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Quick Tip: Creating a Realistic Kick From Samples |
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One of the things I’ve become interested in lately is creating realistic sounds from samples. This basically means creating organic sounds as if they were recorded from a live performance or a naturally occurring sound phenomena from static and rather lifeless sounds or samples. This quick tip I am about to show you regarding kick drums can be extended to any drum sound or any other sound type for that matter.
Battery showing the sine waves of the 808.
The first thing I have done is instantiate Battery (this can be done in any DAW and sampler) with a static kick drum sound from an 808. This is to lay the basis for my kick drum and generate the necessary low frequency sine waves inherent to clean and pronounced sounding kicks.
Next, I went through my library and found a velocity layered ‘real’ kick sample to lay on top of the 808.
Download audio file (808.mp3)
Download audio file (Vel.mp3)
I then recorded both kicks and sent them through a free app. called Transcribe! (you should check it out
The analyzed kick drum.
I then filtered out most of the high end of the 808 and the low end of the velocity layered kick so they were not overlapping as I wanted the fundamental bass of the 808 with the rather organic top end of the velocity layered kick to meld.
The left filter is for the 808, the right for the velocity layered cell.
Download audio file (Comb. & Filt.mp3)
I then went to the modulation menu in Battery and set a tune modulation by envelope to both drum sounds and set it to a fast attack and quick decay in order to modulate a octave + of pitch which accentuates the attack phase of both kicks.
The modulation envelope in the bottom left.
Download audio file (Mod.mp3)
I then went in with Logic’s transform tool to randomize my MIDI layers. I gave the tops a +- 10 random velocity from what I had selected previously as I wanted to take advantage of the different samples of the velocity layers and I gave my bottom end a +-5 as I wanted my lows to remain constant and not articulate too much. If your DAW does not have something like this, you can easily add some randomization by hand.
Logic’s Transform Tool.
Download audio file (Rand.mp3)
From there I took out some mid lows with an EQ to get rid of unnecessary sonics and tighten up the sound-basically get rid of the floppiness of it. I then added some point to the attack with the high shelving filter and cleaned up the bottom end and added some punch with a resonant low cut.
Logic’s Channel EQ.
Download audio file (EQ.mp3)
You can definitely use more than two sample layers for this trick, but you should also be careful not to overdo it and make your sound muddy. I have found 3 for the kick is about the maximum for me. Snares and other elements which consist of a lot of harmonics can be layered more depending on the sound you are going for, but you should still be careful not to overdo it as you will just have to get rid of the extra information later on.
Although this trick is really no replacement for a live performance, it can give the feeling of one and is a great substitute for expensive studio and recording time. Furthermore, as many mixers drop the bottom end of kick recordings for pure sine waves anyway, this kick layering trick sounds great and current for the time/effort involved while allowing for a large amount of control over dynamics and sound variations.
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Best of Tuts+ in January 2012 |
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Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!
Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials
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Making modifications to your car or truck in Photoshop can be a lot of fun. In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to create a pimped out truck modification using photos taken with a simple point and shoot camera, with no advanced lighting setup. Let’s get started!
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Photoshop is great at seamlessly combing photos to create an entirely new scene. In this tutorial we will create an elephant sundae using several stock photos. Let’s get started!
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In this article we will be featuring the work of Michael Oswald. Oswald is a digital artist with a unique style. His technique involves a combination of photo manipulation and digital painting techniques and the results are often stunning. Let’s take a look!
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Nettuts+ — Web Development Tutorials
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Sublime Text 2 is one of the fastest and most incredible code editors to be released in a long time! With a community and plugin ecosystem as passionate as this one, it just might be impossible for any other editor to catch up. I’ll show you my favorite tips and tricks today.
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In this tutorial, youll learn how HTML5 helps to provide you with several ways of presenting your media content to users. As a result, youll increase the availability of your media to users with different
needs and requirements, making it more accessible.
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Sooner or later, all developers are required to interact with an API. The most difficult part is always related to reliably testing the code we write, and, as we want to make sure that everything works properly, we continuosly run code that queries the API itself. This process is slow and inefficient, as we can experience network issues and data inconsistencies (the API results may change). Let’s review how we can avoid all of this effort with Ruby.
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Vectortuts+ — Illustrator Tutorials
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The microscopes is a symbol of our civilization. Throughout this tutorial on how to illustrate a vector microscope you’ll take advantage of numerous Illustrator tools. You will learn how to use blends, art brushes and 3D rendering in Adobe Illustrator. Let’s get started!
