Are buying drum kits worth it?

B

Backspacez

New member
So today I finally got FL Studio. I've been learning for a few weeks but I've been struggling. Today I watched a video and it all clicked. I found out how bad my drum kits really are, they're all free packs like DJ Premier kit, Kanye West kit and most of the drums are pretty bad and weren't really sampled correctly, some kicks will have a hi hat and other pieces of basslines in them.

So, do you guys actually buy your drum kits, or do you make them? Are there any good free drum kits out there? Let me know, thanks!
 
Backspacez said:
So today I finally got FL Studio. I've been learning for a few weeks but I've been struggling. Today I watched a video and it all clicked. I found out how bad my drum kits really are, they're all free packs like DJ Premier kit, Kanye West kit and most of the drums are pretty bad and weren't really sampled correctly, some kicks will have a hi hat and other pieces of basslines in them.

So, do you guys actually buy your drum kits, or do you make them? Are there any good free drum kits out there? Let me know, thanks!
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Thats definitely a No-No, when it comes to those producer kits like "dj premier kit" or "timbo Kit" ect.. i would stay away from those

I suggest checking out the demos first before buying anything. Most companies have a newsletter you can sign up to and get free sounds too.

Check these out, they all have good sounds

Traumah Drums | Drums Samples For Download For Music Producers
Xclusive-Audio - Home
Free Drum Kits, Premium Drum Samples for FL Studio, Ableton, Logic Pro and More!
PRO Hip Hop Drum Kits, Sounds, Samples & Loops
The Drum Sample Broker - Hip Hop Drum Samples, Drum Sounds, Hip Hop Drum Kits, Break Beats, TR-80 - Welcome
 
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I think having a good set of commercial drums is essential for any hip hop producer. Free kits are usable but take more work to get the sound you want in a lot of cases. That said I use addictive drums for most of my drum needs. Its not a drum sampler in the sense sampling drum hits but instead an emulation of an actual drum kit. I checked it out after seeing !llmind endorse it and I think its the shit.
 
hiphopdrumsamples.com, goldbaby, and traumah are good places to start. i'll buy pretty much anything from them with confidence. a lot of kits you'll drop 30 dollars on a bunch of bull#### though.
 
I know what you mean. Some can sound god awful as you can hear hi hats with the kicks or a note blended in. In short, yeahhh, it's worth buying them However, some of the kits they sell online are pretty terrible. I suggest starting out with Trauma Drums. That's where I started. It all depends on you though, If you are dead serious on producing, you gotta make the necessary sacrifices to achieve your goals.
 
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wow...
...when i started producing you had no choice. You either bought the drum machine or you did the work of searching out your drums digging through records. Its so much easier now to sample and chop your own drums. Then you will not have anybody with your sounds, you can make them sound like you want them too, and nobody will sound like you.

I really do not suggest buying drum sample kits...its a waste of money. You'll end up with thousands of drums sounds and spending your time searching forever.

-735 Music
 
735 Music said:
wow...
...when i started producing you had no choice. You either bought the drum machine or you did the work of searching out your drums digging through records. Its so much easier now to sample and chop your own drums. Then you will not have anybody with your sounds, you can make them sound like you want them too, and nobody will sound like you.

I really do not suggest buying drum sample kits...its a waste of money. You'll end up with thousands of drums sounds and spending your time searching forever.

-735 Music
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yeah that is true, but it takes time to learn how to really make your own sounds. If you dont want to spend time recording your own drums and just want sounds that you can use right out the box then sample packs would be the way to go. It also depends were you buy your kits from, if your buying cheap kits then of course... but if your buying drum kits like from "sounds in hd" then your money is definitely worth it.

Sampling boom bap drums is entirely different tho, because you can dig in the crates find a drum break, kick or snare from a record that you wont find in any drum library.... well if its a hard to find record.
 
the highest echelon of drum kits for sale are better than any free kits and i personally have not been able to pirate any of them, they got their **** on point in that regard. like i said previously traumah, hiphopdrumsamples.com and goldbaby have the best drums IMO.
 
I think people underestimate what comes stock in programs(hear me out).

When I went to expand my drum library, I bought Battery. Still to this day use the drums from that library even without using the module. I use the drums from my MPC 2kxl that I transferred to my computer. I use what came in Reason(Kong has amazing sounds). I still use stock sounds from FL(Vintage & hip hop Kit is my go to). Still use sounds from MTV Music Generator for the Playstation. Even took the time to sample every drum from my triton rack. As I go from program to program, I take any sounds I've found and added to my signature arsenal with me. They're part of MY SOUND.

I think alot of guys are limiting themselves by overlooking stock sounds made by professional sound designers who intend for their sounds to be layered(when needed), mixed to fit a sound/genre(house isn't supposed to thump like Rnb that doesn't thump like Hip hop, ect.), and tweaked to the individual consumer's liking.

The problem I have with alot of these modern "for sale instant bangin drums kits" is the original source of the sounds. Most of them just take sounds from stock kits from stuff like Battery, the Triton, MPCs, ect, and layer and process them for you. You get a sound that "bangs" from the beginning, but never truly "fits" a mix like the original created sample would.

