Drum machine cymbals, yuck!
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Posted on Sep 26, 2003 10:09 pm
Tadpui
I am not a crook's head
Member Since: Mar 14, 2003
On every drum machine and piece of drum software that I use, the cymbals are always so artificial sounding. Does anybody know any good tricks to making sampled crash, ride, hi-hat and other cymbals sound a bit more convincing? I was going to fool around with the attack and maybe try some reverb or something to mellow them out a bit.
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juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Sep 26, 2003 11:07 pm The best way to get realistic cynbal / hat sounds is to over dub a "live" ride / hat line, however, this obviously requires you having a ride / hi-hat in the first place (and a mic to capture the performance with)
Failing that, the key to getting things sounding less programmed is to edit the velocity of each individual "hit" to make things sound a bit more "natural", just alter them subtly, not massive leaps, just a smooth flow, and remember to accent the beats like a real drummer would (so the 1st and 3rd beat of every bar would definatly get accented).
Regards
jues.
olddogMember
Since: Jul 02, 2003
Sep 26, 2003 11:14 pm Jues, when you say 1st & 3rd beat of every bar, would that be on each piece (snare, cymbal(s), kick) or should they be mixed up?
Dan
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Sep 26, 2003 11:15 pm I was just talking about hat / ride cymbal programming :)
But yes, listen to recorded drums, the drummer will usually natrually emphasise the start of each bar.
jues.
Sep 27, 2003 06:44 am Yeah, most of the time they do suck. What I have done is just went to my drummer freinds house and recorded him hitting his cymbals and used those samples in my FruityLoops drum tracks.
I have since then started using Project 5 and the cymbal sounds in that drum machine (called "Velocity") are actually very nice...
glynbMember
Since: Dec 16, 2002
Sep 29, 2003 07:46 am I use a crash from a keyboard I have, doesn't sound brilliant but OK.
What I do is remove any low tones in the eq and add a little reverb. I then make sure it's not as 'up front' as a real drummers cymbals would be and even in the background it's still reasonably effective.
Another nice thing to do is record two crash cymbol tracks hitting the cymbol alternately. ie track 1 on the first beat and track two on the third beat. You can then stereo mix them to make it sound like the drummer has two cymbols left and right.
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Mar 11, 2004 09:53 pm I was looking for drum machine cymbal advice again so I did a search here and turned up this thread. I can't believe that I never saw that link, Flame...that collection of .wav files you linked to is awesome!
Combine that with even a simple sequencer like LeafDrums and you've got one heck of a free drum machine! Since they have so many samples of different velocities of each piece of percussion, you don't really need to have a velocity control in your sequencer, so you can really use those samples with any simple sequencer.
Thanks man! Well, I'm off to go play...
Mar 11, 2004 10:53 pm wow...i've never heard of this. downloading now. thanks flame!
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Mar 11, 2004 11:11 pm Its nice to see the search engine at work for a change.
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Mar 11, 2004 11:30 pm hehe yeah, it was going haywire on me last week. It worked this time tho!
And the cymbals from that link above sound great!
flame...bringing sexy backMember
Since: Jul 01, 2002
Mar 12, 2004 08:48 am they da bomb...
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Mar 12, 2004 03:37 pm Ya, I just grabbed version 7. And it is a bit nicer then 6 was, or should I say differant.
