making beats come aliveeeeeee

D

dankness

Guest
how can i make my tracks sound more human and less like a plane computer track?
 
Well i think that has a lot to do with programming experience. Sometimes it is very useful to quantize single notes manaually, so that they are not straight on the grid....
It also very good to add some "real recorded" instruments, e.g. add a 16th shaker track that you have played by hand to you programmed beats. This adds a lot of "human touch"...
 
dankness said:
how can i make my tracks sound more human and less like a plane computer track?
Click to expand...

What program do you use? And yes, over quantizing can make tracks sound stiff.
 
dankness said:
how can i make my tracks sound more human and less like a plane computer track?
Click to expand...
Let a human play the parts. Rely on quantizing only to fix glaring mistakes.
 
practice and programming...

Alot of Dre's stuff falls exactly on an 8th (except for the bassline)...

But his drums, hats, ghost notes and main instrument often do...

and his stuff still sounds natural...

Though over quantizing is probably the biggest mistake normally..
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I don't really see how Dre's stuff sound more natural than other producers' stuff. I don't think hip-hop beats ever sound natural for that matter.
 
I agree to that. hiphop beats mostly sound relatively static to me. but sometimes you can recognize some human-touch elements like shuffle / swing in them.
 
Alot of programs allow you to "randomize" MIDI Data. Meaning every note will have a slightly different velocity, add a swing on some notes, ghost notes.

Also a key to making real sounding drum beats is make sure its something a real drummer can play. You cant have 2 hats, snare, tom, kick, etc all playing at once. A Drummer only has 2 arms.
 
play also with the velocities, but not to extreme. Most of the players (99,999999%) don't push their key's/string/drumsticks constantly with the same velocity. for the same reason you got to program you melodies a very little of beat (i mean 1/32 bar or less) to get the natural feeling

use layers of drum samples with small differences (especially on hi hat)

use good sounding sounds, if you can't find a realistic sound/synth for your part, go the opposite (electronic) and not the cheap fake realistic, cause that sucks.

but the main thing is, if possible, use musicians who play that part, and record it decent.
 
i like using automation to create constant subtle change in things throughout the track. changing the velocity is good advice. i will have a constant 'wobble' on veloctiy, attack, decay, filters, all kinds of stuff. then i set those 'wobbles' to loop at like 2 or 8 or 32 bars or whatever... but velocity on hihats is a good one like selector said. ya gotta try that.




peace.
 
Learn how instruments should be played. If you have to take lessons or sit and mimic musicians do that.

Turn off the quantize.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top