Knowing how to produce drums

[haveri321]

Hello guys,

I'm not a drummer and not intending to actually study drums. But I would like to know how to produce them professionally with MIDI software. I wish to know many types of grooves, and how to make them sound realistic with drums plug-ins. My question is what is the best way to learn this in your opinion? Should I buy DVDs on how to play drums?
The most important thing for me is of course notation and drum patterns, but more than that I would like to know how to analyze the sound of what I create and to know, like a real drummer can tell, whether it sounds realistic and natural.
What do you suggest?

Thanks in advance

 

[Seafroggys]

Since I'm a drummer, I have never had a need for doing midi drums, aside from composing.

With that being said, velocity is going to be your most important tool. Manually edit the velocity on everything, that goes a long way.

 

[Armistice]

It's a skill, like anything else. Be a good starting point to listen closely to the drumming in anything you're playing, then using whatever MIDI drum package you have, drag a few simple grooves out and look at them in the editor and see what's getting hit when. Look at the picture of the kit as well, and understand what's where, what hand is used to hit what drum and that there are only four extremities to use at any one time.

Listen to the different cymbals and understand when the hi hats are used, the ride, the various crashes, and in particular listen to the various things that real drummers to with hi hats and work out how to approximate those things with MIDI. Look at what happens with velocity in the grooves you're looking at as well, and timing, whether everything's on the beat or subtly off.

Do it well enough and, yes, drummers and musicians will pick it as MIDI (and that's more about tones than rhythms often), but casual listeners won't. I've fooled more than one listener on this board, but never an actual drummer.

The deeper you dive and more you tinker, the better you'll get.