Making Your Sample Drum Tracks Sound Real

It's no surprise, there is no replacement for the sound of a perfectly recorded drum kit. There is also no surprise that getting sampled drum tracks to sound real can be a very tedious task. But nowadays, with the way technology has progressed, there are many different options to help an engineer overcome this common problem.






Here are three very important steps that can be taken to help you get the best realistic sounding drum tracks as possible:

1. Reverb and compression:
There are many different effects that can be attached to the drum track to help get rid of an unnatural sound. But the most important effects that must be used are compression and reverb. As an engineer, you should start with EQ, volume, panning, room size, diffusion and any other effects you need to apply to the drum samples and tracks before you get into the final reverb and compression.

When you are getting ready to do the final touches, you should start with a parallel compressor. Your parameters should be: a fast attack, an increase in gain control, a low threshold and a decay of your liking. This will give you an on-and-off pressuring sound that will mimic the sound of a real person being recorded on a real drum kit.

The last final touch you should apply is the final reverb. The reverb should create just enough distance in the drum sound to make it feel like the drums are in the room not in the speaker. But the biggest/smallest mistake you can make is adding to much reverb. Don't go over board, just a little to much can bring back the very sound you are trying to get rid of: an unrealistic sound.

2. Use overhead and room microphone samples:
When drums are recorded in the studio or at a live venue, they are most likely recorded with each component using an individual mic. But also there will be two overhead mics and or sometimes a room mic used to catch the sound of the kit at a whole. Finding samples of overhead drum mics or room mics might be hard and tedious, but if you find the right sample sound that complements and completes each component of the original drum sample, the process would be well worth the while.

3. Using ghost notes:
What are ghost notes? Ghost notes are inadvertent sounds made by a drummer before and after the original hit of a drum component. It mostly happens with the kick, snare and sometimes the hi-hats. The process of using ghost notes are as easy as taking duplicates of each sample you want to make ghost notes of and placing them within the drum loop at a decreased value of about 70 to 80 percent less then the original note.

Tip: Since they're supposed to be inadvertent notes, it should not have any type of pattern to where you place them in the loop.

Drum Smaples: Do You Really Have to Break the Bank

Do you really need to spend that much money on drum samples? My answer, is NO. With the technology in plug-ins these days your strongest weapon is to know your plug-ins and know how to work them. Having this knowledge can make any average drum sample sound just as good as a sample that you will get from a drum sample library such as a Ocean Way's drum library which can run you anywhere from $500 to $2000. 


Now, if you have the money than by all means go for it if it will make your music making experience better. But, if you will have to spend a month eating Ramen noddles out of a styrofoam cup then maybe you should learn how to make those drum samples that come with fruity loops, reason, etc.  sound like something awesome without the expensive cost, and trust me it can be done.

The first thing you have to remember as a recording engineer is that you will probably listen to music in a different way then other people. As recording engineers, were more likely going to pick out certain parts of a song and say those vocals need a little more compression or those drums could be miked a little different. But this is not the way an average person would listen to music. So in my opinion the average person listening to music is not going to have any ideal how much money you spent on a drum sample. This of course, is unless there is a noticeable bad quality track. You have to remember when you are recording and mixing music and you are doing it as a job, you are trying to make it perfect. But the non-engineer is listening to the music for pleasure not to pick it apart to find every last imperfection, that is if they were even able to hear an imperfection that an engineer could hear. 





 Here are some things that will help you get those just alright drum samples sounding just as good as a real drum kit.

• Know your plug-ins, know how to use them and know how to use them the right way.

• Mix the drums by themselves, but also do some final touches to your plug-ins and volume levels after you have put the drums tracks back into the mix, just like you would with real drums. One thing people forget is no mater how great you can get a certain track to sound good by it's self, listeners still only listen to the whole mix not just one instrument.

• Be creative and think outside of the box. For example: I was reading an article in EQ magazine and it gave me some great advice I never thought of before. When you record real drums each microphone gets a little bit of bleed from other sound sources than what you are trying to pick up. The article talks about using drum samples, and when the drum samples are played back through the monitors they would set up a couple more mics in the control room, and they would use those tracks to add the illusion that mic bleed is present in the mix. And that is what it is all about, making the listener think he or she is listening to a real drummers drum kit.

• I like to use ghost notes and layered samples to help bring a realistic drum kit feel.The illusion of some imperfection is the key to a realistic sound. 
 

 

There are many ways to get great drum sounds without spending an arm and a leg. Like I said before if you have the money go for it, but if you want to save some money, it is extremely possible to make average drum samples sound great.