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This work is a common project created together with Iaroslav Lazunov and Alexander Egupov. We have used 3D rendering, Blends, Opacity masks, making this three-dimensional stage with vanishing points. Learn every step in how to create this picture gallery work.
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If you’re serious about creating a typeface design, then you’ll need some solid resources to get started. Learn effective typeface design workflows, how to take an initial spark of an idea from sketch, through Illustrator, into Fontlab, and then work your creation into a complete and custom font design. Here are multiple tutorials that show you how to create fonts in Illustrator and Fontlab, and you can also dive into articles that describe the foundation of quality type design with ample inspirational examples.
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Webdesigntuts+ — Web Design Tutorials
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Pairing fonts can be a challenge. Selecting two or more fonts which work well is one thing – selecting two which work together to achieve your typographic aims may have you reaching for the aspirin. Let’s see if we can alleviate any headaches. This guide will help you get started with font pairing for the web.
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With the continuous growth of the Internet, online marketing has gotten bigger every year, and along with it, the advertising industry. One major factor in all this craziness is buying and selling ads.
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Twitter’s Bootstrap is an excellent set of carefully crafted user interface elements, layouts, and javascript tools, freely available to use in your next web design project. This video series aims to introduce you to Bootstrap; taking you all the way from downloading the resources, to building a complete Bootstrap-based website.
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Phototuts+ — Photography Tutorials
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There are few techniques in the photography world that divide our community as much as HDR. High dynamic range images, or HDR images, are a special type of composite image that combines several images at different exposure settings in order to create an image with increased dynamic range. The look provided by HDR is loved by many, and disliked by perhaps just as many. In today’s article, we’re going to take a better look at what HDR is, and get some opinions from photographers using HDR.
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Cars and motorbikes have been around for 100 years. Throughout the century, they have looked beautiful, satisfied our need for speed and become a symbol for thrill seeking. Today, we’ll look at photos ranging from brand new Ferrari’s to classic muscle cars.
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While a number of smartphones now offer photo editing basics (and a plethora of apps to expand things even more), the portability of a solid photo editing program has been hard to come by. Photoshop is a monster in regards to space requirements and its ability to work on any system where it is not expressively installed. Picasa can be fairly ‘lightweight’ but lacks many of the more advanced photo editing tools. So what about GIMP?
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Cgtuts+ — Computer Graphics Tutorials
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In the first tutorial of 2012 you’ll learn how to create an awesome low-poly dinosaur using Blender and Gimp. In today’s post artist Karan Shah will walk you through the entire modeling process step by step, and show you how to create an optimized model suitable for use in any game engine.
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Today you’ll learn to animate and shade fluids, understand all of the major attributes, learn how adding fields will allow you to gain better control over your simulation, and how to light and render the final animation.
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Due to the shear number of polygons often required to make believable 3D trees, creating realistic ones for use “in-game” can be a challenging, time consuming task. SpeedTree from IDV aims to change all that with it’s intuitive UI, ease of use and powerful toolset. Making believable trees and plants has literally never been easier!
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Aetuts+ — After Effects Tutorials
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In this tutorial we’re going to go over the principle functionality of CameraTracker from The Foundry, learning basic workflow, optimizing results, aligning the ground plane and exporting this data from After Effects to Cinema 4d.
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Using just a few video elements of torch flames, we composite a burning hand by using a series of null objects and expressions to drive a time lagged displacement effect to simulate fire burning from a moving source. We use the Puppet tool for the distortion and throw on some tracked lighting effects and a displacement map for the Heat. This principle can be used to add realistic, fluid motion to any tracked object.
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Youve watched thousands of tutorials. Youve put in countless hours and spent many late nights working on personal projects. Youve finally come to the conclusion that this may just be something you would like to do for a career. It can seem a little intimidating at first, because how are you going to convince someone to pay you to do this? Up until now youve been your only client. How do you get more? Im going to share my insight and experiences on how to successfully launch your freelance career this year!
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Audiotuts+ — Audio & Production Tutorials
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Lets face it, software is expensive. While there are hundreds of free plug-ins available online, more often than not two problems will arise: One, most of them are for PCs leaving us Mac users feeling left out. Two, most of them are vary poor quality.
While I do agree with the saying, “The tools are only as good as the artist,” I also believe the opposite is true; that at some point the artist can only be as good as his tools are.
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This short series of quick tips is designed to give you a good overview of the audio processing techniques involved in creating a professional sounding drum beat for use in house, electro and breaks in Cubase. In this final part we will look at a few ways to add even more life to your drums.
