Beginner Drum Help

[CodeGray]

I am a beginning beatmaker, transitioning from being just a guitar player for 14 years over to electronic music production, and I can't figure out drums.

The stock sounds in ableton just sound thin for what I want, and then on one hand, I look at different programs, and I dont know if their internal samples are any better, and I look at sites that sell different sound packs, and I don't know if those are any better either. Also, like I get that I'm an amateur, but if I can spend some more money to be able get good samples (or process average samples into goodness, Im not sure how it all works) then I'm down to spend the money, but of the research I've done, I haven't been able to pull any good answers. Thanks.

 

[Fade]

I know what you mean about the sounds being "thin". You can always look for free drum packs. Here's a bunch of free ones I put up a while back.

 

[Kiada]

Get used to layering your drum samples, and play about with the compressor. Check around different forums and websites for drum packs, plenty to be found for free. Most of the contents of the packs are throwaway, but keep digging and you'll find a few gems to get you started. Make a few patches for your chosen drum machine with these gems in that you can load up and quickly get something down if you have an idea.

 

[Armani]

This trick sometimes works , make a snare reverse and put it behind the main snare .
and also make a clap and snare play togheter you know ? make a Clapsnare or Snareclap or Slap ( not sure if these are really words )

 

[Armani]

also you can make the clap play just a little bit sooner than the snare , and make a triangle or something play with the start of the bar and the snare , this usually makes it sound better .

 

[TjombaBeats]

Yeap! Drums i love making drums in a beat! Tip 1 = Layer so not use like 1 kick that's it no no no use 3 kicks instead. hell sometimes i evenn use 6 different kicks to make 2 different kicks so 3 kicks for 1 good sounding kick.

Also try panning so if you have snares and one clap maybe try to pan the clap right and the 1 snare just normal other snare left.

Ussually i start off with selecting the sounds than i start arranging different pitches make the first kick -2 pitch other kick -1 and etc. Afther than start panning a bit not too much try to keep it natural tho like sitting behind the drums for real. you have snare in the middle hats left open hat left kick middle rides maybe right. But that doesn't mean you cant pan the snares and kicks aswell aslong it sounds good all good.

Eventually put a EQ on each kick and try to find the sweetspot of that kick and filter all the rubbish off. Sometimes a kick gives that nice knock than you can really filter off the low end. 808 you want that boom filter the high end off maybe but +1 DB on 125 hz nice curve to make that low end stand out. Snares do the same some snares really use too much low end while snare most likely doesn't need low ends most of the time. But listen ofcourse not every kick needs a EQ sometimes 2 outta 3 kicks need EQ one sounds good as it is with the other 2 kicks. Remember dont use it if it doesn't do the kick justice.. This rule for every plug in you use plug ins to make the sound better not worse.. So really just switch on the eq compare with the EQ off.

Give some kicks a compressor the give it that warm touch or fat touch or punch slap.! Low attack low release, Hard knee, ratio 1,5:1 , 2:1. Threshold check (output drums).

Thing is watch out for those kick samples and look for those little ticking sounds @ the end of the sample make sure you Fade-out the sample to avoid that ticking noises. @ first it might not be a big issue but later on mastering the beat making it louder you need to understand you will make every detail louder aswell.