Drum Sound Shaping

rodrigonader

New member
Hey! I'd like to know what's the best way to change the timbre of drum kicks and snares (not the tuning, but the actual timbre). Is that replacing the sound? Are there any techniques or plugins that allow me to do that?
Thanks.
 
Depends on what DAW you are using, but there are many drum replacement solutions out there. I use Sonar Platinum, and used the drum replacer that came built in with it. It did a great job, but it depends also on the samples you have. The Sonar one will choose from multiple samples based on the velocity of the strike (transient and peaks), and then adjusts the volume as well based on that as well. It has the ability to edit each strike manually as needed (which I needed quite a bit given the inconsistency of the drum tracks I was using it on). It also allows you to layer multiple samples to construct exactly the sound you want. For example, I found a very boomy bass, and blended it with a metal style kick with a strong "snap" to it, and got a nice snappy kick with a big boom. The one I use has various ways to "dial in" to your track based on which frequency it will use to determine the strike, and a way to control the sensitivity to peaks.
 
Hey! I'd like to know what's the best way to change the timbre of drum kicks and snares (not the tuning, but the actual timbre). Is that replacing the sound? Are there any techniques or plugins that allow me to do that?
Thanks.

To change the timbre of recorded drums, the X-Y sound aspects that makes up pitch and intensity is the patch equivalent of a compressor with a 32 band eq in its side chain. The X-Z and the Y-Z that make up resonance color and distance perception is the patch equivalent to room simulation or can be a recording of a room that eq and compression/limiting is applied to.



tim·bre
ˈtambər/
noun
noun: timbre; plural noun: timbres

the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity.
"trumpet mutes with different timbres"
synonyms: tone, sound, sound quality, voice, voice quality, color, tone color, tonality, resonance
"the timbre of the reeds"

Origin
mid 19th century: from French, from medieval Greek timbanon, from Greek tumpanon ‘drum.’
 
EQ and different compressors, along with their settings can do some pretty remarkable things by themselves, depending on what you're trying to do, and what you're starting with.

I just experimented with the "Replace or Double Drum Track" feature in Logic. It works really well on an audio track that's isolated, like a kick drum mic, snare mic, et al, creating a triggered MIDI track you can then map any sample or software instrument into. Got a tiny kick drum with only an SM57 to mic it? No problem - make it sound like a 22" monster with this! (I can see getting into a lot of trouble with your drummer, though ;))
 
My drummer was very impressed... Of course, I didn't really tell him (just I didn't tell my vocalist I used minor pitch correction). They just love the sound, and somehow they remember playing it that way! ;-)



EQ and different compressors, along with their settings can do some pretty remarkable things by themselves, depending on what you're trying to do, and what you're starting with.

I just experimented with the "Replace or Double Drum Track" feature in Logic. It works really well on an audio track that's isolated, like a kick drum mic, snare mic, et al, creating a triggered MIDI track you can then map any sample or software instrument into. Got a tiny kick drum with only an SM57 to mic it? No problem - make it sound like a 22" monster with this! (I can see getting into a lot of trouble with your drummer, though ;))
 
Another option worth looking into are transient shaper plugins, which are applied to the drum audio.
I've found them to be pretty useful to do small alterations to the sound of recorded acoustic kits.

(If you need large alterations to the sound, it's time to replace or retrack the part...)
 
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