Thread: Does any one know how to make their drums bigger ?

Hey, everybody I've previously submitted some tracks and checked out other peoples threads to check out their beats and have noticed that they all have similarities on a specific thing "Making The Drums Bigger."
I just wanted to Know if you guy's knew any techniques for this problem.

I've also read on the internet that Putting a sine wave through the low end of a kick drum BEEF'S it up.

Any tips appreciated .





www.myspace.com/ksamplesmusic

:violin::violin::violin::violin::violin:



"The one's who survive/Succeed, are the one's who conform to change."
-Some old dude

Use better samples, Layer more, track through a good pre. Do you have any sound dampening in your room? If so what are you using?

As far as I'm concerned, the most important thing is to start with good samples. After that, the most obvious thing to do is just turn the drums up.

Are we talking about live drums or samples/sounds?

that's all I got.

Originally Posted by BiggSheff

Use better samples, Layer more, track through a good pre. Do you have any sound dampening in your room? If so what are you using?

Do you know where I can get good samples from. I don't have any sound dampening yet I'm Supposed to be moving soon.

:violin::cussing::violin::cussing::violin:

Originally Posted by JIM BOND

Are we talking about live drums or samples/sounds?

Samples

Originally Posted by nonseq

that's all I got.

Depending on the drum as in ethnic, Latin, Rock e.t.c

:violin::violin:

Check these threads for tips. That's what the sweat the techniques forum is for

http://theofficialdpmovementforums.d...ead.php?t=5177

http://theofficialdpmovementforums.d...ead.php?t=5234

I remember last year at the conference Wrightrax had some of the hottest drums. They told me they Eq the hell of each drum hit. Just keep playing with the Eq and dynamic effects till it sounds right to you. But having the right drum samples from the start helps. Also when blend or layer drums give each sound it own track so its easier to manipulate it later. Hope that helps

I was watching a beat battle video with Wrightrax and was hearing someone in the crowd yelling at the stage that Wrightrax was stealing drums or something. What was the deal with that?

This is Hip hop, This culture was built on stealing drums and other things and making it our own.

FIND GOOD DRUM SOUNDS AND SAMPLE THEM IN STEREO WHICH WILL ADD THICKNESS AND WIDTH TO YOUR SOUND.

IF USING AN MPC OR SIMILAR - TURN UP THE GAIN UNTIL THEY START BREAKING UP, THEN SLOWLY BRING IT BACK DOWN TO THE POINT THAT THEY SOUND HOW YOU WANT THEM TO, AS WELL AS MAINTAINING A HIGH LEVEL, UNLESS YOU WANT A DISTORTED SOUND.

SOMETIMES I USE THE 8 INDIVIDUAL OUTS INTO MY INTERFACE THAT HAS A PREAMP ON EACH INPUT, SOMETIMES I RECORD THEM IN ONE AT A TIME.

THEN JUST KEEP THEM HIGH UP IN THE MIX

WITH INSTRUMENT SAMPLES I GIVE THEM MORE ROOM TO BREATHE, LEVELS WISE.

IMPORT AN SPARCE INSTRUMENTAL OR TRACK INTO YOUR SOFTWARE, THE WATCHER - 2001, IS A GOOD EXAMPLE, YOU CAN SEE HOW THE KICKS ARE CLIPPED AS THEY PASS 0 DB, YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH THIS WHEN USING ANALOGUE EQUIPMENT, AS THERE IS MORE HEADROOM.

WITH DIGITAL, IT'S BEST TO GIVE A DECENT AMOUNT OF HEADROOM, IT'S BEST NOT TO GO OVER -10 DB WHEN RECORDING IN SOFWARE IN 24BIT, EXCEPT THE OCCASIONAL PEAK.

IT DOESN'T SEEM MUCH BUT IF YOU LOOK AT THE MAIN VOLUME YOU'LL SEE IT ADDS UP TO A GOOD LEVEL OVERALL BECAUSE AS YOU INCREASE THE INPUT LEVEL ON A TRACK WITH PREAMPS, COMPRESSORS, YOU ALSO INCREASE THE NOISE LEVEL. THIS WILL LET THE TRACK BREATHE AND ALLOWS ROOM FOR VOCALS WITHOUT CLIPPING, AS WELL AS GIVING YOU MORE OPTIONS WHEN IT COMES TO PROCESSING AT THE MASTERING STAGE.

