There are hundreds of tools out there for sequencing drum samples, editing existing drum loops, and mapping samples together to create original sounds made from layers but how many of these tools are actually necessary to create a quality drum loop for your production? The answer is not as many as one might think. A mistake many new producers make is being (rightfully) overwhelmed with all the possibilities during beat creation and overusing plugins, unnecessarily increasing the complexity of their production, demanding more from their system resources and slowing down their creative flow. There are about 10,000 different ways to make a drum loop with today’s technology but you really only need a few core tools to get the job done within your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) of choice. Avoid loops unless you are on a time constraint. Though it may be tempting to open up a drum loop in your editor and splice it into individual samples (a technique often used in hip-hop) this generally degrades the quality of the individual samples and limits the scope of what you are able to do. Instead, start with a quality set of samples that don’t need much editing to begin with. I like the vengeance kits floating around on the internet, and there are many free sample kits out there which have well-mixed drum samples to start with. From there, decide which genre your drums will be, and lay out a framework of where you want your kicks, snares, hats, etc. to be placed as a general guideline (knowing full-well you will be moving these samples around, and will be replacing your original choices with better-suited samples later.) After creating a very simple loop with only 1 sample per type of drum (1 kick, 1 snare, 1 closed hihat, 1 open hihat, etc.) this sets you up to create a quality sequence of how you want the drums to play out without worrying about the actual SOUND of the drums as they currently are (it will no doubt sound a bit silly, and perhaps low quality, when you grab some random kicks, snares, etc. just to begin with) After you have a decent sequence you can start replacing the samples with ones that fit the genre you are going for. Replace all the samples with sounds that match your song, one at a time. Layer your snares and claps. One sample will almost always not be enough to achieve the sound you are looking for, don’t be afraid to double, triple, or even quadruple up on your snares and claps, just be sure to lower the volume of each sample so they do not make your volume exceed the red-zone on your output (this is called clipping and aside from potentially damaging your speakers, it causes undesirable distortion to your drums and makes them sound less dynamic.) There are tools that link your drums together for you such as Native Instrument’s Battery, many native tools built into your DAW, and a plethora of others. Though these tools can be useful for managing your sequence (and you will undoubtably need at least one tool to help you manage your drums all in one place rather than editing them on the linear DAW editor screen) it is often unnecessary and limiting to begin linking your samples together in complex ways to trigger together in sequence unless you are planning on taking this live and performing your drums on a piece of hardware. All I use for my drum sequencing is Native Instruments Maschine, I create the loops, add very basic EQ and effects, control their envelopes such as release, attack, sustain, etc. (more on that later) and then I export them directly into Ableton or Cubse where I decide when they will trigger in my song, and manually cut them up when I want silence rather than relying on fancy tricks built into Maschine’s software. While you are choosing your samples, use the R or Release knob to determine how long the drum sample will play AFTER the “note” ends. This can be used to cut off unnecessary reverb, effects, or simply shorten a sample to be more punchy (often used in Electro and House music, or hip-hop to create tight and controlled beats). Use the S or Sustain knob to determine how long a drum sample will play while the “note” is being held. If you lower the sustain, even if the note continues on forever, the sample will end quicker the lower your sustain value is. Use the A or Attack knob to determine how fast a sample will rise in volume after the “note” is hit. This is useful for cymbols to create that rising sound before a climax or to take some of the edge off a kick that is coming in too strongly. View Attack as an upward ramp / gradually rising in volume and view Release as a downward ramp lowering in volume. These effects are called Envelope effects and they are how you control any sample in a DAW. After you have a solid set of samples you are decided upon, and you have edited their envelopes to create a tight mix, you are ready to add effects to bring out their sound to make them sound more dynamic, punchy and have the tonal qualities your genre uses. Compression – This is how you will control the tightness of your drums, preventing them from exceeding a certain volume (threshold) while raising their overall perceived loudness (gain). Use this sparingly, and if in doubt, just throw it on the “BUS” or “Group” your drums are assigned to, and very lightly lower the threshold, and increase the gain so you start to see just a little bit of reduction taking place. Compressors are very complex and deserve a course all to themselves so if you are not familiar with how they work, simply throw a limiter on your mix and LEAVE IT ALONE, don’t go knob crazy until you understand how everything works. Limiting – Limiting is how modern dance producers flatten and destroy the dynamics of their tracks so their song looks like a solid rectangle on soundcloud when viewing the waveform. It is also how professionals raise the perceived “loudness” of a track without increasing the actual volume. Using a limiter is only for cutting off the very loud parts of a mix that would otherwise exceed your red zone (0dB) and cause clipping. If you are seeing a lot of reduction going on when you turn on your limiter than you need to lower the volume of your individual tracks until very little reduction is taking place with your limiter. Reverb – Reverb is how you will make your snares and hats sound like they are in an actual room instead of sounding flat and lifeless. Keep your “wet” value around 20-30% as a general rule of thumb, not exceeding 30% except to create unique effects or for stylistic usage in tracks such as dubstep snares. A little reverb goes a long way to making your drums sound more realistic. But for god’s sake, leave the reverb off your kick unless you raise the cutoff so you aren’t muddying up your mix with unnecessary bass reverb. Next week we will talk more in depth about what each of these effects do, how to control them in-detail and techniques you can use to make your drums pop out of the mix without completely overpowering all your other sounds. Thanks for reading! This article was written by Jordan Winslow, an Electronic Music Producer & Composer based in Los Angeles, California. Jordan has been producing electronic music for over 12 years and currently works as a freelance artist, producing music for vocalists, bands, and composing music for film, TV and video games. To hear music by Jordan look him up on Youtube, Soundcloud, or visit his personal website where you can hear his entire portfolio @ http://JordanWinslow.me #101
