Tips to make drum machines sound less artificial

[Toorop]

I wondered if you guys had some tips to overcome the artificial sounding of drum machines...
The only I got is about rolls. When you hear a real drummer make a roll, it sounds like TAKATAKATAKATAKA...and you can see him very well alternating his arms to hit. On a d-machine, it sounds like TATATATATA..., very unnatural.
So i've noticed if I lower slightly the level (the volume) of one hit on two, it sounds more natural.
And you have to keep in mind not to do too much (put too much cymbal hits, tom rolls, too fast double bass drums) or the virtual drummer will seem to have four arms and three legs.


Any other tips?

 

[FrostGiant]

Turn off that thingy that syncs your hits as often as possible (I forget what they call it). But say you've got a snare, kick and a crash all at the same time, if they are in perfect sync it sounds like crap. I like to do that with rolls as well. Without the computer fixing your rythm you get a little bit of the human factor into the equation. But thinking like a drummer is number one. You can't hit a snare, two crashes and still keep riding the hi hat all at the same time.

 

[Sacha]

I think he means turn off quantizing...also, slight variations in pitch and volume/velocity seem to add a bit more realism...for fast rolls, I would turn down the volume dramatically on all the hits following the first two hits on each drum...some samplers and sample sets (I use Halion with Wizoo) have the drums sampled at different volumes to get maximum realism...

 

[FrostGiant]

Yeah, that's the word I couldn't think of.

 

[Lev]

add reverb to the sound and then use a gate to cut it off right after.. so you get that 80's huge drum sound, like in the intro to Europe - Final Countdown haha.. classic drum sound, it rules.

 

[veil the sky]

EVERYTHING about that song rules it is the standard bearer for everything in rock music. take that good advice!!

also hunt around on your console for different tom sounds. some kits other than the one you are using may have better tom sounds that your original kit. of course you'll have to set the tom's to be triggered from a different chanel but it will be worth the effort if you find a better sound.

 

[Lethe78]

Using REAL drums....

 

[scarr3d]

I wondered if you guys had some tips to overcome the artificial sounding of drum machines...
The only I got is about rolls. When you hear a real drummer make a roll, it sounds like TAKATAKATAKATAKA...and you can see him very well alternating his arms to hit. On a d-machine, it sounds like TATATATATA..., very unnatural.
So i've noticed if I lower slightly the level (the volume) of one hit on two, it sounds more natural.
And you have to keep in mind not to do too much (put too much cymbal hits, tom rolls, too fast double bass drums) or the virtual drummer will seem to have four arms and three legs.


Any other tips?

are you using a drum machine or software? if you have a MIDI capable machine, try playing the keyboard controller with your fingers, like you would play the drums.

 

[Sunbane]

So i've noticed if I lower slightly the level (the volume) of one hit on two, it sounds more natural.

This also works well with fast runs on double bass drums: First kick gets full volume, while the rest are lower. It's also good to have their volume levels a bit randomized - no two kicks in a row should have the same level of volume.

It's no substitute for a real drummer, but it does sound a bit more organic. =)

'bane

 

[Cimmerian]

The thing that gives the drum machine away ninety nine percent of the time, regardless of programming authenticity, are the sounds of the cymbals. Regardless of how much the playing sounds like a drummer, for whatever reason, speaking as a drummer, I've never heard a programmed part where the cymbals did not sound absurdly fake.

 

[nergal_S]

This post makes me sad and angry becuase my drum player just left my band and i have to use a fucking drum machine to record AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

[Erik]

Use several snare samples. Ideally you should have around 10 samples for the snare drum, each hit with different velocity, strength etc... Helps A LOT for realism, especially during rolls and blast beats (where your average drummer typically does not strike the snare as hard as he would other times). This goes for hihats and (especially) rides as well. For a hi-hat track in 3/4 for example, making the first stroke slightly louder than the following two, not by volume but by a different sample, is probably a good idea. For double-bass, use one sample for the left drum/pedal and another for the right, and maybe pan them a few percent apart. Also, panning different crash cymbals slightly off center makes the drum track sound a bit more exciting.

Of course, this is stuff you might not be able to do with cheaper drum machines... Use a computer if possible. I'd argue I've made rather realistic-sounding computerized drums for my band, listen to this song:
http://necrogods.dyndns.org/Nasheim_-_Evighet.mp3