AS YOU ARE RECORDING VOCALS AT THESE LEVELS, IT'S IMPORTANT TO HAVE A WELL TREATED ROOM, AS THE COMPRESSOR WILL BRING OUT THE ROOM SOUND A LOT MORE.

SO THERES SOME DRUM TIPS AND MORE FOR YOU.

"3"

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Make sure you arent starting out with shitty sounds. Although I don't need the trick anymore. An easy way to thicken up the drums is layering 808's with a real short decay underneath your bass drums. Try to make sure the pitch of the 808 doesnt clash with the melody of the beat though.

Also,

A. You gotta realize everyone has their own tastes.

B. Making a beat is easy. Making a hot beat is not, for most people.

Moved this to STT...

Originally Posted by JIM BOND

Make sure you arent starting out with shitty sounds. Although I don't need the trick anymore. An easy way to thicken up the drums is layering 808's with a real short decay underneath your bass drums. Try to make sure the pitch of the 808 doesnt clash with the melody of the beat though.

Also,

A. You gotta realize everyone has their own tastes.

B. Making a beat is easy. Making a hot beat is not, for most people.

Moved this to STT...

"3"

Start with good samples learn how to edit your samples in a wave editor learn how to use an EQ, layering kicks, waves max bass & trans x wide are good plugins for kick drums also SLP Transient designer is great. you just have to practice till you get what you want.

the best samples are ones you make yourself with a mic

Originally Posted by HM productions

I remember last year at the conference Wrightrax had some of the hottest drums. They told me they Eq the hell of each drum hit. Just keep playing with the Eq and dynamic effects till it sounds right to you. But having the right drum samples from the start helps. Also when blend or layer drums give each sound it own track so its easier to manipulate it later. Hope that helps

That's what I recently started doing to my drums. Eqing the hell outta each one. Now that I'm using reason I got a better idea of this producing thang. I can actually see the music instead of just hearing it. And with the redrum, I add at least 3 or 4 of them just so I can add a eq to each drum sound separately. I can't wait to upload my new joints. No point to prove just want the fam to hear how I improved my music and it makes u feel good when u learn new things about making music!

Originally Posted by DJ SHARP

I can actually see the music instead of just hearing it.

See I'm the opposite of that. It's when I started hearing it and not paying attention to the computer monitor and where the faders were that I started noticing improvements in my sound and mixing. Not where i want to be but we getting there..lol

So if you guys weren't EQing every drum sound before this post, what in the world were you doing?

I really avoid eqing. I don't like to, I think it is a crutch. I believe that if you spend time to make sure the sourse sounds right, you shouldn't have to eq. and for drums, samething. Make sure that you original samples are top notch from the get go, spend the time searching for the right drums for the track. alot of times i remove the drums and start over with them after i added the instruments.


Another great way to make you drums sound bigger is subtractive eq., remove frequinies that are not needed. this will give the remaining frequinces room to breathe. and this will make your drums sound bigger and youir mix fuller

Originally Posted by d.Wells

I really avoid eqing. I don't like to, I think it is a crutch. I believe that if you spend time to make sure the sourse sounds right, you shouldn't have to eq. and for drums, samething. Make sure that you original samples are top notch from the get go, spend the time searching for the right drums for the track. alot of times i remove the drums and start over with them after i added the instruments.

Gotta disagree with this one for the most part. But I do agree on the subtractive eq

You have to have the freedom to paint the track in a mix imo.

As you're making the track, THOSE ARE the right drums if you decided to use them, right? What changes while your mixing that all of sudden doesn't make them the right drums? And why can't that be corrected by a little dynamics manipulation?

I usually swap out the drums for ones that fit the instruments, I'm not saying I don't use eq or any dynamic processors. I'm just saying that I try not to, I'd rather make sure that they sound good before i use them. that way I don't need to fix the sound, i just need to tweak it. just small touches.

Originally Posted by MrPeete

You have to have the freedom to paint the track in a mix imo.

