How do you make your beats?

[Harry_HH]

I guess this depends partly on the genre you are working with.
But I'd like to about your drum track production practicies:
which of the follwing (or something else) you use mostly, which one(s)
sometimes:

1. "Old school" beat production stations (such as AKAI XR20)
2. Sequencer software + ready made samples (or partly programming)
3. Generic drum plugins (such as BFD)
4. Spesific beat station plugins (such as Motu bpm 1.5)
5. Drum machines or synths
6. Real drums
7. (something else, what?)

Please mention also the genre(s) you are working with.

Harry

[damoog]

I guess this depends partly on the genre you are working with.
But I'd like to about your drum track production practicies:
which of the follwing (or something else) you use mostly, which one(s)
sometimes:

1. "Old school" beat production stations (such as AKAI XR20)
2. Sequencer software + ready made samples (or partly programming)
3. Generic drum plugins (such as BFD)
4. Spesific beat station plugins (such as Motu bpm 1.5)
5. Drum machines or synths
6. Real drums
7. (something else, what?)

Please mention also the genre(s) you are working with.

Harry

nothing beats reasons kong and redrum for beat making...everything just 'locks in' if you know what i mean

[Blue Wind Project]

Number 2 for ambient/dark ambient.

I use FL Studio and I usually
pick the sampler then load a sample
in the channel. Then use another channel
for a different drum sound and so on
untill I have a beat constructed.

[samsam]

None of the options work for me or I'd imagine most people who use samples. I use Live plus sampled one shots, either in Sampler or using the individual wavs directly in Arrangement View. Most of the samples I either layer (like 3 snares) and process.

So samples like num. 2 but I wouldn't call them either 'ready made' or 'partly programming".

DnB, dubstep, house, tech, allsorts.

[Nig]

FXpansion Geist and a Korg PadKontrol

Lots of fun beat making with that combo

[justin3am]

Pretty much all of the above.
I use Superior Drummer 2 for a lot of acoustic drum sounds.
An Octatrack for sampling on the fly and manipulating samples.
An MFB-503 for analog drum sounds.
I use Battery 3 and Ableton's Drum Racks for creating kits based on samples and software instruments.
Most of the drum loops and samples I use are from sessions I recorded using real drum kits (that someone else played).
I use my V-Synth for processing drum samples.
I use Bazille, Zebra and Microtonic for synthesizing drum sounds.

I don't ever work within a single genre, unless you consider "weird" a genre.
I think that different tools are suited for different results/approaches and no one tool is perfect for everyone.

[thecontrolcentre]

Most of the loops in my music are from my own recordings of acoustic drums (not played by me). I also use Ableton Live's Drum Racks and Sampler to build kits (acoustic and electronic) from recordings I've made. I use a Dark Energy, Teisco 60F and Opus 3 to create my synthesized drum sounds. I usually have a loop as the foundation of the beat, and build it up with extra one-shots (usually kick, snare, hi-hat), and then chop, slice, mash until it's right.

[MDMK]

2. Sequencer software + ready made samples (or partly programming)
3. Generic drum plugins (such as BFD)
4. Spesific beat station plugins (such as Motu bpm 1.5)
5. Drum machines or synths

From 2. to 5.
I use everything from samples and loops to a hardware synth. For several months I've been mainly using Rob Papen's Punch in combination of sampled one shots or looped percussive patterns. Sometimes I use noise gate to make percussion loops sound more choppy. Sometimes I use sampled drum plugins like Drummix layered with a punchier electronic kick, if I wan't to add a more realistic component to the drum track. I recently bought FXPansion's Geist and an Akai MPD32 controller and love 'em both. But I guess I'm still gonna use Punch a lot to synthesize perfect kicks etc.

If you need an inspiring tool to use, I'd recommend Geist with a good pad controller like the Akai MPD. It's just insane how those can boost your creativity, and do it while being pure fun.


Genre: electro house, dubstep and dance.

[Tricky-Loops]

I like to have every element of the beat in one track (in a sampler or on the track itself) and all together in a group (or even sub groups). So I can process every element differently. I can use FX that nobody has in their drum samplers.

Unfortunately, this costs much of CPU power and in the end I have to bounce it. Therefore sometimes I use ready drum loops to save CPU power.

But nowadays there are so much samplers out there, that it would even be possible to have the whole beat in one track and process the elements in the sampler itself.

[michael2]

i kind of suck at analog drum emulations and I like pop music (classic not current - 60's, 70's and 80's pop), indie, downtempo and psych. since i can never get the sound I would with a band (it's just me here most of the time), I like to mix and match and i'm working on blending all of the things i ever loved into my own sound (thankfully i have until the end of time to figure that one out). kind of a digital pop ambient thing.

using:
ezdrummer
ultrabeat
EXS24 with samples i have accumulated and made from various sounds
loops I make (most of the time i make loops on my phone or my ipad)
i have Geist (the free CM edition), but haven't really used it alot, and I'm waiting for mini spillage 2 to come out (still using the old freebie of mini spillage).

on the ipad/phone I mainly use:
imaschine
Funkbox
DM1
Stochastik

i also have a bunch of percussion, hand drums and toys that belong to my kids lying around the house. these will end up in a lot of songs. will usually make a loop from these things and then build around it. i like them to sound kind of lo-fi amidst the nicer sampled/synthesized sounds.

really I like using samples for some reason, and then playing with effects to get a different sound. looking forward to seeing what everyone does (always hunting for new ideas).

[pdxindy]

I use Geist to sample my synths... then I use Geist and/or Live Drum Racks combined with some live playing so it sounds fluid and organic. I use various techniques to create rhythm and rarely have a standard drum track... Geist is much fun!


Music wise I tend towards ambient, poly-rhythmic, hard to define meanderings and musings... I've done a fair bit of soundtrack stuff for video.

[Harry_HH]

Good to get response concerning this - it would be nice to know how representative our answers are (e.g. comparing to the KVR population).

So far a couple of questions have risen according to your replies:

1. Because Geist is mentioned in several answers, I'd like to know what kind of music genre you produce wiht using the Geist and how
would you compare e.g. Geist to Motu bpm etc. similar?

2. If your genre is hip hop, house, dance etc., the first in my lis (old school beat production stations)used to be absolutely dominant for some years ago (also nowdays when I see these artist working, this is very much used tool. According to your obserbation, is this
the case anymore, and what are the main tools and the "latest trend"
inside this genre? Harry

[pdxindy]

1. Because Geist is mentioned in several answers, I'd like to know what kind of music genre you produce wiht using the Geist and how
would you compare e.g. Geist to Motu bpm etc. similar?

Similar yes... but if you are interested to create your own content, Geist is superior to BPM... BPM is more about its own library, which is bigger than Geist. (very quick synopsis)

[C-note]

Geist, Nerve, Battery and Tremor through/ with Maschine

[leggie]

Micro tonic and Jamstix