Hello guys !

I need your help to understand and success a drum layering on an specific easy example.
I would like to find the right way on the "Forever Undefeated" from DrumKitSupply to get the same sound as the demo (you can get the kit on the sister site)

http://soundcloud.com/drumkitsupply/forever-undefeated-drum-kit-wwwdrumkitsupplycom

In the kit, which samples do you will use to layer drums elements to arrive to the same result.
Which treatment will you use to get the same sound ?


Thanks.

 

Hey Lordy,

I'm going to try to stick to your subject, but also telling my thoughts and opinion.

I'm not an urban producer (lately) but i started learning production on urban genres/hip-hop.

There's one important aspect in the music production which is common to all the genres and i learned over time. In order to achieve "the same sound" of those drums one-shots/samples you mentioned,you have to memorize as much samples from your personal sounds/samples library, for example, when you hear a certain cymbal into a demo track (like the one you mentioned) you should be able to name it in your head once you hear a certain element, for example saying "oh, that's an 808/909/acoustic-splashy cymbal and i have it located in the X sample pack/folder named with the a.k.a Muffinpot 008 Cymbal" or whatever, you know what i mean.

That's how i do it and it works for me. I memorized TONS of my samples just by keeping working with them daily and also auditioning and swapping through them and see how they sound and how they fit together, etc.
It's not something that it will happen over-night, but if you keep making music daily and use as much sounds from your own library as possible, i guarantee you that once you hear any type of demos/references, you'll be able to break down in your head all the elements they might have used to come up with that track, or at least to make something similar, if that's what you're after.

Remember, you don't have to sound exactly the same or identical. Just be yourself. Being MUSICAL is more important than being COPYCAT.

Yes, i know how it is to be bound to the industry's requests and standards, we all have to adapt to that in order to survive and make a career out of it, but if you really
want to know what drum sounds they're using, make sure you learn your tools/samples as much as possible.

For example, in your demo, there's an acoustic "Ride" sample which plays across the whole track, the snares(acoustic) are layered together with a sort of acoustic shaker (might be shaked *car keys* or whatever) just try some "organic" shakers over an acoustic snare with a similar tone to the snare you hear in your reference track and you should get closer.

I can't personally tell you something like "use the sample called Muffinpot Snare 005 from the Hip-Hop Heroes vol.1 sample pack". That's something you should memorize from your own libraries and packs.

Learn your tools/sounds and you'll go a long way in music production.

Cheers

 

if you are layering in the same Software See if there is a phase flipping function button if so then pick one of the kick drums or snare and so on then push the button in most case it should be punchy and clearer

 

Pretty much what others have said. I would get some acoustic drums, found sounds/foley a load of clap samples and just layer layer layer. Remember to try flipping phase on some hits and also lining transients up with the grid turned off can render different results. Experimentation is key, there is no right or wrong way to get any particular sound!

 

Phase (offset and/or switching polarity) is important. You can make a new good sound with sounds that are in phase, but also shape/sculpture sound by "faulty" phasing a sound with another sound (out of phase), as long as you know what you are doing and what it does to the sound.

Then there is the spectrum and time factor. You have transient, thump, body, ringing, tail, ambience, etc. Real drums sound a special way due to physics. It's quite good to know the "ingrediences" of acoustic drum sounds (and how they behave). You can make a pretty nice kick or snare out of just DSP processed noises and sines.

Overlapping/conflicting sounds (spectrum-wise) can be a problem, and can easily be fixed with filters and EQ. Then there is the dynamics processors (limiter, compressor, parallel compression, multi-band compressor, expanders/transient designer, gate, distortion/saturation/overdrive, etc) which can help alot when designing your own sounds by layering.

People often neglect panning when layering sounds. You can make a "punchy" snare by layering several snares and claps, and then panning these out a bit. Just let the fundamental (around 200-ish) be in center/mono. You can also accentuate and remove un-needed stuff with M/S EQ.