The right drum sounds

[boneyboys]

A massively frequent comment I get in the showcase is that I've got the wrong drum sounds for the track and so I've come to the conclusion that I couldn't tell a decent kit if it spanked me on the arse and called me Julie. Hummmm
So can anyone give me a bit of an overview of how you work out whats the right sound for a track. Cheers guys

 

[eka]

I think I know what the "problem" is.
you seem to use a lot of oldskool drumcomputer drumsounds.
I think it is logical because of the artists you love though.
it is def. your style, but maybe you should try to use some sampled drums and use this type of kicks and snares for the real hardcore/oldskool type of beats where you use only the drums and not much samples.
let's take laidback slide wich has a very mellow flow with the piano, very acoustic, I think it sounds better when you use acoustic drumsamples.
you could choose to leave the drumcomputer drums in the hook though.
I hope I helped you out with this but than again, this is just my opinion.
you can download a lot of drumsounds on my downloadpage in my signature.
maybe that helps a bit.

 

[boneyboys]

Ahh, Ok, thanks for the thoughts eka, I'll try that out and see how I do

 

[CooGi_dice]

i just listed to the first joint your sound click thing (the keys joint)....

i my self tend to gravitate towards some of the same sort of drum sounds (hand claps and punchy kicks)...

the best advice i can give is that you should alow the track to dictate exactly what sort of drum sounds it needs and also the sort of drum pattern.....
u know dont give some smooth pimp shit some hard over compressed kicks and snares....

also allowing your self to experiment with diffrent types of drum sounds opens u up to new ideas and stuff....

 

[Cold Truth]

well, i am unable to give a listen, but drum programming is something i have noticed causes a lot of up-and-comers to stumble... even a close friend of mine, who still doesnt get it.

the problem may be the sounds themselves, apart from the drums- sometimes its good to have a contrast of sounds, but if you are into a lot of the claps and old school sounding percussion, make your sounds match the drums instead of matching the drums to the sounds.

there is only a "right sound for the track" when you take your personal style into consideration. i prefer acoustic drums, thick, underground drums, and clean percussion sounds. i also use almost all acoustic sounds- organs, pianos, guitars, etc- so i have just developed my sound to kind of meld together. you really cant explain something like this to be honest.....

i would also advise to practice just drumlines for a while. i got a lot of files in cubase taht are just the drumline- and i have gone back to some of those and built some of my best work with those after spending hours just tweaking these little 4 bar drum lines and leaving them alone for a few days or even weeks.... needless to say my entire production has jumped a few levels and my rythym sections are a lot more solid. i hope this helps in some wy.

 

[Equality 7-2521]

to get the right kick just try heaps of them and see which works best. if you already do that i dont know how to help

 

[eka]

I also do what cold truth is saying, just make drumloops and leave them allone for a while and after some time I listen to it and start tweaking or indeed change the basskick like mr. messenger said.
sometimes I mak a drum pattern, start adding sounds and than just change the drumsounds and leave the pattern intact.
I think that works well.

 

[boneyboys]

Yeah, truth seems to speak a lot of sense there. I have been using messangers "try em til they sound right" and always end up thinking humm I wish I had a few more samples lol. Also have been using the do the pattern then get the sounds right method. To be honest I reckon I've been doing about the right thing just getting it wrong so I'll press on and improve (I hope)

Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated

 

[light]

Try making a drum loop first and then using samples that match it.

 

[MassProduktionz]

When I program drum sounds - I look for sounds that sound natural with the rest of the track. You want the drums, melody, etc. to compliment each other. The drums & other sounds tend to compete with each other when they don't match. Hope this helps.

 

[jnxe]

drums are hard, but once you learn em, you'll be bangin them out easily. leave some room for the bass, if your bass is really deep give the drums a eq boost at about 150-250

if the bass is more mid range, give the kick a boost at about 50-150.

cut allot of the sound from around 400 - 500/ around there depending on the rest of your sounds. after you finish your kick/snare compress, then compress you kick and snare into your bass.

and dont repeat your 16 then 8 bars 2 times and call it a wrap

 

[Ash Holmz]

my adviuce would be too
1) get the biggest amount of samples you can find ..

2) try varying the attacks of your drum hits so theydont sound mechinacal

3) get a good equalizer and learn how to use it ........ this is the most important shit because once you finda sound that is similar to what u want u can shape it into what u want with a good equaizer .. what i do is put my drums to maximum velocity so they hit hard as hell and way too loud... then when i start mixing i bring the volume down to match the track and do some equlizing to give the snares bottom..usually i boost it around the 200-225khz range.. as for kicks... i usually just turn the tone knob all the way to the bottom on the reason redrum and turn the oitch slighty down and it works... i like deep punhcy kicks not the airy kicks like rock bands use

 

[boneyboys]

Ahh, all the equalising stuff is interesting, I didn't really bother with it for my tracks before cause i was just working on the levels, didn't really thing about bringing the punch out, but I know a bit about eqing stuff for my band so i think I should be able to maybe sort out some nicer stuff from this. Off to eka's library I go. Thanks holmz, jxne, thats helped a lot I think