How do you program your drum arrangements?

Discussion in 'Working with Sound' started by HappyFork, Jan 30, 2020.

  1. CharlieCrizzle

    CharlieCrizzle Kapellmeister

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    i play pads and sequence on a Push. I personally love it and have never ventured off into drumming vsts except for Nerve
     
  2. hani king

    hani king Platinum Record

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    i use many ways
    1 using plugins like Ueberschall or stylus or any other plugin with drums library
    2 i do layers for kick/snare/hats/others then send everything to bus or sometimes only kick and snare in one bus with little fx
    and everything else to another bus with little fx then i would mix the 2 busses (and add fx to glue them )
    then comes the easy part with making bass/chords/pads patterns with my selected midi files and modify the melodies to the project style

    once you do all that ,then start choose better keys (and save your project every time )
    make few versions with new sounds of the track and SAVE

    burn few wavs of those versions and listen to them for a few days (and pick where the sound gets boring /FIX/WITH 1 FINAL MIX/VERSION
    then burn it to wav for final thought in the car/at house/w or without headphones/on surround system at your rich friends house lol
    and get feedback from them dont forget that ,see what they liked the most
    and this is where you finalise the polished track then go a head master it /SAVE/then burn to cd or go digital release/streaming

    at least that how i work (i did alot of mistakes publishing great finished tracks with bad mastering so double check your tracks
    before go public,and i mean do listen to your track for few days from start to finish ,and fix the track while its still not published

    goodluck
     
  3. kooper

    kooper Platinum Record

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    I do like toontrack (EZD2 and suerior drummer), but I also love drums on demand and acid pro. Whatever you do you should have a basic track mixed to audition drum parts to. You can do a rough draft, as you develop the rest of the song but if you do what I do (produce from the vocals out), you will want to audition against the vocals. So you probably will want to do a rough draft so that you can sing a vocal track, and then come back and change things so that it augments the vocal arrangement. The ability to "audition in realtime" is important to this. It means the track you are working against needs to be in sync. It means you need to work with a metronome from the beginning.
     
  4. Baxter

    Baxter Audiosexual

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    I use a mix of realtime playing and programming. Since I started as a drummer (when I was a kid) it's a lot more tactile to just play things on a MIDI controller (finger-drumming most of the time). Then it's a matter of fine-tuning, offsetting, quantization and adding missed ghosts and such. That's why I'm still half and half in MIDI/samplers/pianoroll and audio/timeline. Both have pros and cons.
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2020
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  5. fiction

    fiction Audiosexual

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    I still prefer my old Octapad (which I think plays much better than the newer, cheaper rubber pads) and Roland mesh pad for the snare and recording at a somewhat lower tempo. If it has to be quick, I just use a MIDI keyboard.
    Recording at lower speeds allows me to "groove" better.
     
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  6. HappyFork

    HappyFork Ultrasonic

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    I can understand that playing directly what you hear and what feels natural is super handy, thats just what Timbaland does in his Masterclass, doesnt look special at all but thats not the point of an effective workflow.

    I should stop trying to work with pattern systems, they just dont feel right to me.
    It feels so much easier and more transparent once I've learned a couple new key shortcuts and simply using the midi editor turned into drum mode, filtering unused trigger notes and naming events for a better overview.
     
  7. scarsstiches

    scarsstiches Producer

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    Finger drumming.
    GGD Modern &Massive.
     
  8. CMAudioz

    CMAudioz Member

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    I use Algonaut Atlas, step sequencer coming soon for it, but for now, I load up a MIDI file (some kits that come with it have, but I have created some myself), then the great thing about this plugin is that I can hit "New Kit" and it'll change all the sounds but respecting what types of sounds were loaded to each pad, like kicks, claps etc, then you end up with a different drum kit which can affect your musical decision or improve the track you're working on.
    I tend to then split the MIDI part into layers, like Kicks, Claps&Snares, Closed Hats, Open Hats, Percussion into 4 bar blocks with some variations, then arrange them into the track as I see fit.
    I don't normally load actual one hit drums samples onto the track, becomes more painful if you want to swap out a sound, better use a drum plugin or a sampler with multiple hits.
     
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  9. Zenarcist

    Zenarcist Audiosexual

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    A cheaper way is to bang on something with some sticks while recording it with a mic, and then use drum replacement software :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2020
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  10. fiction

    fiction Audiosexual

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    How will the drum replacement software know which is a bass drum, which is a snare, cymbals and toms?
    Another trick can be done with any audio slicer that can export MIDI (ReCycle, Reason, Ableton etc.), just record your banging, slice and export MIDI data and make a groove template from it or build a drum groove by vertically moving/copying notes in the piano roll.
     
  11. Zenarcist

    Zenarcist Audiosexual

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    I just read about a guy who did it that way, he tapped the beat on a desk with his fingers :)
     
  12. HappyFork

    HappyFork Ultrasonic

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    Im currently trying Atlas and XO, however I feel like XO has too many features that I dont need and I hate having things laying around that I dont use and am consciously or unconsciously aware of, as well as XO only has 8 pads...On the other hand XO looks better, loads faster and can be very handy in some situations...but working with both at the same time makes no sense either.

    I used to split up the MIDI into the specific drum parts as well, as Cubase allows you to create Subtracks and toggle it on and off just like a folder. Also very handy to create 2 different grooves and A/B test them.

    Im not too familiar with Studio One yet, but I feel filtering out the used key notes on the piano roll is enough overview for me, but splitting up each drum part into separate midi is certainly quite handy, sometimes unecessary tho :S
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2020
  13. HappyFork

    HappyFork Ultrasonic

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    Works too, the most obvious thing is to whistle or hum the melodies you have in mind into the mic and then recreate it with an instrument, the same works for drum sounds. Timbaland does it both, I guess after a while you become really good in beatboxing just doing that :D
     
  14. Kluster

    Kluster Audiosexual

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    I have a small Roland electronic kit that I plug into Addictive Drums (the onboard sounds suck). I like to jam and record patterns manually. It makes them sound more real and since I can play almost any instrument I find my drum playing is also more musical, if that makes sense.
     
  15. NextGenSound

    NextGenSound Kapellmeister

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    I use a V drum kit and toontrack drum vst ... play the sections in and edit as required...Pretty fun tbh
     
  16. Zenarcist

    Zenarcist Audiosexual

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    I also have access to a Roland V-drum kit and a decent drummer, and like you I also tap the midi input and run it through a variety of drum software. Drumming is quite imprecise in nature, and a typical song will have many parts with subtle variations, so it's much easier to do a few takes with a live drummer and it sounds better too. Sometimes I track my P-bass at the same time, and then you can get a real groove going on :wink:
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2020
  17. Lager

    Lager Guest

    Drums are like coronavirus. Why to program and inject them into songs to corrupt them?:dunno:
     
  18. Polomo

    Polomo Guest

    Maschine JAM (Step sequencer)
    Sometime MDrummer (does the work for me without programming too much )
    Sometime Step sequencer in Voltage Modular
    Depends on the song :winker:
     
  19. Alldae Audacious

    Alldae Audacious Newbie

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    I personally find Ableton Live as the most functional and fun means of programming drums. You can quickly create a drum palette, cherry pick each specific drum sound, designate which pads (on your midi keyboard) to play them on. Then in session view, you can create drum clips while auditioning them into your arrangement. For me it feels like easy access to creativity and expression for drum patterns. I find it far more hands-on and fun than, for instance, Logic’s drummer.. which I feel like is kind of cheating or at least using training wheels as well as a habit that will be likely be harder to quit than cigarettes. Anyway, have fun and find your flow state.
     
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