How to get the most realistic drum sound from MIDI.

J

JakJak

New member
At the moment I am using Logic 9's Ultrabeat drumming program to create my rock/indie drum beats. However its still easy to tell that they are programmed and not real.
How would I make them sound more real?
Is there any programme which would be better to use that would work with Logic?

Thanks,
Jack
 
The biggest obstacle and reason for programmed drums not sounding natural is the fact that a non-drummer is usually programming them.

There are things a drummer does when playing that a non-drummer usually doesn't take into account, like velocity changes on the hi-hat, ghost notes on the snare, etc....

So, while there may be some more "realistic" sounding programs than others, the fact is that unless you know how a real drummer would play something, it will never sound "real".
 
on a budget EZDrummer
with a few pound to splash around, Superior drummer both by Toontrack.

Definitely worth checking out
 
A few things to do:

1) Drummers don't hit the head with the same strength each time. Randomize velocity by about 7-10% up and down. You may have to manually adjust a couple of points, but randomizing the velocity on your drum tracks goes a LONG way.

2) Drummers don't hit the head in the same spot all the time. Use multiple samples for the same pad to achieve this effect. Dont know if it's possible with your drum software, though, as I am not familiar with it... but if you use two (or more) slightly different samples, this can help as well.

3) Add a REAL human touch! I tend to almost always use some sort of real percussion in my recordings to give it more of a human feel. That is, I set up a mic, and record myself playing tambourine, shaker, djembe, etc...

4) As mentioned earlier, drummers tend to throw in ghost beats as well. It doesnt hurt to slide one in from time to time. :)

I should add that I use Session Drummer 3 for most of my projects. I occassionally use Battery. Both are great soft synths for drum tracking, IMHO.

Hope that helps!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top