Why Do Dr Dre's Drums Sound Louder Than Everything Else

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Mteezy said:
Sampled instrument usually sound way better than live instruments due to all the painstaking compression and eq needed to make it sound good compared to sampled instruments which have already been doctored on. There's nothing wrong with live instruments but they have to mik'd, recorded, compressed, eq'd, d essed, played, layered, controlled, tuned, and gated the right way in which most people think but have to clue of how to do properly. Use gotta choose the right mics to record with and all. Now who's up to that challenge. Pro have access to engineers sometimes maybe 10 working at a time processing all shyt to get it sounding the right way. Do you have that kind of time and money?
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Very true, but if ya know how to work with it the results can be well worth the effort. Just my experience.
 
I just got hip to compression this year. And boy... my kicks sound so awesome! I EQ and layer (optional with me, I mostly layer). :)
 
Broken Friday said:
I just got hip to compression this year. And boy... my kicks sound so awesome! I EQ and layer (optional with me, I mostly layer). :)
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*puts on Aja*
 
Great info on this thread even though I am the dopest beatmaker on this planet I do need to step up my mixing skills.
 
Heres what Aftermath producer Focus said:

The mixing stage is so critical to the end result of the record. Describe some of the mixing techniques used by Dre?

When you’re sitting behind Dre in the studio, He has a different outlook on your beat. When I presented the beat to him, it was more round and Hip Hop feeling.

Dre takes his time with every element of the song. He’ll gate the kick and get it to punch. Once he gets that tight, he’ll bring up the snare.


I myself do the whole beat and then round the beat off.

When you see someone as meticulous as Dre, it’s amazing. He’ll gate every instrument. His outboard gear is amazing.

What tips can you give producers that are trying to get their drums to bang like yours or Dr. Dre?


To be honest all you need to do is turn knobs. When you want to find a sound turn a knob on the EQ. You’ll learn from what you do. If you want a Dre snappin’ snare, maybe turn your mids up and lows down. If you want them claps to feel real warm invert those mids, turn your lows all the way off and crank your highs up to maybe 1 O’clock. There are many things I can tell people but it’s really, what you gather from your EQ.

Hope that helps...
 
For all you "gate makes kick punch"... read again now...:

"He’ll gate the kick and get it to punch." - Focus
 
This is an interview with Dr. Dre from scratch magazine:

http://www.dr-dre.com/info/interview_scratch_dr_dre.php

Here's a couple of the questions....

Can you talk a bit about some of the equipment you use?

I love using the MPC3000. I like setting up like four or five different MPC3000's, so I don't have to keep changing disks. So I have them all lined up, and I have different drum sounds in each one, and then we use one for sequencing the keyboard.


Can tell me a bit about your process of recording drums?

We really take a lot of time on getting the right drum sounds. We EQ the drums before we sample them into the MPC, and then once we come up with the track, we spend a lot of time EQing the drums before we record them into Pro Tools. We take quite a bit of time to get that right, because I know it's one of the things that people like about my music. I've used the same drum sounds on a couple of different songs on one album before but you'd never be able to tell the difference because of the EQ.
 
was xxplosive a breakbeat? that **** was dirty as hell... n i love it!

also, if u like loud drums, check out mobb deeps hell on earth album
 
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Jersey8five6 said:
was xxplosive a breakbeat? that **** was dirty as hell... n i love it!

also, if u like loud drums, check out mobb deeps hell on earth album
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XXXPlosive was sampled from the same breakbeat as Lil' Kim's "Queen B*ch". I always found it wierd because the melody is sampled/interpolated from the same song as "Drugs" by Lil' Kim off the same album.

And for the record, yes, my drums were "gated" on both audio examples I posted. I suggest using asdhr value adjustment for complete control, not an actual Gate effect.
 
The NEVE and SSL analog board and analog tape.. with analog gear you can "slam" the instrument level, Meaning Turn it up as far into the red without distortion...

^ From an engineer that has worked with dr. dre

I don't know the rest of the details.
 
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Madallion said:
The NEVE and SSL analog board and analog tape.. with analog gear you can "slam" the instrument level, Meaning Turn it up as far into the red without it clipping... I don't know the rest of the details.

^ From an engineer that has worked with dr. dre
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The advantage is not that the gear doesn't clip, the advantage is that it doesn't sound as bad when it clips. When people talk about "saturation" they're talking about clipping. When "driving" a pre-amp you're "clipping" it, or at least pushing it.

