Have you been trying to make your programmed drums sound more real?
Do you find that no matter what you do, there’s just no beating a real-life drummer playing on your tracks?
While there’s a lot of truth in that, you might not be able to have an actual drummer play on your tracks for many reasons. In that case, you’ll have to use programmed drums or samples.
It can be incredibly difficult to make those programmed drums sit in your mix just right and have a live feel to them. I understand the frustration you feel when you hear the results of your programming and you wish you could just have access to a great session drummer to play on your tracks. I’ve been there.
In today’s video, I want to show you a few simple techniques that you can use to add realism to your programmed drums. This simple techniques will give you a lot more options when it comes to your music and I’m all about more options!
So check it out!
Now, I’d love to know…
What techniques do you use to add realism to programmed drums?
Leave a comment below!
professional sounding mix every time...
I never thought of using reverb on drums? Good plan.
Thanks Deighton
Stephen.
Thanks for the great service you provide to the mixing community.
I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate all your hard work and dedication that goes into what you do for the community.
Thanks
Edward Snow
Thanks very much Edward. That really means a lot. Thanks for taking the time to drop me that comment.
So, you were born in UnderstandingAudio…? 😀
Now for real: so glad to know that things start to work a little better now (honestly).
Seems this song is growing step by step from the demo version to a completly (well) produced one!
About adding realism to programmed drums, it all depends on the final result I`m looking for. Normally I use analog drum machines (and more recently drum loops created on Ableton), along with all kind of percussion samples. My goal when it comes to realism is, not only create some “room ambiance” as you showed in this video, but also create transitions / breacks that can take the listener to “think” that`s made by a real drummer (up to this date, I don`t have nor use Easy Drummer or any similar software).
On the other end, if the production flowt to a more “electronic” environement, I prefer using pre-recorded drum loops and /or drum loops made by me and, intencionaly, I made them sound more artificial (ex: with the exact same velocity in all key-notes – crasy, no?).
So, as I said before, it all depends…
And Stephen, this is another really good subject to talk / learn about. Thanks for this video and good work!
Greatings from Portugal! Yours, Paulo