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.

Recording Friuty Loops Into Pro Tools Using ReWire

A question I’m often asked by rookie music producer and engineers is; what’s the best way to use Fruity Loops for my music creation platform, but use Pro Tools for my vocals, instruments and final production platform?

I usually get the same story on how people love Fruity Loops as a sequencer platform but they have to spend too much time and sometimes extra money to get their vocals and instruments incorporated, and the project as a whole to sound professional.

First, let’s talk a little bite about Fruity Loops. When Fruity Loops first came out, after a couple of years on the market it soon became a great program for beginners and for advanced players in the music industry. With an extremely user friendly MIDI platform to work with, Fruity loops became one of the most popular software sequencers you could buy. But, through the years it kind of lost its steam in the industry to programs like Reason and Cubase. It then became noted for something that mostly only beginners would use, and if you were going to be professional then you would need to be on a whole different level. But now present day, Fruity Loops has out done themselves and has earned themselves the respect to rank right along with all the top dog music programs of the industry.

I personally enjoy and prefer working with Fruity Loops when sampling or working with any type of MIDI beats. But, when it comes to my final product I don’t even mess around with the thought of doing any of the tiny final touches or mastering in Fruity Loops. Even know Fruity Loops has mastering tools, I found that most of them are really just a lot of eye candy, a lot of bark but no bit. In fact, I found that some can even steer you in the wrong direction. This is where I will use Rewire and rewire fruity loops to Pro Tools. You can record in Pro Tools via MIDI or by audio track, and you can record each track individually or in the stereo left and right channel. My suggestion to you, to help make your life easier, is to record your Fruity Loops session into Pro Tools by audio track. Although Pro Tools is MIDI compatible, I still use the audio tracks to save me the hassle and open up my options. Now depending on what kind of project I am working on, and what my plans are once I am ready record into Pro Tools, will determine rather I will be recording just the Fruity Loops stereo track or if I will be recording each track individually. Recording each track individually has its perks. Recording individually into Pro Tools will allow you to use Pro Tools plug-ins, adjust automation, pan, volume control, and solo on each track from Fruity Loops without going back into Fruity Loops. This task can be tedious but in the long run it might save you some major headaches.






So how does the process of recording audio from Fruity Loops to Pro Tools work? Very easily, make sure Fruity Loops is not running and start up Pro Tools, I’m going to assume that if you have Pro Tools you know the basics, so I won’t bore you with the real simply things.

First crate an audio track and also create an instrument track. Go to the mix window and go to your instrument plug-in options. There you should find an option that reads instruments, then you should see an option to pick Fruity Loops. When you select this option; Fruity Loops will automatically come up and will be wired to Pro Tools.

Next go to the instrument track, go to input selector and select interface 1-2 (stereo), then go right below that to the instrument output selector and select bus 1-2. Once you have done that go to the audio track input selector and select bus 1-2 for the input, now right below that on the track output selector, select interface output 1-2 (stereo). Now you are routed correctly.

Now make both tracks record ready and make sure both programs have the same bpm’s, if they do not, make the proper adjustments to make them match.

Next, once all that is set, hit record/play in Pro Tools, this should prompt Fruity Loops to start playing as well and while Fruity Loops is playing Pro Tools will be recording. Once I am done recording the project using this process, I will then be ready to do vocals, final adjustments and mastering. There are many different mastering programs but I find that the Izotop is the best program for Pro Tools.

Now if you want to record each track out of Fruity Loops individually you will still only need one instrument track but you will have to create as many audio tracks in Pro Tools as you have in Fruity Loops. Use the record enable function in Pro Tools to indicate which track will be receiving the signal to be recorded, and in fruity loops use the mute function to mute all the tracks that you do not want to record at that time. Again this process can be a little bit tedious and can take up a lot of time, but if you find out somewhere down the road that something needs to be changed you will be in a lot better shape if all your tracks are individually recorded into Pro Tools.

