How to add groove and life into your drum programming?

[Jakeyboy2929]

How do you guys add groove and life into your drums using mixcraft?

[Rik]

http://blog.acoustica.com/off-beaten-path/

Check out that really good blog, lot's of very useful information about drums in it.

I certainly learned a lot from it.

[Mark Bliss]

Thanks Rik.

Jake, It kind of depends on just what you mean. Is this different than your previous question on quantization/swing, or an extension of it?

To me, developing a "groove" that fits a song is a matter of taste and a sense of style. And for drums its a talent I wont claim to have much of. So I often rely on referencing what talented drummers play in a similar song, or I audition some drums track sources until I find something close and work with that or......

Adding "life" is similar. Just what you want could be in the arrangement, specific sounds, dynamics, etc.

Need a little less of a general description I think. Describe what you mean a bit.

[martinweeks]

Another approach would be to make use of the Omni Sampler in Mixcraft 7 and higher. With the Omni Sampler you can pull up and place all the different drum samples Mixcraft has, position them in whatever manner is comfortable for you and best of all the Omni Sampler has internal tone control. So You can "pre" set your own individual drum kits this way to play either through it's midi editors or via your keyboard controller.

You can set the pitch of your individual drum samples for example. Have two snares with different pitches (drummers like the late Richie Hayward of Littlefeat did this.) With two differently tuned snares you can really expand on a basic 4x4 drum pattern.

You can control also the compression for more dynamic sounding Kick. Place percussion samples in convenient places control the output volume, and/or Gain, as well as pan left to right. All inside the Omni Sampler. Then if you follow Mark's advice with aux bussing you will have maximum control of your own personal drum kit. Just save the arrangement and edit give it a name ie: "Your R&B Kit" or your "dub step" Kit and build your own library of grooves, drum kits etc. I believe you can also import those individual kits right into MC Studio Drums but am not absolutely sure about that.

I recently did this and combined with the MTPower Drum Kit which I believe is still a free download for Mixcraft and Reaper DAW users. I wound up with a 14 track drum mix that was wide and clean due to the ability to use pan, compression, reverb and have most of the mixing done in the "pre" stage making the later mixing editing very fast and easy.

[Brian S]

One thing that makes a world of difference is starting with something that's "better". For me, I use a combination of two things:

1. Addictive Drums as a VST. This sounds amazing. I mean, sure, the Acoustica Studio drums sound good. In fact, they sound really good. But then when you compare them to Addictive Drums, you realize . . . yea, wow.

2. Drums on Demand. This is a set of MIDI drum loops that were played by an actual drummer. Right, not programmed, played. It makes a difference! A big, big difference. When you open up one of the loops and zoom in, you can see the minor imperfections in the tracks that make them "feel" like a human played them - because a human did play them. I purchased Rock Essentials I and II.

Here is a song I recorded with that combination (vocals removed on this to expose the drums better): http://1drv.ms/1fp5zTY

[fredfish]

Hey Brian - that sounds great! Is there a link with the vocals included?

I have a question about Drums on Demand - I did a search and came up with this web site http://www.drumsondemand.com/ but they only appear to do recorded loops and not MIDI loops. You mentioned that the loops that you used from Drums on Demand were MIDI, am I looping at the wrong site?

The .wav loops on the site I ended up at are pretty good (I downloaded their free samples) but they aren't MIDI.

Cheers

John

[Mark Bliss]

I think Brian's tip is very good, and possibly just what the OP was looking for. Perhaps with some variation for personal taste and style.

I use some very similar methods including using professionally played MIDI data to start and editing to taste, or personalize. I have personally used MIDI content from the loop loft and add on MIDI library content for EZDrummer.

Have to agree also however, that I don't see anything but audio loops at that particular site, but there are some interesting titles in those. If there is some MIDI content there I'd sure appreciate a link.

It would be nice to see some clarification from Jake so we know if we are going in the right direction here.

[Perennial Jive]

what martin said times ten....the omnisampler is a little gem.

what kind of music do you make?

[Juno]

I have a question about Drums on Demand - I did a search and came up with this web site http://www.drumsondemand.com/ but they only appear to do recorded loops and not MIDI loops. You mentioned that the loops that you used from Drums on Demand were MIDI, am I looping at the wrong site?

I think that site should be Groove Monkee.

[fredfish]

Hi Juno

I have used groove monkey a lot - both their free and some paid for loops - and I agree they are great, they work well with superior drummer 2 as well (which is what I use). Thanks for the suggestion - it is always easy for a little gem to slip through the net.

And yes I can see they do a pack called Rock Essentials - so I suspect you are right.

Cheers

John

[Mark Bliss]

You mentioned that the loops that you used from Drums on Demand were MIDI, am I looping at the wrong site?

I think that site should be Groove Monkee.

Makes sense.

what martin said times ten....the omnisampler is a little gem.

The Omni sampler is an interesting route. My only experience with such things is some experimenting with the Omni when it first appeared in Mixcraft, and what I found was that as many other methods of creating drums, it is very hard to "play them in" with my keyboard. Are you guys using pads or other controllers?
For me, by the time I edit and fix the MIDI, I might as well enter data note by note in the piano roll editor, and probably could do that faster in the first place! And that's about the slowest method I know to create a drum track. For me, by the time that is programmed I have lost interest in the project!
I cant speak for the OP, but personally I find I prefer other less tedious methods. But perhaps someone could present a clear tutorial showing your workflow and methods using the Omni that would be helpful to other users!

what kind of music do you make?

That kind info would really help narrow in on the best method to suggest, wouldn't it!