Masking drums in samples

Taun Taun Taunt

Taun Taun Taunt

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So I'm working on a song, and I want to use one of my samples during a part with no drums inserted. The sample, however, does have drums in it, and I'm lost on what to do in order to keep them from being noticeable. The only thing I can come up with is finding a quiet synthpad that matches the pitch of the high-hats (the part that's noticeable), and trying to add that over it, but I also have no idea how to do that, or if it would even work. Does anyone have a technique to do this sort of thing?
 
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There are a few things you can do. In Ableton if you have your sample in arrangement mode, you can CTRL+E to break it up right after the hihat you want to get rid of so you have 2 different clips. In the first clip, put a warp marker before the hihat and drag it over to stretch the sound out. It works sometimes but you'll probably have to correct some other things as well.

Another thing I do a lot to get rid of undesirable things (esp vocals) is I have the sample as a 1 bar loop, and I CTRL+E just the thing I'm trying to get rid of. Then just on that one part I move the loop start point 1 bar at a time until it lands on a bar that has what I want without what I don't. A lot of the time you can do this to get an instrumental phrase out of a track that doesn't actually exist on its own anywhere.
 
EQ is your best friend. I love fabfilter pro-q. It used to be a real pain in the ass though but now with
fabfilters pro-q2 damn the 92Db brickwall shape is perfect for filtering drums and bass.

I just listen to the high mid part and look where the noticeable smack of the hats are and try to subtly filter that out.
with some samples Mid/Side processing works real good. If the engineer panned or spread the hats or whatever you trying to filter out you can use a mid/side eq and cut all the mid or side information. Sometimes both use mid for the smack mid high region and cut sides on the higher freqs.

If you double the snare of the sample you can cut more highs and more of the smack cause (most of the times) your own snare and hats will or should be dominant in those area's.

Hope this was helpfull
El
 
You know what i'm just going to share some more secret tips.
Note; like said above you will never isolate anything in a sample a 100% (only with a big stereo sample with lots of information in the sides.)

Tip 1: Steep EQ. If you don't have an eq with 64+ db steep filters then cop one. You can do so much more and be more precise with it.

Tip 2: De-esser to filter out snare's. set the de-esser around 3000hz (play with it) and use it in wideband mode (like the waves ren de-esser). Sometimes you have to boost your snare around 3000hz to make it louder and let your de-esser only act when the snare comes in. (try the same technique for kicks and other loud hits) this doesnt work so well with hi-hats

Tip 3: just to isolate a snare in lets say a drumbreak use a soundgate with sidechain function. Don't use external sidechain just the internal sidechain filter (most soundgates have that) and filter everything above 5Khz and everything below 450Hz out of the sidechain so that the soundgate only reacts on the information in the middle. use a range of like -50db. Fast attack and play with the rest of the settings so you can get more sustain out of your snare and make it stop before the next hi-hat comes in. Then use a eq to filter out the things you don't want.

Tip 4: With big stereo samples which contain a lot of panned information you can use an imager (i love Waves S1) cop one and try every function out with your stereo samples. take the left side and make it mono in the middle, do the same with the right side. try reversing the phase of left or right channel. just really play with it. A lot of 70s records and stuff before that is panned and mixed like this. so it's a pefect way to isolate certain instruments or to get rid of it.

Tip 5: i said it again but now with more depth: MID SIDE PROCESSING!!! like i said a lot of 70's records are panned and have a broad stereo field. use it to your advantage. sometimes with instrumental parts every instrument is panned to the sides and what remains in the middle is a funky break with a bassline and maybe some percussion. Try it with every sample you use just to get different variations. brainworx makes awesome plugins with a lot of mid/side freedom. like you can eq just the sides or just the mids. you can eliminate all the sides and keep the mid or the other way around. Play with this too.


I payed some cash to get all this information it has done wonders for myself and I hope it helps some of you out too.
i'm not getting payed for endorsments but plugins i recommend for the tasks are: Pro-EQ2 by fabfilter real steep filters if needed and mid/side processing, left/right processing just everything you need in an EQ
Waves S1 imager it's just awesome to play with samples and see how you can isolate certain things this way.
brainworx plugins. also mid/side freedom and processing and even for the mastering stage of making low end mono, getting a broader end product.

Now that i've shared some secrets i gotta find new ones haha. I hope this was useful and i'd love to hear replies with how they work for you. And ofcouse new tips on isolating sounds in samples.

El
 
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