Funny you use the word paint, I had the chance to sit at the feet of an engineer back in December and January for some mixing sessions and he mentioned to me that he looks at it as a canvas and he has a palette of colors he can use or mix together to paint that picture. In the first session with him he had live drum sounds so he called up the EQ and compressor, but used the eq to really shape the sounds. Also reverb to add depth and space and simulate where a person was standing in the room. I mentioned this before in another thread but he even got natural reverb and ambience by miking a live room and sending the drums to it and recording that and panning left and right...it works really nice if it fits a song/track..

I usually have 4 drum categories when i am layering kicks for example - sub kick , low kicks, mid kick, hi kicks (yes there is such a thing). you might not want to neccesarily use all 4 categories for the record...but once you have a mental understanding of this concept you have some more control and understanding of your drums overall.

Originally Posted by RhythmJ

I usually have 4 drum categories when i am layering kicks for example - sub kick , low kicks, mid kick, hi kicks (yes there is such a thing). you might not want to neccesarily use all 4 categories for the record...but once you have a mental understanding of this concept you have some more control and understanding of your drums overall.

"3"

The way I make my drums hit harder is by first compressing them with a real short attack and release time. then I EQ the drums and put them threw a soft clip. when I do this it has my drums kicking out the speaker

Originally Posted by SRome

The way I make my drums hit harder is by first compressing them with a real short attack and release time. then I EQ the drums and put them threw a soft clip. when I do this it has my drums kicking out the speaker

WHAT PROGRAM ARE YOU USING WITH WITH THIS TECHNIQUE AND WHAT AR THE SETTINGS.

Whats up !!!!

my first post on this site, just joined up! I have a lot of mixing exp. In my opinion one of the best ways to really get any drums sampled or live to slam is what you would call "new york compression" or "parallel compression'

It can work wonders in a mix. not just on drums either :Beer:

Welcome to the fam Onetake. Could you explain exactly what you do on the new york compression.

Thanks !

Okay soooooooo here it goes. Its a simple thing to do once you get it.
What you do is, lets say for example you got 4 tracks. A kick, snare,hats,percussion. you would do your usual compression and/or eq on each track at moderate level.
2. you would then route any combo of the 4 tracks or all to an AUX track.
(do do that you enable a send on each track with its output to buss 1 and 2)
3. create an aux track with the input of buss 1 and 2.
4. you can now use your send volume on each track and adjust it, this will send however much level to the aux track you want from each track.
5now you compress the living hell out of the aux track.

what this does is basically lets you compress, crunch, punch up the drums on an aux track in which you can now blend with the original clean signal for some nice extra power. You can get creative with it 2, maybe distort it a bit or add effects to the aux/buss and blend it in for a different flavor.

parralell compression is when you double a track and compress one copy very hard, and mix it under the original. It preserves the dynamics of the instrument but makes it sound more solid.

Somtimes both tracks are sent to an aux to be grouped and recompressed or limited. Some mastering engineers do it when the low end is missing or unpredictable. Rather than draggin the audio over to a second track, It can also be accomplished on a mixer, when you "mult" or use a send to a bus that has the compressor. In mixing, it is often used on bass tracks as well as kick and snare drums to add pressence without very much gain.

To do this you use a "send" routed to a bus that is set to input of an aux channel that has a compressor inserted. Hit the signal hard and blend that fx channel sound back under the original until it sounds fatter but does not get louder. When you mute the signal on the compressed track it should sound thinner but not quieter. The goal is to have the isnturment cut through the mix but still not be squashed. So you don't want to hear more of the squashed track than the unprocessed. Of course, you can do what ever you want to do with it until it fits the song you're working on. But, this is how I use it.

Also, what I do on Vox is similar but not the same. Record a first take, and a double take. The double track gets hit with a compressor very hard and limited, and mixed under the first vox take. They are singing the same things but two diferent takes. They get mixed to a group bus and compressed back together. For an effect you can have other 3rd and 4rth takes that switch around on the cadences of the chorus to change it up or send to delay. You just have to automate the mutes.
2
Very Common technique but effective!

This was copied discussing a vocal topic but bear in mind its the same principle!