Question about Your Drums vs The Samples Drums

S

StanleySteamer

New member
Hey FP, I have a big question about sampling and my/your drums vs the drums that are already in the sample that i am sampling. Basically I am wondering how do I get my drums to perfectly stack over the samples drums? I use FL Studio and sometimes if I go into the piano roll and snap the line to none and offset things a little bit they tend to work in some spots but not all. It's mainly with kicks and snares that are already in the sample that I am having problems with. I don't necessarily want them filtered out either with a low end eq cut. I have heard a few things about using the swing module but I am not too sure how that works. Anyways, any feedback is much appreciated thanks.

Also one more thing, when layering your drums how many kicks/claps/snares are you stacking on top of each other? sometimes i feel like i over layer sometimes i feel like i under layer.
 
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You're on the right track. Turn snap to none and then adjust each one until it works. Alternatively, if you just want to beef up the sample's kick with a more bassy kick or something, you can add some attack to your own drum and that will let you be less perfect with lining up things (you still have to be close though) and achieve the same effect. You should also be sure that you've made a good loop. A lot of older music isn't robotic and perfectly on the grid but unless it's like some experimental jazz, it shouldn't be way way off to where you're having major issues.

As for stacking... sometimes I find I need to be told the obvious answer before it's obvious to me too so don't take this as an insult but I mean, the simple fix is if you feel like you haven't added enough, add more. If you feel like you've added too much, start removing.

Also, on your snare, maybe offset each sample a little bit. Messing with the volume envelope can help if you're to make some mutant sound that like the attack on one sample, the body of another, and tail of another. Even for less crazy concotations, it can help when you feel like you're there but there's one thing inside the stack that's proving to be an issue at times.
 
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Thanks for the replys guys I do appreciate it. As far as Mr. SickVisionz said I kind of knew I was on the right track somewhere at least with what I was doing. As far as the looping though my chops are normally pretty good and on time. My main question left is still the swing. How does it work and how effective is it and will it help solve my problem with getting my drums to stack properly over the samples drums?
 
StanleySteamer said:
Thanks for the replys guys I do appreciate it. As far as Mr. SickVisionz said I kind of knew I was on the right track somewhere at least with what I was doing. As far as the looping though my chops are normally pretty good and on time. My main question left is still the swing. How does it work and how effective is it and will it help solve my problem with getting my drums to stack properly over the samples drums?
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You might have to edit those samples as close to the highest transient as possible my man. Here is a trick in FL I like doing to edit samples: Drag your loaded sample into the edit window from the sampler. At the top (the toolbars) you will see a snap option, you can either click on it and choose "none", or press backspace (shortcut) to change it. After it is at "none", in the edit window choose the "slip tool" ( looks like two arrows pointing away from each other), you can slip your samples as far to the left edge as you want to get a precise hit of your sample. You can render that individual file out and load it back into FL sampler. If you still want it to swing, you can swing it in the channel window/pattern window. But nothing will fix your issue until the sample is edited properly. Hope this is helpful.
 
Wacco Stern said:
You might have to edit those samples as close to the highest transient as possible my man. Here is a trick in FL I like doing to edit samples: Drag your loaded sample into the edit window from the sampler. At the top (the toolbars) you will see a snap option, you can either click on it and choose "none", or press backspace (shortcut) to change it. After it is at "none", in the edit window choose the "slip tool" ( looks like two arrows pointing away from each other), you can slip your samples as far to the left edge as you want to get a precise hit of your sample. You can render that individual file out and load it back into FL sampler. If you still want it to swing, you can swing it in the channel window/pattern window. But nothing will fix your issue until the sample is edited properly. Hope this is helpful.
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Thanks for the response! I kind of get what you are saying here but what is the edit window you speak of? I probably know what it is just having trouble identifying it lol. But anyways if you could elaborate on that and tell me more about properly editing my sample so I can properly place my drums in there greatly appreciated.
 
StanleySteamer said:
Thanks for the response! I kind of get what you are saying here but what is the edit window you speak of? I probably know what it is just having trouble identifying it lol. But anyways if you could elaborate on that and tell me more about properly editing my sample so I can properly place my drums in there greatly appreciated.
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My fault..i meant the "playlist window". I just got done using pro tools lol. Use the top portion of the playlist window to edit samples (track1, track2, etc) Don't use the patter playlist portion of it, its not for editing samples. Playlist window button can be found at the top just like everything else. From the FL sampler, you can drag any sample waveform in there. It's basically an edit window. Here is a good FL Studio tip: anything you scroll over, there is a little window in the top left underneath where it says file, edit channels, etc..anything you scroll over that little window will tell you what it you just scrolled over.

