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Do you guys usually have separate channels for every drum, so you can automate each better, add better effects, etc. or do you just leave them in a sampler such as NI battery or Poise and play them via the piano roll. Just wondering, because i recently made a song in which i had multiple different samplers with different drums (world drums, main drums, cymbals, transitions) but this limited my automation and effects for each sample. It seems you would have to use an awful lot of channels to separate each drum sound individually though, anyone have a solution?

I use racks for different parts. Especially snares, makes it easier to layer things. Usually have one for kick, one for snare and a third for different hi hat/percussive sounds.

Thanks man. I use A LOT of different drums for sort of ambient noise (bongos, clicks, hihats, etc.) so I wasn't sure. Then I lay down a steady beat with the kick and snare (each on their own channel)

in ableton theres an instrument called a drum rack which allows you to place effects on each sample loaded into it

i use ableton, i do it both ways. i usually start with a drum rack, and if i want to add more cymbals and send them to reverb returns i just make a seperate drum rack with that one cymbal on it. it really doesn't matter, although CPU might be an issue if there are too many drum racks

In FL I usually group similar things to a channel e.g. kicks, snares, hats, bongos etc. since I'll apply similar effects.

I use a lot of tracks and busses. Imagine a menorah where each individual sound is the flame, all those flames come together in a stem, then each of those stems is a flame that comes together in another menorah, and so on and so forth.



This allows me control over each individual element, as well as group behavior. It may sound complex, and I suppose it is, but as you do it for a while, it is second nature and takes no time to set up.

Saying that, as I'm working on a beat with 30, 40 different little tiny percussive sounds all of which just run to the master... am using my master as a buss, rendering through that, and then working with that audio in the playlist/arrange page. Total fucking mess out of control shit. Sometimes, you just slip, you know?

nowaysj wrote:I use a lot of tracks and busses. Imagine a menorah where each individual sound is the flame, all those flames come together in a stem, then each of those stems is a flame that comes together in another menorah, and so on and so forth.



This allows me control over each individual element, as well as group behavior. It may sound complex, and I suppose it is, but as you do it for a while, it is second nature and takes no time to set up.

Saying that, as I'm working on a beat with 30, 40 different little tiny percussive sounds all of which just run to the master... am using my master as a buss, rendering through that, and then working with that audio in the playlist/arrange page. Total fucking mess out of control shit. Sometimes, you just slip, you know?

I saw the menorah load, pissed my pants and knew exactly what the post was going to say.

or you could still use one sampler for all the drums and route them to multiple output channels, that way you have only 1 midi file for the drums.

hasezwei wrote:or you could still use one sampler for all the drums and route them to multiple output channels, that way you have only 1 midi file for the drums.

Could someone tell me how to do this in FL Studio?

i send each and every separate instrument to its own track on the mixer, then send them to something like 8 different tracks

I do it slightly different through FL, I tend to process and mix my snare, kicks and some secondary drum elements first and making them nice as possible, bouncing in 32bit float wav then group them in a lightly compressed channel, as for reverb on snare, I just make my own white noise with some reverb and mix/process in seperate channel. But yeah in the end I usually do in sampler once everything is balanced and processed in their respective frequencies.

classicaldubstep wrote:

hasezwei wrote:or you could still use one sampler for all the drums and route them to multiple output channels, that way you have only 1 midi file for the drums.

Could someone tell me how to do this in FL Studio?

Depends on which sampler and which version of fl u r using.

Personally, I have 3-4 seperate channels
1 for kicks, 1 for snares, then hi hats and percussion
Then I route these to my main drum bus which may have a few extra things like a slight compression and EQ. But I work in ableton, so I may have different effects working on each sample I load as well