Apr 01, 2003 01:50 pm Well hey, It's a drum machine. Do whatever you want as long as it sounds cool to you :-) Some compression might add some cool effects if you really cranked it. I'd say just go straight most of the time.
Recording Drum machines
Posted on Apr 01, 2003 01:00 pm
mac74
Show me to the beer....
Member Since: Mar 23, 2003
I've just bought a drum machine and having great fun writing nonsense on it. That aside how do people generally record these? Straight into the recorder or is it cool to put it through a little compression? Or anything else? Its a Dr Rhythm MK 2.
Mark
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Apr 01, 2003 01:50 pm Well hey, It's a drum machine. Do whatever you want as long as it sounds cool to you :-) Some compression might add some cool effects if you really cranked it. I'd say just go straight most of the time.
Apr 01, 2003 02:39 pm yeah.. theres really no rules to this at all. use any effect (hardware or software) that you have. the results are only limited by your creativeness (and cashflow =P).
Apr 01, 2003 04:08 pm my drum machine sounds like a joke (yamaha dd-5), so love running it thru chains of distorion pedal. it gets so fuzzy and compressed, i love it.
Apr 02, 2003 07:16 am Running the Drum machine through a compressor will make the drums sound more punchy and phat - experiment away :)
jues.
Apr 02, 2003 10:53 am Speaking of drum machines....I see alot of eq tips on how to eq drums, but never drum machines. I mean, I'd LOVE to have the equipment to be able to mic my kit, but unfortuneatley I'm stuck with using a DR-770 for my drum tracks.
Apr 02, 2003 10:58 am Well, a kick drum sound is a kick drum sound whether it comes from a machine or a kit. Unless it is being used radically different it still needs to fill the same part of the mix so many of the same rules apply.
On the upside, some machines and samples are processed already so they already sound better than live drums as far as recording goes.
Apr 02, 2003 02:10 pm yeah... what DB said. you can listen to my stuff if you want... or not... but i push my stuff through compression, reverb and i eq it like a real kit. for what it is it sounds great to me... and that's what's important... make yourself happy.
Apr 02, 2003 06:02 pm TO Everybody-
Regarding Drum Machines
In everybody's opinion then, what about a drum machine is the weakest in terms of fooling the average listener? In other words, what is the biggest giveaway ? If you could elaborate that would be really helpful like: is it the snare (why) , kick drum (why), cymbals,? the perfect timing and perfect attack, etc..
thanks alot Mac74 for bringing this up
Apr 02, 2003 07:01 pm Well, it's all the things you mentioned.
The sound of a drum machine will never rival that of a real drummer simply because everything sounds the same - when a drummer hits a snare drum, every single hit will sound slightly different and this is very pleasing to the listener, even though they may not actually notice it.
Also drummers give out slight timing variations depending on what they are playing - there's a whole host of reasons.
But then again, live drums sound stupid in trance / techno...
Apr 02, 2003 09:17 pm What jues said holds very true indeed. I have never yet tried live drums for a techno or trance track. Even most of the dance type tracks I have done are sequanced or patterned drums.
As far as a real drummer though. they ca be replaced. But it is the most painstaking part of doing a sequance. I will most often either use my drum triggers for either DM5 sounds or other sampled drum sounds. I also will just use my keyboard controller for it if I dont feel like setting up the triggers. Doing it that way will give you more of a live feel, but the trigger or your keys better have a good velocity curve or you will loose the feel. And even then, i may go in and spend hours tweaking the notes in the sequance just to get it to vary like a real drummer would. And by vary, I mean both timing and touch. I have tweaked my DM5 to play the sounds cross sampled so that it can sound very much like a real kit. But having said that, you cannot do that with most drum machines.
Apr 03, 2003 07:13 pm Another good way to get drum loops sounding live it to over-dub a ride cymbal / hi-hat being played live. This only requires one mic to capture (a condensor is a bit of must here tho as a dynamic will loose a fair bit of hi-end sparkle) and if you know a drummer you can just get them to bring this one piece of kit round - much easier than lugging over an entire kit and having to mic that up.
Also, if you can't do the above, over-dubbing a live shaker / tamborine (!) also works really well and will add a "human element" to programmed grooves.
jues.
Apr 27, 2003 11:39 am To anyone curious
Just stumbled across this great article on realistic use of drum machines
www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/oct99/articles/20tips.htm
Apr 28, 2003 05:00 am that magazine is way cool...and the company that makes it is based about 5 minutes from my house. they're always getting nice looking studio equipment delivered when i go past, the lucky *****************s
Apr 28, 2003 11:08 am that article is dead-on. but its still not always the rule.
i cant name how many times ill have something realistic going on and then go right into something unplayable.
my drummer friends always give me hell for that. think it has anything with them having to reproduce it live?
Apr 29, 2003 09:21 am I have a technique I've developed...
I first record a rough demo of the song using guitar and rhythm unit. The unit incorporates a rudimentry snare, kick and hihat. Doing this I know the song is in perfect time.
Then I start to overdub. Using a keyboard with factory default sampled drums I overdub each drum in turn to a separate track 'by hand'. Of course I make some very slight timing errors, but that adds the hu8man touch. I also add in some drum fills which weren't present there on the original rhythm unit track.
The good bit is then that by careful EQing i can filter out all low and mid frequencies from the rhythm unit track, which gets rid of everything but the rhythm unit's upper trebble hihat sound (which sounds fine). At mix stage it's sometimes necessary to punch out the remaining hihat for a section of a song, but i can disguise it by use of tambourinne, etc. As someone else suggested you can ice the cake by overdubbing tambourine or shakers and improve the human feel, and all in perfect tempo (many drummers can't keep a perfect tempo - it's surprising).
Wouldn't work for everyone I guess, but for the style of music I write (basic pop/rock tunes) it sounds OK to me.
It IS still second best in truth & I would prefer to work with a real drummer, but it sounds a LOT better than just a basic rhythm unit.
Apr 29, 2003 09:45 am hate to keep advertising them...but powerfx does for all my needs now - short of a real drummer i wouldnt use anything else
having said that, im gonna use some of the samples from jamies forthcoming sample cd too on a few new projects...
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