Realistic SSD programming?
- Thread starter Vinny
- Start date
I haven't posted much around here, but I can relate with your problem. Most of us using software have probably hit it one time or another. All I can do is tell you what helped me. That being said here is my advice.
Understand the fundamentals that make what you are trying to do work in a real world scenario. For me it meant a lot of trial and error experimenting while at the same time studying how drums are mic'ed, recorded, mixed, and played. As well as learning from other peoples examples. This in turn helped me to produce a more natural sounding drum track from software.
For the playing part buy a pair of drums sticks, and learn to use them a little (bang em on a piece of wood, practice pad, desk, little brother, the cat, anything). You don't have to become a Dave Ghrol, Danny Carry or Neil Pert. But, just the act of learning what's happening mechanically a little bit will help you to translate that into what your seeing in your midi. Also listen to artists that are close to what you are going for, and pay attention to what's being done, and try to replicate parts of it.
Just my $0.02
Understand the fundamentals that make what you are trying to do work in a real world scenario. For me it meant a lot of trial and error experimenting while at the same time studying how drums are mic'ed, recorded, mixed, and played. As well as learning from other peoples examples. This in turn helped me to produce a more natural sounding drum track from software.
For the playing part buy a pair of drums sticks, and learn to use them a little (bang em on a piece of wood, practice pad, desk, little brother, the cat, anything). You don't have to become a Dave Ghrol, Danny Carry or Neil Pert. But, just the act of learning what's happening mechanically a little bit will help you to translate that into what your seeing in your midi. Also listen to artists that are close to what you are going for, and pay attention to what's being done, and try to replicate parts of it.
Just my $0.02
Bay Studio
Member
First off, its never going to be the "real deal", ofcourse.. but, there´s a way around it, by toasting the tracks to death with various compression techniques, transient designers, Eq´s, etc etc.
Ofcourse, the room mics play a huge role in the game.. Compress the shiiit out of them, then bring them up in the mix til you´ve got a nice roomy feel (dont over-do-it).
Then, when you say this sound (!) is nice, start going through the velocities, like all the other guys mentioned here. Oh, and parallel compression is veeeery useful. I use it on the shells only.
Ofcourse, the room mics play a huge role in the game.. Compress the shiiit out of them, then bring them up in the mix til you´ve got a nice roomy feel (dont over-do-it).
Then, when you say this sound (!) is nice, start going through the velocities, like all the other guys mentioned here. Oh, and parallel compression is veeeery useful. I use it on the shells only.
Loren Littlejohn
Lover of all boobage.
Yeah honestly I read that twice and got literally nothing useful out of it. Other than somehow parallel compressions and room mics n shit. 
Everything he said has been said already in the thread, absolutely useless post. Plus it was a necro-bump. All kinds of useless going on.
knowledge that creates our Psychology,has a huge impact on our perception on that.
How many old albums are with Drum machines but on the booklet they mention a real drummer?And how many new albums are with programmed with Superior drummer and on the booklet they mention a real drummer?
And many people(who are not AE)believe what they read.
The "real" thing is based on the OH.Every mic setup is special,while with Superior everyone sounds the same since it's midi.
How many old albums are with Drum machines but on the booklet they mention a real drummer?And how many new albums are with programmed with Superior drummer and on the booklet they mention a real drummer?
And many people(who are not AE)believe what they read.
The "real" thing is based on the OH.Every mic setup is special,while with Superior everyone sounds the same since it's midi.
UncleBob
Member
- Jul 14, 2010
- 503
- 3
- 18
The problem with the cymbals, I figured (especially the Slate ones), is that when they are sampled they are at rest, get hit pretty square on which gives the initial hit that sort of "Kshh" sound and then come to rest again before the next hit is sampled, so when you've got a bunch of crash hit's going on in pretty quick succession it ends up sounding like "Kshh Kshh Kshh Kshh Kshh Kshh Kshh", as opposed to a real crash which is swinging wildly and getting hit at weird angles when played and ends up sounding more like "Kssh Pssh Dshh Tssh Sshh Wssh" type of thing.
So velocity on cymbals doesn't help too much, it ends up just sounding like "KSHH KShh kshh Kshh KSHh KsHH", one thing I find that helps smooth out that initial "all the same" Kshh attack sound is to play around with the adsr parameters of the cymbals, and/or a compressor to smooth them out (playing around with side chain from a bunch of different sources at once) so it just dips that initial kshh by varying degrees every hit.
This one is supposed to have sorted out that cymbal problem, not sure if anyone has tried it: http://www.centipeak.com/
So velocity on cymbals doesn't help too much, it ends up just sounding like "KSHH KShh kshh Kshh KSHh KsHH", one thing I find that helps smooth out that initial "all the same" Kshh attack sound is to play around with the adsr parameters of the cymbals, and/or a compressor to smooth them out (playing around with side chain from a bunch of different sources at once) so it just dips that initial kshh by varying degrees every hit.
This one is supposed to have sorted out that cymbal problem, not sure if anyone has tried it: http://www.centipeak.com/
Fox Mulder
The Truth Is Out There
When programming drums, monitor with everything bypassed. Also, don't expect it to be super consistent. You want to mimic a real session. You can sample blend later on to maintain consistency.
