mixing with drum loops

M

mcmetal

New member
I'm finally ready to mix my first tune since stepping up to a DAW and i'm looking for suggestions on the best way to mix with drum loops.I'm using the betamonkey drum loops which is a real drummer playing real drums.

The loops are pre-mixed for the most part with panning in the fills and i think they sound fairly good the way they are.I was wondering if anyone who works with loops does anything else to them like a touch of reverb,slight eq,compression,etc.
 
Depends on the song really, but I'm guessing they might need some compression and usually I like a little reverb on my drums.
 
From my experience, fake drums or loops usually don't need much at all as far as comp or anything. Especially when there are mic recorded tracks in the mix.
 
The first thing to do is ditch those crappy BetaMonkey loops. I purchased some years ago and they are very inconsistent from loop to loop. The drumming is also really weak. I think that maybe they had a real monkey play the drums. The site claims that all of the loops match perfectly and can be used together. When I put together some loops and proved that they didn't even sound like the same mic placements or even the same drum kit they stopped answering my emails.
Do yourself a favor and get Toontrack EZDrummer.
 
I like to bring out a little presence in the cymbals and the 'click' of the kick attack depending on the mix.
 
Thanks for the tips.I plan on mixing it this weekend so i'll experiment with slight compression and a touch of reverb.I'll do a few different mixes and see what sounds best.

Ocnor i think the beta monkey loops are great and the drummer sounds fine to me.In fact i think the drummer is pretty busy on the kit and his playing is solid.Maybe different drummers for different genres.

These are the only drum loops i've ever used and they're a big step up from my old drum machine.I'm sure there are better ones out there but for now i'm happy and i'll work with what i've got.

What i've noticed is you gotta stick with the same disc or series.I have the double bass mania 1,2,3,and 4 compilations.Discs 2,3,and 4 were all recorded during the same session on the same kit.They all flow together in my opinion.

Disc one was probably recorded from a different session cause they are a little different sounding.Disc one doesn't always flow together with the other discs so much and i think they may have threw in some "extras" from other sessions.

I also have drum werks 9 and think they sound fine for what i'm doing.
 
Not at all....

Chibi Nappa said:
I really hope you are joking.





If you are, well done.
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I've found that when I want to boost the punchy lows of the kick as well as the snappy his of the snares, pulling out some of the mids helps to do this (since I can't manipulate the individual elements in a pre-recorded loop). It's seemed to work well in previous mixes...is there something I'm missing that you'd suggest?
 
mcmetal said:
Thanks for the tips.I plan on mixing it this weekend so i'll experiment with slight compression and a touch of reverb.I'll do a few different mixes and see what sounds best.

Ocnor i think the beta monkey loops are great and the drummer sounds fine to me.In fact i think the drummer is pretty busy on the kit and his playing is solid.Maybe different drummers for different genres.

These are the only drum loops i've ever used and they're a big step up from my old drum machine.I'm sure there are better ones out there but for now i'm happy and i'll work with what i've got.

What i've noticed is you gotta stick with the same disc or series.I have the double bass mania 1,2,3,and 4 compilations.Discs 2,3,and 4 were all recorded during the same session on the same kit.They all flow together in my opinion.

Disc one was probably recorded from a different session cause they are a little different sounding.Disc one doesn't always flow together with the other discs so much and i think they may have threw in some "extras" from other sessions.

I also have drum werks 9 and think they sound fine for what i'm doing.
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The disc that I have is Drum Werks V. Many of the loops are not even close to sounding like they are from the same drum kit let alone the same session. The entire disc is just a bunch of lame beats rehashed at different speeds with no fills at all. It sounds like some high school kid recorded it in his garage.
 
ocnor said:
The disc that I have is Drum Werks V. Many of the loops are not even close to sounding like they are from the same drum kit let alone the same session. The entire disc is just a bunch of lame beats rehashed at different speeds with no fills at all. It sounds like some high school kid recorded it in his garage.
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I'll stay away from their earlier loops then.Maybe it took them a few years to get everything up to par and they started employing better drummers.I've gotten a good bit of fills with all my discs.I'm mixing my tune now and i'll be posting it the mp3 review forum hopefully in a few days.
 
My question is: what style? Are we talking about breaks based electronica or rock where you just need some drums?
 
noisewreck said:
My question is: what style? Are we talking about breaks based electronica or rock where you just need some drums?
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Mostly metal but i do lke to write some mellow stuff occasionally.

I've done a lot of mixing this weekend.I put a touch of reverb on the drum loops and left it at that.I tried to a add slight compression but thought it just made the snare stick out in a bad way and the rest of the drums got buried in the mix.Theres only so much you can do with a pre-mixed loop.

My mixing skills are sub par at best and i can already tell where i've gone wrong on some things during recording.
 
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