Shortcut for Playlist window: F5
 
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just chop the sample on every beat.
than sequence it like it was original.

Your drums will be in time now if you put every Snare on the 2d & 4th beat.
 
mark1234 said:
just chop the sample on every beat.
than sequence it like it was original.

Your drums will be in time now if you put every Snare on the 2d & 4th beat.
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Yea man just do that. FL Studio help will help you out with that. Just type chop in the search engine. FL Studio doesn't tell you that you gotta right click the little waveform in the upper-left of your clip. You will see it thought if you know what I am talking about. That little waveform thing thing will give you a drop down menu of how you wanna chop it up.
 
When processing or creating drums I will either decide if I want to use a break or if I want to actually write my own...

I typically layer 1-2 kicks, 2-3 snares and 1-2 hi-hats and some other percussion, depending on the vibe.

Analyze your track and do whatever sounds better to you, just experiment and play.
 
StanleySteamer said:
...how do I get my drums to perfectly stack over the samples drums?
Click to expand...

I don't use fl so i could be way off here and the other replies are more suited to the problem, but to me it sounds like you could just layer the drums that you want layered in the sampler so they're triggered with the same key and move the anchor point for each sample so each is triggered correctly (with respect to the other). Or does this not address the problem?
 
mark1234 said:
just chop the sample on every beat.
than sequence it like it was original.

Your drums will be in time now if you put every Snare on the 2d & 4th beat.
Click to expand...

When you say chop the sample on every beat, do you mean every one bar? That sounds like it would take forever lol
 
Wacco Stern said:
My fault..i meant the "playlist window". I just got done using pro tools lol. Use the top portion of the playlist window to edit samples (track1, track2, etc) Don't use the patter playlist portion of it, its not for editing samples. Playlist window button can be found at the top just like everything else. From the FL sampler, you can drag any sample waveform in there. It's basically an edit window. Here is a good FL Studio tip: anything you scroll over, there is a little window in the top left underneath where it says file, edit channels, etc..anything you scroll over that little window will tell you what it you just scrolled over.

Shortcut for Playlist window: F5
Click to expand...

OK now I know what you are talking about. So once I drag my sample chops onto the playlist how do I do the transient thing you were describing?
 
StanleySteamer said:
When you say chop the sample on every beat, do you mean every one bar? That sounds like it would take forever lol
Click to expand...

well, sampling does take a lot of time if you wanna use big parts of the sample.
Usually 1 bar has 4 beats.
1 Kick 2 Snare 3 Kick 4 Snare usually
 
StanleySteamer said:
OK now I know what you are talking about. So once I drag my sample chops onto the playlist how do I do the transient thing you were describing?
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With the slip tool. It's a tool in the playlist editor window. It looks like 2 arrows pointing away from each other ( <> ) You can slip the waveform within the actual clip without having to move the clip.
But you also might have to chop the sample to get the individual kick, hihat, snare, etc. Just drag the waveform close to the left edge so it hits on the transient to match the sample you want to overlay.
You can also use the Edison for this as well. Open Edison in the mixer, load your sample, highlight what you don't want, and click delete. Once you are happy with the sound in the Edison, save sample. You can zoom in further in the Edison rather than the playlist window and you can get a better sample hit. If you notice in the Edison plugin, when you zoom in too far, it starts turning into little dots, seems weird but that's how sound is joined to together.
 
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Ok thanks for all the advice everyone. I am just wondering one last thing. So between using the playlist editor window, chopping samples up beat for beat(which to be honest I think will take too long and be too many chops but we will see), or just flat out snapping my line to none and adjusting on the piano roll and stuff; which of these methods do you guys think will work and be the most efficient for me? I am honestly leaning toward just keeping on using the piano roll and snapping the line to none and adjusting but something tells me that I wont always get it right on there.
 
StanleySteamer said:
Ok thanks for all the advice everyone. I am just wondering one last thing. So between using the playlist editor window, chopping samples up beat for beat(which to be honest I think will take too long and be too many chops but we will see), or just flat out snapping my line to none and adjusting on the piano roll and stuff; which of these methods do you guys think will work and be the most efficient for me? I am honestly leaning toward just keeping on using the piano roll and snapping the line to none and adjusting but something tells me that I wont always get it right on there.
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It's up to you. Have patience. No need to rush with music unless you are creating a track for a client and they need like yesterday. If you end up chopping beat by beat, you can always copy and paste.
I'm telling you man, using the slip tool works wonders. After using the slip tool, and making a sample as short as possible without affecting it, you can render it to a WAV sample, save it to your individual sound library, and you can always use it later if you love it. Save Save Save.
 
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