Synth drums (Reason 8)

Olie

Olie

Member
I was hoping someone here could drop some random tips on creating synth drums, improving these ones or link any good tutorials online, I've been stabbing blindly experimenting at this for a few days. I'm using thor in reason 8, here's what I've made so far:



First time i've been back to FP in ages, just want to throw in a quick thank you to Bandcoach and everyone else on this site who has helped me enormously.

Edit: not necessarily going for realism, i would like them to stand out (but sound good).
 
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I'm not keen on that myself so I'd recommend researching synthesis as a whole.
All of it, any tidbit of info you can find on synthesis in general as there are a couple dozen types of synthesis.
Thor itself covers 9 types alone.
Subtractor is meant as one type but can probably do a few more types.
 
KonKossKang said:
I'm not keen on that myself so I'd recommend researching synthesis as a whole.
All of it, any tidbit of info you can find on synthesis in general as there are a couple dozen types of synthesis.
Thor itself covers 9 types alone.
Subtractor is meant as one type but can probably do a few more types.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. Is there anything specific about synthesis i could research? I know Thor and the Subtractor in Reason like the back of my hand at this point. I've looked briefly at the more heady stuff of how synthesis works but I felt there was no practical use from it other than if i wanted to create my own synth software/analog. Researching drum synthesis in google gets me nowhere, all i seem to find is how to make a basic 808 drum rather than concepts to work with. I can post screenshots of what i did with this kit if it helps.

I understand the theory behind how compression works but some of the lack of punch on the kick and other things may be more down to my poor compression skills/choices, so any help on that would be appreciated too if it's more your forte.
 
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those drums sound good. from what i understand, kong is supposed to kinda be a pretty user friendly drum creation unit. ive never used it but it looks pretty cool.


I found this with a quick search "creating drums with synthesizers"
» 29 – Synth Drums from Scratch

should point you in the right direction and it's specific to Reason. but the basics apply to just about any synthesizer once you get around any possible learning curve.
after you learn the basics you'll be making your own drum sounds in no time. it's a very rewarding process.
 
Battery
Kong
Tremor
Drumaxx
Punchbox [commonly used for ableton]
Fpc[FL Studio]
Drumsynth[FL Studio]
And regular synthesizers like zebra/thor/sytrus/harmor/ogun are also suitable for drums if strictly talking synthesis.
 
AudioPhorm said:
those drums sound good. from what i understand, kong is supposed to kinda be a pretty user friendly drum creation unit. ive never used it but it looks pretty cool.


I found this with a quick search "creating drums with synthesizers"
» 29 – Synth Drums from Scratch

should point you in the right direction and it's specific to Reason. but the basics apply to just about any synthesizer once you get around any possible learning curve.
after you learn the basics you'll be making your own drum sounds in no time. it's a very rewarding process.
Click to expand...

Kong is user friendly for sure but the sounds you get from it are dull at best, it would take more time with fx to create any sort of interesting sounding drum from what you can create in Kong than designing from a synth unit. The best course of action right now looks like experimenting more and digging a little deeper with google, I'm probably being too impatient. Thanks.

edit: Here is a screenshot of my Thor set up for the kick in this -

ODJbpPA.png

edit 2: carefully adjusted eq, compression altered the snare a little:
 
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wait, so that link i posted is not what you're looking for?
it seemed to address exactly what you were looking for, as it shows you how to create specific drum sounds with each machine within Reason...and each technique could be applied interchangeably to each device. all you would need to do from there is tweak and experiment, but you would definitely learn the basics.

if that's not what you wanted then i'm not sure how to proceed, or i need a more specific question.
 
AudioPhorm said:
wait, so that link i posted is not what you're looking for?
it seemed to address exactly what you were looking for, as it shows you how to create specific drum sounds with each machine within Reason...and each technique could be applied interchangeably to each device. all you would need to do from there is tweak and experiment, but you would definitely learn the basics.

if that's not what you wanted then i'm not sure how to proceed, or i need a more specific question.
Click to expand...

