Otek's Guide to Drum Programming!

[otek]

Otek's Guide to Drum Programming, Part 1


I'm not sure where I heard a loop being used the first time. It may have been on Pink Floyd's excellent track "Money", where ace engineer Alan Parsons used a long piece of tape, continuously orbiting a take-up reel and a boom stand. The result - an odd-meter, rhythmic string of sounds commonly associated with the song's subject matter - can still be heard on classic rock stations all over the world.

Loops and programmed rhythms of some kind are almost as common a feature in today's pop music as the electric guitar. They have become part of the vocabulary of sounds we associate with modern music production. Today, the majority of drum programming is done in a computer environment, whereas in the past, they were a product of ingenious manipulations of analog tape, as well as stand-alone drum machines.

The precision and repetitive quality of loops have become part of the musician's toolbox, and I would like to look at them as a separate flavor altogether. A "real" drummer is not by default a better solution for a song, though it can be argued that there is a timeless quality to an acoustic drum performance that will sound fresh for years to come. Any drum machine or loop CD-R will have an "expiration date" of sorts, and which of today's sounds will become tomorrow's classics is anybody's guess.

In this drum and loop programming tutorial, I will deal with various examples and applications of programming, ranging from very basic to more advanced concepts. The idea is to hopefully give you some inspiration and shed a few misconceptions.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I have elected to limit myself to some very basic and commonplace sound sources. Drum sounds will be from Toontrack's ubiquitous Drumkit From Hell collection, which has some very useful features for getting organic drum sounds. Loops will be taken from Spectrasonics Stylus, a software instrument with a large collection of loops and sound samples, and Skippy's Noizebox, a CD-R collection with more of the same. I will also use recordings of live drums, and possibly a few "home-grown" samples.

None of these sound sources are particularly advanced or expensive, and in fact, some of the sounds are already a bit dated. My intention here is to show you that you don't have to have the latest and greatest sound libraries to create something worthwhile.

Discerning the Groove

The first thing we need to look at when it comes to rhythm programming is discerning the groove. What this process entails, depends on what you have to work with initially.
If you start out with a song demo, such as a simple acoustic guitar track with a vocal on top, there are important clues to which beats will feel the best, in how the vocal is structured rhythmically. You may naturally want to build it another way as you go along, but I always find this to be a good reference point.

The best way is to just listen to the tune, sing along for a bit, play some drums on your knees, whatever - basically what you would normally do when listening to a song. But this time, be extra aware of the rhythms you are making. Chances are they are pretty good starting points for building a rhythm track.

Another method is to actually sing the rhythms. I know a hip-hop producer who frequently builds his beats like this, namely by singing his beats into a mic, slicing up the resulting audio into separate sounds, and mapping those sounds out on a MIDI grid. He can then replace the vocal sounds with drum samples, and retain the feel of his original "performance".

Once we have figured out the basic beat, we need to spend some time selecting sounds that will fit the vibe of the song you are working on. Once you found the sounds, finding the actual rhythms to use will become easier, because you're not distracted by the character of the sound.

The challenge when using sample CDs and sound libraries, is to make things sound unique. If you simply use the loops as they are, many times they're too recognizable and sound pretty lame. If on the other hand you use bits and pieces from different libraries, mix and match, layer sounds, and move things around, you will come up with endless variations from just a few different sounds and loops.

I try not to intellectualize too much about it. I usually start by finding a basic beat with programmed drum hits, something that just feels nice against what is laid down and what I have to work with.

Basic Drum Programming

Let's start with a standard rock beat (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.a1.mp3).

This is just a basic beat, hi-hats on the 8th notes, snare on 2 and 4, and an alternating kick pattern with single hits on 1 and double hits on 3.

The notes are just step entered with equal velocity. I made no attempt at this point to embellish anything or make it groove.

This is a passable beat for fleshing out a basic idea. However, in a musical sense, it's very stiff, and no drummer would play it quite like this. So I always try to use some embellishments to make it sound more alive.

Velocity

The first thing we will talk about here is the use of velocity. Velocity is the midi term for how hard the note is being played, i.e. with which velocity the key or other midi controller is struck. Sometimes, what you get is simply an attenuation of volume with a softer keystroke, but the way things are usually laid out in drum libraries, you will have different samples assigned to different keystroke intensities. This is known as velocity layering.

So, I will apply some velocity differences (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.a2.mp3) to the various parts. Because of the nature of this beat, velocity changes come across as very subtle - there's just not a whole lot to work with. You will notice more of a difference when applying velocity to fills, busier beats and more dynamic types of beats. We will also return to this topic later in the tutorial.

I usually try to keep at least the snare downbeat fairly consistent in terms of velocity. We often want to hear it like that in pop music. You can vary the kick a bit, and the hi-hat, but try to keep the main snare beat as consistent as you can. This is not the major culprit in what we perceive as stiffness, as you will soon discover.
Other changes include a slightly higher velocity on the hi-hat hits that coincide with the snare. This is likely how a real drummer would do it. Also, I use a slightly higher value on the off-beats (one-AND-two-AND-three-AND... etc.)

Ghost Notes

Another way of slightly altering the feel is to use ghost notes. Ghost notes are basically softer notes played between the main hits, to provide a sense of "drive". This is most common on the snare, but can be applied to most of the pieces in a drum kit. Here, I've added some ghost notes (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.a3.mp3) (with velocity changes) to the original beat, the way a drummer might have played them. Notice that you can make the ghost notes pretty loud, or virtually inaudible, depending on their desired function in the beat.

Pushing Partials

Next, depending on the beat, we may also use a technique that I call "pushing partials". This means that in a given drum beat, you can make things sound very different just by adjusting the general timing of one of the parts of the kit, say, the hihat.

By nudging the hihat to a bit before the beat, and the snare a bit behind, I create a sense of push and pull that might just be what a real drummer would do on a beat like this. To avoid an obvious flam (double hit) with the snare drum I maintain the hihat notes that coincide with the snare in the same place.

