Dirty Drums...

[Carpe Diem]

OK, soooooo, I can and do make my drums sound rather dirty, but recently I've been more on a soulful kinda tip (Madlib, Dilla etc), and their drums blow me away (as I'm sure they do you too)...

I'm just wondering, is there anyway to make your drums sound 'old' and 'dusty' (ie Dilla-esq) using FX in Reason?! I've had some success with the Skream, although it does harm the highs and compression of the track (all of which can be fixed, but the outcome isn't as strong)...

Any tips are greatly appreciated, thanks!!!

PS - Yes, I've read the dirt drums tutorial!!!

 

[Formant024]

buy a 2inch reel record onto that and sample from reel again using good AD. You can do the same with a cassette tape, but then use 2 instead so you can play from tape and record onto the other and repeat that again but play from recorded tape and record from which you just had played.

the digital stuff wont cut it on reason unless you rewire onto a platform that is also a vst host. Than I'd say vintage warmer cuz it has tape saturation, Amplitube in order to give your instrument tracks that classic tube sounds.

 

[Agent Smith]

plus keep in mind that cats like that, especially madlib record their samples suuper loud. they can because it's analog stuff the are messing with. that's what formant is talking about. as far as reason goes, mess with compression a lot so you can give them that pushed sound without having them clip. also, you can mess with the unison effect if you don't mind not having your drums at absolute center. there's mad possibilities in reason, just gotta flip the rack over and plug away.

 

[Formant024]

have a seperate mixer for drums and just compress on the master of that mixer ( i cant recall if reason had groups/busses).

 

[Agent Smith]

there's an fx loop on the mixer with room for 4 fx. you can turn up their intensity and apply them to diff channels.

 

[Carpe Diem]

Cool, guess its just a matter of trial and error... Slightly off topic, but hardware... What kinda stuff do these guys use? Is it worth investing in it?

 

[Formant024]

Id also suggest wiring an eq in between that bus.

 

[Agent Smith]

madlib uses an sp-303 and that's it. mad cheap but as 9th wonder put it, "his ear is stupid". Dilla used an sp1200 i think...not sure though.

 

[alkota]

Stack your drums... layer like 5-10, eq, compress... you also gotta remember that their projects are mixed/mastered too, so the sounds you are hearing have gone through extra processing and will thus hit hard and sound louder...

 

[Formant024]

madlib uses an sp-303 and that's it. mad cheap but as 9th wonder put it, "his ear is stupid". Dilla used an sp1200 i think...not sure though.

They both use engineers too, stacking and layering is definitly an option when you're into flat dynamics. I luv shit with headroom, punchy drums and bass with almost a full range of frequencies, add up all your channels and add your drumstacking and your left with Phil Spector on hiphop..