Jump to content

how do you create drum/percussion sounds?


Recommended Posts

A bit of everything for me. Some live drum recording along with drum doubling, quantizing, editing etc. Sometimes I splice samples and sometimes I use Logic's stock plug-ins. I find the acoustic samples to be awesome in Logic. As for the electronic ones, I'm not the best person to ask as I don't use many of them in my workflow. When I need one I tend to create and/or synthesize my own because I have a precise idea of what I want which would probably take me too long to find as a sample/patch.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

btw what you guys think about logic's stock drum sounds? both the acoustic and electric ones, and the drums from apple loops, are they mediocre or great?

 

I really like Ultrabeat electronic kits, some electronic kits from Drum Designer. About acoustic samples...well, drum kits are OK, the main problem with the kicks in almost every live drum kit. They are terrible...

 

also Logic has some things which are a true fail. And one of these - a PRODUCER KITS. Most of them are sounding poor in default. Really.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is nice to be creative and create every element of the track alone. You can create the drums percussion almost

with every synth on the market. But really, it is necessary to create your own drums? There are enought samplepacks on the market for cheap and there are a lot of free samples too. With single adjustment in Samplers like Ultrabeat or EXS24 some enveloping or pitching, add some filtering you can turn every drum Sample in good sounding drum.

However I use Mostly FXpansion Geist2 and Battery of NI.

 

Edit: I create my own drum kicks with Sonic Academy Kick2, this is the only one drum that I prefer to create , to stick better with the rolling base line of psy-trance music, I use sampled kicks if I want to make some drops/Impacts with Reverb and Delay. For Kick rolls I am Sampling my main kick with EXS24. I am taking the other percussion elements from Sample Libaries most and load them in to Sampler for editing. If there is not needed an editing I drop the sample directinto the seq. window.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Echoing some of Trigue's thoughts: (maybe?)

 

To me, the hardest thing to do is to get a decent-sounding drum performance, since I am not a drummer and (usually ...) I don't want my track to sound like a "drum machine." Fortunately, there are a lot of both audio and MIDI loops that were prepared by real human drummers. (The MIDI loops are particularly useful as sources of "MIDI event streams" that you probably never would have come up with on your own, unless you are the drummer that I'm not. They're also great for getting you "90% of the way there.")

 

Then, the sounds are kinda like asking "a God drummer" to move from one kit to another. A "God drummer" can make a dime-store kit sound fantastic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

For years I used to program drums in midi, either finger drumming on pads, or using a keyboard. I’d use the ESX24 sampler preset for drum kits, or create my own custom sampler instruments. That’s all way easier now with Drum Machine Designer - just drag in your fav samples and play, or use Step Sequencer.

 

For speed I still sometimes use Drummer. Adjust a few setting, cut and paste sections for intro, verse and chorus and you get a reasonable road map with high quality sound.

 

If I’m after something unique I’ll drag in a sample or song into Quick Sampler, slice and chop sections, then modify the parts I want to use. Drag them into Drum Machine Designer or directly onto a track.

 

A cheat I learned is to drag in an entire song mp3. Use the Drum Track type to create midi. It will read the transients on the mp3 audio wave and create midi that captures the performance. Usually good for kick and snare, maybe toms, but not too effective for cymbals.

 

A relatively small investment in these techniques pays off big time for creating high quality drum tracks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Hi there can you or somebody else elaborate on this paragraph a bit more and does it have to be mp3?

 

A cheat I learned is to drag in an entire song mp3. Use the Drum Track type to create midi. It will read the transients on the mp3 audio wave and create midi that captures the performance. Usually good for kick and snare, maybe toms, but not too effective for cymbals.

 

thanks in advance

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
Hi there can you or somebody else elaborate on this paragraph a bit more and does it have to be mp3?

 

A cheat I learned is to drag in an entire song mp3. Use the Drum Track type to create midi. It will read the transients on the mp3 audio wave and create midi that captures the performance. Usually good for kick and snare, maybe toms, but not too effective for cymbals.

 

thanks in advance

I'm assuming that's what was meant:

 

Follow-rhythm.png.909c21f2f75b6687be8ea310771cca14.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Um... I have no idea where to find 'Follow' or even how to implement this? Could you explain how to create midi from Audio and what I have to do to achieve this.

 

Thanks again

First, create a Drummer track, then have your audio file onto an audio track. In the Drummer editor, click Follow and select the audio track from the pop-up menu:

 

drummer-follow.thumb.gif.05431b33e5adb39a2ebfda237bc89e41.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes... I LOVE it—I didn't realise it was so easy to set-up. Thanks so much!

I always look at this site (EVERYDAY) to see what is happening and I have learnt a lot from here... I am now up to speed with Logic (after two years) and now I am better On LP than PT...

 

I'm glad I changed DAWS—it has been hard but worth it :)

 

thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes... I LOVE it—I didn't realise it was so easy to set-up. Thanks so much!

I always look at this site (EVERYDAY) to see what is happening and I have learnt a lot from here... I am now up to speed with Logic (after two years) and now I am better On LP than PT...

 

I'm glad I changed DAWS—it has been hard but worth it :)

Great! Happy to hear! :D

 

I too come to this site everyday and learn TONS. :mrgreen:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...