The faster the beat, the more you can nudge notes while retaining the tightness. A very common thing in dance music is to nudge the hihat to a bit later in the beat - this creates a "bouncy" sort of feel with the kick drum.

In addition to pushing the partials, you can also slightly randomize the notes. Randomization is simply using the software to nudge the midi events randomly. In addition to pushing partials, this can be used to give the whole part a more "human" feel. Most of the DAW platforms offer this feature in some form.

This example (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.a4.mp3) includes some randomization and the aforementioned "partial pushes". The effect is very subtle and can be hard to hear, but it does give some "weight" to the snare and some urgency and drive because of the hi-hat.

Remember, we are talking very small changes here - a few milliseconds at the most. You don't want to overdo this, as it will quickly lose its tightness and "snap".

To illustrate this, here's how Dumb Ass might have played this beat (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.a5-DumbAss.mp3) (based on Mixerman's description).

Quantization

Yet another way of altering the feel is to use the various quantization options in your software. Quantizing is when the software moves the midi notes to correspond to a certain subdivision, for example 8th notes, 16th notes, or other user-defined parameters. When you are step-entering all data like I am, the notes will already be right on the money, but this is where we can get pretty creative with quantizing.

Logic, Nuendo, SX, Pro Tools and most of the other platforms will offer you a number of different options for quantizing the beat. Some of those will include different preset grooves, and swing beats. These can be used to completely alter the feel of the beat, while retaining the main pattern.

In this clip (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.a6-swung.mp3), I've changed the basic feel of the beat to a swung (shuffled) one.

Some DAW software has even more advanced functions, like quantizing to an audio file - which we will be getting into later in this tutorial.

All of the above "human" factors can naturally be entered automatically by actually playing the pattern on some kind of midi instrument. You can also assign any midi controller to something like velocity data, and continuously affect the velocity of the parts. However, for the purpose of this tutorial, I have elected for various reasons to not enter into that side of things too much. Midi controllers and their various applications could easily make up a whole tutorial in and of itself.

To Summarize...

You are probably not going to fool anyone that a real drummer played the above examples. Though, some people have taken the art of drum programming quite far, sometimes to the point of being almost indistinguishable from the real thing. This is largely a function of the programmer's skill, the time spent, and the number of options afforded you by the sample library.

My approach is mostly different from this. By using programmed beats in conjunction with loops, I try to create a different flavor to real drums. I'm not trying to make it do something it can't. If it needs a drummer, I will use a drummer.

In the next installment, we will look at just some of the options for integrating loops with programmed beats.


- Otek

[otek]

Otek's Guide to Drum Programming, Part 2

Loop basics

As was stated in the first part of this tutorial, loops are a different animal from drum samples. Loop libraries are generally pre-assembled grooves or recordings of actual performances, one, two or more bars in length. The idea here is to get a continuous groove that sets the vibe and “pocket” for a tune. Because loops are based on samples of playing or rhythmic events rather than separate hits, they naturally contain all the accents and embellishments that we labored to recreate earlier when programming drums. In addition, loops can have a very strong sonic signature, which immediately sets a certain mood.

Groove control

There are many different ways of working with loops and changing them to fit the occasion. Some loop libraries come with sampler patches that have the different parts or hits in the loop mapped out chromatically. An associated midi file will then play the loop segments in sequential order, creating a continuous part. This system is known as Groove Control.

A Groove Control midi file may look something like this:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul02/images/groovelogicscreen.l.gif

The advantage of the Groove Control system is that the loop can be used in a multitude of tempos, if the loop is originally in, say, 110 bpm, and it’s dropped in a 118 bpm song, the midi file will adjust to the current tempo, and the loop will play in time. Also, if there are hits in the loop that don’t fit the rhythmic structure of the song, they can be omitted or moved, changing the feel of the part.

Note that in a groove control file, the midi notes are often not playing right on the money. This is actually part of the discrepancy that creates the groove in the first place.

Like with all midi data, parts can naturally be quantized to conform to any sort of fixed subdivision, much like the programmed parts I laid down previously.

Combining loops and programmed parts

Let’s pick it up where we left off in part 1. Using the last drum example, a rock groove with a swung feel, we can add a loop to make the part groove better, but also to change the sonic flavor.

After some rummaging, I found this loop (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.b1.mp3), which gives a kind of funky swing groove similar to our drum part, but it’s pretty light in the bottom end and lacks punch. So, by adding the programmed part, I can make it heavier and still retain the feel of the loop. I also decided to bring down the tempo a bit, to fit the swung feel better.

Two things needed to be done with the programmed drum snippet from Part 1:

First, the ghost notes that were added are in different places than those of the loop. This creates a confused and overly busy sound. So, I weeded out the programmed part a bit.

Second, the swing quantization of the programmed part doesn’t match exactly the groove in the loop. I could adjust this manually by moving the midi notes of the programmed parts to coincide with those of the Groove Control file. There is, however, a slicker way of doing it, and most DAW’s have some kind of implementation of this: Groove Template quantization.

Using a Groove Template means you’re actually creating a quantization algorithm based on the inherent groove of a sound source – be it a loop or a real performance. The algorithm is then stored in the DAW’s midi quantization menu and can be applied to any midi file in the song.

By applying the loop’s groove to the programmed parts, the midi hits will play in perfect sync, creating a very clean and snappy sound. Here's the swung programmed drum part playing along with the loop (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.b2.mp3).

To my ears, it still sounded a bit thin. So I added a bass drum sound and an extra snare sound (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.b3.mp3) to give it more punch. Naturally I made sure that they are absolutely synchronous to the previous programmed part.

