What velocities are best for bass and drums?

[JayB]

Just curious what velocities you guys tend to stick to when programming bass and drums. Obviously they would be different numbers for everything. I use Prominy SR5 Rock Bass, and I'm assuming for a realistic performance it would be better to have randomized velocities between 80 and like 100, because everything at 127 just sounds so fake.

But what about drums? For kick, do you normally stick to max velocity? Obviously with snare you want to humanize it, but you want it consistent as well. Toms seem like one of the hardest to make sound even remotely passable. What do you guys think?

 

[colonel_claypoo]

that really depends on the sample itself. take superior for example. if you take the same velocity for various snares sample you will get variations in dynamics and they might be all over the place. you really have to listen and adjust from there.

 

[mairomaster]

With SSD 3.5 I'm normally using about 120 for drums and something like 100-110 for cymbals. Most of the time I use the built-in humanize algorithm at the default level 3 and occasionally, if the performance sounds too perfect, I also vary the velocities by some small value, like +/- 4.
I don't know if that's the optimal general setting though. I will be happy to see the opinion of more experienced members.

 

[RedDog]

128

 

[Habsburgs]

128

 

[LBTM]

Just think of how a real player would play and program accordingly. Don't randomize velocities, it's going to sound bad.

 

[JayB]

Just think of how a real player would play and program accordingly. Don't randomize velocities, it's going to sound bad.

Not necessarily true, I've gotten pretty good results with randomizing velocity in PT so long as you adjust the parameters well.

 

[RedDog]

Never programmed bass, but I've had luck with soloing the room in Superior and playing with velocities until the kit sounds natural. Usually less kick for me and a lot of snare, just before it starts cracking. Watch what your loud cymbals are doing (i.e. china) and you can craft a very 3D room sound, the direct mics will be icing on the cake after that.

 

[JayB]

^I'll try that!

 

[LBTM]

Not necessarily true, I've gotten pretty good results with randomizing velocity in PT so long as you adjust the parameters well.

well, i wouldn't "randomize" anything in my mixes. i like to have full control.
that means not using gates and triggers without converting to midi and checking everything is triggered properly.

 

[Mashreef]

100 is ideal

 

[schismatic]

I would have thought the correct velocity is entirely dependent on the samples you are using. At the same velocity, the sample triggered in one library is likely to be a different volume to a sample from another library.

Further to this, a particular velocity may trigger a different range in one sample library compared to another e.g. On the assumption that the range of drums samples triggers from 0 -127 velocity, then you would expect the lightest drum hit to be at velocity 1, and the hardest hit in the library to be at velocity 127. But at velocity 100, one sample library may trigger e.g. the 80% hardest hit, while another library may trigger something like 90% hardest hit across the range of samples.

So it's not really as simple as giving absolute values - you need to program velocities relative to both the needs of the track and the dynamic range of the library.

I hope that makes sense, it's not a simple concept to articulate.

 

[JayB]

Great advice guys, thanks for the input!

 

[JayB]

It depends on the library and the individual drums. I'll print 3 kick tracks at 127, 100 and around 60 where the kick is boomier, then level match them and decide which is best for the project. For snares I typically like them at 100, tends to sound more natural with more sustain. 127 can then be used for moments requiring more impact. For bass (Trilian hardcore model at least) I set it at 100. 127 with that is a mess, noisy with poor note definition.

Cool, also do you use any velocity variation in your kick or do you have them all at the same velocity? For metal I mean.

 

[JayB]

One more question for you guys. I have a bunch of drums that are all mapped to one midi track - snare, toms and kick are all on one midi track. Is there an easy way to adjust just one section of ONE midi note without affecting all the notes? I'm aware that you can hit the piano key to select all the notes , but if I highlight a section, it affects all notes. Would the best way be to just separate all the tracks into their own midi tracks or is there another way? For instance I want to be able to easily adjust the velocities for snare fills.