What most people have to notice is that the guy is not saying that they run their samples through a certain pre/eq/compressor and they call it a day. They never mention presets or a starting point. Notice that they wrote that they "take a lot of time" when working their samples. A lot of time could be an hour, could be two, could be more. It's not 2 minutes of flipping through plugin presets. Whether it's a $50, $500, $5,000, or $500,000 mixing console, it takes time, work, and much patience.
 
sleepy said:
The advantage is not that the gear doesn't clip, the advantage is that it doesn't sound as bad when it clips. When people talk about "saturation" they're talking about clipping. When "driving" a pre-amp you're "clipping" it, or at least pushing it.

What most people have to notice is that the guy is not saying that they run their samples through a certain pre/eq/compressor and they call it a day. They never mention presets or a starting point. Notice that they wrote that they "take a lot of time" when working their samples. A lot of time could be an hour, could be two, could be more. It's not 2 minutes of flipping through plugin presets. Whether it's a $50, $500, $5,000, or $500,000 mixing console, it takes time, work, and much patience.
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I think alot of producers put too much faith in better gear than what they have. If you have a PC you think you need a Mac. If you use Reason and FL you think you need an MPC and Motif. If you use SONAR, Cubase, ect. you think you need pro tools. Use Pro Tools you think you need an SSL or Neve Console.

All you need is a good monitoring chain and the patience to get the sound you want. Nothing else.
 
less sounds in the mix =more space for drums to stand out or sound loud.
 
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Originally Posted By TonyVless sounds in the mix =more space for drums to stand out or sound loud.
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Most definitely. There is two things i notice on lots of Dre's productions is that he doesn't have a lot of useless instruments in his mix. He keeps it very simple, drum, bass, clap/snare, about 3-5 sounds for the melodies, and hi-hats. All the sounds he uses are smartly picked out because they never collide with each other in the mix and they allow the drums to be dominant in the track. He uses hit melodies smartly throughout the song by placing them at various spots in the track never interfering with the frequencies of the percussion elements and drum kit. And the last thing is that Dre focuses on the vocals of rappers like nobody else in the game. The presence, thickness, and livelyness of the vocals in the mix are devastation. It is almost like he takes vocal and adlibs and turn them into melodies instead of just raps. This is what makes Dre a genius.
 
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Mteezy said:
Most definitely. There is two things i notice on lots of Dre's productions is that he doesn't have a lot of useless instruments in his mix. He keeps it very simple, drum, bass, clap/snare, about 3-5 sounds for the melodies, and hi-hats. All the sounds he uses are smartly picked out because they never collide with each other in the mix and they allow the drums to be dominant in the track. He uses hit melodies smartly throughout the song by placing them at various spots in the track never interfering with the frequencies of the percussion elements and drum kit. And the last thing is that Dre focuses on the vocals of rappers like nobody else in the game. The presence, thickness, and livelyness of the vocals in the mix are devastation. It is almost like he takes vocal and adlibs and turn them into melodies instead of just raps. This is what makes Dre a genius.
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i notice this too .i also notice this with steely dan who mixes are as good or better then dre's thanks to roger nichols.:cheers:
 
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TonyV said:
less sounds in the mix =more space for drums to stand out or sound loud.
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i think that sums it all :victory:

Mteezy said:
Most definitely. There is two things i notice on lots of Dre's productions is that he doesn't have a lot of useless instruments in his mix. He keeps it very simple, drum, bass, clap/snare, about 3-5 sounds for the melodies, and hi-hats. All the sounds he uses are smartly picked out because they never collide with each other in the mix and they allow the drums to be dominant in the track. He uses hit melodies smartly throughout the song by placing them at various spots in the track never interfering with the frequencies of the percussion elements and drum kit. And the last thing is that Dre focuses on the vocals of rappers like nobody else in the game. The presence, thickness, and livelyness of the vocals in the mix are devastation. It is almost like he takes vocal and adlibs and turn them into melodies instead of just raps. This is what makes Dre a genius.
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i guess this is why he is DOCTOR DRE...
 
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It's not as much "less sounds" as it is putting all sounds in the right place. Think about Britney, Xtina, N-Sync, Kelly Clarkson. They have great mixes with tons of thing going on. Even Em's beats on albums like D-12's Devil's Night. Matter of fact, listen to The Eminem Show. Game's Documentary album. Way too much stuff going on in those albums. Dre keeps it basic alot of times because that's his style. Nothing to do with how the mix will sit.

Less sounds is only the answer when you don't know where to put them in a mix. Panning & Vol my friends. As simple as it sounds...who ever said making music was rocket science anyway?
 
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