Layering Drums

[No name]

I've heard it talked about so much, even tried it myself, but it just doesn't seem to work out right. Does anyone know of any tutorials or anything that will give you a guide through how to layer drums? Placing two drums on one another usually sounds odd when I try to do it, but then again, i'm no drum layering pro Thanks!

[ouroboros]

I'm certainly not a pro, but one thing that has helped me is to put the samples on different channels so that I can eq one or both in different frequencies until they "fit". Then I send both to the same channel for compression/saturation or anything else. Then i render the drums to create a finished sample. Otherwise, it sounds like 2 different drums that are hit at the same time when I try

[tee boy]

The most important thing is to get sounds that work in the first place. If they are pretty similar then the result may well be shit. For example, with snares you might use one with is very thin and bright, one thats fat and chunky, and one that has a nice percussion attack. Pitch and EQ them right and they should gel nicely.

Also, if they sound weird flip the phase around. This can make a world of difference.

[Kriminal]

Tuning is essential when layering any sound, even with drums.

the other stuff is good advice too.

[No name]

I'm sorry, how exactly do you flip the phase around?

ouroboros: That is exactly what happens with me it just sounds like two different drums at the same time.

I'll give these tips a try, thanks for helping me out. But of course more tips are always welcome Thanks guys!

[deleted]

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[Spe3D]

I put some of my tin samples into FL as layers – compressed each and eq’ed each plus boosted the master channel, then rendered at different velocities to get the differences in the compression – then started making a new percussion sound font – (kind of industrial one) but its already at 600 MB even at 16 Bit, so I guess no one will want that – but I might make a very small (five kit) one as a stereo soundfont and see what the uptake is like – I was having the idea that layering first the different sounds, then render out would cut down the size of the samples – its just addictive I guess

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

[bduffy]

I generally (using Kontakt) mix and match drums, looking for the right sound for the right song. For snares and toms, I tend to mix a snappier, livelier one with a more roomy, sustained sample to get body (you can avoid using reverbs to get tails!). Experimenting with a good analog-style compressor can give you enhanced tails/energy (TC Compressor/De-esser, TbT TubeLimit, PreAMP_TGR-18), and I bus them to a Group Channel with compression/drive. A lot of people don't like using compressors on samples, but I find the right compressor can make the samples sound more "live", maybe the analog drive adds unpredictability?

Sometimes you need to split crashes/hi-hats to seperate Groups to avoid over-compression. I find you can get away with mixing very different-sounding samples, but you do have to watch the tuning, especially on Toms.

[Samplecraze]

http://www.samplecraze.com/product.php?xProd=90&xSec=5

Hope the above helps.