programming drum breaks
- Thread starter 046oh
- Start date
You have to break everything down in your mind. Try this... try to visualize yourself (or someone else if you prefer) actually playing the drum break on a drum kit, as you want it to sound. Imagine where and at which point in time each drum is going to be hitting. Get an idea of how you want the beat to sound and then actually imagine yourself playing it in slow motion. This is what I do when I'm laying out some type of intricate drum fill or something. So once you can slow it down and visualize everything in your mind playing in slow motion and you can picture each drum being it where and when you want it to be played, literally cut your BPM down to 25%-50% of what it is currently set at and actually program the drums in slow motion... so you can actually put the break/fill together in "slow motion". Then once you have it how you think you want it, put the tempo back up to where it was originally and play it at full speed and see if it sounds how you want. If you need to make changes, listen for where and what you want the change to be and sound like, then cut the tempo back down and adjust what you need to adjust and then reset the tempo back to normal, do this until it sounds how you want it to sound and everything is tight how it is supposed to be. After you get more used to programming drums you probably won't even have to slow the tempo down, you'll be so used to conveying what is in your head to your drumkit that you'll be able to make breaks/fills/etc. at the drop of a hat.
A couple things I would definitely recommend though -
1. Make sure you are using quality sounds for your drums, you can find free professional drum kits all over the internet, I've never paid for single sound in my library and I must have thousands at this point.
2. Check out some tutorials on how to make your drums sound more realistic with the use of things like manipulating velocity/panning/layering/use of effects/etc.
You could program a dope fill, everything tight, right on time, etc, but if you're using some dry, weak ass audio samples for your drums it's going to sound terrible regardless.
Hope this helped. Good luck man.
A couple things I would definitely recommend though -
1. Make sure you are using quality sounds for your drums, you can find free professional drum kits all over the internet, I've never paid for single sound in my library and I must have thousands at this point.
2. Check out some tutorials on how to make your drums sound more realistic with the use of things like manipulating velocity/panning/layering/use of effects/etc.
You could program a dope fill, everything tight, right on time, etc, but if you're using some dry, weak ass audio samples for your drums it's going to sound terrible regardless.
Hope this helped. Good luck man.
bandcoach
Zukatoku - Mod Scientist
kis
keep it simple
vary one aspect only - maybe add a few snare drops, or add them as tom or kick drops
drop out your hats - a real drummer cannot continue to play real hi-hat patterns whilst playing the various drums in quick succession
at the same time consider using a timing stomp on the foot pedal of the hats (i.e. close the hats with the foot pedal sample rather than a hit or a foot released hit)
look into rudimental drumming for ideas on how to structure your drum fills - single stroke rolls around the toms are all well and good but look at double stroke and the various paradiddles as well as ruffs, drags and flams
silence is as powerful as sound when constructing a break....