Here is a sample of the type of beat you could expect to end up with at the end of this series of tips:
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It’s 3:30 in the afternoon when your phone rings. The head of a music library is calling and she needs your help. They have a commercial for an A-list client that needs music, and they want you to submit an entry. You’ll get $10,000 if you land the gig.
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Activetuts+ — Flash, Flex & ActionScript Tutorials
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In this mini-series, we’re creating a spaceship game where the main control is via the microphone: shout louder to make the ship fly higher. So far, we’ve created all the required graphical elements for the game. Now, it’s time to work on our code. We’ve got a lot to do, so let’s get started!
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If you, like many Flash developers, are looking into using HTML5 for your web apps, you’ll almost certainly have come across jQuery. It’s a very popular JavaScript library, used by a large percentage of the most visited websites – but what’s all the fuss about, and should you use it?
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As HTML games begin to gradually increase in popularity, vendors are starting to introduce some exciting new APIs to make gaming that little bit sweeter for both us developers and our end players. One of these is the GamepadAPI, which allows you to connect your good old console gamepad into your computer and use it for browser based games, plug and play style. Let’s dive in!
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Wptuts+ — WordPress Tutorials
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2011 was a big year for the advancement of HTML5 in the web development community. It became pretty widely adopted, especially for the mobile web. There have been major projects that help developers use HTML5, like Paul Irish’s HTML5 Boilerplate (technically 2010, but popularized in 2011) and books galore!
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In Part 1 and Part 2 of our custom meta box template tutorial series, we learned how to create a field array to loop through and create a custom meta box with your standard fields. Now let’s throw in a bit of JavaScript for some fancy, but highly useful fields.
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Give your site a boost! Implement crucial optimization techniques that will improve not only your ySlow score, but your Google rank too. In this tutorial we will cover all aspects of W3 caching, ySlow, Google page speed, CSS sprites & htaccess rules, to achieve a high ySlow score like i have done on my blog.
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Mobiletuts+ — Mobile Development Tutorials
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Engage your users with stunning carousels. We’ll look at how easy and clean it can be to implement scrollable, interactive carousels in your iOS applications. With high configurability, you can have 3D, flat, rotating, and endless scrolling arrays for data, images, or buttons.
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Want to learn how to use PhoneGap, but don’t know where to get started? Join us as we put together “Sculder”, not only a tribute to an excellent science fiction TV series, but a fully-fledged native mobile application for the believer in you!
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In light of recent announcements from Adobe, there has been a lot of confusion over the state of the Flash Platform – specifically in regard to Flash content on mobile devices. This article seeks to clarify many of the misconceptions that exist by addressing the main points of confusion around these announcements regardless of the initial, monumental, and absolutely unbelievable blunders from failed public (and private) relations messaging and general marketing surrounding these announcements.
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Getting to Know Altered Chords Part 6: Altered IV |
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In this series we will learn about altered chords and how we can use them to add harmonic interest to our music. Part 6 of the series will continue with the altered IV chord.
The Altered Chord Series
This is the sixth article in a seven part series on altered chords. In the first part I explained that by lowering or raising a tone of a chord by a half step you can change the color and function of a chord.
Part 1 looked at altered V chords, Part 2 at altered II chords, Part 3 at altered VI chords, Part 4 at altered III chords, and Part 5 at altered VII chords. We will continue the series by exploring various ways to alter the IV chord.
Diatonic IV
The fourth diatonic chord in a major key is a major triad. In the key of B it’s E major. If you add the seventh (a major seventh above the root), you get a major seventh chord (maj7).
It’s harmonic function is considered that of a subdominant chord. In an earlier tutorial called The Basic Functions of Harmony, I explained that a subdominant chord is like moving away from home. In diatonic form it has a certain sense of stability, but as we will discover, in altered form it feels much more transitional and strives to resolve.
The IV chord is so basic and common that it doesn’t require much discussion. Here’s a very traditional I-IV-V7-I progression:
Download audio file (1_I-IV-V7-I.mp3)
Altered IV
The most common alterations of IV include:
- iv (minor, borrowed from the minor mode)
- IV7 (dominant 7, borrowed from the dorian mode)
Altering Each Chord Tone
As explained in the previous tutorials, a chord is “altered” by lowering or raising one or more chord tones by a half step. Since there are four pitches in a maj7 chord that gives us four choices for tones to alter, 1 3 5 7.
We’ll go through one chord tone at a time and examine the results of altering each of them.