Let’s try another example. In this one, I am using a hi-hat/ghost-based loop (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.b4.mp3) to play along with programmed hits (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.b5.mp3). I still thought I needed something to fill out the beat and give it more flow, so I added a shaker part (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.b6.mp3). Finally, here they are all together (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Otek_Ex.b7.mp3).

And so....

As you can see, you can combine several loops with programmed hits. Just be careful so that the overall impression doesn’t get too busy for the song. You have to leave space for other instruments, as well! Usually, the best way is to keep the programmed part simple and let the loop part fill in the ghost notes and embellishments. Finally, make sure that the parts are quantized to the same reference, or else the beat tends to get muddy and indistinct.

Next time, we’re going to look a bit at some slightly more advanced concepts.


-otek

[otek]

Otek's Guide to Drum Programming, Part 3

Compound Beats

The first thing we’re gonna look at this time is using loops and beats with different grooves together for rhythmic effect. I refer to this as Compound Beats, though there are many names for it. In modern R&B, you often hear beats with displaced accents and totally different grooves juxtaposed against each other. I’ve heard this referred to as Broken Beats, but I’m not sure that’s the correct term for it.

Be that as it may. The basis for this technique, as I use it, is to take one beat, such as a shuffle, and combine it with a completely different beat, say a straight, 16th-note beat.

The separate beats are not remarkable, and may actually not feel all that great. But in combination, they will create completely new rhythmic flavors. Being no Jedi at this particular technique, I have nonetheless used it sometimes to great effect. I have elected to at least give a rudimentary example here, by using a very basic, precisely quantized shuffle beat (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Compound1_prog.mp3), and layered a straight but groovy 16th-note loop (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Compound1_loop.mp3) on top. Note how the combined accents (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Compound1_combo.mp3) create a completely different rhythmic feel.

Here’s another example, again using a very simple, programmed beat (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Compound2_prog.mp3) combined with a loop (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Compound2_loop.mp3). The combination of the two (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Compound2_combo.mp3) creates a kind of “four against three” feel, a version of what is commonly heard in a lot of African music.

The trick in my book is to keep the separate parts simple in and of themselves. The complexity comes from the combination and the clashing of the different subdivisions.

This technique is not by any means confined to a certain style of music. For examples of it in non-R&B settings, listen to God Lives Underwater’s song “From Your Mouth”, where the bass line is straight and 16th-note based, and the drums are playing a jack swing type pattern. You can also hear it on Jeff Beck’s version of “Rolling and Tumbling” from the You Had It Coming album – two beats, one is a straight, rather stiff marching band pattern, and the other a very fast shuffle. Both examples actually feature the beats separated at some point.

Try this for yourself! Even if you don’t have any loop libraries, simply program two different beats, and play them against each other. They naturally need to be the same tempo (not that I know of any DAW’s that will allow you to feature two tempos at once!), but have very distinct, different subdivisions and time feel.

Programming to real drums

For the remainder of this installment, let’s talk about what I consider to be the most exciting aspect of loops and programmed beats, namely combining them with a real drum performance.

Let’s start here with the guitar solo breakdown from Team Galactic’s song “Gaining On Me”. Our drummer Peter switches to a half-time feel, playing a straight, 8th-note-based beat (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Galactic_drms01.mp3) for Mudcat to wail over. Half-way through, he switches to a ride pattern for a dynamic shift.

Given more time to record, I would have had Peter play shakers and tambourine on the tune, but with an hour and a half to set up, learn the song, record, and tear down, I had to get clever with loops and MIDI percussion after the fact.

So, I added a shaker and a tambourine (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Galactic_perc01.mp3) from a loop library, both playing a straight, 8th-note beat. Then, I combined it with Peter’s drums (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/Galactic_drm-perc01.mp3).

Your drummer will naturally have to be pretty tight for this to sound good. More on this in a few moments.

“Beat” loops and real drums

In the above example, I used loops to replace a very common percussion part. In other words, the above loops are designed to pass for the “real thing”, that is, a shaker and a tambourine.

But you can use loops for so much more than that. Loops can be used to provide a sense of size, to add “weight” or “forward drive” to real drums, as well as rhythmic complexity. By altering the blend of loops to real drums, you can create everything from a complex, “electronic” or “industrial” feel, to a very subtle reinforcement of the groove.

The main thing when doing this is, the loops and drums have to create some kind of rhythmic sense together. For this to happen, we must pay attention to the following:

a) The right sound for the part – the loop has to fit sonically with the original drum part and the song. You can work with the rhythmic feel with some flexibility, but if the loop doesn’t sound right with the track, it will destroy the vibe.

b) The right groove – the loop has to have a groove which works well with the original feel of the tune. Remember, we are looking for a reinforcement of what’s naturally there, not something that fights it – unless that’s your thing, of course.

c) Precision on the strong beats – while the subdivisions may sometimes strive in slightly different directions, the main downbeats should not. Unless, again, that’s what you want. Personally, I hate flams (http://www.google.se/search?q=define:Flam&hl=sv&lr=&oi=definel&defl=en) unless they’re very deliberate and consistent in a beat. The main reason for this is, haphazard flams in a beat tend to be detrimental to its punch and power.

Item c) above here demands a little more explaining, because it ties in with what I said earlier about the tightness of the drummer.

Very few drummers can play consistently enough with a loop that the beats don’t flam against each other. There are several ways to eliminate those flams. If the drummer has a good, consistent time feel, what you may wanna do is cut out or move the beats in the loop that coincide with the kick and snare of the kit. What you end up with is a loop which plays “around” the drummer’s main beats.

If the drummer is playing to a sequenced background to begin with, and can pull it off with a good time feel, all you may wanna do is ever so slightly nudge the kick and snare hits to coincide with the loops.

