Drums: samples or synthesis?

[roman.i]

Hi all,

There are many ways to generate drums/percussions sounds, using samples, slicing loops, drum machine emulations, regular synths, kick synths, etc.
Any thoughts about which one to choose and when? What are advantages of each?

Thanks

[EnochLight]

Hi all,

There are many ways to generate drums/percussions sounds, using samples, slicing loops, drum machine emulations, regular synths, kick synths, etc.
Any thoughts about which one to choose and when? What are advantages of each?

Thanks

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I’m a huge fan of drum synthesis, if anything just because it’s as versatile as synthesis in general. The sounds you can get - in real-time - can be very unique and inspiring.

At the same time, sampling is quick and light on resources, and allows you to emulate any classic drum machine you want.

I tend to use both. There’s no rules as to when one is better or not. Use whatever sounds right to your ears for your particular production.

[kvotchin]

It very much depends (sorry to be that guy . . . ) on the kind of music you want to make. Not the most appealing info perhaps, but yeah, it *really* does.

So . . . what are you into?

[roman.i]

Psytrance. I usually start with sample packs, but the sample search feels like pulling an "ok" one from a trash bin, and it doesn't always fit perfectly. I mean, there are very few types of drums/percussions, and most of them sounds like easy to synthesize with the right tool.

[DJ Warmonger]

I **** up my recently released remix, as I tried to create hard trance kick out of 4 layers. This way it totally lacks punch and impact, but I realized that too late.

Not anymore. Now I mostly use Battery 4 drums and the Kick goes out to master pretty much untouched. So much better now.

[recursive one]

Psytrance. I usually start with sample packs, but the sample search feels like pulling an "ok" one from a trash bin, and it doesn't always fit perfectly.

Can relate to that 100%. I also make psytrance

I use samples for drums but I'm considering switching do dedicated drum synths. Especially for kicks, even despite I have a bunch of pretty decent kick samples, getting them to blend nicely with the bass in the given key/bpm is always a pain.

Kick2 is highly rated by psy producers for what I know.

The snare/clap is another story, you take a sample that sounds cool and punchy on its own but when it is put into the mix where it overlaps with the kick transient all kind of disaster may happen.

[Ah_Dziz]

Definitely a combination of both. I almost always synthesize my kick or at least the main “body” of it. That’s just how I like it since it gives me a good amount of control in the bass region. Whether I use samples or synthesis or samples of synthesizers or loops, for the rest of the rhythm parts in a song are all context dependent. For x0x snares, toms, etc I’m happy to use samples almost always, and even with a tight acoustic drum kit I’ll often layer enveloped noise under the snare (usually from a synth) to give myself the ability to have it cut right through the mix (via filtering and nonlinear processing) without touching the tone of the original drum. Often times I like little percussion loops either that I’ve made with a synth or sometimes from a pack or stylus RMX, but I usually chop them up and resample them a good bit. Sometime though you just need some nice tight hand percussion though and there is no shortage of loops of that out there than have been recorded exceptionally well.

I don’t make “Psytrance” though and with the examples I’ve seen of the bigger acts in the genre there is not a huge amount of conformity outside of having a nice steady trance beat to keep things moving. In my personal experience, “psytrance = techno that hippies like”. I know this isn’t accurate and probably with some research there’s a better way of describing it as a genre, but the point of this reply is that you can make any king of electronic music with either sampled or synthesized drums, and it just depends on what you prefer. It does seem like a good idea to go ahead and learn how electronic drumsounds are synthesized and practice doing it some even if you are planning on going with mainly samples. You never know when you’ll need a sound that you don’t have a sample of and it’s nice to be able to whip one up when you do.

Peace,
JJ

[shredshred]

depend on what youre working on
i use both,but mainly acoustic drum samples
since drum synth doesnt evolve that much

[tibah]

Samples. It just works for me. Layering, pitching, cutting, reversing. I try to focus on one sample pack for each track, unless I know I want to add e.g. some weird foley sounds too. Helps in getting to know your sample collection and in the best case scenario to reduce it to favorites.

I do like to sample my synths though. Even more so with Repro/Bazille, which offer weird and wonderful percussion things. Record some 32-64 bar take of tweaking parameters and end up with some nice unique segments you can use for additional layering.

[lil_miss_beats]

Oversimplified, but what I go for:

Clean punchy sound: Syntheiszed
More hip hop or accoustic: Sampled

Like others said, layering great, and blending to get the right balance of the two.

[Igro]

Samples in 95% sound like shit.

[Trancit]

Samples in 95% sound like shit.

Use better samples...

[MMaarrkk]

It really comes down to how you like to work. Having a high-quality sample library might make your workflow fast and easy, especially if you develop a habit to generate some of your own, instead of relying on what's out there. On the other hand, using synthesizers might give you the freedom to add slight adjustments to the sound, you couldn't do with samples, or at least to the same extent.

Also, as mentioned before, the music you make - some genres just work better with samples, while others do so with clean generated sound.

Or to add versatility to your expression, do both!

[AnX]

both, but usually make drum sounds in synths and sample them

[DrEntropy]

I am a fan of using synthesis for percussion sounds. But after I get what i like, I sample it . But I know you probably meant sampled real drums. As someone said, why not both? Nothing wrong (and a lot RIGHT) with an acoustic kick sample layered with a nice 808-like kick sound. Or one of those PEW type sounds. Fun fun fun!