Wet vs Dry Samples...???

C

Chew_Bear

New member
Something just finally dawned on me and its making me feel all confused and messing up my workflow. It finally dawned on me just how 'processed/wet' some samples are...VS...others that might be more 'dry/organic'.

For example...A 'pryda' type snare sample for EDM/House/Dance type music/genres that is clearly heavily processed in order to have that big/long reverb tail. Versus...say a snare from a 'real' drum kit made for slower/chill/indie type music/genres that clearly warrants a snare that is more organic/natural sounding with no processing at all.

So...

1. Are you 'NOT' supposed to use effects (reverb, delay, chorus etc) on a sample that is already wet/heavily processed to begin with...?

2. How about sampling...? Everyone knows that when you sample from a song...clearly its already processed, mixed and mastered to the fullest already. Should you not put effects on these and keep them as 'clean/raw' as possible...?

3. Is all this dependent on what kind of music style/genre your working in...? (EDM vs Hip Hop vs Indie etc)

Reason for the confusion...everyone knows that a lot of sample packs these days have heavily processed/wet samples already and you really don't need to do much in the form of effects. It would seem that the more effects you use...it just makes the sample that much more heavily processed/compressed. Therefore...won't it just suck the 'life' out of the sound and make it unpleasing...?

I just get really confused when I hear a sample that is heavily processed already from the get go and seems like it doesn't need any more reverb, delay, chorus etc....BUT...I end up putting effects on it anyways just to hear what it might do to the sound and if it would be any better.
 
Wet samples have advantage when something was recorded within a hall. Real hall (&stereo I think) etc. is the best. But good effects can do the job of course.
It depends on sample. If it's too wet additional long reverb will make it swampy.
Processed samples leave less possiblities for making your own sound.
If an effect works thats great. With a sample it would be harder to make something but it may work, depends on song and what's currently playing.
So yes some sound may become unpleasant. You can try using more dry samples. Some things are good when they're wet and other things are good in front of the mix.
 
Don't use sample packs :)
Sorry to be blunt, but if you really want to learn to make electronic music you need to know how to make the sounds... or at least how the sounds you're using break down, like okay this sounds like a subtractive synth with effects X and Y on it. The synth itself is nothing more than some oscillators and yes.. a chain of effects.

To make an analogy with other musicians.. just using sample packs is would be like a guitarist only using his right hand to hit the strings. I'm not saying: sample packs are bad, don't use them..
but they're really unhelpful if you actually want to learn how to make and manipulate sounds yourself. If you learn that, a premade sample becomes more like a building block, not an end-result in need of refinement.
But with most synthesizer sounds, it eventually becomes was faster and easier to just make what you want instead of searching for it.

All that wet/dry means is how much of a given effect is mixed into the signal, it doesn't say anything about what it sounds like. The 'wet' (as in water) sound a reverb can give has nothing to do with this.
 
thedjjudah said:
Personally, I would never use a wet sample. Why not have a dry sample and add the effects to your taste?
Click to expand...

Going by this logic.. drum 'n bass wouldn't exist.. Most dance and hiphop neither for that matter.

'wet sample' isn't a correct use of the term anyway. A sample is a sample.. a recorded sound, any sound.
Dry or Wet are relative terms describing how much of a certain effect gets added to the signal chain, as a percentage, during recording.
Plugins or effects will produce a 'dry' signal and 'wet' signal which you can mix together (eg. 20% dry, 80% wet)
 
Cyko said:
Everything is processed, there is no such thing as a dry sound
Click to expand...

Ha, was gonna say the same thing - pretty much the only thing that's "dry" is the original, raw, recorded sample. And if you record real drums in a room, they'll have the sound of that room, so they're not really dry either. I do get that the point of the original question was about obviously processed/heavily effected sounds, but well...there's a line somewhere, and since it's fairly blurry, I guess that sort of shines the right kind of light on the question: it doesn't matter, as long as it sounds good.
 
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