For an example of the latter, here’s a snippet (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/CaPEII_PN-jammin.mp3) of the Team Industry tune "Burn In The Pyres" from CaPE II. Our drummer at the time (coincidentally, another Peter!) improvised on a deliberately ratty-sounding kit over a vamp (http://otekdrums.musiq.com/CaPEII_vamp.mp3) of the programmed beats in the tune. He nailed it pretty well, but I moved a couple of the snare hits slightly to get rid of a few stray flams. Note that Peter is playing snare and hihat only, the bass, drums and other percussion are all loops (a commercially released example of this can be found on Jennifer Warnes's tune "Rock You Gently" from her album "The Hunter" (http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,182714,00.html), where Vinnie Colaiuta plays snare and hihat along with programmed beats). The trick here is to introduce the right amount of “drag” to make the beat groove, but still be right on the money when it comes to the backbeat.

Next time, we’ll be looking at some more elaborate examples of real drums combined with loops, and explore how we can manipulate the sense of size, weight and drive.

-otek

[Calvin]

Otek,

Thanks for reposting these excellent tutorials over here. Much appreciated!

Calvin

[seagate]

Good to have this over here now.


Can you post the Logic files so I can pinch, eh, borrow them beats?

:lol:

[otek]

Can you post the Logic files so I can pinch, eh, borrow them beats?

What's wrong with the mp3s embedded in the text?

Or would you like .wav files? :Wink:

[seagate]

You might sue me when I use them...

http://www.msc.id.au/private/tmp/couch.gif

[otek]

You might sue me when I use them...

Use what you learned in the tutorial then, and make some cool loops of your own. That way, no one needs to go to jail. :D


Cheers,

otek

[D.Michaels]

Not to be greedy... but I want more and I want it now daddy!:D

[Pancho Ballard]

This is stuff I already knew but it's always good to have a reminder now and then.

The one thing I really struggle with though is programming drum fills. My recordings are usually one man trying to simulate a live band and the drums always let them down as soon as it's time for a fill to add a little excitement to the track. Any suggestions? Maybe there's a site somewhere that's just full of MIDI drum fills?

I suppose I already know the answer really; find drum fills I like in other songs and do my best to accurately program them. Think I'd prefer that site though!

[seagate]

Why not download midi files from the net of something you like and learn/pinch the fills from the midis?

[Spock]

The one thing I really struggle with though is programming drum fills. My recordings are usually one man trying to simulate a live band and the drums always let them down as soon as it's time for a fill to add a little excitement to the track. Any suggestions?

Sure. To sound like a real drummer rush the fill and come into the next measure too fast.

:lol: :lol:

[seagate]

Sure. To sound like a real drummer rush the fill and come into the next measure too fast.


:lol: :lol: :lol:

[otek]

The one thing I really struggle with though is programming drum fills. My recordings are usually one man trying to simulate a live band and the drums always let them down as soon as it's time for a fill to add a little excitement to the track. Any suggestions?



You are entering into what is likely the most debated and also the most time-consuming aspect of drum programming - making it pass for the real deal.

I personally don't use programming much for this sort of thing. I find it's a LOT faster and more rewarding to get a real drummer to do it. That said, I understand that a lot of people don't have the option of a first-rate drummer on speed dial, or for that matter, an easy way of recording him/her. So let's examine some of the alternatives:


1) Use drum kit loop collections. Yep, several companies have loop libraries that are designed to sound like the real thing, and also include an assortment of fills, which can be manipulated to fit the song. Spectrasonics have their Groove Control files which will conform to the tempo and groove of most any arrangement. There are also various drum kit VSTi's with pre-programmed rhythms. Not only do they sound pretty damn good, they also offer a lot of programmability, and control.

Some of the one's that have impressed me lately are Toontrack's E-Z Drummer (http://www.toontrack.com/ezdrummer.asp) and XLN Audio's Addictive Drums (http://www.xlnaudio.com/), which offers frequency-adaptive distortion and compression algorithms, plus some severely cool envelope control.

These VSTi's are inexpensive, flexible, and sound good. Most importantly, they get the job done fast.


2) Get a real drummer to play triggers. Give your fave drummer a call, and have him enter fills on some kind of MIDI controller - pads preferred of course. Have the drummer play through all his fave fills, and have him play through a number of styles and tempos. Save the midi data as SMF's (Standard Midi Files, not Superior Mexican Foods).

This way, you'll be able to call them up and use them in any song. The tempo of the midi file will naturally change accordingly depending on the DAW arrangement.


3) Do it the hard way. Listen to a record, or think the fills up in your head. I typically sing the fills to myself (while engaging in a ferocious air drum performance which pretty much dictates I'm alone in the room), and try to create a mental image of the notation of the fill.

I try to take into account the ergonomics of the drummer, left and right hand placement, and where the drummer might rush or drag things slightly. Sometimes slight inaccuracies in the fill can sound cool. Your ears will be the judge of what works and what doesn't.

It follows that the bigger and better your drum library, the more realistic the fruits of your labor will sound. If you want to come close to the real deal, you should have some kind of library that features multiple velocity layers, left and right hand hits, and preferrably controllable ambience to all the sounds (like BFD or Drumkit From Hell Superior).

The method of manually programming drums is by far the most time consuming. It is also a bit counter-intuitive because it requres you to visit a very different place in your mind from where you would be if you were listening to a drum performance.

This page (http://www.toontrack.com/product_demos.asp) features some demos from the various libraries and VSTi's available from Toontrack (ok, so it's a Swedish company run by acquaintances of mine, doing some shameless plugging here!). :D

[Pancho Ballard]

Thanks for that advice Otek (superior Mexican foods! lol).

I've sort of got option 1 covered as there are plenty of grooves supplied with BFD. However, whilst I like the grooves that come with it I find the fills lacking somewhat.

Option 2 is a great idea, one I hadn't thought of at all. Funnily enough, our drummer has just left us to join an Eighties tribute band (there's no money in Mexican music in England...) and he's acquired an electronic kit for it; methinks he owes me a favour...

