"Can somebody teach me how to make my drums sound less basic and repetitive?? 🥁
This is for you if you have a bunch of drumkits, but everything sounds the same....
What’s up forum!!
So let’s be frank,
Most of these drum sounds included in a majority of these expansions and whatnot are essentially recycled AF.
I can’t tell you how many expansions I have right now, that have the SAME EXACT kicks/snares and vocal samples.
I would be super annoyed but .. ya know
some we paid for.
others we got discounted
IYKYK…
So what I did notice is that after a while not only did using the same drum sounds over and over make my patterns sound stale, BUT
There were some simple production things I was leaving out of my tracks that hurt my beats..
So for my guy Lanse S., this one is for you too.
I was inspired to write this post after you posted this:
So here we go!
Step #1.
Gain an understanding of three elements that make great drum progressions work.
Groove 〰️
- This has to be the most important element. This isn’t swing, it’s more the flavor and the style of the beat. Groove CAN be created ‘on the grid’ however you want to get away from quantizing too much when creating a great groove.
Dynamics 🔊
- Genre dependent, dynamics are just as important to drum programming as groove.
EDM, hop-hop, etc. have very punchy kick drums and in-your-face snares and hats, whereas alternative and other acoustic forms of music typically take a softer approach to their dynamics on the drums. Pay attention to these nuances in different genres of music.
Space 🖼️
- So in digital genres like hip hop and bro step, the space that the drums occupy is pretty dry. With acoustic drums, they are typically mixed up together and bleed, and the sound of the room contributes to the space already. Elements like reverb, and foley will help define the ‘space’ your drums are sitting in. Absent this your drum programming will sound flat af.
Step #2.
Find great drum samples and organize them into kits 🧰
It’s possible to recycle your drums over and over just as long as you’re creating some kind of interesting variation or combination of samples. These samples should also be the basis of your groove, do you have a punchy kick on the downbeat or is it soft? how hard is the snare hitting about the kick? These choices also factor into step 3.
Step #3.
Know what genre you’re producing for and be creative with your approach 🕺🏾
Are you driving the track or simply the accompanying rhythm and beat? How do your favorite songs approach the rhythm section? this is where all three fundamental elements of a drum groove come together as well as where the the three steps to making a great drum groove converge.
Here is a beat breakdown by DJ Dahi.
One thing that is instantly noticeable about the drums is :
His initial approach to creating the rhythm is completely creative. The entire track is based around this (and he resamples!!!)
The rest of the sound selection is really good… not everything needs a kick drum.
he’s vocalizing the ‘rappers bounce’ or cadence while programming drums.
the creative process is relatively quick
The entire process didn’t really take a long time. He had a great idea of where the sounds he wanted to use were (step 2), created a groove (step 1) knew the direction he was creating (step 3 ish), and dove right in with confidence.
*BONUS*
So here are some other tips for your drums…
in some varying form, I use these methods on most of my tracks.
Part of getting great drums is getting the sound glued together, compression can help bring your drums to life adding punch, improving the groove, and controlling the dynamics.
Flip(automate) the panning on your drums on certain sections
Use a transient designer to add punch
Use silence to make things way more interesting.
use distortion to make things a bit louder
Create interesting sections with a sound designer like RC-Retrocolor, Air Sprite, Tape Mello-Fi, or Air Lofi Pro.
Get it right quickly and move on