Fly Fishing Secrets

If you want to successfully layer drum samples together to make new ones, you should be aware of all the technical aspects and techniques and methods the end result can be achieved. Knowing the history of drum samples - from their sampled nature in the 70s and 80s and even today, to their electronic synthesis over the same timeline - will help you a lot in really being a master of the subject. Live and synthesized drum samples are out there, and hybrids also exist. The latter seems to be dominating songs as of late.

Sometimes when layering drum samples together, you may start to hear a clipping or distortion noise. This is normal, but you need to fix it up. The reason why it happens so much is that when frequencies are shared by both samples, they will grow in volume disproportionally to frequencies had by only one of the music samples. Try lowering the volume of both samples by 50%.

The starting phase of drum samples is known as the sound’s attack. You can try to remember ‘attack’ as the characteristic the sample needs to have to cut through a whole range of sounds, like strings and pianos just to be head by the listener.

The middle of a sample is what sustains it. A drum sample with a boomy middle, like the 808 kick, for instance, may have a slow (soft) attack, so its announcement is not as pronounced as a snappy snare to give an example. But you can sure feel it, and this is what has made it such a cultural phenomenon since the 80s.

The end of the drum samples is up after the sustain. So we’ve gone from start to middle and now to end. The only thing to really worry about here is that your sound does not clip as it stops. A lot of truncations can cause this sound due to sudden cuts in volume. To fix a clip, use the filter that would have come with your audio editor or fix it yourself by fading out the last few milliseconds. The end of a drum sample is not that important and is mostly determined by the sustain of said sample, so don’t worry about it too much and focus on the earlier stages.

When it comes down to the actual techniques that producers and mixers use to layer drum samples, there is a lot of confusion out there! Believe me, I’ve checked hundreds of forums and blogs and some of the information is astoundingly silly. Some people will tell you to simply mash two samples together without any pre-thought. Others say to grab one sample with a good attack, one with a good release and then mix them up to make one super drum sample. Does this work? It could, but it’s better to simply combine one’s attack and one’s release so that frequencies don’t clash.

Are you after the best free drum samples on the net? Check out drum samples for all your needs.

In this piece, we’re going to be addressing a few questions about hip hop (or another urban music genre) drum samples. These questions are often posed on the most popular music production and beat making forums, and the range of answers provided is sometimes disturbing. Getting correct and unbiased opinions can be a difficult feat this in day and age, with e-rep so prevalent in forums and online communities. The music production communities are not exempt from this observation. Let’s begin!

First Question: Do I need to buy drum samples? The answer to this question is a plain no. In some cases, you may wish to opt for paid-for drum samples, but many producers have started out great with just stock sounds and instruments, and some even continue to do so to this day. So while samples can be purchases both online and offline, you probably have some good sounds right in front of you!

If you have a lot of knowledge and have used compressors, equalizers and other, similar equipment and software in the past, you’re well-equipped to start developing your own drum samples. You can end up developing your own personal collection of favorite drum sounds that you can go through a lot of times. With every project you will undertake, you will probably check here first to see if there are any suitable sounds you could use immediately or manipulate to your liking.

Can I Use Dance Sounds for Gangster Rap? Yes, you can. The only thing to be wary of is the arrangements. A gangster rap drum loop is what it is, regardless of the samples. A dance pattern, on the other hand, is just that, too. So as long as you keep the pattern right, you can use just about any samples. In fact, you may even come across a great combination of pattern and drum samples.

Now that we’ve spoken on the pattern difference, you should do your best to learn how the patterns get to be where they’re at. Do some research on the way that patterns are used by your favorite artists. Try to do what they do in their tracks. If you can achieve the same sonic and rhythmic characteristics, you’ll have a head start in determining your own unique sound and style.

Question 3: Why are some drum samples louder than others? The reason that some samples are louder than others is the same reason why some songs are louder than others. It is scientific fact that we take more notice of things that are bigger and louder, and this stretches to music production as well. It’s the same reason why TV ads are louder than the programs they are interrupting. If advertisers have spent billions on the research, you’ve got it laid out for you already. This is why some sample companies will use compressors and limiters to maximize volume without clipping because you will take notice. Even if the samples aren’t as good or well-sculpted as others, you will for some reason like them more and be more impressed. So don’t take notice of just volume but listen beyond the level.

If you want to start to make hip hop beats, consider getting some professional rap drum samples first. These sounds will inspire you to create cool grooves.

One of the most debated topics by far on music production forums is the medium to use for drum sequence input. On one side are the advocates of using standard MIDI keyboard controllers - the keys on which can be used to input control messages for drum samples - or dedicated equipment like the drum machines from Akai and other manufacturers that have flooded the market as of late.

Recently, a lot of cheap dedicated equipment has hit the music scene, leaving professionals with more room to switch and use hybrid set-ups, while amateurs and those that have not even gotten into the game can pick up a discounted drum pad unit from their local Guitar Center. These units, like the MPD32, have MPC-style pads for drum input and do no processing of their own, except for calculating the velocity of the finger tapping. The processing is left up to the computer equipment or music work-station.

On the keyboard end, we can see many producers preferring to stick with key input for drum samples. One of the advantages here is velocity recognition, but it’s nowhere near as good as the pad sensors on the MPD, for example. A common reason expressed for choosing the keyboard is that it’s very easy to hit multiple instruments at the same time, and also that many producers already have a great feel and rhythm on the keyboard keys.

