Something thing I use for my fake drums is Jamstix 3. I see a lot of people who like this plug-in, & there are a lot of people who don't. It is a complicated, hair-pulling plug-in until you get a handle on how to use it. I've been using JS3 for a couple/few years now, & I honestly have barely scratched the surface to what it's really capable of, but there are ways for that are better
for me to edit/change in the piano roll/midi editor...That said, I don't use it like most folks would, while I do use it for controlling the velocities of the hits overall, I use it more so to control the timing/feel more than anything. Plus, I like the fills it generates (most of the time...), because they're not pre-set loop, & you can have quite a few variations...
So, I basically figure out what kind of beat I need, set up the different parts in JS3 (intro, chorus, etc) & the part length (IE: intro = 3 bars, chorus = 5 bars), & make sure everything matches up, length-wise. I'm not gonna go into detail much more about Jamstix 3, as it has
all kinds of shit you can change (drummers, styles, accents, fills, etc) other than the 2 basic controls I use with automation: power & timing...
Here are the main controls I use in JS3: Power (how hard the hits are obviously), dynamics (the lowest/softest velocities are determined by this knob), & the "feel" parameters (each "drummer" has this, although they're the same controls for all, each one seems to act a little differently with each different "drummer")...
I set up 2 automation tracks, power & timing. Then I draw in the curves/points where I think they need to be (IE: some drummers speed up during a fill, so I'll speed up the timing a few milliseconds during a fill...same thing with a chorus, etc...same thing with the power knob, some drummers will play a little harder during some parts compared to others)...
I personally don't use the power knob a whole lot, as I'll be tweaking the velocities in the midi editor anyway, but the timing knob/slider to me is very important. That's pretty much what makes up the feel of the beat, & I try to make JS3 act like a drummer would, actually speeding up/slowing down for the different parts of the song...
Once I have JS3 pretty much how I want, I send the midi to a blank/empty track, & record the output (I use Reaper), then send that midi to the drum vsti, & bypass the actual JS3 track. Like I mentioned, it's just a lot easier for me to edit the midi by hand for most of what I do...
Since I'm assuming quite a few of you don't have or use Jamstix 3, here's where what I'm trying to say actually applies (this starts for me once I've got the midi recorded to it's own track, & I actually start tweaking the hits...)...
Assuming the hits' timing are about how I want 'em (one could do this in the piano roll, sliding certain hits ahead/behind where needed, or I suppose you could use a tempo map or tempo markers to do this, just slightly speeding up/slowing down where the song needs it...it's just a lot easier
for me to let JS3 do this...), I start tweaking the velocities...
I usually start with the kick/snare, then go to the hi-hat/ride cymbal. I try to leave "headroom" enough that my hits aren't maxed out. For a snare or kick, I rarely ever have any hits at the velocity of 127. I try to make my max be around 122-124, depending on the drum vsti/sample I'm using...I try to never have the same velocity following itself (IE: the snare's velocity would be: 116, 109, 112, 104)...I go through the song part by part tweaking all the hits doing this until I think they're ok...
This takes a lot of time & effort, but is very important IMO to make these drum samples sound half-assed real. I can't stress this enough. The actual velocities are way more important than anything, & that's it pretty much in a nutshell: the velocities are 99% of drum programming, & especially the hi-hat...
There's no way possible to hit a kick, snare, hi-hat & 3 cymbals all at the same time, either, so a little common sense goes a long, long way...
So, I basically took up 3 pages telling you guys to tweak your velocities...
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