Option 3 is the one I normally go for but when it gets down to it I really struggle with the ghost notes that a drummer would do as I just don't know where a drummer would naturally put them.

I'll try your link to; if it's a Swedish company it better have some damn good pop fills on it! ;-)

[airborne]

About the fills, the best ting to do is immerse yourself in drumming, not literally playing (Although you could) but listening to the drum parts in a lot of different styles of music, watch drummers play live and on dvds etc. As Pancho Ballard says, you need to know what a real drummer would do for it to sound authentic.

[lebouche]

In bed...feeling sorry for myself..writing in diary need to do/sort list. came across this.:grin:
So good. Can't wait to fully digest it in my break tommorow.
Thankyou so much Otek!!!!:)

[doybins]

peace to all..

sir otek!this is a great tutorial!thanks a lot...waiting for your next chapter ;) thanks again.gbu

[Dopper]

This seems like the best place for me to add one of my own tips that some of you may or may not like:

I hate using clip libraries. Not that they're bad coz they're not. I just never feel like I'm getting the kind of "playing" I want. You know? The overall "thought" of the drummer as the piece progresses. It all seems a little sterile without replacing or accepting "it'll do".

I like my drums to really displace and syncopate, maybe even trip out polyrhymically etc. That's frickin' tough when you're not a good drummer! This is how I've cheated it:

I gather a bunch of MIDI grooves and fills (either from a library such as EZDrummer or just play them in), say 16 grooves & 16 fills. I make sure they are pretty varied with plenty of syncopation, space etc. and of course that they fit with the piece. I will always make sure that some of those beats displace so that I can chop the beat up and turn it all upside down.

I take these MIDI clips and load them into something called the Groove Matrix in Project5 (this is the only reason why I use P5 but it was worth having it just for this trick, there may be something else out there capable of this. I rewire P5 into the session). Each of those clips gets assigned to a "cell". Each cell can be triggered from a MIDI key.

So, I can hold down 'C' be completely in time and sync, thwacking away with a great groove and at any point I can switch to a different feel or fill by changing keys on the keyboard. Not just at the beginning of the bar but *anytime* at all.

So what?! Well, I know that loadsa guys do this with audio loops but these are MIDI loops... there's no cutoffs or weirdness... you can get *extremely* lifelike drumming performances from the same bunch of 16 fills over a whole bunch of tracks.

I will go wild, changing very often, maybe every quarter, maybe every upbeat... maybe every quarter note triplet. The program works out the timing for me so I don't even care. I'm too busy absorbed in the zone. I can run out into a polyrhythm with ease without having to play drums at all.

The key for me with this is I can "play" the piece as a drummer without having to think "holy shit, can I really manage that double stroke roll I want at bar 54?".

These libraries have some really awesome clips. All I have to do is load them in and "feel" it, playing through the track wandering over the keyboard picking out different parts of the different clips, the more varied the better. Timing is smack on, accents wherever I pick em and the overall dynamic feel works with the piece as I chop and change more and more through the busier parts.

:)

But best of all I have a foot controller assigned to these grooves... I can jump away on the switches whilst jamming bass or guitar over the top. Hell, I can even load in bass and synth lines too and jam the hell over the lot! :Twisted:

The downer is I had an accident in March, couldn't walk for three months and I'm still a bit slow at switching!! :Sad:

P.S. Awesome job of tackling the black art Otek! :Wink: [/FONT]

[otek]

Thanks for contributing, Dopper!

I haven't used Project5, can you tell us some more about it? Who makes it?


otek

[Dopper]

Cakewalk make Project5 and so ... it is a PC only product. :Roll eyes:

There may already be an instrument out there which does this kind of midi triggering. That would be ideal for a lot of other applications I can think of too.

Here's a link to a pic of the Matrix I'm on about:

http://www.audiomidi.com/aboutus/reviews/terry_project5/GrooveMatrix.jpg

It's simple ain't it? A grid of triggers... you can trigger individual "cells" in the grid or you can trigger entire columns (which ends up like scenes in Ableton). You just drag and drop MIDI clips into the cells, organize it however you want, MIDI learn them how you want and off you go.

It works with audio clips and automation too... so you could go much further than I do with it.

I was just trying to be Vinnie Coliauta without any effort!! :icon_eek:

IMHO Toontrack/fxpansion hire pretty damn shit-hot drummers to record these libraries... WHY would you bother yourself?! :Confused:

Because you want to be unique of course. But drummers aren't unique! They all learn the same rudiments. They all play extremely similar kits. They all play similar patterns. It's how they mix up all the stuff they've learnt that makes them unique. And you can apply that theory yourself using these libraries. Every drummer I ever met has say 32 stock fills that he can shift around the time. They rarely do anything totally new because it's a subconcious art! Drummers play from muscle memory... that's why they look so vacant! ;)

And the one thing you'll never get on your own is that "realistic" dynamic variation between hits. This is easily realised if you record a roll yourself and then get a real drummer to record a roll. The drummer will have a far wider expressive dynamic than you ever could. That's why he's a drummer... he's good at it. :Roll eyes:

That's my point; "realistic"? Or just "good"? Where good means "like a good drummer would do"!! I can play drums pretty well but I have FAR more success by evading the pressure of doing it myself and accepting that if I can't get what I want easily then it's a waste of my time and effort and I should call one of my drumming buddies in for him to wreck it all on his own. But at least it'll sound like a good drummer! :Coolio:

Some us, myself included, are lucky enough to know a shit-hot drummer with a V-Drum set and so we can build our own libraries. You'd be surprised what you can do with 20 minutes of MIDI. :Surprised:

I'm totally in alignment with the idea that adding a drummer to the track should be painless and quick... after all if you hired one it would be wouldn't it?!

