On workflow.. drums

[CutSeen]

@ b166er,

Are you using one instance of Impulse for all your drums? If so, I'd seriously recommend splitting the drums up, opening a seperate impulse for Kick/Snare/hats/percussion/fx etc. It's amazing how much you can change a beat, just by adding effects to a certain part. Even 2 hi-hat hits in a bar can be made interesting with triplet/dotted delay.

Echoing whats been said before, don't bounce down unless you have to. In Ableton you can "freeze" tracks rather than bounce them - useful if you're trying to free up CPU.

[my_fickle_eye]

Last, write yourself a note. Specify what you want to get done next time you work, what you like, what you want to fix.

This. I've started saving my projects with notes in the file names... my last one was called "8 Bit Melody - DON'T BE MOBY"

Yeah man i usually make a notepad file, if i get stuck try and look round the net for samples with an idea of what mite fit.

[Basic A]

Everyone sayingnot too bounce, why?

I usually build a bed of drums and split it into stems so I can see everything niceley and my CPU doesnt bog down... I mean, if you save rerb n compression n all that for AFTER you bounce, and you stem the patterns by kick/snare highhats percs ect.. soeach can recieve seperate effects, whats the downside aside from me having gigs n gigs of drum patterns I can open up n slap some effects on and start jammin too?

[FSTZ]

custom templates have greatly improved my workflow

I used to lose inspiration in the time I'd spend looking through samples, etc...

now if I have an idea, I just open one of my templates and start writing. after I get some initial ideas for the beat and bass on the project, I'll go back and customize the drums a little more

[b166er]

@ b166er,

Are you using one instance of Impulse for all your drums? If so, I'd seriously recommend splitting the drums up, opening a seperate impulse for Kick/Snare/hats/percussion/fx etc. It's amazing how much you can change a beat, just by adding effects to a certain part. Even 2 hi-hat hits in a bar can be made interesting with triplet/dotted delay.

Echoing whats been said before, don't bounce down unless you have to. In Ableton you can "freeze" tracks rather than bounce them - useful if you're trying to free up CPU.

Yeah I split them up as well, depending on the track. I also use another for percussive elements if there's a need for it. I love how everyone says don't bounce unless you have to, lol. Almost like saying don't build a house unless you have to. Believe me, I'm bouncing for a reason. And whats with the bouncing hate? lol.

[CutSeen]

Must just be the different ways that everyone writes.... I go back to my drum channels quite a bit and change/add/subtract to tie in with what other parts of the track are doing.

[narcissus]

Everyone sayingnot too bounce, why?

whats the downside aside

...

having gigs n gigs of drum patterns

that... plus you can't go and change the individual sounds or mixing of said sounds later when you're trying to fit your drums into the mix better... it's all about how you work best. i like to come up with a few 8 bar drum loops and get some basslines playing along with them, then start to build the song with that. i almost always change the patterns when i'm arranging the song (adding fills, taking out hits, changing rhythms...), and usually will automate different parameters on the drum sampler to get different feels... so using audio would greatly hinder me.

[WeBang]

use the drum rack instead of impulse to lol. More options and once you get the hang of it less of a head ache.

[grooki]

I can see how templates are useful, but another thing for me is that my drums are usually pretty different, and contribute to direction of the track. So if I use a similar template that would start to guide me in a similar direction, which can be good but often I want a different feel.

[Astral]

I to created templates to get things moving quicker, I found the longer I actually spent on a tune, the less I began to enjoy creating it.

So I created templates for sends, busses for various compression, bass, kick, snare etc, and just incase set up 3 channels for splitting with generic settings.


And sort samples into sub sections, biggest time saver ever.

[vly]

I can see how templates are useful, but another thing for me is that my drums are usually pretty different, and contribute to direction of the track. So if I use a similar template that would start to guide me in a similar direction, which can be good but often I want a different feel.

Just make a template with your favourite sounds and most commonly used kicks/snares/whatever..then when u have a nice pattern going on start alternating the sounds little by little . I personaly find that starting with the snare/rimshot/clap u get the most dramatic change,especially in dubstep.

[youthful_implants]

try making a beat without using quantize, its a lot more fun.

[fhsueh]

Last, write yourself a note. Specify what you want to get done next time you work, what you like, what you want to fix.

This. And something a writing prof once told me: a good stopping point is when you know exactly what you are going to write next. Me, I've fallen asleep at the DAW more than once and forgotten what I was doing. Would've been better to just stop earlier! And then not fall asleep at work...

