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Learn to play real drums.

3ZA's method is fairly helpful, but doing the real thing really gives you an understanding of rhythm.

Here is a Live specific trick

Drop an impulse into a drum rack cell
Drop in a c major midi scale and a random midi effect so the chain is
Random+scale+impulse

Now load the cells of impulse with your favorite hats or percussion etc
You can either have each cell be different or you can load the same sample in all and
Tweak filters, envelopes of each cell to get variation of the sound

Now when you make a pattern , the notes that trigger that drum cell will be random choices of the 8 cells of the impulse nested inside
Adjust the chance knob of Random to taste

You could of course use this for kicks, snares, etc

I remember when I used to get bored making a drum track. I would open a bunch of cool drums sounds and place a whole bunch of random notes in FL's Step Sequencer and see how it sounds. then, add/remove notes to suit your liking.

The way I make drum beats is make everything "spark" of eachother..

We are making EDM (well, majority of people) so the drums don't have to be complicated they just need GROOVE.

Some of the best tunes in Dubstep have a simple hat patten and just half step drums the reason they work is because of sample choice - its not just about making your drums sound phat together, its about your drums sounding good for ALL your track.. I constantly swap drum samples when making tracks because i'll add something then the hats won't sound "right' so I swap out samples..


Listen to some Cyrus or Tunnidge - their drums are excellent to study..

GothamHero wrote:3ZA's method is fairly helpful, but doing the real thing really gives you an understanding of rhythm.

By talk to them, I mean talk them into teaching you to play

3za wrote:

GothamHero wrote:3ZA's method is fairly helpful, but doing the real thing really gives you an understanding of rhythm.

By talk to them, I mean talk them into teaching you to play

Haha, I thought so. Then this all the way. It truly does help.

Just something my buddy thats a superb drummer told me... People don't just say, wow!!! thats an amazing drum beat!!!! Lets make a melody around the drum beat!!!

No.

Usually, the melody and bass is created and the drummer is meant to keep time and support the other parts.

So, in escence, make your bass and melody first.

The different elements push and pull against each other. Think of the kicks and snares as pushing and pulling the beat around, and play with that sensation till you get a groove that you like.

+1 everything above....

Also, as a drummer of 10+ years....don't forget to use your triplet and dotted notes to accent grooves and add a more human feel. Kick on 1 and Snare on 3 indeed, but it's what you do between that defines the beat. Not sure if anyone is familiar with the concept of ghost notes either...

quick def from tinterweb..."Ghost notes are musical notes occurring in a rhythmic figure which are purposely deemphasized, often to the point of near silence. In popular music drumming these notes are played, "very softly between the 'main' notes," most often on the snare drum in a drum kit."

Working these small accents in between the kick and main snare hit can really bring a beat to life. They're barely noticeable but an important part of a groove.

Other than that you could try reading up on polyrythms. Triplets over duplets and things like that. Simple rythms layered over the top of each other to create a perception of complexity.

On a creative side, using things like reversed hats / reversed reverb tails / reversed kick drums / in conjunction with harsh compression can help your beat to suck and pull to give it more life. Simple things like pitching the odd hi hat up or down an octave, duplicating your break and pitchshifting it then hipassing it in and out with a resonant filter, or using bitcrushing on a duplicate of your hat pattern can really help. Also, grab some proper authentic breakbeats, chop em up, EQ and get busy

Finally, a very important part of drumming is velocity! If you make a beat and for example the high hat, kick, snare, snare rolls, etc are all at the same volume in the track, it WILL sound a bit plastic. A live drummer is constantly making decisions regarding the volume at which they play a note, to add emphasis or create suspense. Ghotes notes are quieter, snare rolls can move from quiet to loud, an open high hat will generally be louder than a closed one, and triplet or dotted notes can vary in volume depending on how they are played. In EDM, you can apply this to things like a kick drum roll, a tom tom fill, or even if you have a quick double kick before your snare. I use cubase so this is fairly easy to do with audio...not sure how ti would cross over to other DAWS.

Excuse my rant but i love drums! Hope this helps.

Ohhhh...and as L4gendary said...less is more! Listen to Chasing Shadows. Half the time the dont seem to have anything other than a kick and a snare with a bit of filler. Still sounds fat tho.

I recently found something that really works for me. I have EZdrummer vst & i just try to go hard with the whole drum kit (even got myself a metal drum kit expansion; drum kit from hell) & it has given my drums a much better flow & signature. You can hear them here
Soundcloud

Old 2-step / UKG drums are amazing to listen to and learn from. They aren't super complex or anything, but they just drop in fills and extra elements and switch things up at just the right time - groove is about more than just the timing of the hits within the bar. I find it really inspiring listening to that sort of stuff, even if I'm not making stuff with 2-step beats.

slothrop wrote:Old 2-step / UKG drums are amazing to listen to and learn from. They aren't super complex or anything, but they just drop in fills and extra elements and switch things up at just the right time - groove is about more than just the timing of the hits within the bar. I find it really inspiring listening to that sort of stuff, even if I'm not making stuff with 2-step beats.

post some nice examples apart from the ones that were big in the charts? i'm young and german so my exposure to that style was near zero

If it's the inspiration that worries you and you oftenly noticed that you come up with your best drum patterns when you're far away from any music making device, get yourself a field recorder and beatbox it the next time it happens.

There's also good ol' Supatrigga vst that randomizes things for you in a coherent and usable manner using a few parameters. I believe it was intended to jungle/breakcore producers when it came out many years ago but it might still be useful to get fresh ideas when you're feeling uninspired.