Or would it?
:grin:

Sorry Otek, that was a bit more than you asked for!! :lol:

[Dopper]

Responding to your own thread: second sign of madness?
Or first sign of boredom at work?! :Wink:

Thinking about what I just wrote I think there's an important point somewhere: :icon_eek:

Sometimes we just give ourselves far too much to do!! :very happy:

Or sometimes we insist on doing something that is too hard to do. Remember keyboard players trying to get their M1s to sound like Steve Vai? How much of their lives did these guys waste trying to get a realistic guitar part into their synth?! And for what?! For nothing because no matter how hard they tried they ended up needing a real guitar player to play the damn part.

That said, programmed drums sound amazing so if that's what you want then go for it. For those of you interested in a hybrid of traps/loops and acoustic playing check out Pat Mastelotto and his work for the King Crimson boys these last 7 years or so. He's been mixing that stuff up really effectively. I'm not envious... honest! Evil!

BTW anyone interested in P5 can goto www.Project5.com for more info.

[otek]

Thanks for the contributions Dopper.

I will take this opportunity to state my own opinion at this point:

I use loops for what loops do best. I use drummers for what drummers do best. I rarely try to approximate a "live drummer sound" with programming, though I always try to create a groove feel with it. These are two different things altogether.

If all you're looking for is a great drum performance, with all the nuance and dynamics, get a drummer. It's faster, easier and more fun, and you might learn something you otherwise wouldn't have thought of. A good drummer can add wonderful things to your arrangement.

If you're looking to expand the sonics and/or create that mantric, repetitive feel, go with loops - or maybe create a hybrid of the two?


otek

[Dopper]

:) Absolutely agreed.

For those of you who haven't; try the total opposite of making a machine sound like a real drummer... try getting a drummer to sound like a machine! I can't emphasize enough just how good a job ppl like Toontrack have done. Amazing results.

[seagate]

I used to swear by my loops, now I just use them as a writing tool.

Can't beat the real thing...

:grin:

[Dopper]

No matter how hard you slap 'em! :Wink:

[otek]

Can't beat the real thing...

Again: It all depends on what you're trying to achieve.

Loops and programmed drums can be highly worthy production audio tools, if used in the right manner.

[seagate]

Again: It all depends on what you're trying to achieve.

Loops and programmed drums can be highly worthy production audio tools, if used in the right manner.

Not for my type of noise!

:lol:

It's easier to send the track to someone else and wait for a few weeks :Twisted: , then it is to learn how to program realistic drums in the Matrix Editor (or whatever they call it now). :Roll eyes:

[otek]

It's easier to send the track to someone else and wait for a few weeks :Twisted: , then it is to learn how to program realistic drums in the Matrix Editor (or whatever they call it now). :Roll eyes:


(didn't spot this one until now)


Ah, but observe: I am very clear about not using programmed drums to try to emulate the "real thing" (even though a lot of very skilled programmers are doing this also).

A real drummer will give you something that sounds like someone playing a real drum kit (hopefully). Loops don't do that exactly, and that's the whole idea. It's a different thing. You might as well ask an Soprano Sax player to give you something that sounds like an Oboe - it sorta will, in certain registers and contexts - but it is no substitute for a real Oboe. This argument goes both ways. If you wanted the sound of loops (and for many situations, it is the right thing), you wouldn't get that from a drummer.


otek

[4-4time]

Otek,
Thanks for the great work on drum programming.... your ghost notes really make a HUGE difference... My question is this: Lets talk snare as an example. Do you use the same snare sound as on the two and four to ghost it with? And, exactly where do you put it ( say a 32 note before or ?)... I know the level is subjective but is there a rough starting point for any of this...I stopped at this point in the tutorial to get a grasp on this before moving on, so if this is answered anywhere else my apologizes...Thanks again.:Thumbsup:

[otek]

4-4 time, thanks for the kind words!

I use a sample of the same snare drum for ghosts, but struck lighter. Most of the big libraries today have multisampled drums, IOW each drum has multiple samples taken from it, with different "velocity", and sometimes even left and right hands (to capture the difference in angle which makes the drum sound different).

The level I use is the natural level of that sample. A real drummer will often make his ghost notes quite apparent so they will stick out in the beat and be audible even in a full ensemble.

As for where to put the ghost notes, the example has them placed mainly on 16th notes. it's generally good practice to have the ghost notes outline the smallest practical subdivision of the beat (in most pop and rock, 16th notes - unless the beat is really fast).


otek

[Uber Mega]

Awesome guide, really useful, thanks a lot Otek.

[ewh]

Here are some random thoughts:

MIDI drum parts are something I feel strongly about, but I'm not totally happy with my skills. I used to be a drummer several millenia ago. I still have the instincts of knowing what I want to hear, but not totally able to execute performing drum sample triggering using a keyboard controller. I really enjoy some of the subtleties of a live drummer (mainly ghost notes on weak 16th notes, dynamics, and being a few ticks off-beat). However, I also like a nice, clean, elegantly programmed drum machine feel.

It's incredibly difficult to replace a live drummer feel. However, many people have little home music rigs and don't have the resources to record a live drummer. Here's a suggestion for the people out there who don't have the luxury of access to a live drummer, or want a sort of hybrid drumer/drum-machine sound.

Assume 4/4. Start out with a totally quantized, boring drum part. Let's say bass on 1, 3; snare on 2,4; closed hats on 8ths or 16ths.

Set up your keyboard controller (or drum pad controllers) to map to drum sounds which are fairly velocity sensitive (this is really important!). The more sensitive the triggering, the more performance control you need to have. However, the more sensitive your triggering is, the more it emulates a real drum. Start the sequencer looping your boring beat. Try playing a more interesting bass/snare pattern over that loop. (It would help to use different samples for the loop and for what you're playing ... you want to hear the different parts distinctly.) Play around with the velocity sensitivity of the different percussion elements: bass, snare, toms, etc to get each to the point where you're comfortable with the setup. (You might want the snare relatively sensitive for expressive articulation.) Expect that your snare hits on 2, 4, and your bass hits on 1, 3 will sound like crap because you're slightly flamming out of time against the existing hits.

