on my hats just rightbr
balance on the drums is really good
for drum reverbs, don’t go anything longer than 0.5s decay time, keep it short and nice.
I can only agree with Daniaan.nbsp; The only thing I can add to that may be: sidechain on the rides (especially if they’re hitting every 1/8th) andnbsp;in most cases I also applynbsp;sidechain onnbsp;thenbsp;hihats.nbsp; If you listen to some stuff from Todd Terry you will notice thatnbsp;his heavy sidechainingnbsp;bringsnbsp;a pumping groove to it.nbsp; I usually leave claps and snares without a sidechain.nbsp; Any other percussion like toms however could benefit from a little bit of sidechain to prevent clogging up the low end when the kick hits./PPOh right, if you’re in Live: applying a groove from the groovepool and playing around with the amount also has a great effect on how your rythm-section feels.nbsp; I think you can find this somewhere in last year’s deep house tutorial.