Following on from last week's deconstruction of the basic drum sounds, this time we go into some depth on how to actually use these building blocks to put together an interesting and pumping drum track.So if you're looking for some tips, join us...
We briefly covered the concept of layering up your drum samples, and this is something a lot of people do; it can be useful for several reasons. First, you can take the characteristics of two sounds and blend them together; a snare drum with grit and space to it, underpinned by a chunky drum-machine snare, or layered with a rimshot to help shape the envelope. But on top of that, once you've achieved the sound you want, you can experiment with the layers for variation. More on which later; but in the meantime let's look at how to stack up your sounds.
For this example, let's imagine that you've got an old funk break that you want to use or build around. You've chopped it up, but because it's old (maybe off vinyl) there's not a lot of top end on there, the kick doesn't have much beef to it, perhaps the snare lacks a bit of crack. If you're going to use it in a modern sounding house, dubstep or
breaks track, it will need a correspondingly tough sound. So, the break gives you
character, now to add to that with some punchy sounds.
Remember also to pick other sounds that complement your style; so if you want some intricate Drum and Bass sounds, you won't want a huge house kick that dominates the lower end; if you're doing some heavy breaks you'll want a big meaty snare to add impact. As with any part of a mix, you need to avoid clashing sounds, so when you're stacking your drum hits, think about the EQ settings. For instance with a kick drum; if you want to use a nice subby kick with a gritty, toppy one, then it would make sense to low-pass the subby kick, and high pass the toppy one. This will make your kick easier to manage, but be careful not to be too extreme with the EQ'ing and end up scooping out the middle of your sounds.Once you've got your sounds sitting well together (it will usually take a few attempts to find drums that complement each other) then you can start arranging the break to suit. The main hits will need to be anchoring the beat; on top of that you can sit the break you're using for character. At this point, you can start experimenting with your layered hits for fills and ghost notes, to give your beat more fluidity. If you remove the heavy sample from your snare, you can have a snare sound that keeps most of the sound, but gives a subtle dynamic shift so that you can program those 16th-note flurries without them sounding too robotic.
Be careful not to go overboard with the ghost-notes though - it's all too easy to fill a bar full of shuffling hits, which are wonderful, clever and complex, but will end up distracting the listener from the impact of the beat. Keeping your beat simple will mean people can nod their heads and enjoy the groove a bit more. One handy trick is to put as many ghost notes in there as you like - too many, it's ok, just get the right vibe - and then see how many you can remove while still keeping the feel. You'll often find that it's actually only one or two hits that are really doing the work, and the rest are essentially clutter. Strip these out and you've got more room to funk, and more space for the other elements in your track.
You can do the same with a bongo or tambourine loop; whilst a full loop might give an extra energy to your drum track, chopping it right down to the bare essentials will help leave more space for other ideas.While on the subject of 'feel' don't forget to try pulling things off-grid. The likes of Flying Lotus or The Neptunes use this to exceptional effect; often their hits are so far away from being quantised that they're almost out of time. Cunning use of this technique can give a really funky groove, or certainly an ear-catching effect. Try it with your layered sounds, or try it with individual layers of your snare to give it a 'spread' feel. This technique is often particularly effective with clap sounds - try taking four or five claps and starting them all at different times - some slightly early and some late, to give a loose, baggy funk vibe.
You can also play around with reverb or effect sends; try sending just one of your snare layers to a reverb unit, instead of the whole sound - or just your sampled break.
It is, of course, impossible to tell you how to write your tunes, but hopefully this has sparked off a few ideas that will help you make your drum tracks more interesting, punchy and coherent. Come back next week and we'll have a look at some mixdown and later production ideas; busses, dub, saturation and more.
