where do i get good drum sounds?

movement · Post by **movement** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:33 pm

You know the big fat real-but-not-real kick & snare sounds that pretty much all breaks producers use these days. Where do you get them? VSTs? Stand-alone programs? Samples?

shapshankly · Post by **shapshankly** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:20 am

i got mine off him.

hippy dave · Post by **hippy dave** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:26 am

layering stuff is the standard answer. get a snare that's got a good higher-frequency sound and one with a good lower-frequency sound, then meld them together with eq and compression and pixie dust. then ask someone else for a better answer.

shapshankly · Post by **shapshankly** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:39 am

ah, but does the trick come when you manage to find tuned sounds

hippy dave · Post by **hippy dave** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:46 am

shapshankly wrote:Your snare needs more crack

oh yeah and don't forget to smoke a rock before you start working on it.

MrShhh · Post by **MrShhh** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:26 am

To get fat kicks, I'll take one that has shedloads of sub but usually not enough mid or top. Sculpt it to however you need to in order that the bottom end doesn't clash with your bassline (put it above or below the bass but not in the same place as one of them will get lost in the mix)

Then I find another kick with loads of mid and top and compress the nuts off it. This is played at the same time as the sub kick. Varying the amount you feed in controls how much the kick then cuts the mix.

Then you sit there for what seems like days, fiddling with all of it until you're convinced it sounds right (which it never quite does, everythings a compromise when you mix sounds together)

As has been said before, very important that the two (or more, up to you) kicks are in tune with each other and in tune with the rest of the song or it will sound a bag of toss

I wouldn't recommend sampling someone elses "already fat as you like" kick, it's far more rewarding to create your own, it'll teach you more about how things work. And it's cheating

northernlight · Post by **northernlight** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:48 am

also think about this:

it´s not only the kick itself that decides how fat it is in the track. it´s also the other elements in the track and how they are related to the kick and mixed down. you may have the fattest kick known to man, but if it clashes with the other sound it will sound small and shitty

BrokenSpoon · Post by **BrokenSpoon** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:11 am

As amnetioned above layering is one of the best ways to get great drums sounds. However its not just about finding loads of srum sounds you like and playing them at the same time. You need to find one or two hits that have the overall sound you are looking for as your baseline hits to work with. Then when layering you need to constantly take into consideration the specific frequencies you want to add to your hits and hi pass/lo pass/ eq each layer so that you are pretty much just left with the freqs you want to add in. It is very important to isolate these freqs as layering lots of hits with similar freqs can introduce phase clashes and make you'r hits harder to mix.

You could also do worse than checking out Sonic Charge's Micro Tonic. It's a drum synth so it allows you to construct hits around specific frequencies and sounds the nuts.

htttp://www.soniccharge.com/products

Peace
BB

afdafsf · Post by **afdafsf** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:21 am

I got him off mine

My Name is Gino · Post by **My Name is Gino** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:44 am

http://www.kananga-studios.co.uk/mbt/tmp/

Download that kick. its phat

foxington · Post by **foxington** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:06 am

alternatively, just find some nice samples and spend more time making music than fiddling with envelopes on kick drums etc for hours on end

=sub.aura · Post by **=sub.aura** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:19 am

You should make it standard practice to use at least two of everything i.e. 2 different kicks, 2 snares, 2 hihats etc. I've started using different samples playing off each other - i.e. tight programming of a weak kick and a heavy kick - this can give some cool effects in a beat - like its coming from all over the place. (if thats the sound you want). If not, just rip some samples that have the right sound. If they have been used in a released tune then its odds on that the compression and EQ are close to perfect - if it has the right vibe - just use it and don't mess around too much. Get your own tune banging around it and then think about it later when you are doing a final mix.

B

movement · Post by **movement** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:13 am

bloody hell, i think i'll take up something less complicated like quantum physics. Ta very much for the advice guys, should go a long way to filling the gaping holes in my knowledge. I'll buy you a drink when i move over to the UK (i'm an Aussie) next year.

El Huracan · Post by **El Huracan** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:43 am

personally i would bother doubling up on everything. takes too long. faze issues. fills up the mix (sometimes/most times unwanted)

just find a dam good kick and snare in the first place.

BigUpYa · Post by **BigUpYa** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 10:36 am

steelz wrote:faze issues

How do you tell when this is happenning? What do you hear (or not hear)?

Cheers,

El Huracan · Post by **El Huracan** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 1:24 pm

im probally not the best on this but ill try. stick the kick into mono or just listen to one speaker output. i find that kicks will go louder or quiter when playing or just gernally sounds shit and not as powerfull as the two kicks seperateted

just find a beast of a kick to start with and a decent eq to fit it in the mix. compress if needed, sidechain.

-retired- · Post by **-retired-** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 1:31 pm

steelz wrote:personally i would bother doubling up on everything. takes too long. faze issues. fills up the mix (sometimes/most times unwanted)

just find a dam good kick and snare in the first place.

Word!

BigUpYa · Post by **BigUpYa** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 2:01 pm

steelz wrote:im probally not the best on this but ill try. stick the kick into mono or just listen to one speaker output. i find that kicks will go louder or quiter when playing or just gernally sounds shit and not as powerfull as the two kicks seperateted

just find a beast of a kick to start with and a decent eq to fit it in the mix. compress if needed, sidechain.

hmmm...this is a good tip thanks. I've always doubled up thinking I was doing the right thing and getting average flat sounding drums. That might be why. Either that or it's just cooz I'm shit.

Cheers,

soapdodger · Post by **soapdodger** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 5:43 pm

I'm with steez on the layering. It works fine on snares ( i use an electronic one for the sneeze and a live one for the transient) but layering kicks is unessesary.

the 909 kick drum is the kiddie for punch. It has all the right freqs in the right places.

DustRed · Post by **DustRed** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:16 pm

old vinyl drum cut, layered with clean drum sample, tuned in reason as really fucking easy to do, does it for me.