I currently use an M-Box with Pro-Tools through a Mac. I can get a great sound with every instrament eccept drums. Not to mention drums are my worst instrament. I was wondering if anyone knew of the best drum looping software. One where you can write the beats and that will sound REAL!!! my style of music is Rock/pop/jazzy bluesish. I looked at a demo of Reason, it looked to confusing. I have heard Ableton Live is good and same with Garage Band.
Recording drums question!!!!
- Thread starter tjbogin
- Start date
I don't about anybody else...But I ended using Fruity Loops. (even for my rock music) True it's mainly made for rap and/or dance beats, but it's an excellent sequencer. To get a great realistic sound, (as opposed to the digital drum machine sounds) all you have to do is record actual pieces of the drumkit yourself. For instance, close mic just your snare, and then record just a nice clean snare hit. Cut the audio so that it starts the very instant that the snare is hit. And cut the audio track once the snare is done ringing out. Then save this very short audio clip as "snare hit." Later, upload this wav file to your sequencer, replacing the original snare hit. (This way, you can replace fake digital sounds with real, live sounds) If you record each little piece of a drum set and then post produce each one...you should be able to find a really nice sound. Do the same for each of the toms, the bass, cymbals, and ect... ( remember that the high hat has at least 2 variations: a closed high hat hit, and an open high hat hit. Record each and save them as seperate files!) Remember that you can equalize all of these sounds later in post production. Once you're done "building" your virtual drum set, designed to sound exactly how you like it to sound, you can simply use the software to write out any type of beat that you would like. (assuming that you already uploaded the files into the software) Now play it back: it should sound A LOT more realistic than the digital drum kits that came with the software. Doing this may take a lot of creativity and planning ahead, but it's not necessarily hard. All you have to do is remember what a real drummer would sound like, and not write anything that doesn't fit that mold. In other words, if you're trying to sound realistic, don't make the beats sound like they are played by a robot. You can do little things like changing the tempo, or adding a "swing" to the beat. Remember to add a lot of little variations into your "verses"...otherwise it won't sound like a real person playing. Unless ofcourse you don't mind it sounding like a drum machine.
Even if you don't own your own drum set...you can just sample sounds off of a set the next time you record a band. Or you could sample sounds off of a friends set. If this isn't possible now, don't worry, for starters you could always get the software first and learn how to operate it.
You can do this type of thing with ANY "audio sequencer". Fruity Loops is just a favorite for home producers. However, there are easier ones that you could even download for free. www.acoustica.com There's a program called "beatcraft" on the homepage I think. It's really simple to "post produce" each individual drum piece in the program, plus easy to write beats. The program downloads for free, but de-activates after a few days of use unless you buy it. It's only like 25 bucks or something so don't worry. Or you could even find the crack for it and just keep it for free. Both ways are extremely easy.
Hope I helped at least a little bit. Good luck
Even if you don't own your own drum set...you can just sample sounds off of a set the next time you record a band. Or you could sample sounds off of a friends set. If this isn't possible now, don't worry, for starters you could always get the software first and learn how to operate it.
You can do this type of thing with ANY "audio sequencer". Fruity Loops is just a favorite for home producers. However, there are easier ones that you could even download for free. www.acoustica.com There's a program called "beatcraft" on the homepage I think. It's really simple to "post produce" each individual drum piece in the program, plus easy to write beats. The program downloads for free, but de-activates after a few days of use unless you buy it. It's only like 25 bucks or something so don't worry. Or you could even find the crack for it and just keep it for free. Both ways are extremely easy.
Hope I helped at least a little bit. Good luck
haha...no prob.
