whats your 2 cents on drums/percussion?

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Member Since: Jan 05, 2003

What method do you guys like for doing drums?

At the moment I midi program my triton drum sounds through cubase, it seems to work ok.

I've never used a proper drum machine, whats its like compared to what I currently do?

(or what other methods are there for drums?)

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Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Jan 19, 2003 07:51 am

service.bfast.com/bfast/c...mp;bfmtype=gear

Two words, "Fruity Loops", you will not find a groovier drums sequencer...ever...uses real drum samples plus it can sequence all kinds of other stuff too, anything you can make a sound sample of really.

Of course, real drummers are cool too, but Fruity Loops won't drink all your beer then go home :-)

Contributor
Since: Sep 09, 2002


Jan 20, 2003 09:35 pm

I too use FruityLoops to sequence my percussion tracks (and synths for that matter).

I use my Yamaha DD-5 MIDI drum machine to bang out the beat i hear in my head while Fruity records the notes. then i go in and quantize (line up in time) the notes for accuracy and then i assign each channel a different sample. i prefer using my own original sound samples.

most beats can be distilled into three important parts: the kick drum, the snare, and the hihats. these are a great place to start a percussion track, and other drums and stuff can be added once you get that basic feel started.

Fruity Loops makes nearly every other drum machine and MIDI sequencer obsolete. it's the best $99 you'll ever spend!

Member
Since: Dec 16, 2002


Jan 21, 2003 06:48 am

Depends on the style of music you play I suppose. If you're into dance stuff then you can have loops and electronic sounding drums/percussion. If you are trying to recreate the sound of a live rock outfit then that probably won't work too well.

I record using a basic rhythm unit to get a guide track down. I then manually overdub first a snare from a keyboard, then bass drum, then hi hat, cymbal, and toms. I end up with all on separate tracks, great for mixing later. It means i can put some slight variations into the drums (the human touch), which it would be hard to do using some kind of sequencer or machine.

BTW I always put the cymbals on last once the track is neareing completion, so I know which bits need the emphasis.

Maniacal Genius
Contributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002


Jan 21, 2003 11:18 am

And yet another plug for Fruity Loops. I use it for almost all of my drum tracks and have found that if you're willing to spend the time working out the beats and have some good samples to work with, you can get a very good facsimilie of a live drummer. I usually put together all of my basic patterns for the differnet parts of my songs and get them organized into the playlist. Then, I go back and copy some of the patterns and add little variations like fills and accents and cymbals. Once that's done, I export to separate WAV files the kick, the snare, the hi-hats, the toms and the cymbals. Import them into my software and mix to taste. It never "really" sounds like a live drummer, but I have on a couple of occasions been asked who played drums on some tracks I've done in Fruity Loops.

Cone Poker
Member
Since: Apr 07, 2002


Jan 21, 2003 03:52 pm

I think the majority of us use fruity loops. You can compose a whole song on that program if you feel like it. It's a great app for drum sounds though, as you can use real drums or fake drums, and you can get it full of samples and synths. It gives you full control of the sound, randomizing and humanizing, controlling the pan, pitch, velocity, and every other aspect of each individual hit. It really is well worth the 99 bux you spend on it.

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