Altering the Root
Lowering the Root
Lowering the root of a major seventh chord just turns the root into the seventh. Rather than an altered IV, it’s more like a vi chord:
Raising the Root
Raising the root alone changes the chord to a #IV diminished triad or #IVm7b5 chord, which can serve several purposes.
It could be the IIm7b5 in a minor II-V progression resolving to iii:
Download audio file (3_m7b5.mp3)
Or for a voice-leading/line oriented progression you could use the #IV like a passing tone, notice the smooth chromatic line from G down to E:
Download audio file (4_Passing.mp3)
You could also have a chromatic line going up in the bass, like this progression that uses #IV as a way to increase the tension between IV and V:
Download audio file (5_raisedIV.mp3)
Altering the Third
Lowering the Third
By far the most common alteration of IV is to lower the third and get iv, or “four minor”. It’s been used so many times in so many styles that it’s certainly a cliche, but I’ll admit that I still love it.
It’s a sound you are probably familiar with:
Download audio file (6_iv.mp3)
In a previous tut on Secondary Dominants, I used the Beatles song “In My Life” as an example with iv being used twice.
The first time IV plays for two beats before changing to iv, in essence depressing and saddening the chord by moving it from major to minor:
Download audio file (7_Life1.mp3)
Later on in the song, iv is used as the landing chord for a deceptive cadence, providing us with a nostalgic and sad surprise:
Download audio file (8_Life2.mp3)
Another Beatles song that uses a move from IV to iv is “If I Fell”. Listen for the change in the bridge on the lyrics “And I would be sad,” at about 1:00 into this video:
Raising the Third
Raising the third of a major chord changes it into a sus4 chord. In contemporary styles such as film music, sus4 is a great way to create a sense of neutrality. In the sense that “major is happy” and “minor is sad”, sus4 is neither of these emotions, and thus gives you some more flexibility.
Here’s a “film score” style example that goes from Isus4 to IVsus4 and back to Isus4:
Download audio file (9_sus4.mp3)
Something else that helps with that soft and neutral sound is that the sus4 of the IV chord is the b7 of the key, which helps lend to that open and gentler sound.
Altering the Fifth
Lowering the Fifth
A maj7 chord with b5 is quite unusual and not something you’ll run into very often. But I suppose it’s possible that if you lowered the fifth and the seventh, you could actually think of them enharmonically as leading tones into the root and third of the I chord.
Meaning, if your chord is F A Cb Eb, think of it as F A B D#. The B and D# both resolve up a half step into C and E, and the F and A can both resolve by a whole step to G:
Download audio file (10_halfsteps.mp3)
If you lowered the fifth and third a half step, and the seventh a whole step, you could change the chord to a IV diminished seventh chord, which when alternated with I has a beautiful and romantic sound.
This example from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, an excerpt of Waltz of the Flowers, is a perfect one:
Download audio file (11_Nutcracker.mp3)
Raising the Fifth
Raising the fifth creates an augmented chord, or IV+. Although useful for altering I and V chords, an augmented IV chord doesn’t really serve much “functional” purpose.
Altering the Seventh
Lowering the Seventh
Lowering the seventh changes the IV chord from major seven to dominant seven, or IVmaj7 to IV7.
IV7 is most commonly found in the basic 12 Bar Blues, in which every chord is a dominant 7:
You can really hear the b7 of the IV chord on the guitar fill after the line “She’s my sweet little thing” at 0:43.
Another place you can find IV7 is in the song “Brain Damage” from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon:
Download audio file (12_BrainDamage.mp3)
The song is in the key of D. The b7 of the IV chord, lowering the third of the key from F# to F natural, helps create a sense of quirkiness. But it’s especially tritone of B to F, non-diatonic to the key, that adds a sense of “lunacy”.
Raising the Seventh
Raising the seventh of a major seventh chord is essentially meaningless because you just end up back at the root again!
Conclusion
IV is a great chord to alter because it’s already functionally a little more free than I or V. It doesn’t have to have a sense of firm stability like a tonic chord and it doesn’t have to create a strong feeling of tension and need to resolve like a dominant chord. Instead it’s a moment of transition, and thus you have more freedom to play with it’s color by lowering or raising it’s chord tones.
As mentioned, the alteration you’ll hear quite often is iv minor. But as you can see there are a lot of other options out there if you’re willing to experiment and be creative.
Next up and concluding the series will be the Altered I chord.
Please leave your comments and questions below and we will continue to discuss them in the future parts of the altered chord series.
