I made a new video

S

SonicClang

Part 4720981 coming soon!
It's been years since I posted here! The last time was probably 10 years ago and I posted videos of my studio construction project. Well, I'm back and I've made a video about how I record MIDI drums. I figure someone here could find it useful :)

 
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My only thing is that I never quantise drums, I used to write and manually play very similar to what you are doing, but I used to like very small errors n the timing to make it more human. I even used to move notes slightly out of time if I actually placed notes in time. A real drummer is never completely on time.

But I suppose it depends on the style of music?

Alan
 
I can certainly understand that perspective. My problem is I'm usually SO BADLY OFF BEAT when playing with the keyboard, that might be a little bit *too* human :D I played the small sample I showed in this video pretty darn well. For me, if I wanted to go for that human touch, I would probably get everything quantized and then go back and add some variation. But me, I'm pretty anal and I love when it's perfectly on beat.
 
SonicClang said:
I'm pretty anal and I love when it's perfectly on beat.
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I only commented on this because you said in the video that you wanted realistic drums, and realistic drums are never perfectly on the beat. I am only talking about milliseconds out of time not badly out of time. Yes I did used to quantise and then go back and place things slightly out of time, usually in 4 bar segments that could be cut and pasted. I also used to put things before and after the beat to add the push / pull feel that real drummers give a song. Mind you in the band I mostly programmed for back then we had a real percussion player as well so the human feel was very much alive LOL.

Alan.
 
Yup. I totally hear where you're coming from. But when I mention making the drums sound more natural, I was speaking purely in terms of the differing note velocities playing different samples. As I'm sure you're aware, today's drum sample programs contain multiple samples per drums. So when you press a key lightly, it plays a sample of the drummer hitting the drum lightly, and vice versa. That's specifically what I was referring to.
 
I found it useful but for the super-beginner it didnt really brush over the gear and cabling and hardware setup to the DAW.
Id call this more LEVEL 2 or higher on How To MIDI Drums.
 
Nice video and presentation. Thanks for sharing.

Regarding quantization, I too never do it 100% when going for a human drum feel. But I will set the quantization strength to around 60% or so and do that. I find that to be a good balance between correcting my timing issues while still leaving a bit of humanness in the performance.
 
Thank you for the OP. I started off making drum tracks this way. But I was never satisfied with my own keyboard-drumming. My performance never sounded like a real drummer. I though it maybe it had to do with trying to play drums on a keyboard. I imagined that I was probably the only one trying to play drums on a keyboard and needed to try some kind of drumming MIDI interface.

So I investigated using a little digital drum kit like the Yamaha DD-65. Much worse. The physical skill to swing drum sticks is very different than a keyboard player tapping keys.

This video tells me that I was on the right track originally. Yes, others do this. Yes, you can create something decent with some practice and attention to detail.

A keyboard is what I know. Stick with what you know.

At the same time, I'm uncomfortable banging on my expensive midi keybed that's really for expressive piano. Maybe I'll pick up a cheap non-weighted unit to pound on.

Thanks again.
 
famous beagle said:
...I will set the quantization strength to around 60% or so and do that. I find that to be a good balance between correcting my timing issues while still leaving a bit of humanness in the performance.
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I can certainly respect that choice. Back when I used to record myself playing live I got really annoyed when I slowed down or sped up. I like having them right on beat :)
 
P_Recudor said:
Thank you for the OP. I started off making drum tracks this way. But I was never satisfied with my own keyboard-drumming. My performance never sounded like a real drummer. I though it maybe it had to do with trying to play drums on a keyboard. I imagined that I was probably the only one trying to play drums on a keyboard and needed to try some kind of drumming MIDI interface.

So I investigated using a little digital drum kit like the Yamaha DD-65. Much worse. The physical skill to swing drum sticks is very different than a keyboard player tapping keys.

This video tells me that I was on the right track originally. Yes, others do this. Yes, you can create something decent with some practice and attention to detail.

A keyboard is what I know. Stick with what you know.

At the same time, I'm uncomfortable banging on my expensive midi keyboard that's really for expressive piano. Maybe I'll pick up a cheap non-weighted unit to pound on.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Practice and attention to detail is exactly right. It took some care to make the drums for this song. What I didn't show in the video was how I made the more complicated fills.

The first time I used my keyboard for the drums. I listened to the song the next day and the song came alive in my head! I could literally picture the drummer playing when I closed my eyes. That's when I knew this was a pretty good method. Interesting that the DD-65 didn't work out. I actually have considered getting something like that.

The keyboard I'm using is exactly what you're talking about. It's just a midi controller. It has no sounds of its own. It works really well for this stuff.

Just curious, did you watch the "Demon Slayer" video? I'd love to hear your opinion on how the drums turned out.
 
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