The hardest snare hits on MM sound too middy and i've heard those on countles demos/records. My velocities settings on snare are way below the 127 but not too low, no idea how to see the number value in FL. They don't sound like TAH like on the hardest hits and they actually start sounding very sneapy. Cymbals sound too exagerated aswell on hardest hits, I'd low them a little.
Metal Machine
- Thread starter bryan_kilco
- Start date
how do you guys program a fast 4 hit snare roll? I usually go first hit kinda hard then hits 2 and 3 are very soft and last one is a hard hit again. Sounds alright but I sense it's not how a drummer hits in real life.
JeffTD
Senhor Testiculo
Please post clips then? I pride myself on doing really realistic stuff with fake drums and would never do that. 120 is my starting point for all hits, hard snares get pushed to 127 and single tom hits (not rolls) get 127 but everything else is 120 and below. Cases in point (both using MM):
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crillemannen
Member
The first clip you posted of those 2 sounded better, or more real. The Destruction of a King sounded totally fake. Not in a bad way but i can just tell that its midi drums, velocity on 110 or 127.
I don't do that many productions with midi drums, did one with MM though this summer
http://open.spotify.com/track/7F7LhBCrQxxi7UMZENKTac : or raped YT quality:
I could probably tell that mine where fake drums too, but i don't think it sounds worse then yours velocity vise.
I don't do that many productions with midi drums, did one with MM though this summer
http://open.spotify.com/track/7F7LhBCrQxxi7UMZENKTac : or raped YT quality:
I could probably tell that mine where fake drums too, but i don't think it sounds worse then yours velocity vise.
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In this I used way softer hits than 127 on everything except kick which is not SD, as far as I remember everything else is MM, never got to finish or humanize it well but you get the idea. Sounds cool to me.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28110505/deadbread.mp3
Somebody uploaded the di's and midi of this on practice rooms ages ago.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28110505/deadbread.mp3
Somebody uploaded the di's and midi of this on practice rooms ages ago.
JeffTD
Senhor Testiculo
I think the cymbals are really suffering on yours, but they're mixed far enough back that it's masked well.
And yeah, basically everything about DOAK is dogshit; kinda comes with the musical territory.
Mago
Austrian Blech Machine
Interesting...I think I use somewhere around 124 as a starting point for everything, but my cymbals on 1 always are at 127.
Otherwise it looks pretty similar to your approach.
On cymbal as HH stuff it really depends on the cymbal itself with which velocities it sounds nice, but mostly it looks around the 120 etc thing you wrote.
Altho I think I randomize the velocites also more on the downbeat, but that again depends on the cymbal.
I'm also not totally sure yet how to set the humanize functions best for which shell/cymbal to get the best results, but theres that one catogory I always set off...the one where it occasionally goes down a velocity group.
If know that there is a combination where you have total control of all the velocities, and it doesn't humanize a lot within the Superior itself.
What I still struggle and hate, are how most crashes sound when played on faster beats as a HH. Even HH or Rides can sound better whenever I put enough time into them. But cymbals I don't know...most of the time they don't sound that good to me too low, but played harder it gets fake pretty quick.
JeffTD
Senhor Testiculo
People overlook super soft hits in cymbals. Instead of a crash on every quarter note, try a crash on every 8th note but with the off beat at like 30, velocity wise.
Mago
Austrian Blech Machine
I do that quite a lot actually, but I remember it sounded horrid on some cymbals.
I went too far on the humanizing in a production for a particular band, and didn't like it afterwards.
So for the next one I tried to have it more consistent, and even changed out the main cymbal he uses a couple of times, but never was happy with the result.
Sometimes stuff works good on some sections and "should" work equally well on others, and it just doesn't.
Maybe that's the part where I should turn off the SD2 intern humanizing enterely for that cymbal, and only let it use random hits from the same velocity.
But I think that's when I found out that they didn't record enough hits to do that or so.
like here, last year
too much randomness on most parts (disregard the ugly guits too, the cab I had back then didn't want to work with that band, as well as the rest of the mix in hinsight)
and here, their album I did this year
http://youtu.be/K-MtIM4yhbY?t=40s
That right cymbal was what I fought with a lot, mostly because he plays a lot of really simple stuff on the same cymbal most of the time.