The problem is he is making specific sounds, it would have helped me when i wanted to make my first kit but what would be awesome now is a more conceptual approach explaining the recreation of the harmonics of a kick drum, how to recreate it realistically, the limitations of creating it from a synth, where you could bend the rules to create something crazy that would still feel like a drum etc. Basically showing good starting points and concepts to experiment with, theoretical stuff. Learning that sort of thing would remove a lot of the guess work and i could experiment in a better way. It was useful though, helped affirm that my compression was off and it contributed to the second version i just posted, thank you.
 
ah, ok i see what you mean now. well, now it's going to be more of an experimentation endeavor on your part anyway.
as for enhancing harmonics, serial distortion might help to serve you well.
sidechain distortion, sidechain eq maybe?

i've been where you're at and have found very scant literature on how to proceed beyond the basics. if i knew of it, i'd share it but i think it's going to be up to you to find your own concepts and style. simple changes in the basic drum sounds can change things quite drastically.

i'm not familiar with your level of experience, but simple changes or modulating (or assigning an LFO to) the pitch envelope, modulation envelope and amp envelope are good places to start with creating experimental drum sounds. i start with a basic sound then make subtle changes. sometimes attempting to go extreme all at once grinds your decent foundation into nonsensical noise, which im sure youve already experienced.

edit: if you are looking to recreate the harmonics of a "real" bass drum or other real drum kit sounds, you might have a tough time without layering acoustic drums over/under your synth drums. i went through the same dilemma shortly after i began attempting to make music and was always dissatisfied with my drums, but back then i did not know that all of the people who i looked up to were sampling old funk/soul/rock n roll breakbeats. as far as i know, it is impossible to replicate the dynamics and sound of a real drum kit with synth sounds. you can fool regular people, but everyone who makes music will know the difference between synth and acoustic drums.
 
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Sidechain eq is something i haven't ever even thought about before, so that's something to try. The most I've found is very complex mathematical equations that have zero hope of being practical. Experimentation it is. I'm hoping to make at least one track where every sound is comprised of just the thor synth and possibly some of the Reason's Subtractor.
 
like i said, i dont know how experienced you are or how long youve been doing this. i want to encourage and compliment you but dont want it to come across the wrong way :cheers: if youve been at it for awhile then cheers, with good beers.


but...you will figure it out, for sure. totally possible to make some badass stuff with those devices and i admire your drive to want to go beyond and using the limitations within the machines to stoke your creative drive.
believe it or not, youre strides ahead of most in your thought process and imaginative potential.
 
AudioPhorm said:
like i said, i dont know how experienced you are or how long youve been doing this. i want to encourage and compliment you but dont want it to come across the wrong way :cheers: if youve been at it for awhile then cheers, with good beers.


but...you will figure it out, for sure. totally possible to make some badass stuff with those devices and i admire your drive to want to go beyond and using the limitations within the machines to stoke your creative drive.
believe it or not, youre strides ahead of most in your thought process and imaginative potential.
Click to expand...

I've been doing it for a few years now (with breaks where I've focused more on writing) but there's always holes in my knowledge from being self taught and different people have different perspectives so i would rather be seen as a newbie and have people explain something i know because they will probably drop something unexpected that I've missed in the middle of it (like sidechaining eq). Besides that I am pretty much a newbie by definition seeing as I've only created around 6 drum patches so far.

If you have any music with interesting synth drums it would be cool to hear it. I'm curious how a track will end up sounding made from just one synth more than anything and having entirely original sound without having to sample a thing. A compliment? i'll reluctantly take it. :cheers:
 
KonKossKang said:
I use reason instead of going strictly vsts because I basically just use every module depending on situation :/
Click to expand...

I do it for experimentation and fun, I'm not in a rush to create a hit song. I would prefer to have to spend double the time to do something unique, not that you can't be unique while using every module but you have to change something to get a new result and this was an interesting thing to change for me.
 
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