Do these drums sound realistic?

C

ChickenStomp

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This is still a work in progress and not fully mixed so the levels are all over the place, but I'm trying to make the drums sound like they weren't programmed (as much as possible). Any tips on how I can them sound better?



Okay I updated the post with different drums and some better mixing
 
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ChickenStomp said:
This is still a work in progress and not fully mixed so the levels are all over the place, but I'm trying to make the drums sound like they weren't programmed (as much as possible). Any tips on how I can them sound better?

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I'm really diggin' the song. It definitely doesn't sound too programmed for the most part. What sticks out to me the most though is the high hat really does sound programmed. The best way I've found to get around this is to either:

A) play the hi hat part on a MIDI controller so you get more variance in the velocities of the part, as well as their location in relation to the grid, or
B) Just grab a hi-hat from someone and record you playing just the hi-hat part. The rest can stay programmed.

I've personally found hi-hat to be the hardest part of the kit to make sound realistic when programming, so good luck to you, mate. =]
 
MrWrenchey said:
I'm really diggin' the song. It definitely doesn't sound too programmed for the most part. What sticks out to me the most though is the high hat really does sound programmed. The best way I've found to get around this is to either:

A) play the hi hat part on a MIDI controller so you get more variance in the velocities of the part, as well as their location in relation to the grid, or
B) Just grab a hi-hat from someone and record you playing just the hi-hat part. The rest can stay programmed.

I've personally found hi-hat to be the hardest part of the kit to make sound realistic when programming, so good luck to you, mate. =]
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Ya that's what I figured, the intro hi-hat definitely stands out the most to me. I can go in and vary the velocity on that part though, thanks for the feedback
 
Well right off the bat, the snare sounds like it's only a bottom mic. Needs more attack. The rest of the kit seems okay. The "playing" sounds real enough. Some of the little ride accents seem out of place starting around 2:00. That's either a three armed drummer or he can move around the kit really fast and precisely. A little 8th note space between hits like that is more realistic.
 
Greg_L said:
Well right off the bat, the snare sounds like it's only a bottom mic. Needs more attack. The rest of the kit seems okay. The "playing" sounds real enough. Some of the little ride accents seem out of place starting around 2:00. That's either a three armed drummer or he can move around the kit really fast and precisely. A little 8th note space between hits like that is more realistic.
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Yep. I was gonna say something similar about the snare. If you've ever tracked a real snare with both a bottom and a top mic, you'll know what Greg is saying. The bottom mic sounds like a piece of paper being smacked. That's not bad--it's just a result of the snare wires on the bottom. The top mic has all the punch. When mixed together properly, they can sound good. I used to record with a top and a bottom mic, until I figured out how to tune the snare and adjust the mic placement to get what I wanted from just the top mic.

In any case, I was gonna say that your snare sounded "paper-y"--but that sounded dumb. After Greg's post, I realized what I was hearing--sounds like just the bottom mic.
 
Sounds pretty good to me. I wasn't distracted by the drums, I think they sit pretty well. Greg said what I felt about the snare though. It struck me as a little something other than the usual canned snare and maybe that is a good thing.
 
Greg_L said:
Well right off the bat, the snare sounds like it's only a bottom mic. Needs more attack. The rest of the kit seems okay. The "playing" sounds real enough. Some of the little ride accents seem out of place starting around 2:00. That's either a three armed drummer or he can move around the kit really fast and precisely. A little 8th note space between hits like that is more realistic.
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Ya that's basically the only snare sample I have and it isn't mixed at all yet. Usually I fix that snare sound with EQ and other effects. I'll move those ride accents around a little bit too. I am not a drummer at all so the drum tracks always start off bad and slowly get edited over the course of a couple weeks to sound decent.
 
WhiteStrat said:
Yep. I was gonna say something similar about the snare. If you've ever tracked a real snare with both a bottom and a top mic, you'll know what Greg is saying. The bottom mic sounds like a piece of paper being smacked. That's not bad--it's just a result of the snare wires on the bottom. The top mic has all the punch. When mixed together properly, they can sound good. I used to record with a top and a bottom mic, until I figured out how to tune the snare and adjust the mic placement to get what I wanted from just the top mic.

In any case, I was gonna say that your snare sounded "paper-y"--but that sounded dumb. After Greg's post, I realized what I was hearing--sounds like just the bottom mic.
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Yup, exactly. I track with a bottom snare mic pretty often, and I never end up using it. Literally never. I think I might have mixed it in maybe once on a surf style song. I don't even know why I bother with it. My snare is a beast and I get all I need with just the top mic. With careful mic placement you can get bang, snap, and crack all in one spot. Overheads take care of the rest.
 
Getting a decent snare out of these sample kits is hard work... I generally get most of it from the "overheads" and "room" "mics" rather than the actual snare itself.

Apart from the snare sound it still sounds quite programmed to me, I'm afraid.

With Addictive (don't know what you're using...) the velocity you use on the snare makes a heap of difference too. I started out "hitting" them too softly in the 0- 128 MIDI range thinking that as you went up it just got louder, but of course it doesn't as they use different samples with harder actual hits as you go higher... I've settled with the best general occurring from about 90 - 110.

I also always, always, always manually vary the velocity of successive hits on the same thing, hi hats in particular, rides definitely, snare not so much, but I'll also feed in on a random basis a bit of "foot hat" "bell hat" for the hi hats, "splash ride" and "bell ride" for the rides, and various other snares (soft, rimshot) on the snares - and get a bit of swing into the fills via velocity changes.. grace taps here and there.... it all makes it sound subtly not so programmed, and people rarely comment on my "drumming" as being obviously programmed.

But then, I spend hours and hours on a drum track... always tweaking something or other. Depends how much love you have for it! :D
 


Okay I updated the post with different drums and some better mixing. For the snare I actually ended up combining 2 different snares together from the Metalheads package in EZ Drummer, then Eq'd it a bit, also added the 'humanizer' function to the hi hat
 
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This is sounding a lot better than the original to me :)
My only complaint is the intro guitar sounds a bit lonely/flat? at the start. Maybe you could put some stereo spread on it for that section?

Hope that helps,
Bruce
 
cropleyb said:
This is sounding a lot better than the original to me :)
My only complaint is the intro guitar sounds a bit lonely/flat? at the start. Maybe you could put some stereo spread on it for that section?

Hope that helps,
Bruce
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ChickenStomp said:
I did it panned like that on purpose so that when the other guitar comes in it switches to stereo
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The "narrow" sound of the first guitar is great--it totally sets up the wide open sound that follows. Nice job!
 
Sorry about that. I've listened to the intro a few more times, and it sounds great to me now. I think I must have been trying too hard to come up with some useful feedback.

Bruce
 
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