I tried out a lot of different ones, also with x-drums to use different ones and just pan them to the right side, but that's the best I could get out of it.
On that particular cymbal it worked better with the SD2 randomizing on, cause it was really sounding as if it wasn't triggering a lot of different articulations otherwise.
Still not happy with how it turned out tho, and I didn't want to alter what he plays or make him use lots of different cymbals, cause I like the monotony of the drums in tracks like that.
I went too far on the humanizing in a production for a particular band, and didn't like it afterwards.
So for the next one I tried to have it more consistent, and even changed out the main cymbal he uses a couple of times, but never was happy with the result.
Sometimes stuff works good on some sections and "should" work equally well on others, and it just doesn't.
Maybe that's the part where I should turn off the SD2 intern humanizing enterely for that cymbal, and only let it use random hits from the same velocity.
But I think that's when I found out that they didn't record enough hits to do that or so.
like here, last year
too much randomness on most parts (disregard the ugly guits too, the cab I had back then didn't want to work with that band, as well as the rest of the mix in hinsight)
and here, their album I did this year
http://youtu.be/K-MtIM4yhbY?t=40s
That right cymbal was what I fought with a lot, mostly because he plays a lot of really simple stuff on the same cymbal most of the time.
I tried out a lot of different ones, also with x-drums to use different ones and just pan them to the right side, but that's the best I could get out of it.
On that particular cymbal it worked better with the SD2 randomizing on, cause it was really sounding as if it wasn't triggering a lot of different articulations otherwise.
Still not happy with how it turned out tho, and I didn't want to alter what he plays or make him use lots of different cymbals, cause I like the monotony of the drums in tracks like that.
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XxSicRokerxX
Gabriel R.
I like the technique posted by nezvers in his video: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/f-o-h/707593-program-drums-sound-real-youtube-video.html
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Lasse Lammert
HCAF Blitzkrieg
Thanks.
Never seen the velocity knob either
This might actually be useful, cause I too think kick and snare hits below 120 sound too weak for a metal mix .
Not because of the volume, but just because of the sound of the lower velocity snare samples.
It's cool for toms tho
...that's actually the main problem I have with TT, the very loud snare samples sound EXTREMELY different from the set if samples that's just a tiny bit lower in velocity.
Makes the 119 samples (which should still be loud) sound like ghost notes....and not only the sound, even the volume.
I tend to print all my midi drums (if I ever use midi at all), and when I use velocities lower than 120 (or even 124 or something), the dynamic range of the printed track (just the visual thing already) is so extreme, that even the shittiest drummer can hit more consistently.
I don't know if that's a mistake toontrack made when they put together the instrument, but it forces me to use 127 on pretty much all the snare hits except fast fills.
The volume difference and the sound difference between 127 and 120 with EZD is just bigger than with the most inconsistent of metal drummers....useless to me.
So having every snare hit (except fast fills) at 127 is the only option for me...I just use my samples later on the track anyways, really only using the room and cymbals from TT, if I have the choice.
Nuno Filipe
You talkin' to me?
^ I do the same, hits below 120 might improve the dynamic but once I start mixing with all instruments, those hits get lost in the mix.
Mago
Austrian Blech Machine
I don't really do a lot in EZX, but maybe it's the humanizing function that you struggle with? Now that you know where to turn it off, could be that this randomizes it a bit too much, or it picks too many hits from a lower velocitie group.
At least in the SDX stuff it's also workable below 120, altho there is a lot of more difference in the sound of the "hardest" and "harder" vs the other velocitie groups.
At least in the SDX stuff it's also workable below 120, altho there is a lot of more difference in the sound of the "hardest" and "harder" vs the other velocitie groups.
He's Dead, Jim
Member
Just out of curiosity....what kind of velocitiy range are you guys using for blast beats?
Also, somebody posted something about alternating between left/center/right hits....how do you do that?
RE: blast beats, I just sort of turn the snare down and listen closely to a reference track until they sound similar, then manually put the emphasis on certain song-specific notes and make the others quieter.
Superior has left/right/center articulations, and I'm 85% sure Metal Machine has left and right articulations. Check the manual PDF; it has a midi keymap.
just bought metal machine for ez drummer.. how come the loops are limited compared to ez drummer basic rock/pop kit?
how can i get more loop and variations?
how can i get more loop and variations?
