dead, lifeless, inanimate, carcass of a sound

  • Thread starter Thread starter dooberface
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dooberface

New member
so, i have just recently begun the process of switching to an all software "studio" by purchasing fl studio and ezdrummer.

after installing everything i pulled up ezdrummer first, then after authorizing it i started to screw around with my mouse, simply tapping on the heads. well, to my surprise, i immediately noticed something odd about the sound. it sounded narrow and dead. so i tried hitting it with some reverb. still dead. chorus? still dead. exciter? still dead. compression/eq? dead.
no matter what i do it just has this cramped, lifeless sound, and to make matters more frustrating, all the synths and other plugs in fl seem to have the same problem. i've never really heard anything similar. a part of me thinks it just might be in my head(i tend to get new gear paranoia, and i did throw down a nice chunk of cash for this stuff), and another part thinks it might be because i've always used tape and still haven't grown accustomed to the sudden switch to digital. but i've even compared the sound to recordings i've found on the net made with the exact same software, and am 90% positive somethings wrong with my sound.
i'm still using my onboard soundcard because i was under the impression that you didn't need anything fancy if using all software. i have no idea if that has anything to do with my sound problem but it seems worth mentioning.

here's the link to a short little drum beat i did to let you hear it.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=1005468
it's dooberdrums! sorry for the crappy programming, im not a drummer.
if you can hear it and can figure out whats going on some help would be great.

i apologize for the HORRIBLE sentence structuring/paragraph structuring/grammatical errors.
i'm just really really tired.
 
Well, it sounds fine to me. So must be your monitors, headphones, etc.
 
dooberface said:
i'm still using my onboard soundcard because i was under the impression that you didn't need anything fancy if using all software. i have no idea if that has anything to do with my sound problem but it seems worth mentioning.
Click to expand...
One way to find out if it is a hardware/monitor/card problem. Play a Led Zeppelin mp3 on your computer. If the Zep drums don't sound dead and lifeless, the problem isn't your hardware.

dooberface said:
it sounded narrow and dead. no matter what i do it just has this cramped, lifeless sound...
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.
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Sorry for the crappy programming, im not a drummer.
Click to expand...

(Hint hint hint).




Samples get all of their life from the drummer.
Listening to your mp3, nothing sounds "broken" about the samples themselves.
 
I listened to your drums and thought they sounded fine for a drum track before mastering.

I use ezdrummer and find it very good, the sound I produce from a straight lay down of drums does sound a little bit flat like you describe but I would use that as a dry drum track and add width, compression and some subtle effects at the mastering stage.

I have some of my own songs at my site below in my sig. The song Brand New Day uses ezdrummer.
 
or you could do that at the editing stage and then judiciously mix the trap with all the other voices
 
dooberface I hear what you're hearing.

The sad truth is that none of these sampled drums, drum machines etc sound very good. I'm not sure why, because I hear kicks and cymbals on recordings that sound far better.

You just have to learn how to carve the air with them. You have to stay away from the harsh stuff, and if you do that you can trick the ear.

The drums are short so are way easier to pull off than the cymbals. I usually quantize the snare and kick and whatever's riding, but for the crashes it sounds better (to me) to use 2 or 3 crashes together in clumps that aren't quantized. That way every crash sounds different.

The gist of the problem, from what I can tell, is:

If you were walking down a street and heard a car's tires squeal, and then 10 seconds later heard that EXACT sound again, you would stop in your tracks and go WTF????? It would be very, very strange. Our brains are always looking for patterns, and identical sounds do not occur in nature because there's too many variables. It is impossible to hit a cymbal twice in a row and get the same, exact sound.

So I don't know if it's really that your sounds are bad or maybe that they are the same every time and in real life that never happens, although a kick or snare through a compressor can get pretty close.

But if you mess with your sounds they can work in songs.
 
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