We can see that the trigger response is the final drawback for those on the edge of making a decision to switch to pad systems. With the sensor timing on the keyboard, one needs to be somewhat firm with their fingers to allow the sensors to accurately place the notes. However, if your timing is not perfect, it’s probably not the best platform to hone your skills on. Get some pads and at least try them out!

Pad devices are not angelic, though. There are plenty of reported problems with these, and you can find out a lot about a product by visiting the manufacturer’s forum and seeing the kinds of repeated support issues. One major issue is the quality of the pads - a lot are very rubbery and simply do not last more than a few weeks of usage. You’ll need replacement pads if this happens.

More recently, there has been a trend towards integrating the two technologies and create something for both parties to meet in the middle and sort this out. The result is a hybrid product that integrates both a keyboard and pads. The pads are usually located above the keyboard for easy access, and the keyboard is in some cases even weighted or semi-weighted, but 90% of the time is just sensitive to velocity and nothing more. A major complaint regarding this merge is the quality of components. Some people have pointed out that the pads and actual keys are both lower quality than stand-alone products. So with neither the pads nor keys being really good, it’s simply a gimmick. This view is share by a lot of professional reviewers.

Do you want to know how to make beats? Start with some good hip hop drum samples, then look for a basic tutorial on the topic and get started!

Most music producers today, especially those just getting into the game, are overwhelmed by the thousands of drum samples and sounds offered by the multiple drum libraries offered through programs like Fruity Loops, Native Instruments’ Battery and Redrum (by Propellerheads, and included in their flagship program, Reason). So what can we do about it to prevent hair loss and allow us to get on with beat making?

One of the best ways to get organized is actually to sort through and organize the different drum samples to your liking. Sometimes this can be extremely difficult if the manufacturer of the software has locked down the sound library (or sound database). Extracting drum sounds from these files can be a nightmare, and this is true with the Propellerheads Reason music production system; Reason utilizes ‘refills’ which are files that are locked, the only program having access to them being the actual Reason program. In these cases, it can help to simply make your own kits from within the program or remember the locations of good samples.

If you have successfully saved all the drum samples you can and have access to the rest, you can try to take up this organization system. Name all of your drum samples with descriptive names but also place them into folders that describes just the sound type. So for instance, the hi-hats would all go into a folder named ‘hi-hats.’ Do this with all of them!

If you want to take this organization system up another notch, there are a few things you can do today to make your life easier. If you switch regularly between different genres, this will especially make a lot of sense for you. Group the different percussion and drum folders under genre titles. For instance, for all kicks you deem dance-worthy, place them into a folder called ‘dance’. So this way, you could go into the Dance folder and find the different groups of drums that work great for Dance!

This will ensure that you are never left high and dry when looking for genre-specific drum samples. If you’re making a rap beat and need a great snare with vinyl noise on top of it, you would go into your Rap Drum Samples folder and look through the Snares folder. You would probably only need to audition a few samples before finding the one that you want. You will have more time to actually make music.

You don’t just have to stop here, though. Your creativity is the best thing. If you can systemize it, you will be well off. You can also even apply this to instrument files and other sounds. Imagine if you had everything organized correctly and in genre folders. How much easier of a time would you have trying to pick samples up? I bet you’d find it a lot faster, that’s for sure! When you have two sounds or drum samples, you could also create hybrid folders. So if you had a string patch that could work for country music as well as RnB, you would name a folder Rnb-Country, for instance.

Want to make rap beats? Use online forums and communities to help you with your questions. Making rap beats can be easy!

To most music producers and beat makers, one of the highest-value collections of sounds on our computers is the drum samples we adore. Having built hundreds and maybe thousands of drum samples - and storing many more - it is no wonder that many would simply not know what to do if the hard drive that stores these samples crashed. A lot of the songs we make often do not save drum samples and other external sounds along with the project, so it can be hard, if not impossible, to ever recover such sounds from the jaws of a crashed hard drive.

Storing files on your computer’s storage disk (hard drive) is not the best idea, and this is for multiple reasons. The main reason is life expectancy. Computer manufacturers point to the failure time of five years as a nudge for you to back up. This time value is regarding the Mean Time Before Failure - and is true for all hard drives in existence for consumers, so you won’t have much luck unless everything is on two different hard drives all the time.

If you are truly set on using your computer’s main hard drive for storing all of your music, you should take a number of precautions. The main point to consider the defragmentation of the hard drive. Doing this regularly will help you maximize the lifespan of your hard drive, so if cost is any factor, do this and you may be good until you can afford to back up properly and store your things on another drive.

Flash USB drives are another option, but one that most music producers would advise against. Why? Well, they’re very easy to lose track of. You could drop it into a gutter or anywhere else, so if you really need to use it for backup purposes or to store everything, connect it to your key-ring for maximum security. You can get them cheap these days, for just a few dollars, but long-term performance is not great.

Rewritable DVDs and CDs are good for back-ups, but not for live use, as most programs won’t be able to write to them on-the-fly. If you have to use these for backups (or already do), make sure they’re being stored in a dry, cool location, out of direct sunlight and any moisture.

A second hard drive can be a great all-round solution. It will provide a good way to back up your drum samples and use them at the same time. You can still keep the samples somewhere on the main hard drive and even a flash USB drive, but having them on a second hard drive (internal or external) will give you great speed and peace of mind, as hard drives that do not have OS files are not as stressed as the ones that do, like your PC’s main hard drive.

Stop procrastinating, and make rap beats now. Right now. You see, making rap beats isn’t exactly hard, so there are no excuses.