For standard rock drumming, it's often important to have a bass hit on 1, and snare hits on 2, 4. To keep things more interesting, try to avoid having a bass hit on 3. Experiment with ghost snare hits on weak 16ths. Also, drummers typically have more dynamic control with their hands than their feet. Hence, there could be more dynamic variation in the snare line than the bass line. This will add to a slightly more realistic drum feel.

Once you're happy with your own beat, record it on another track. Mute the bass/snare of the orig track, but leave the original quantized hats. You might hear that your own bass/snare is crappily out of time. You may want to quantize to taste to make it rhythmically sharper. With practice you should get percussion tracks which breathe a bit more than the purely step-recorded tracks.

Also, with varying levels of quantization and groove templates, you can sort of move the feel on the spectrum from sloppy human feel to sterile electronic -- find the feel you're happy with. Note that often people start with the sterile electronic, and apply enough groove templating and randomization to make it breathe a bit more. This approach is starting from the other direction.

Here's a nice touch: after getting your fundamental drum elements sounding nice, record a few measures of the hats or ride cymbal in 8ths or 16ths. Your natural variations in velocity for the hits will make this element sound far more natural. You will probably want to quantize this fairly hard as your repeated hits will likely be fairly uneven (unless you're a fairly good keyboardist). Replace the original hat or ride pulse with your own track.

Hence, you started with a step track and gradually replaced the elements with your own live playing.

Here are a couple of interesting thing to experiment with. Many would consider this blasphemy. Often, in percussion, you are rapidly, repeatedly hitting the same note: snare/toms in a fill, double-bass in hard rock/metal, etc. Playing drums on keyboard keys feels unnatural because when you hit a key, you have to wait for that key to come back up from its depressed to its upright position. This delay makes tracking drum parts feel clumsy. One approach would be to map two adjacent keys to the same sample (be careful not to create horrible sounding overlapped sample retriggering issues). Here's the second approach (which I like more). Here's the blasphemy. Slow down the tempo and track your drum part. The extra time will give the keys plenty of time to return to upright. The blasphemy is that many consider MIDI recording at artificial tempos to be cheating. Screw 'em. However, since you are playing at a reduced tempo, it WILL definitely affect your feel somewhat. You have to be careful about this! (Returning the tempo to full speed after recording MIDI at reduced tempos could have the "speed up a video from normal speed" silliness aesthetic.) If you play flurries of fast notes when the tempo is reduced, they'll sound ridiculous when brought to full speed. One word of caution is to chill a bit when recording at reduced tempi. Bring back up to full tempo and quantize and groove template to taste.

I'd be curious what others think about this approach. Think of it sort of like reverse petrification: you start out with this hard, quantized rock, and you slowly turn it into something a bit woodier!

Cheers!

(I've only been a member of this webforum since yesterday. So far, this site looks really cool!)

[otek]

Thanks ewh for your input!

Playing drums on keyboard keys feels unnatural because when you hit a key, you have to wait for that key to come back up from its depressed to its upright position. This delay makes tracking drum parts feel clumsy. One approach would be to map two adjacent keys to the same sample (be careful not to create horrible sounding overlapped sample retriggering issues).

One solution to the retriggering problem is to use several different samples and switch randomly between them.

I found that many times, we can get away with a lot of dynamics issues, as long as the sound isn't identical from hit to hit.

I have at least ten hits in many of my drum sampler maps. When replacing or programming drums, this helps tremendously in getting things to sound right.


otek

[Humper]

Any tricks for cymbals?
I'm talking about making them sound natural on retriggering ( for example ride based rythms)

I map about 4-5 different hits switched by velocity on battery3, but they still sound a little unnatural.

Any tricks?

[otek]

Any tricks for cymbals?

For just about any sound, avoid room artifacts or any kind of ambient information mixed in with the sample. That decay will become very recognizable when repeated in a drum pattern.

When programming sounds that have (or at least should have) a long decay - e.g. cymbals - it may be useful to stay away from "one shot" type functions, i.e. where one trigger regardless of note length causes the sample to ring for its entire duration. the hits accumulate quickly in fast patterns and eats up the polyphony of the sampler, causing weird dropouts.

What exactly do you find "unnatural"-sounding in your ride programming? It might help if I know more specifically what the problem is.


otek

[Humper]

Thanks for the response ;)

Usually, rides, crash or open hat patterns, end up being too...mechanic even having velocity layers.

I found a library that had some room sound going on, but while single hit sounds great, a 8th kinda pattern has the "choke" on each hit, making it sound, well, like a sampler.

The only solution I've come across is sending all the drums to another aux with a room reverb on it, some extra compression, to "gel" all those samples a little better, but it still doesn't sound as real as I should like.

Don't know if I'm asking way too much for a drum sampler, or is my problem laying in the mix of those sounds? I have the crashes, splash and china going into a stereo separate bus, then mono snare, kick, hat and ride. Oh and toms into another stereo one.

[otek]

I found a library that had some room sound going on, but while single hit sounds great, a 8th kinda pattern has the "choke" on each hit, making it sound, well, like a sampler.

Either you just corroborated what I said, or you read it wrong:

For just about any sound, avoid room artifacts or any kind of ambient information mixed in with the sample.

I like to think that you were basically reinforcing my point. Just wanted to make sure. :D

Usually, rides, crash or open hat patterns, end up being too...mechanic even having velocity layers.

Again, just making sure we're on the same page: I wasn't talking about velocity layers (which is another good idea by the way), but about multiple samples for each velocity layer, playing randomly. IOW, not one hit per layer but 10 or more. This will help rapid repeated patterns sound lifelike. In fact, big drum libraries like Toontrack's Drumkit From Hell Superior (and its successor) employ exactly this solution.