Audio Recording: Resting Your Ears is a Must

In my opinion and by most accounts no one should do the whole record, mix, master processes all in the same day. But if it is something that has to be done then lengthy breaks are required for your ears to achieve optimal performance level.

Not only will you yourself, experience exhaustion, but both your ears and your brain will get tired as well. When your brain and ears get tired they do not process the sound the same way. Your ears actually have moving hairs inside of them that move back and fourth when they encounter sound. When you listen to something at a loud volume for-to-long, the hairs get tired and instead of standing up right to catch the sound and transmit it to the brain properly, they lay down and cause your ears not to hear certain frequencies . This is why it is a must to give your ears a break if you want to hear everything correctly.


 

Microphone Placement for Best Performance

Have you ever come across the problem of mixing a band that you know sounds great but during the mixing process you find yourself pulling your hair out trying to find that perfect sound? Of course, all recording engineers have, but what is the problem? The problem could be a couple of different things, but most likely the problem lies in the way the music was recorded.

Recording correctly

The reason why where you record and where you place microphones is so important is it can be the difference between having an easy time mixing a recording, or having a hell of a time; it can also be the difference between a great final product or having something that sounds like poop. If you have tracks that need a lot of work to make them sound right, as the engineer you will have to use so much eq and so many different effects that the end result would be an unnatural sound. You would be better off just going back and starting all over by rerecording them again.





Here is an example

When I was just finishing school at the Recording Institute of Detroit (RID), I had a buddy who recorded a couple of songs with his band in his garage for me to mix at a later time. The band sounded awesome at the local bar but when they recorded a couple tracks in their garage the tracks were not even worthy of me taking the time to mix them. This is because a lot of people think that the mixing process is some type of magical process that can fix anything, but that is far from the truth. Eventually, we all got together, I recorded them in a more suitable place for music with correct microphone placement and before you knew it, with just a tiny bit of mixing work they had new tracks that sounded awesome.

How to Avoid This Problem All Together

If you are going to be the engineer recording a project or you are simply just recording your own band, here is the best way to get the best recordings: always make sure each instrument and all vocals coming through the microphones sound just the way you want it before you record. There is no room for error here, for the best results make it right from the beginning. Before recording, each track should not only sound good individually at the stereo-track but also while the band is all playing together.

While you're listening to them practice and you're checking and adjusting levels, take notes on what mics need to be adjusted and in which way. When you're done with the sound check, go back and make the proper adjustments. But don't make the mistake that a lot of other engineers make, don't assume its right just because you moved them; go through the sound check process again. Even if it takes you five or six times and the musicians or your band buddies are getting aggravated, trust me when it comes time to mix the tracks the outcome will make everyone happier.

Four Ways to Get Rid of a Muddy Mix: Audio Recording Advice

A lot of recording engineers mix and mix their songs, only to keep coming up with a final mix that sounds muddy and muffled. So what should you do? Their are plenty of reason why this happens and here are four ways to try to fix that mess.



 

1. Stop leakage. This is the first place to start when trying to prevent muddy and muffled mixes. Before recording try your best to get all of the leakage you can out of the microphones. If you have to change mics or the directions and angles of the mics don't be lazy, just do it. If you're having problems with muddy mixes then you might want to try all kinds of different microphone situations.

2. Boost your highs. Try boosting some of the highs but don't boost a huge bandwidth, try boosting them in peaks and add just a little reverb . Highs can help brightening up some of the instruments, but be careful too much can make extra noise and can take away from the natural sound of the mix.

3. Try cutting the lows. Cutting the lows while boosting the highs can help get rid of that muddy sound. Just make sure you cut them in the right place. You want to make sure you can still hear the bass of the instruments; you are just trying to cut out the muddiness. Two or Three db around 300hz is a good start.

4. Take it easy on the effects. Don't assume that just because reverb and other effects make the song sound cool that it is the best thing for the mix. If you're using a lot of reverb, eq, echo etc. then try to back them off a little because to much can make your mix sound muddy and artificial.