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Quick Tip: Have A Backup Plan |
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There is one major fear when it comes to working with computers, a hard drive failure. Hard drives will fail and they always occur when we least expect it. And when the drive with all your session files crash, it is a disaster. I’m always told “If the file does not have two copies, it doesn’t exist.”
It does not take much to formulate a backup plan and it isn’t that difficult to keep to it. Especially if you have encountered a case of data loss before, you will certainly motivate yourself to stick to it.
What To Backup
There are primarily two data pools that you will need to backup, your project data and system drive. It is clear why you need to backup your project data, simply because it is your work and it is probably what gets you paid.
It is also important to backup your system drive so as to minimise the downtime should your system drive fails. Having a clone of your system drive allows you to quickly replace your failed system drive and get back to where you were again.
You can also backup your sample libraries but quite often you can recover those from your installers if you do not want to use more backup space. That would fall under personal preferences.
Getting Started
Using an automated backup system takes the pain out from remembering to backup your data. It runs on a scheduled time and knows what backup source and destination. There are many software solutions out there that allow you create such a backup system.
Depending on your choice of a PC or a Mac, the software and method that you would use will defer. Being a Mac user, I will be able to recommend some specific choices for the Mac but it will not be difficult to find a piece of software that does the same job for the PC.
My choice of software for the Mac is Carbon Copy Cloner. It allows me to schedule a backup task and choosing my source folder and destination folder. These are just basic functions that most backup software will have.
Choose a good time for the backup task to run. Obviously, the computer will need to be running at that point of time. If you chose to do an incremental backup, the task will not take long unless you constantly make huge file changes to your drive. I am only working on individual projects at a time so my backups usually take a minute or less.
You can also choose to run the backup manually when you wish to. This could be after a large amount of work and you’re playing it safe.
Choose a Backup Type
There are slight differences in the type of backup that you can choose from. The differences are how the program handles data that have changed.
Firstly, there is the clone option. The program just ensures that there is an exact clone of the backup source. Files that no longer exist on the source are deleted. This type of backup will help when you have a drive failure but does not help if you need to recover a file that you had deleted.
Secondly, there is the backup and archive method. Files that have been changed or deleted are moved to another folder and archived. This takes up more space on your backup drive but provides the possibility of recovering a file that you have deleted.
Backup Your System Drive
Besides backing up your data, it is also good to keep a backup of your system drive in case that it fails. Having a backup of your system drive minimises downtime by allowing you to replace the failed drive and clone your system to exactly the way it was before.
For Mac users, Time Machine which ships with OS X was designed to help recover from such a disaster. However, it still takes a few hours for your drive to be restored using a Time Machine backup. You can use a backup software like Carbon Copy Cloner to perform an exact clone of your system drive to reduce the time needed.
For Windows users, the backup methods mentioned above would work well too. However, a backup and archive method would require a lot of backup space since files changes are much more common on the system drive. A standard clone should suffice for most users.
Its Not That Complicated
Building a backup plan might sound complicated but it is rather easy if you take it a step at a time. Know what is most important to you and make sure you have an extra copy.
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How to Make Arpeggiated Lead Sounds in Logic |
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The use of arpeggiators in modern electronic music is as popular as ever. Hardware synthesizers such as the Access Virus, Nord Lead, Waldorf Q, and Novation Nova have long been popular in electronic music for their unique sound, extensive programming matrices and step-sequencing and arpeggiation functionality. While several third-party soft-synths have robust arpeggiation and step-sequencing functionality, none of the synthesizers in Logic Studio have this feature.
March of 2009
However, with a little dive into Logic’s environment and Piano Roll editors, you can make sophisticated, arpeggiated lead lines (hereafter: arp line) just like the pros.
Step 1
At the heart of any arp line is a great synth patch. Logic hosts a number of synths that would make excellent sources, but we’ll use the oft-overlooked, yet powerful ES1 synthesizer for its punchiness and simplicity.
Load one instance of the ES1 synthesizer in a new instrument track in Logic Pro. From the drop-down menu of presets, select 06 Sequence Elements – Saw Sequence. Set the octave to 8, select Wave 2 for the Sub-Osc waveform, and add a slight amount of Glide to the patch. Your final patch will look something like this:
ES1 Patch
Step 2
Now that we have a sound, we can hop into the dreaded Environment window. The Logic Environment is feared by many, but the truth is that once you have a basic understanding of it, you can accomplish some powerful things.