The only solution I've come across is sending all the drums to another aux with a room reverb on it, some extra compression, to "gel" all those samples a little better, but it still doesn't sound as real as I should like.

Lots of compression can sometimes even be detrimental in that it brings out the details in a sample - the very stuff that's causing the "sameness".

Don't know if I'm asking way too much for a drum sampler, or is my problem laying in the mix of those sounds?.

The real secret is in the samples themselves. "Prefab" samples usually don't come with multiple hits, and even if they do, they are sometimes too "perfect". Try making your own little library of sounds. I sampled a buddy's Ludwig snare eight or nine years ago and it's still finding its way on to records I make. I have 20 each of FF, MF, MP and P hits, plus the same without snares. Also sidesticks and other "effects".

Also, don't be afraid of mixing different sounds - I often use two and sometimes three different snare or kick sounds.

Finally, the best way of making something sound like "the real deal" is to have an ambience track (real room ambience) for each drum hit, this way you can control the ambience independently. Again, the big drum libraries (BFD, DFHS, etc.) have this. Even the Addictive Drums VSTi has great processing and control in its environment, and doesn't cost a lot of money either (right around 200 bucks US street).


otek

[Humper]

First of all, thanks otek for the detailed post ;)

I have plans on buying either Superior or Addictive Drums, but I've been using battery until I can get one of the aforementioned instruments. Besides battery is still used for other kind of sounds, like noises, weird waldorf kicks or hats, etc.

What you say about using more than 10 hits per element and velocity seems the best option, altough it's not that practical, you end up with more than 5 octaves full of different hits.

Maybe I'm a little crazy about making little sketches sound like studio recordings, but oh well :lol:

As I already said, thank you for the time to write that post ;)

[otek]

I have plans on buying either Superior or Addictive Drums

Buyer beware: They are two very different beasties. Addictive Drums is more geared for songwriting, with pre-programmed groove loops, with some interesting processing options to boot.

Superior Drummer 2.0 (the current incarnation of DFH) is a deep program that offers MASSIVE amounts of multi-sampled sounds and tweakability, right down to being able to control the amount of bleed between tracks.....

What you say about using more than 10 hits per element and velocity seems the best option, altough it's not that practical, you end up with more than 5 octaves full of different hits.

A workaround to that would be assigning multiple hits of the same velocity to several layers. You could then assign random velocity values to one note that contained, say, all the hard snares, and have it trigger different samples with different midi velocities. What I am talking about is only the midi velocity number values - since the samples would all be of similar "hardness", sonically you would just experience a change of sample, not of velocity.


otek

[Humper]

Yes, some ppl I have worked with, came with superior, I had to install that on my older computer to work changing sounds, etc, but somehow, knowing Addictive Drums is more aimed towards EzDrummer, I like the "raw" sound it has, altough I guess it's not for everything, besides, Superior, on "our friendly german shops" is just 40 euros over the price of xln's alternative.

On the velocity thing...it's more or less the approach I've used within battery, loading, say, 5 or more different snares per each velocity layer, same with kick and toms, so when you're laying the drum pattern ( I do it with a padkontrol), you are getting all the different snares, kicks...because of the velocity thing, but you know cymbals are not the same because of the decay.
Natural Studio sample collection ( the free one) had like, 20 hits per cymbal and hand, but if you shorten the decay with ADSR envelopes, it sounds unnatural, and if you let them ring...you know.

Maybe a solution to this is to lower the cymbals a little bit more so they are less prominent, at least on crash cymbals, even automating that aux to lower them on heavy patterns...

You're really helpful Otek, thanks again :)

[paulie]

This is a great thread Otek.

I do loads of "real drummer" programming because I do music for TV which often does not give me the budget to hire a real drummer and a studio to record him/her in. I've had to become proficient at this because my income depends on me being able to fool the public that a band is being recorded, not just a guy in his home studio.

So here's some of my tips -

Try and learn how to play the drums. Not well - just enough to know the mechanics of what you're trying to copy.

I say this because one of the most rudimentary mistakes I see in "real" drum programming is that programmers often forget that a real drummer only has 2 arms and legs. These usually take place with the programming of hi hat parts.

Example: when you do that fantastic 16th note snare/tom fill you might need to cancel out your fantastic 16th note hi-hat pattern unless you want everyone to think your drummer has 4 arms.

A crash and hats are rarely played at the same time in rock drumming - cancel the hat for the crashes. Remember that it may take a short time for a drummer to get his stick back on the hat. I usually leave an 1/8 note gap before restarting the hat part simply because most drummers do too.

Leading up to crashes and fills (say between half a bar and a bar) a slight and gradual opening of the hats can add alot of realism. Alot of drummers do this too especially in rock music.

Try using the ride cymbal for bridges / middle 8's / instrumental sections instead of hats. Same rules apply.

As has been said before. The pitch of a real drummers' snare is not identical every time (close, but not identical) I used to find the Random Pitch control in Logic EXS24 useful for this.

Humanising or randomising of quantising and velocity are helpful - I think that's been plenty talked about. I'm usually careful with the quantising as most of the reference tracks in my briefs have super beat detectived drums anyway. I often use a custom quantise with some sort of small swing element and quantise everything else accordingly.

Finally I have to say that in my line of work, the day BFD came out was a flag day for me. Before it came out I actually had plans to do it myself (albeit in a lot less detail) with EXS24.

Some things in BFD that I have noted. The OH and ambient mics are nearly always out of phase. Make sure you check. I always make the room mic mono - never works for me in stereo. The supplied kits take a lot of work sonically, if you're buying it for the first time, be prepared to learn something about mixing a live kit. If you can already do this - it's pretty realistic and you're set. I especially like the Andy Johns add ons.

When I do have the budget I record a real session drummer every time. If you don't have the budget then hope this is helpful.

Paulie.

[CloseToTheEdge]

Otek, thanks for this! Really useful stuff.