How can i make my drums knock harder?!!! Similar to cardiak's and tha bizness's drums

GerardWilliams

New member
Hey guys I'm an aspiring producer from Jersey and I been making beats for about 3 years now and I've come to relize i've never been satisfied with the sound of my drums. I want my drums to knock harder and have an impact similar to Cardiak (Producer: Start It Up) and Tha Bizness (Production Duo: Every Girl). Any and all feedback would be appreciated. Also if anyone has any tips on creating drum sounds from scratch or good ways to make your own drum sounds that would help too. Along with making my drums knock harder I'm trying to get better drum sounds because these kits aren't doing it for me. Thanks guys!!!! Help me out!!!
 
What do you use for gear? I make all my drums in my MPC. I usually layer anywhere from 4 to 8 drum sounds on top of eachother (like four snare sounds on one pad and 4 kick sounds on a different pad, etc). After I get close to getting the sounds I want, I bring a loop I create into it into Logic or Pro Tools. When doing this I have the snare on one track, the kick on another track and the hi hat on another track...that way you can mix each sound individually. After that I sum all the drum sounds through a bus and add some compression or limiting with a touch of corrective EQ. Thats one way to get them bangin!
 
i have fl studio 8 and i also have pro tools m powered 8....and i've always heard layering was a good technique but i was skeptical about it....do you know any good places for drum samples off hand?
 
Search the internet. I get drum samples from lots of different sources. You can download torrents, you can search through message boards like these and download kits that people post. you can sample drum hits from random vinyl, you can by sounds at places like guitar center and sam ash, you can download sounds from sound design websites, you can create your own sounds using various different methods, you can hit up people you know that might have they're own libraries...you can combine any and all of these sources as well!
 
yea i've been using torrents and free downloads for a while...what are your thoughts on sampling random thumps and bangs and equing htem to sound like kicks i've seen videos where ppl do that....thats a method to make drum sounds
 
if you use FL Studio you could try my drumpresets for Kick/Snare/Hi-Hat/Percussion.

But layering 4 Kicks will sound distorted. I only use 1 or 2 Kicks max.
 
first of all, you need to start with some quality samples! very important thing! if you work with decent samples, you don't need to layer much! just choose yours sounds wise!
the other thing is mixing your drums right: Volume, Panning, EQing, Compression, Saturation. learn these tools right and compare your stuff with commercial mixes... don't get frustrated, its takes a bit patience first!
 
Layering Samples. FINDING or CREATING Good samples works as well. Stack 3-4 diff kick sounds. 1 w/ a pop. low end, tiny, kick w/ tamb. etc EQ, Compress accordingly. Also try parallel compression (Eq differently)
 
Banging drums is a trick. To make them bang (and not boom) you have to cut some bass frequencies and boost the mids.
 
DRUMS THAT KNOCK sample pack

The short answer is compression, saturation, distortion, some layering, and raising perceived loudness. After all of this, its important that the elements are mixed correctly.

I made a drum kit series for producers called DRUMS THAT KNOCK for producers to accomplish this. All of the sounds are super hard hitting and sound great right out of the pack (no FX needed).

You can check it out at "drumsthatknock (dot com)"
 
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1. Proper samples or good recordings
2. Eq ( where it's necessary )
3. Parallel compression... it's a must!!!
 
When mixing, turning down other instruments is the first step. A super precise tuning of the bass is mandatory
A little clipping at the mastering stage can help. Managing the peak levels is the corner stone.
 
I'm gonna have to make a tutorial on this sometime soon, but a few things to consider:
When you're blending to make a strong kick or snare, the stacking causes the volume to boost. You need to reduce the track volume as you go or it will distort. The combination of lows from dif kicks cause even more volume boost from how the lows interact.
When you hit the compressor- it performs best with the nominal level, so you need to control volume before entering the compressor to get the right response from it.
Next, the awesome sound of drums is a perception-thing, meaning that it sounds one way to us on its own, but dif in context to the mix. Awesome drum sounds are partly an illusion with how they are stacked and blended into the rest of the song. Often what sounds like a killer drum track turns to mush when cranked loud, and drums are meant to sound awesome loud! So, the type of compression deals with this as well. There are 3 main elements; frequency, the overall sound, and transients (there's more, but that's what you are after). Controlling frequencies is key to getting loud and powerful- both together. Part of the sad truth is that we have to trick our perception on this- we trade some of the really awesome sub-lows for perceived loudness more in the 90-150Hz range to get more volume. This loses some of the hit-your-chest impact, but becomes what sounds bigger and louder to us in the context of the song.
Overall sound- upper mids tend to communicate volume better than low mids, and super high frequencies can help with the polished and sweetened sound of drums, but does not communicate a lot about volume or "wham" or "bam" of the attack unless...
#3- the transients. This is the trickiest part to understand, but it is in relation to the lows, the overall sound, and the use of compression. The transient response is the super fast initial attack and what frequencies are making that happen. You can use a transient plugin to increase just the initial transient and give drums massive attack- but they take a lot of peak volume out of the context of the drums. Using compression to give a balance between the bang boom bap whack of the drum and the sustain that helps define its environment and sustain is where you make a signature on the sound. You can get a goo response from a bus compressor with slow attack and fast release, 2:1 or 4:1 ratio and threshold that barely moves the needle. This tends to lock the attack in place and make them sound big with the mix without fluffing it up and making it sound mushy once turned up. For me the successful drum sounds more and more like a real hard attack the louder it is- the peaks need to survive the final mix.
Hope that helps a little.
 
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