Open the Environment window by pressing Command + 8. In the upper left corner, click the down arrow to expand the drop-down menu of Environment layers. Select Clicks & Ports. You should see a set of connections similar to those in the image below.
Clicks and Ports
This window essentially shows the MIDI I/O of your keyboard controller or interface. You’ll notice that at the end of the chain is the ‘Sequencer Input’. This is the last item in the line where Logic receives and routes MIDI input to your tracks.
Step 3
While there are several ways of connecting an Arpeggiator Object, I’ve found this method to be quick, reliable, and relatively straightforward. It has the additional benefit of allowing you to record the arpeggiated MIDI signal, which helps if you wish to edit the notes later on.
From the ‘New’ menu, we’ll select Arpeggiator, and the result should be an Arpeggiator object in the window. Drag the cable output from your ‘Input Notes’ object to the input of the Arpeggiator object. Likewise, drag the cable output of the Arpeggiator to the input of the Sequencer Input object. The result will look something like this.
Arpeggiator object layout
Step 4
After completing the steps above, select the Arpeggiator object and note the panel to the left of the main Environment window, which displays the properties of the Arpeggiator object. Here is where we can begin to tune the way in which the object will affect our incoming MIDI signal.
Have some fun experimenting with the effects of each parameter. For this tutorial, I’m going to use the following settings:
Arpeggiator settings
Step 5
Now that we have our basic setup, we’ll begin recording a few arp lines! Select a tempo that’s appropriate for your tune – I’m going with 110bpm here.
By putting your transport into PLAY or RECORD mode, your incoming MIDI data will now be modulated by the Arpeggiator object. Experiment with this for awhile to get a feel for how it works, then record a few variations using simple chords and intervals. You’ll find that while using this Arpeggiator is an imperfect art (occasional missed notes and late changes), a few short moments in the piano editor to move a few things around will help clean things up to perfect sync.
Download audio file (1.mp3)
First arp line of ES1
Step 6
Now that we have a few variations of our arpeggios, let’s liven them up a bit using a couple of simple techniques. First, we’ll add in some variations to the arpeggios in the Piano Roll editor.
For the first arpeggio, I have a simple alternating octave of 16th notes. I’ll select all the notes in this section and use the Transform – Fixed Note Length function. This will shorten the duration of the notes and give them a bit more punch. I set mine to 120 ticks.
Next, I’ll add in a few third and fourth octave variations to some of the notes, resulting in something like this.
Octave variations
I’ll use a similar process on the second arpeggiated section, adding in some octave variations and adjusting the note duration.
For a closer look at creating cool ostinato effects, check out this tutorial by Ryan Leach.
Download audio file (2.mp3)
Adding more detail to the arpeggios
Step 7
Now that we’ve tuned our arp lines, we’ll add some simple effects to them using Logic’s delay plugins. For this particular style, I really like Logic’s Tape Delay, so we’ll insert one instance of the Tape Delay plugin into the insert track of the Arpeggio arrange track.
We don’t want the delay to overpower the punchiness of the arp line, so here are the parameters I’ve used for this plugin.
Tape Delay
Here’s the final result of our arpeggios using Logic’s ES1, Tape Delay, and the Arpeggiator Object from the Environment window.
Download audio file (3.mp3)
Final arp lines
And for good measure, here’s the whole lot, blended together with a nice dance beat. Enjoy!
Download audio file (4.mp3)
Final mix!
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Ultimate Dubstep Drums reviewed |
New for 2012, established Loop creators Primeloops have released a new samplepack entitled 'Ultimate Dubstep Drummer'. Primeloops are a long established loop creation company - and a bit of a creative machine, cranking out new packs almost every week it seems.
In this pack there's almost 700mb of material, and like most of Primeloops samplepacks, they're focused on one element of one genre at a time. This one is for killer drumbeats within the Dubstep genre. Available in all the common formats, they are divided into 6 folders that make up separate elements of a quality construction kit; 808/909 loops, live drums, Programmed machine, one shots, midi loops, and the loops fully mixed. There are just over 100 loops total, named after areas or streets in London.
Each of the folders compliments each other, so you can build loops quickly and effectively. Each folder has the same street/area in it, including the midi file, and one shots of the drum sounds. This gives you effectively complete control of the loops, and are able to really manipulate them how you want.
They're all locked at 140Bpm, and they sound great! They're pretty solid foundational beats for dubstep. The live drums are recorded and processed really nicely - huge sounding, with just the right amount of reverb. The loops all mix together nicely - not too much EQ'ing required to make really phat sounding rhythm. The overall sound of these loops cover the bases nicely from darker to warmer atmospheres. And of course, once you've created that number one hit - the loops are all 100% royalty free, so no hassles picking up your millions.
