What do you use for Drum Sounds

A

AlinMV

New member
Hey keyboard players/home recorders

What do you use to get those great grooves and fat drum sounds in your recordings or live? Do you use sample based loops, Midi tracks, live drums, groove boxes, or what? If so, how do you use them?


I started out with Midi Tracks triggering a Roland XP-50, and quickly felt that they were so so, and am looking into Sample based looping. The problem there is I can't manipulate the loops half as easily, etc.

FWIW, I use a mac G4 500MP running Digital Performer 2.72.

Let us know your fave drumming methods.

Albert
 
I use some dinosaur gear for my drums. I trigger sounds from a keyboard into a Roland hardware sequencer. The sounds are from a Korg 01/W synth and a Yamaha RX5 drum machine. I then sometimes treat a few of the sounds with various effects, compression, tube pre, or a Sansamp.

I try to keep my parts simple and I rarely do elaborate fills or anything that can make it sound too machine-like. I try to concentrate on the groove. I usually try to steal the rhythm from other peoples music when I'm programming parts. I keep a boombox and cassette tapes next to my drum machine and I am always listening to good drummers when I write my drum parts.

I augment my drum samples with "real" percussion. I use a metal shaker, tambourine, bongos, and a crash cymbal. One tip; if you tune bongo drums down and use a little EQ you can make them sound almost like congo drums.
 
It depends on the project. For basic demos (for song writer clients, etc.) I often start with Band-In-A-Box or Jammer to get a basic song - many times I'll keep the bass and drum patterns and replace the rest. If I need "live" drums, I use my V-Drums. If I'm starting from nothing, I sometimes use an old drum pattern software program called "Drummer" - it's a grid system that allows up to 32nd notes (useing a mouse to click beats into the grid). It's a good program which can create very cool grooves and pretty easy to use (but it is programming vs. playing).

I then dump the MIDI performance into Cakewalk to trigger various modules - I mostly use the TD10 (from the V-Drums), an Alesis D4, or a Roland MBD (bass and drum module).

If it's a real session, destined to be mastered as a CD, I often use several modules (kick from one, snare from another, etc). I know it sounds anal, but no module does it all - and sometimes my clients are so impressed that I put in that much effort (although I rarely charge for the amount of time I put in). The only down side is the more sonic options, the more indecision!!!

I've never used sample loops - although I've considered going the ACID route.
 
Personally I use a SR-16 drum machine or the drums on my JV-1010. I write all my drum patterns 'note for note' in the software I use (Music Works Pro). I then just play them through either the sound canvas or the SR-16 via MIDI. It is a painfull process, however I don't mind doing it cause I can get the sound that I like whilst looking at notation....

Porter
 
i use acid as a way to put down drum tracks. i get most tracks from the rads volume 1 cd i bought from pocket fuel. the cool thing about the disc is that you get kick and snare parts, and then separate hi-hat and ride parts. that way you can mix and match, and all of the parts sound good together. they're all live recorded drums, so that helps...especially with hi-hats (i hate that rat-a-tat-tat sound from hihats in a drum machine). they also include single hits on drums and cymbals, so you can mix things up pretty good.

they don't include tom samples which i find surprising...but i found some useable samples that i use with fruity loops when i want to build a fill or combine parts. i think the sounds are pretty good, but i'm no drummer, so my standards are probably lower than they could be. the biggest thing i would like to add is some really good fills to fit in with the acid stuff...

one other note...the rads volume 1 samples are not "acidized"...meaning that you may have to adjust file properties to get them to work right...i was really pissed when i first discovered this, but was able to work with them pretty easy. i just wish i knew before i bought it.
 
For a long time EVERYTHING I sequenced was coming out of my Korg O1/Wfd, including all the drum sounds. Then, I picked up an Alesis SR-16 and started triggering sounds out of it, and the overall sound of my sequences improved dramatically. I've also added a Yamaha CBX-K1XG to my midi rig which also has some pretty great (if generic) drum sounds.

In the last year, I also started using Acid loops and again, the sound of my sequences has improved immensely. I supposed it shouldn't be a surprise since loops are actually real drums played by real drummers, but I love the sound of it. It loops just mean "instant groove."

So, these days I use loops for most of my basic drum tracks and sequence fills (mostly SR-16) over the top of them. The O1/W has huge, lush sounds that I love to use for aux perc and "technoish" perc parts and then use the SR-16 for kit stuff.

I was truly hoping that Alesis would come out with a "SR20" because the sounds in it, though good, sound a little dated. I almost bought a D4 until I played with one and realized that it had many of the same sounds as the SR16. I've thought about the DM5, but it has a lot of techno drums that don't interest me very much right now.

If money, were no object, and you're looking for a dedicated drum module, I would buy the module from the Roland V-drums in a heart beat. I've never heard any sampler or synth sound so amazing, and the flexibility is limitless.

my two cents

-shack
 
Thanks!

Shack

Thanks for the advice. I just bought me an Alesis DM pro. It is very very good. It has 64 drum kits, and thousands of drum sounds that are all tweekable. It has 16 trigger inputs and 6 audio outs.

Thats more than I need but, could not resist the price on Ebay.

Albert
 
That sounds awesome. I've not used heard the DMPro, but I'm sure it's pretty great.

What did you get it for off ebay? I've thought about those a lot, but I'm really wanting a new module. So, I've actually bid on a couple of different QSR's lately to get some of those drum sounds along with everything else.

Just haven't been willing to pay enough or got the price low enough, yet.

Congrats on your DMpro!

-shack
 
shackx2 said:
That sounds awesome. I've not used heard the DMPro, but I'm sure it's pretty great.

What did you get it for off ebay? I've thought about those a lot, but I'm really wanting a new module. So, I've actually bid on a couple of different QSR's lately to get some of those drum sounds along with everything else.

Just haven't been willing to pay enough or got the price low enough, yet.

Congrats on your DMpro!

-shack
Click to expand...

The DMpro is excellent. It is essentially the Alesis equivalent of the roland V Drums. But, much better IMO. I got for $475, but I've seen it go for about $430 depending on condition.

I have a QSR also, and let me tell you the drum sounds on the DMpro are several notches above anything on the QSR, the Roland Xp series, or any other keyboard. Just the fact that it's a dedicated drum module says a lot. You ought to check it out if you can!!

Albert
 
I use an Ensoniq/EMU ASR-x sampling drum machine with the urban dance expansion card. It has lots of very good sounding kits and a wonderful palette of effects.
 
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