How do you balance "humanizing" kick drums but keep them consistent?

[nwright]

We just finished tracking drums for my band's next CD last week. Our drummer is pretty tight to the click so editing hasn't been too bad. But I'm running into a problem...Namely, his timing is killer, but some of the kick hits are softer than others. It's not bad, but the tone from the kit changes as the velocity of the hit changes (obviously). I've taken a variety of samples of both his own kick and some others (Slate, Sneap, etc.), but I don't like how running multi samples sound...They sound just as inconsistent in tone. But running just one sample sounds like a machine. And his timing is so good it almost makes it worse.

I'm thinking maybe just 2 or 3 samples and that will be it...What do you guys do?

clip:
http://geetarguy.tripod.com/fdtest3.mp3

 

[Metaltastic]

I always set APTrigga to just alternate between 2 samples, works plenty good enough for me! (and I hate ANY dynamic variation in kicks unless it's a clean/mellow/etc. section)

 

[nwright]

I'm using Aptrigga now and that was my idea, just an easy 2 samples.

 

[CatharsisStudios]

i use 1 sample and i ain't give no shit

 

[Skinny Viking]

little trick that has helped me in the past with this kind of problem (before I had any good drum replacement program) ...

for double bass parts especially, find a section in the song where you get 4 or 8 (3 or 6) solid, well timed kick hits in a measure. Try to find something that falls very close to perfect in timing between 2 snare hits. Grab that section, put it on a new track, chop to the transient and line it right onto the grid. Make the region start perfectly at your 1st transient and end right on the grid before the next measure. If you want to slightly tighten up or space the kick hits in this new region, go for it. Make some fades to any edits you did in between and consolidate into a new region. Now copy it and just manually paste it right at the snare hit. If your grid was setup right and the performance good it should fill the measure close to perfect. Go to the next snare hit after, rinse & repeat. You'll have kicks that are great with the timing but sound VERY human because he ACTUALLY (OMG!!!) played those parts.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I run the right kicks at 120 and the left kicks at 100 velocity. If it's faster than 16th notes for some retarded reason then those numbers go down to 100 and 80.

 

[nwright]

I run the right kicks at 120 and the left kicks at 100 velocity. If it's faster than 16th notes for some retarded reason then those numbers go down to 100 and 80.

I assume this is for programmed drums, but I am talking about a drummer's performance in a recording. I'm trying to find a balance. His timing is impeccable, it's just the power behind each hit varies slightly. I want it to be consistent, but don't necessarily want to fall into "machine gun" territory...But I don't want it to sound lopsided, either.

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

I'd use three. two can sound weirder than 1 to my ears. Also, if you're going to use natural kick at all, can I assume you've played with compression already? sounds obvious but you never know. Your clip sounded pretty cool on my lame laptop speakers. I think if you have a problem, it's that the kick sound doesn't fit with the sound of the rest of the kit. So I would play with a different sample, but use it the same way.

Probably would sound killer in a mix though! So who knows.

 

[nwright]

The clip is the kit blended with a bit of samples. The toms and snare are blended about 50%, kick is a 33/33/33 type blend of the natural kick EQ'd and comp's as well as 2 other samples I have all playing at the same time. I just want it to remain strong, but not too mechanical. Our drummer is pretty mechanical as is, so it's tough, haha!

In the studio I used the Drum Dial to get the drums up to pitch and then used Slate's New Maple toms as a guide for pitch. Once I got them there we kept a tally of the numbers on the drum dial. The natural drums decay a bit quicker than Slate's, but the pitch and initial attack are practically identical. I used the Slate samples blended now to pull out the tails a bit. I only used the Slates on the bottom 3 toms (our drummer uses 5 toms). You can hear the quicker decay of the 2 highest drums.

 

[zackpennington]

Well other than compressing the actual kick...

I set up a midi track that triggers my samples. I then select all of the midi hits and set random with a window of 120-127. It sounds good to me.

 

[acappa]

Parallel compression?

 

[kaamosprod]

Metaltastic or someone else,

could you post a screenshot of your aptrigga's settings ? (on whatever song you want)

it's not to copy, just to know if i'm going wrong with parameters like "crossfade" or "wet" or "dry". i'm sure i make mistakes.

If you don't want to post it , i'll post mine this afternoon because i need advices.

 

[::XeS::]

You can use different approaches.
You can use only one sample so you have the same consistence for every hit, blended with the natural kick (at least compressed a little to level the intensity differences of the various kicks), to add the natural and dynamic feel to the robotic single sample.
With multisamples: you have to choose some kick samples with at least the same levels, not a sloppy one and a good one. Cut and process them and load your set on aptrigga. I usually use aptrigga with my multisamples presets (5-6 random samples) and it works really well (blending with your miced track on taste)

 

[abt]

I run the right kicks at 120 and the left kicks at 100 velocity. If it's faster than 16th notes for some retarded reason then those numbers go down to 100 and 80.

+1 I find that varying velocity helps a lot. Of course round robin samples. I've also make two kick tracks and let the decay ring over each other.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Lately I've been using just one kick, and letting Sound Replacer do the rest. The inconsistent volumes avoid the machine gun issue even when the kicks are attached to the grid.

 

[chdrummer]

i use 1 sample and i ain't give no shit

agreedddd haha

 

[Erik Monsonis]

I use like 10 different samples... Consistent, but not robotic

 

[J.DavisNJ]

I use like 10 different samples... Consistent, but not robotic

Do you randomly go through to randomize throughout the song?

-Joe

 

[plague_rider]

I have about 4+ samples and set to randomly alternate between them. More humanised and still consistent...

 

[KillFrenzy]

anyone using left + right in Superior Drummer? Since I always generate MIDI tracks, I'm trying to find a way to automatically alternate MIDI events between the 2 kick notes (something like a macro - for Reaper)