Here's a weird little track that I wrote - not really dubsteppy apart from a small break in the middle. But all the drum loops you hear are from this pack.
P.S.Primeloops also has a New Year sale on: Most of their loops are 25% off. While already not being too expensive, they're now letting you have these excellent sound palettes for the price of 2 nice lattes (£13.46). Check them out here.Resource Owner: |
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How to make a breakbeat-fuelled DnB beat with Friction |
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Step 1: The starting point for this beat is the break from Jimmy McGriff's The Worm, as used on such DnB classics as Origin Unknown's Lunar Bass and Friction & K-Tee's own Overtime. Friction chops and plays back the break via Logic's EXS24. He has the snares coming from a separate EXS24 so that they can be processed independently later. Read more about How to make a breakbeat-fuelled DnB beat with Friction at MusicRadar.com
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How to Create and Dominate Hip-Hop Drums |
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One of the most important aspects in hip-hop and popular music is the drumbeat. What makes it sound so big? The drum patterns appear so simple, so why are they so hard to create? Well, in this tutorial, we’re going to break down the fundamental elements of a hip-hop beat.
November 2008
Note: this tutorial contains embedded audio that will not display in a feed reader. Click back to the site to read the tutorial with audio.
1. Drum Patterns
The drum pattern is the backbone for you song, it gives it structure. In general, there are two kinds of drum patterns:
- Simple Patterns
- Complex Patterns
Simple patterns, or “lunchroom beats” as they’re often known, are patterns that you probably are most familiar with. They’re the ones you tap your foot to (hence “lunchroom beat”, as you can reproduce it by banging your hands on a lunch table). Probably among the most common drum patterns out there, they usually have a set pattern that repeats every 8, 16, 32 or 64 steps.
Complex patterns are, well, complex patterns. They still have a set pattern, but it’s much more difficult to tap along with. They usually have drops/mutes, delays and other complex effects to heighten the anticipation on the track.
Now we know what kind of patterns are available for us, so let’s move on to the actual drums. DJ Khaled’s I’m So Hood is an example of a somewhat complex pattern
Download audio file (1.mp3)
2. Drum Samples
One of the things that stands out about hip-hop, that I’ve lightly touched on in previous articles, is the unique drums. Ethnic drums such as bongos, congas, tamboras, and more, all add flavor and originality to your drum patterns.
Beyond that, move away from your workstation’s stock drum sounds: they’re boring. Odds are they’ve been used on a hundred tracks before yours. Dig around the internet, find some royalty free drum samples, or get behind a drum set and start sampling your own.
Experiment with various objects as instruments (coins in a plastic cup, car keys, even your chain). Maybe they sound bad, or maybe you stumble across something that sounds incredible and gives you dynamics you were missing. Just make sure you EQ properly, and aren’t throwing garbage sounds into your track for no reason. Sounding unoriginal yet pleasing is probably better than sounding original but terrible.
Make sure you’re not loading up the basic sounds every time you go to the studio to work on a track.
Try something new, and the results can be spectacular.
The Neptunes are world famous for their unique drums. See an example of this in Ludacris – “Money Maker” (Feat. Pharrell).
Download audio file (2.mp3)
3. Mutes
Muting your drums patterns, or muting elements of them, adds suspense and excitement to your music. It is by far the most commonly used technique in hip-hop production.
One of the most obvious uses is the muting of drums when switching between verses and the chorus. It is very common to mute hi-hats during verses, and including them in the chorus, as well as muting or changing elements to create a bridge.
They also help create an intro or outro for your song, where you can lead in with simply kicks or claps. Mutes also give the music some excitement and suspense. Dropping an occasional kick can add liveliness to the music. Muting is one of the best techniques out there, so try adding some into your music.
Note the mute after the short intro in Shareefa – “Need A Boss”, to create a unique silence before they return with the main beat.
Download audio file (3.mp3)
4. Offsets and Doubles
While we’re on the subject of making your music more lively, let’s talk about offsets and doubles. Offsetting a drum is taking a drum that normally falls on a certain quantized step, and offsetting it to a different step.
For example, if you have a kick on step 1, and a clap on step 5 as a repeating pattern, try moving the clap to step 3. It makes the listener do a quick double take, and adds flavor to a pattern that would be simple otherwise.
