Drums :)

[Audi01]

When making songs, what do you use for drums/percussion?

Do you have a studio with hardware and record live?

Do you use samples/loops?

Do you make your own kicks?


I've always really enjoyed percussion; the drums were the first instrument I learned to play. I think my ideal percussion techniques would involve recording hardware live and then taking the recorded samples and manipulating them. I would probably never need anyone else's samples. I haven't used a kit in a long time though, and instead my percussion is made from a mixture other people's samples, my own samples (hitting a pot with a spoon etc), and digital signwaves made with software (e.g. Stomper http://www.lysator.liu.se/~zap/stomper/index2.html this is not compatible with x64 - we have to run x86 and x64 DAWS? sheesh).

For me, snares/claps/cymbals are very well covered in the sample arena. Toms and kicks though I have struggled with. Toms I'm not worried about because they aren't used as often and can be made to fit with effects. But kicks...sometimes I hear a kick drum on a new track and it is so enveloping, so succinct and so nice I wonder, "how did they make that?". I think to create a big kick like that, having a proper monitoring setup with sub bass is necessary, and it's something I haven't had all the time. As for technique, I've heard layering and various tricks are needed to make one of those amazing kicks. I'm going to try to make a kit for a new song and use samples that are the best for the song I can find/make. I've never been 100% happy with the percussion in my songs; hopefully this time it will be different!


What are your experiences with percussion in the DAW world?

[alphatonez]

I mostly use one shot samples. Layering is also something what i do, but not always.
I also like to add distortion to the single drum elements. Mixing the normal sample together with a distorted copy.

I do not like to use loops too much, with the exception of breakbeats.

I didn't record any drum sounds myself in my homestudio yet, but i've always had that idea in my mind, just like highqf did. Using things from the kitchen or just the own body to produce unique sounds for the recording.

[Watson]

This is an interesting thread.

Recently I've been combining drum loops with EZ Drummer and then adding the odd bit of live/room percussion such as bongos or maracas.

I like the sound of some of the techniques you guys are using though. I certainly could be better in the the area of drums and percussion. A tutorial of some description would be great for somebody like me.

Scott

[eXzez]

Drums & beats I've always liked.
Therefore I turn also relatively much time to make my beats. As for samples I fall back on a fairly large sample archives, which I've set up over the years.

With the growth of the Kong Drum Designer in "Reason 5" i use the possibilities that offers me this wonderful rack increasingly.
All in all I am very satisfied with my options and there is something for just about every music style right.

Often kills me the huge selection of options nowadays.
To my beginnings with the C-64/Amiga today's possibilities are incredibly versatile.
To face this variety of options not to lose sight of the essential, I therefore confine myself to a few comfortable and cherished options.

For me it works very wel

[Audi01]

Who is the best person here to write an article about percussion? Who is a phasing/kick layering/loop layering and splitting/sample creating/sample resource/percussion atmospherics "master"?

[dope]

i hate drums.
i usually program them by hand in midi. it's hard. .. no it's not hard to click dots on a grid.
its hard to make them sound human. i can spend hours shifting individual notes randomly trying to get a "human feel"
it never really works.
i hate drums.

[Audi01]

lol dope