[nowaysj]

Have to set up mixer templates with busses and whatnot, but for me, no preset sounds. I don't really have musical ideas that need to be written, then expressed in a particular sound. I just start working with different sounds that begin to suggest (or demand) a particular direction.

It is so easy in flstudio to just drop a synth or sample in that it doesn't make sense to preset the sounds.

But I've gotta have my sounds organized. I now have a good set of folders with kicks, snares, hats, and percussion. I can audition thousands of kicks, snares, hats and whatnot so quickly in flstudio. But my hats folder is not paired up into open and closed pairs, which is driving me a bit nuts. Not nuts enough to resolve it, but it's definitely a hindrance right now.

Recently been more focused on the buss gel factor, and letting myself go a bit crazy with murky filtration/distortion/saturation.

[grooki]

Recently been more focused on the buss gel factor, and letting myself go a bit crazy with murky filtration/distortion/saturation.

is certainly is nice and easy to try out different sounds in FL. I certainly havn't gone as far with the gelling the busses together though - I usually try and get them sitting together well while all being independent (not routed to one channel premaster)... pretty much just laziness on my part - probably missing out on quite a few possibilities too.

P.S. sounds like you're back on the Fruit?

[deadly_habit]

Recently been more focused on the buss gel factor, and letting myself go a bit crazy with murky filtration/distortion/saturation.

is certainly is nice and easy to try out different sounds in FL. I certainly havn't gone as far with the gelling the busses together though - I usually try and get them sitting together well while all being independent (not routed to one channel premaster)... pretty much just laziness on my part - probably missing out on quite a few possibilities too.

P.S. sounds like you're back on the Fruit?

see on my cubase busses i use enough layer and fx processing on individual bits then a mian dry buss 2nd for reverb then send those to master group to gel together
then bounce since that eats up my cpu and uad heh and now i gen pass individ hits thru pro vla first too

[grooki]

Recently been more focused on the buss gel factor, and letting myself go a bit crazy with murky filtration/distortion/saturation.

is certainly is nice and easy to try out different sounds in FL. I certainly havn't gone as far with the gelling the busses together though - I usually try and get them sitting together well while all being independent (not routed to one channel premaster)... pretty much just laziness on my part - probably missing out on quite a few possibilities too.

P.S. sounds like you're back on the Fruit?

see on my cubase busses i use enough layer and fx processing on individual bits then a mian dry buss 2nd for reverb then send those to master group to gel together
then bounce since that eats up my cpu and uad heh and now i gen pass individ hits thru pro vla first too

Do you mean the reverb of individual hits, or you send the whole lot through another bus for an overall reverb to bring it together? And, what do you include in the term "drums" anyway? kicks snares, also hats, shakers, other stuff?

[deadly_habit]

Recently been more focused on the buss gel factor, and letting myself go a bit crazy with murky filtration/distortion/saturation.

is certainly is nice and easy to try out different sounds in FL. I certainly havn't gone as far with the gelling the busses together though - I usually try and get them sitting together well while all being independent (not routed to one channel premaster)... pretty much just laziness on my part - probably missing out on quite a few possibilities too.

P.S. sounds like you're back on the Fruit?

see on my cubase busses i use enough layer and fx processing on individual bits then a mian dry buss 2nd for reverb then send those to master group to gel together
then bounce since that eats up my cpu and uad heh and now i gen pass individ hits thru pro vla first too

Do you mean the reverb of individual hits, or you send the whole lot through another bus for an overall reverb to bring it together? And, what do you include in the term "drums" anyway? kicks snares, also hats, shakers, other stuff?

anything i use in my percussive looping bits, from kicks, snares, toms, bongos, weird foley hits i layer in
sometime i envelope individual channels or layer, compress and give some diff verbs or delays. this is gen before main and reverb buss and gelling buss

[nowaysj]

P.S. sounds like you're back on the Fruit?

Fuck bro, I never really got off the fruit. I just need a mixer that does auto pdc. Officially I use the fruit inside cubase... but I haven't been on my official machine for a couple of months. And I'm back to making beats in the fruit. I just booted up that machine, and launched cubase, and I think I've already forgotten everything I learned.

[cloak and dagger]

Just make a template with your favourite sounds and most commonly used kicks/snares/whatever..then when u have a nice pattern going on start alternating the sounds little by little . I personaly find that starting with the snare/rimshot/clap u get the most dramatic change,especially in dubstep.

Personally I think this is a bad idea and a big reason why the drums are so subpar in a lot of tunes these days...not placing enough emphasis on the influence the drums have on the track and picking the drum samples that are right for the tune from the beginning. On the other hand, this approach could also help you develop an individual style and add some consistency between your tracks...I guess the key is using this technique well.