One step I take to make it sound even more realistic:
This might get a little tricky, but as you'll find out, when you write a drum part in an audio sequencer, you are usually stuck with having the song be the same tempo all the way through. (i.e. 4/4 timing at a fast speed.) One way to counter this, is to plan ahead while writing a song. For instance, you can write your verse in 3/4 timing, and then your chorus in 4/4 timing, and then add a breakdown that's still in 4/4 timing but slows down a lot. Because you can't do this in an audio sequencer, what you have to do is write your drum parts in sections. First write all of your 3/4 parts, then save them as wav files and label them "verse" or whatever. Then record the 4/4 parts and the slower parts all seperately as well. Later, in your mixing software, just upload all 3 wav files and place them in sequence to eachother. Now when you play back the track, you should have a drum part that actually changes tempo, rythym, timing, ect. Later on when you add all your other instruments to the mix, it gets really hard to believe that the drums are digital, because you almost NEVER hear a drum machine with variations. (certainly they don't ever change time signatures within the song)
hope that works. peace
One step I take to make it sound even more realistic:
This might get a little tricky, but as you'll find out, when you write a drum part in an audio sequencer, you are usually stuck with having the song be the same tempo all the way through. (i.e. 4/4 timing at a fast speed.) One way to counter this, is to plan ahead while writing a song. For instance, you can write your verse in 3/4 timing, and then your chorus in 4/4 timing, and then add a breakdown that's still in 4/4 timing but slows down a lot. Because you can't do this in an audio sequencer, what you have to do is write your drum parts in sections. First write all of your 3/4 parts, then save them as wav files and label them "verse" or whatever. Then record the 4/4 parts and the slower parts all seperately as well. Later, in your mixing software, just upload all 3 wav files and place them in sequence to eachother. Now when you play back the track, you should have a drum part that actually changes tempo, rythym, timing, ect. Later on when you add all your other instruments to the mix, it gets really hard to believe that the drums are digital, because you almost NEVER hear a drum machine with variations. (certainly they don't ever change time signatures within the song)
hope that works. peace
grn
Well-known member
well if you go to the step sequencer then pick an empty pattern and rename it something to "tempo change" or whatever you want to call it so you remember. then right click on the tempo (you know where it says 140 by default)... then go to "edit events" and then pick what tempo you want... then put a block in wherever you want the tempo to change.
Awesome. I am actually looking at a demo of fruity loops as we speak. I'm just trying to see if I can convert either that or Acid on to a mac. If I cant. I might just use an old labtop to do my drum parts. Convert them to MP3's then import them into my Pro-Tools. Hey thanks for all the ideas on how to get the best drum sounds, I'll be writing down your advice.
SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
Might I suggest not converting to MP3 and saving as WAV instead? All your software should be able to inport/export WAV (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about that). But MP3 is a "lossy compression" format, even at high rates like 256K there will be some lost waveform information. With WAV, OTOH, there is no compression and the signals will stay as true as possible between apps.tjbogin said:
HTH,
G.
So i can write the acid pro or fruity loops on a PC and convert that to wav which would fit onto my mac and pro-tools?
exactly...but wav files take up a shit load more space, so I hope you have some convenient way to transport the files.
If FL doesn't work on you mac, then just use a different audio sequencer, There are many good ones out there. I suggest not wasting your time going from one computer to the next...cuz what happens later on when you add in all the guitars, and decide that the mix would sound more realistic with a slight variation or a fill in the drum part. It would be such a hassle to have to go back to the other computer, write it, save it, transfer the file, and upload it... Try keeping it all on one computer, or at least connect to a network if you're going to combine computers.
If FL doesn't work on you mac, then just use a different audio sequencer, There are many good ones out there. I suggest not wasting your time going from one computer to the next...cuz what happens later on when you add in all the guitars, and decide that the mix would sound more realistic with a slight variation or a fill in the drum part. It would be such a hassle to have to go back to the other computer, write it, save it, transfer the file, and upload it... Try keeping it all on one computer, or at least connect to a network if you're going to combine computers.
SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
I've not worked with fruty loops yet, so I can't say postitvely, but, yeah, you should be able to. Underneath all the camoflague, WAV is *the* native format that all PC editing software actually use at their core. Saving/loading or inporting/exporting as WAV is - or at least should be - a basic disc I/O function avaliable in any PC editor worth it's salt.
For that same reason, while WAV is technically a WinPC format, (the "W" in "WAV" actually stands for "Windows"), the Mac version of ProTools should be able to import them as well to retain transportability between studios with different platforms.
Now, I've only used the WinPC version of PT, so I cannot absolutely verify first-hand that the Mac version has WAV import, but I'd be very suprised (and extremely disappointed with a wagging finger) if it didn't.
Hopefully there's someone here who can say positively that your Mac version of PT will take PC WAVs.
G.
For that same reason, while WAV is technically a WinPC format, (the "W" in "WAV" actually stands for "Windows"), the Mac version of ProTools should be able to import them as well to retain transportability between studios with different platforms.
Now, I've only used the WinPC version of PT, so I cannot absolutely verify first-hand that the Mac version has WAV import, but I'd be very suprised (and extremely disappointed with a wagging finger) if it didn't.
Hopefully there's someone here who can say positively that your Mac version of PT will take PC WAVs.
G.
SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
Hubba,Hubbawho said:
Are WAV files the Double D's of audio files?
G.