It's even noticeable in newer stock libraries. The sounds in MOTU BPM are too "urban" from being overprocessed, i don't even use the drums that came with my drum machine. I hear the same of alot of sounds in Maschine and it's expansions. I think people have become so obsessed with 'banging drums" without the essential knowledge of mixing that we've entered a world of oversaturated bassy nonsense that sound crappy once mixed but sounds good out the box.

Just my 2 cents, someone pointed out to me I always seem to "go against" whatever's popular, maybe they're right. But I've heard the hollowest low end lacking drums get fattened up into great mixes and was taught to build up sounds the same way. I don't want a normalized, limited, compressed drum that's already been fattened and abused so when I have a sample that's already bassy I'm adding it to, it doesn't fit. I have to turn it down to keep it from clipping just to add more dynamics to it as I'm creating.

IMO that's no better than those net kits where guys yank drums off Lil Jon and Dr. Dre CDs. Just my rant for the day. I'm probably just some idiot who knows nothing about anything. There. Said it for you. Carry on.
 
deranged is always on point lol....

What it is bru is people selling shit knowing that half the mf's that jump in this game arent like us.....they just wanna make beats real fast and get famous/rich real fast....


so they sell them on that idea.

It's crazy to me too to think that not everyone tries to get each sound PERFECT how they want it when making beats....they just throw shit in and put it out....dont even **** with the velocity or none of that.......TURN THAT SHIT ALL THE WAY UP MAX VELOCITY EVERY HIT

I used to be the same way SORTA though so i do kinda understand haha


lol.....its a great thing that music is so easy to make now a days but it's also some what of a curse.....




theres my rant for the day ahaha....too much game for FP
 
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Deranged is on point again. On a side note construction kits are the shit too. I just bought a couple west indian vocal ones and I am chopping them up to layer on top of some of my beats. Shits bananas.
 
I hear the argument against buying over-processed kits. In my opinion Trauma drums etc. are a pile of crap. Anyone who knows how to produce seriously won't touch the stuff, because they are already mastered. Artists will buy the beats to put with their vocals, but then be sorely disappointed with the final product because it sounds like mud when it's been mixed and mastered (again).

That said, I do use some of the Maschine drum samples, and find them crisp and beautifully clear. But others are already maxxed out and useless in terms of dynamics and producing rich sounding tracks. As deRaNged 4 Phuk'dup mentioned far too many people ignore the stock sounds, which in reality are what is used to create many of these big $$$ sound kits.
 
Rusak said:
I hear the argument against buying over-processed kits. In my opinion Trauma drums etc. are a pile of crap. Anyone who knows how to produce seriously won't touch the stuff, because they are already mastered. Artists will buy the beats to put with their vocals, but then be sorely disappointed with the final product because it sounds like mud when it's been mixed and mastered (again).

That said, I do use some of the Maschine drum samples, and find them crisp and beautifully clear. But others are already maxxed out and useless in terms of dynamics and producing rich sounding tracks. As deRaNged 4 Phuk'dup mentioned far too many people ignore the stock sounds, which in reality are what is used to create many of these big $$$ sound kits.
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You'd be surprised how many people want sounds that are stripped from mixed and mastered modern songs. I think modern is important to keep in context because how many of us have sampled break beats from old records and prefer that sound? I know i do.
 
agreed, they want those sounds, out of the box & easy. I think though modern limiting and compression is much heavier than in previous musical generations and the dynamic range of those sweet sounds from old vinyl beats leaves much more room for resampling... I could be wrong, but this is definitely my thoughts/feelings on it.
 
Commercial kits are good for one thing....and that's building sounds around a drum pattern you created with them. In otherwords when you start the beats drums first. When an idea in my head hits me......I never use premade kits, I make my own as I create the music. Nothing processed....I do the processing. And they kick ever kit that is out there ass...because it was meant to be with the track.

Now...for commercial kits that are good for creating your "OWN" drum sounds by layering them.. I would say gold baby and wave alchemy are my choice. I used a couple of free drums that were unprocessed to create drums also. There is a free 808 kit that is unprocessed that I still use.

Good commercial drums to start a beat with (meaning you start with the drums)...I would say Sounds In HD. Maybe more.
 
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Rusak said:
agreed, they want those sounds, out of the box & easy. I think though modern limiting and compression is much heavier than in previous musical generations and the dynamic range of those sweet sounds from old vinyl beats leaves much more room for resampling... I could be wrong, but this is definitely my thoughts/feelings on it.
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I am not saying you are wrong I actually feel the same way you do and have said similar things on here recently most recently when speaking on the Boi1da 2 drum kit but I understand what the people using those kits are looking for. Most of them do not understand why its a bad idea to use those kits in the first place. I choose to understand them and say "Oh well you can f*ck up your mix if you want to" and leave it be.
 
I found most of my good free drum kits through google and visiting forum sites like these..and those free premier/dre/kanye kits do the job too you just may have to do extra work and clean those sounds up. Thats the beauty of being a producer and not just a beatmaker!! But to help you just google: Free dope drum kits and you will get alot of sounds that are up to date and clean mix wise. Hope this helps!!
 
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