First Drum Track

VMattyV
Are you after programming advice, rhythm assistance, mixing ideas? I'm not sure what to offer you.
Cheers
rayC
 
Yeah I'm wondering the same thing...So you have a drum machine beat. And?

I will give you one word of advice based on what I heard. DON't ride on a crash cymbal...Ir's annoying as heel, a drummer would never do it and it makes it very obvious that it wasn't a drummer that programmed it. Besides that, I don't know what you want.
 
Ok, so i shouldn't have "never". Rarely.

Did you hear the drum beat? Riding on a crash Frooty Loops crash? That should NEVER happen.
 
RAMI said:
Ok, so i shouldn't have "never". Rarely.

Did you hear the drum beat? Riding on a crash Frooty Loops crash? That should NEVER happen.
I agree......I thought that you also meant real drummers on acoustic drums.
 
Riding the crash like that is actually kind of common, unless I'm mistaking it for another cymbal. I'd only do it on a larger crash and use the smaller ones for accents. I hear it all the time during big choruses in hard rock, hardcore, etc. I'm not a drummer, mind you, but I program a bit and go by what I hear drummers use.
 
Not to say that drummers don't ride on their crashes, but often what sounds like that is a very open pair of hi hats. Either way, because of the decay of the cymbals on many drum machines, it doesn't sound good programmed, in my opinion.
 
VMattyV said:
Ok thanks, that pretty much what I wanted. I just wanted to know if you guys liked it lol.

And what conclusion did you come to? :p
 
RAMI said:
Not to say that drummers don't ride on their crashes.

As an old old drummer who played in country bands in the 60's - 70's. The singers always wanted you not to play on a RIDE cymbal while they were singing.....just use a stick on hi hat or stick and a brush on a snare. Then when the lead part came in.......go for that ride cymbal. Now days I guess drummers can just beat the hell out anything any time. But a crash can upset a good sober singer even in todays wildness.

Choctaw
 
The point is that it's for emphasis of a part of a song. And it all has to do with the style that you're playing. You're probably not going to hear a Tele going through a Twin in a death metal song. It's the same thing on a different instrument. There's no point in arguing because this is MUSIC we're talking about, an art form. There are no rules. We, as musicians, play what we feel sounds best, and that is all that matters.

Even though I'm not a drummer, and 18" crash sounds a lot different than an open high hat. As long as you're not slamming away at the thing at full velocity, then it can sound quite nice, given the appropriate place in a song.

Which brings me to my next point: velocity. VMattyV, if you're going for a more realistic sound, then I'd suggest trying to think like a drummer. A drummer only has two hands (one in the case of def leppard, but that's a different story). Thus, only two drums can be hit at a single time with the sticks, and then two with the pedals. In addition to this, every drum is not hit with EXACTLY the same force. Drummers will usually accent the downbeats, especially the first and third (except in reggae/ska). Another thing to consider is how heavy handed a person is. If a drummer is right handed, you'll hear a lsight emphasis on the right hand as opposed to the left. The ideal drummer is ambidextrous, but since we're all human, such precision is impossible. I always throw in a couple hits that are relatively louder or softer than usual as a "mistake" for a more realistic sound.

Again, I'm not a drummer, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

One last thing. If you can afford it, try to get better samples. If not, then at least try to fool around with a nice free kit like ns_kit7 free as it will be a lot better than the samples included with FLstudio.
 
Your previous post concerning velocity, etc...was right on.

I was a MIDI guy for a long time, and being a drummer, took a lot of time to program drums the way I'd play them. Velocity was probably the most important part of sounding "human". Especially for a high hat or ride cymbal.
 
Hey, just gave it a listen.

My honest opinion is that if you're going to hear this in a rock 'n roll song, this will need some re-programming (as per previous posts by other posters), and probably some tweaking to get the sound to be more rock.

If this is an electronic song, techno or synth pop, you'd just have to mix it in the track nicely and tone down the crashes.

FLStudio is pretty cool. That's what I've been using for drums lately. Gives you control over velocity and panning. ns_kit is also good (like someone mentioned), but for the moment I'm liking the out-of-the-box FLStudio stuff.

Hope something in post is a helpful comment. :)
 
I'm far too remedial to use those programs.
I put a pattern into my Roland TR505 & record that (it has good levels settings etc for each instrument in the kit so velovity can be managed by gumbies like me) as a very basic kit (bass/snare/hi hat) & then record the cymbals in real time either from the touch pads on the 505 or using actual cymbals. After which I do the same from the 505 pads for toms & exotics.
You can hear the level of remediation in my songs.
My biggest issue with this is that I still can't work out reverb for the indiv. parts - I can never tell what's right esp for crash.
Mind you I've found a drummer nearby SSSOOO hopefully the above will be a thing of the past.
Cheers
rayC
 
I tended to not put any reverb on the cymbals when I used to program drums. You might want to put a little for depth, but I put the most on the snare and toms, and a little on the kik. I'm sure there's no one way to do it, but I found that's what worked for me.
 
Hey man. I do all my drums in FL right now until i can get a decentreal set in here. You definitely need to mess around with velocity. And also a bit more(or less?) panning maybe. In the browser in FL studio, there is a category called Humanizing Presets which you can drag on to tracks. These will mess around with the veloicty, for example there is one called hi hats which emphasizes the first beat alot and the third beat a little less than the first but more than the 2 and 4. I sometimes used this, but now usually leave my velocity settings for last and mess around with them manually.

Secondly

Those samples are out of the dance or electronica section or something. Or it is the default template that loads up with FL. File>Templates>Realistic is probably the best set that comes with FL. But as stated above, check out 3rd party packs. They are generally better than the generic stuff that comes with FL.

Adam
 
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