Programming drums - how do you do it?

Epsilon

I'm getting back into recording after a long stretch of inactivity. In the past (when I had more space) I always used to play drums in manually on an electronic kit. My new music room is much smaller and I don't have space for an electronic kit. Since I started recording again I've been using EZdrummer 2, punching in drums by using my synth as a trigger and then quantising and overdubbing as necessary. It's not the most satisfying of processes, so I'm wondering how other people without access to a physical kit go about creating drum tracks? I'm also wondering if it might be worth buying a set of midi pads so at least when I'm punching in drums I can feel a bit more of a tactile sensation and use sticks! I hate using/modifying "stock grooves" in EZdrummer, not least because I like odd time signatures and becomes very tiresome. What setup are you using?

TTBZ

I do it hit by hit, usually start with the hi hats then add in kick and snare. I'm crap at doing fills though. I then copy and paste the midi items from there and change to fit. Finally glue it all back together and use reapers humanise midi feature to loosen it up a bit.

joeyowen

Similar process to you  but afterwards I play through the song air drum style, hitting desk with hands and feet. I look for things different between me and the programmed drums!

Ball ache, but best I got 

digitalscream

Rabea did a good series on this a couple of years ago...he's using Superior Drummer, but most of what he says is applicable to any software:

PolarityMan

I program hit by hit using the pencil tool

Shark_Eyes

I draw them in hit my hit even though I have an electronic drum kit, I don't have an interface at the moment.
I'm tempted to try out a launch pad or akai APC as my finger drumming is miles better than my actual drumming.

octatonic

I went and studied drumming for a few years to the point of gigging as a drummer.
Once you know the vocabulary of drumming it is easier to drawn in articulations that work.

Most programmed drums are too square, lacking shuffle, groove and the small ghosts that make drums sound cool.

Freebird

joeyowen said:

Similar process to you  but afterwards I play through the song air drum style, hitting desk with hands and feet. I look for things different between me and the programmed drums!

Ball ache, but best I got 

You could record your tapping on the desk, and then use wav-to-midi software such as Melodyne  

blobb

In SD2 the midi loops have a preview function. If you press the button, the sample plays and ends, but if you click it again before it ends it plays it again. You can go on like this as much as you like, you can even click on a different loop to trigger that one next. You see where I'm going with this?

If you record to a metronome, it locks that tempo into the DAW track, and SD offers you the choice of previewing at recorded tempo or at DAW tempo. You can also half / double time it as well.

SO what I do is set up a drum track with SD2 on it, then set up a send to a second track which is record armed. Start the track and bring the midi loop in via the preview button at the right time, locked to DAW tempo and then match the loops to the song, recording the output on the second track. 

In a way, I'm playing the drums in real time or at least using the drum software as some kind of instrument. As such, you can get better at it if you practice enough. The end result is captured as a full drum kit as you can't actually output the preview, but as it directs the sound out through the track you can capture the audio.

So it's one performance only, best get it right. The benefit is no programming required at all and it matches tempo so well that the slightly clumsy changeovers between loops give it some feel. Good results so far, sometimes it can sound a little strange (why did the drummer do that roll right then?But you know what, he really sounds like he knows what he is doing).

I used to play the drums in live on an ekit but the loop drummer is a million times better than I am. I even asked a pretty decent drummer I know to have a go and he couldn't match it. 

duotone

Cheers @digitalscream ;

Will check those out tonight.  Rabea usually does a really good job explaining what he’s doing on his videos.

Jalapeno

Percussion Loops in the style chosen.  But I occasionally do undertake hit-by-hit for rolls and feel.

Epsilon

I think what I've pretty much narrowed it down to is that I'd a midi pad controller however I'd like one with an input for a foot controller to control the kick drum. This should provide a balance between actually having some sort of performance element and not taking up too much space. Any recommendations from forum members?

susbemol

I use a KORG padKONTROL. Personally, I don't like triggering the kick using a footswitch though as the velocity is fixed so you can't vary the hit as you can with the pad. Doesn't feel as natural to me either but you may have better luck with that.

In answer to the OP, I normally either play it in using a pad controller or start with grooves from my MIDI library and then tweak from there. I can play a bit of drums so I can normally program fairly convincing parts.

joeyowen

posted today!

PolarityMan

octatonic said:

I went and studied drumming for a few years to the point of gigging as a drummer.
Once you know the vocabulary of drumming it is easier to drawn in articulations that work.

Most programmed drums are too square, lacking shuffle, groove and the small ghosts that make drums sound cool.

I think getting velocity right is more important than swing / shuffle which I hardly ever bother with. Getting your hi-hat phrases in groups of 4 or 6 or whatever similar to how a drummer would is prob the number 1 thing that most people could do to get their drums sounding better in my opinion and it gives the illusion of swing/groove as well.