Doubling a drum is taking your drum pattern and adding “ghost” drums to it. If you have a kick on step 3 and a clap on step 5, try putting a dynamically softer kick on step 2. It will create a type of drum roll, leading up to the louder kick. You can apply this technique to all sorts of drums.
Note the somewhat offset kick in the second half of the drumbeat in Timbaland – “Apologize” (Feat. One Republic). Since Timbaland usually has irregular rhythms in his music, it’s not exactly an offset, but it illustrates the concept.
5. Flamming
As defined in live drumming, a flam is a rudiment consisting of a quiet “grace” note on one hand followed by a louder “primary” stroke on the opposite hand. The two notes are played almost simultaneously, and are intended to sound like a single, ‘broader’ note.
However, even if you’re not working with live drums, you can still flam your drums. Most drum machines have a flamming option, so try using it. You can play with the offset feature to lengthen the time between the flam and the actual drum hit.
This is a very popular technique when it comes to snare and hi-hat rolls, and it’s a very common technique that can be applied in the “Humanizing” section, so keep reading.
Take a look at this quick lesson on flamming live drums.
6. Polyrhythms
Polyrhythms are just what they sound like: multiple rhythms played on top of each other. An example of a polyrhythm is 4 evenly spaced beats against 3, with the 4 beat pattern being faster than the 3 beat pattern.
They are very prominent in African music, and since much of hip-hop is influenced by African music, polyrhythms appear often in hip-hop. It gives a very unique sound when there are several patterns being played on top of each other.
The simplest form of this technique is having kick and snare as one rhythm, and hi-hats as another. A step up from that, is having drums like bongos or congas giving another rhythm on top of the kicks. In its purest form, polyrhythms in hip-hop have two or more kick patterns playing at the same time. Regardless of which way you use them, they add complexity to an otherwise simple pattern.
In Pharrell – “That Girl”, the congas add a different rhythm on top of the kick/clap beat.
7. The Human Factor
One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the laziness of modern producers. So many producers have a nice drum pattern going, chose some great samples and then just stop. There’s so much more you can do with drums, so get used to putting extra effort in; it’s worth it.
Reason has an interesting new feature in version 4.0, called ReGroove. I personally haven’t toyed with it enough to be able to praise or disown it, but the concept behind it is important. Applying a “groove” to your pattern takes the pattern, and gives it a human feel.
It’s important for various patterns, as it will take the various drums and slightly offset them by milliseconds. Think about it in realistic terms. When your drummer sits down behind the drums and starts playing, does he hit each drum in perfect timing?
Of course not. This liveliness is what gives the drums their flavor. Too many young producers just let the sequencer put each drum sound in perfect timing, when actually it sounds better to give it some realistic life and variance. You don’t need Reason or its ReGroove to accomplish this.
When you’re recording your track, consider playing your hi-hats or snares directly from your MIDI keyboard without quantizing them. You want to be very careful doing this, as you still need to be close to the correct rhythm, but sometimes having some variation gives your drums life.
Rihanna – “Umbrella” is a track with a live drum feel.
Download audio file (7.mp3)
8. The Importance of EQ
I can’t stress the importance of EQing and mixing your drums properly. AUDIOTUTS already has some tutorials on the subject, so I’m not going to give it an entire lesson. However, it is very important to have proper EQing on your drums to give them the fullest sound.
Additionally, mixing the drums is highly important. The drums need to really bang, so the volume needs to be somewhat loud. However, high volume tends to distort the drums. Volume isn’t the only factor that makes drums loud and full, so play with reverb and other settings as well.
Mixing is also essential in order to maintain proper levels between the drum elements and other song elements (most notably basslines, which often lie in similar frequencies to kicks). Sit down and really put some effort into making your sound as clean and “big” as possible; you won’t regret it.
The Clipse – “Fast Life” is an example of a song with poor mixing. The album version doesn’t have this issue, but for some reason the version that Koch Records uploaded does.
Conclusion
There you have some of the key ingredients in creating hip-hop drums. Start with a good pattern, choose some high quality, unique samples, then change up your pattern with mutes. Try offsetting and flamming, and add a groove to the track. However, there is such a thing as trying to do too much with drums.
It’s easy to apply all the techniques I’ve outlined here, but just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should. Sit down and listen to your drums, and make sure they’re unique and lively, but not overdone.
Resources
Berklee Music have posted some good drum video tutorials on YouTube.
Also, here are some video blogs from premier producer, Ryan Leslie. He illustrates many of the techniques that I’ve outlined.
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