drum mixing/programming guide for guitar players!

[vejichan]

I'm a guitar player who wants to program drums in ez drummer/steve slate/addictive drums for recording purposes. Is there a formula you guys use use? like maybe every 4 grooves and a fill...w/occasional cymbal clash here or there? i'm a beginner at this... need some advice to improve programming drums.

THanks

 

[AntonioPetrole]

There really isn't a formula. If you want to know how to program drums better just become familiar with the piano roll and velocitys etc. From there just learn the different grooves and stuff. Watch videos of dudes doing drum cam videos and learn from there. Remember for realistic fills drummers hit harder with the first hit, lighter with the second, a bit harder than the second on the third, then lightest on the fourth. A good starting point would be on a snare for example doing a drum fill set the velocities like 115 108 111 105. Rinse and repeat

 

[Rex Rocker]

Honestly, the "secret" to programming realistic drums to me is just to think a little bit like a drummer. Knowing a little bit of the basics of playing drums and paying attention to what drummers do on your favorite records and trying to break it down... that's it.

Honestly, yeah, it's gonna be time-consuming and it's gonna take creativity, and there's no way around that unless you use pre-programmed beats.

And yeah... about the velocities... yup. There's got to be variation between them all. The "natural" way it occurs tends to be what roflsaurus mentions.

 

[bryan_kilco]

In REAPER you can Humanize your timings and velocities of midi so not all hits are to the grid and velocities vary. Not sure if this is the "easy" way out, though, and if I really need to get in there and use more drastic velocity changes.

 

[chesterfieldblues]

my way to go :

-Buy some midi pack from toontrack/groove monkey
-audit and choose loops similar to what you want
-drag it to your midi sequencer
-copy/cut/paste some parts (like end fills) and rearrange as you wish (cut end from a loop and paste to another one...)


By the way, Reaper humanize function is so great and easy (choose group of notes, press H, tweak, OK)

 

[xFkx]

You just have to learn the instrument, at the least in your head, then years of observation of what your favourite drummers do to add to the song and how they choose to do it

 

[Uros]

One of the most important things is to understand what's sounding realistic and what is not (for ex. alternating fast 32th rolls between floor and the highest tom in the middle of a bit is obviously unrealistic). There is no shortcut to this, just watch and learn, and eventually you'll get the hang of it.