EBAY Loop CDs.....good? bad?

[Yadi]

I know there are a lot of ACID and Sonar (loop) users on the BBS so I'm hoping to get someone's experience here:

I like to use drum loops in Sonar 2. I have a few cd's (drum tools and some celebrity drummers). The cd's were expensive ripoffs that are very limited and do not offer much in the way of "one hits". I think that the Drum Tools cd has only three actual cymbal crash samples.....that gets pretty predictable when composing something.

I was on EBay and found a few Buy Now auctions for loop CDs that are relatively cheap. One is a 16 CD set for $50. Just do a search for "drum loops" and you can't miss it.....do you think its just someone with a drum machine and cd burner working overtime?

Has anyone seen this or know anything about it?

[moskus]

$50 for 16 CDs? That's cheap!

I can't check now (due to maintainance of ebay.com), but I would read about the seller, and see what reputation he/she/they has/have.

Personally, I prefer midi for drums. I find it much more "free" to make your own loops/sequenses. Just load the one-shots into a sampler (DR-008 springs to mind) and play away! You'll need to practice to get a convinsing sound, but just imagine the satisfaction when someone tells you: "Hey, I didn't know you record your drums live. Where do you keep the drums? I haven't seen them"

[djc]

I don't know if you have looked into it, but you might want to consider using sampled drums. You buy 1 CD of samples like the Drumkit From Hell CD and start collecting midi drum sequences (which there are mucho of), or extract the drums out of midi songs off the internet. You can use the Cyclone sampler in Sonar to trigger them. That's the way I'm going. I think it's considerably cheaper in the long run.

[djc]

Sorry I didn't read Moskus post first. He is saying pretty much the same thing. Another good thing about this method is that you have a lot more control and creativity over your drums. Loops are fine, and sound great, but are kind of limited. It won't be long though before this isn't an issue anymore. Technology is quickly making it so easy to create your own music.

[moskus]

I used samples before I found SoundFonts and a cheap midikeyboard. I'll never go back!

[djc]

I have used soundfonts too, but they just don't sound that great, for drums anyway. I mean they're OK, just not great. What sound font do you use for drums Moskus? Or do you use SF's for everything? And which one? The only one I have that I like at all is called Musicman something or other.

[moskus]

I use GoldDrums and Sonic Implants Blue Jay Drums. Guitars, bass and some percussion I record myself. Keys and synths is Soundfonts, hardware & DXi's.

A little of all, a great mix...

[postalblue]

how do you get golddrums to sound good? maybe there's something wrong with the file i downloaded, but the snares sound like shit. like a shotgun, to be precise.

[James Argo]

I remember the old days I tough moskus to spell S-O-U-N-D-F-O-N-T-S... now he's pretty wise on suggesting using it...

...and yess, a set of 16 CD's for fifty bucks is cool. Just make sure you check the seller reputation first.


Jaymz

[moskus]

Originally posted by James Argo
I remember the old days I tough moskus to spell S-O-U-N-D-F-O-N-T-S... now he's pretty wise on suggesting using it...

What? When?

[James Argo]

Originally posted by postalblue
how do you get golddrums to sound good? maybe there's something wrong with the file i downloaded, but the snares sound like shit. like a shotgun, to be precise.

...well, if you can play it, then there's nothing wrong with the file. It must be your monitor (No, I didn't say your ears... ). Just FYI, GoldDrums are velocity layer SF. So if you hit it slow (Velocity under 99) will trigger different sound with harder hit (above 100)... goes the same to Kick, toms and cymbals. I found I don't have to add compression, nor EQ thingee to the track (After I record 'em to audio). It's ready fresh from the oven. Just add reverb as you like sometimes. BTW, it deppends also on what type if music you make... for general, it's great.


Jaymz

[postalblue]

i forgot it was layered. i have to try it again. i'm using real acoustic drums extra and real acoustic drums plus. i play indie pop. i downloaded a bunch of drums soundfonts, but i want to write stuff on the fly, and it bores me to have to go through a lot of soundfonts testing sounds when i have something i want to record right away.

[subtractor]

I remember the old days when we taught James how to spell
T-a-u-g-h-t.

[James Argo]

Originally posted by subtractor
I remember the old days when we taught James how to spell
T-a-u-g-h-t.

...Yeah, you told me how to spell it... but not how to type it.

[djc]

Where can one find these GoldDrums? I did a search and turned up nothing.

[moskus]

www.hammersound.net

[djc]

Yeah, I just found them there. I forgot all about Hammersound. Thanks Moskus.

[moskus]

Anytime

[postalblue]

hammersound is cool.
i wonder what's the deal with the sound site though. i can't download zilch from there. i tried from two different computers, and nothing.

[James Argo]

In case that doesn't work...

http://www.thesoundsite.net/sfc_dirl...E%20Compressed

5262648 Drum Set Gold Kit (13,031KB) 2001-05-14

...here's another great kit.

6770192 Drums Douglas Natural Studio Kit V2.0 (22,719KB) 2001-05-14

6529341 Drum Set Crack's V1.0 By Javier Bassino (15,011KB) 2001-05-14

3816313 Drum Set DBKV V2.1 By Ken Ardency (11,752KB) 2001-05-14


This one is not as great as those, but cool somehow.

7315156 Drum Set Real Drums! 2001 Reverb V3.28.01 (21,658KB) 2001-06-18


Jaymz

[James Argo]

Originally posted by postalblue
i wonder what's the deal with the sound site though. i can't download zilch from there. i tried from two different computers, and nothing.

Gee, I just realized that... May be it runs out of transfer bandwith capacity.


...or ... Dead ?

[moskus]

Works for me...

[Yadi]

Guys, Thanks for the responses:

I did email the seller and as it turns out....these are all done on a drum machine and are biased to club/hip hop......both of which are not what I want. You know the saying: "If its sounds too good to be true....."

And you are absolutely right about the limitations of looping and the pros of midi. I actually have an old Roland TD5 kit and can play...to a limited degree. But I generally just use it to trigger sounds from an Alesis QS8.1. Sounds ok, not great.

I actually have a tune thats 98% done, using loops from the Drum Tools cd. However, that last 2% is the missing link: some crashes, custom intro fill.....things that I would need a selection of one-hits for.

I definately have to spend more time learning how to use midi to trigger sampled sounds. However, my concern is also using too much horsepower...I usually record 8-10 audio tracks and my system is only a PIII, 800mhz, 512k, with average hd's. I'd hate to start investing in sampler plugins and samples to find out it won't work.

Does Sonar 2.0 have a sampler plugin?

[James Argo]

Originally posted by Yadi
Does Sonar 2.0 have a sampler plugin?

...Yup. There's several DXi instruments included in the installation CD which acts like sampler.

[moskus]

... and if you wanna read about them they're named Cyclone DXi and DR-008 (if you have Sonar XL). http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/DXi/default.asp