Try using them as a bassline. They really work well for that. Rumble basses, or even tonal. Try polymeters. And run the drm machine through compression and/or saturation, making sure the kick is the loudest.
It certainly has been for me but that’s because experimentation is all I’ve got. Hopefully this thread can help me learn some guidelines and/or strategies for more intentional tom usage. I’d like to be able to imagine a result and go for it rather than just slapping down some tom sounds and seeing what shakes out.
Like @DaveMech said, toms are great for basslines, but I also like to use them for accenting certain parts in a pattern. For example a little „swoop“ with low velocity before the pattern loops again.
Other than fills, I think they’re often used for syncopation — basically to accent the week beats. I’m not a drummer, but that’s what I hear in most music. I wouldn’t layer them with the kick, personally.
I also like to take tom samples and destroy them with FX and filtering to turn them into more tonal things, like bass melodies.
Certainly good to experiment with as well to create groove yeah. Otherwise it becomes fairly static. But amp attack means the envelope of an amp. Attack phase is the onset of the sound. So that way you could make some tons maybe slightly less punchy and take them more towards a plucky bass for example.
I‘ll try to find an example, but what I mean is more as an accenting part that counteracts the upbeat and kinda ties the groove together. Low velocity tom, low passed.
You would hardly hear it, but when you mute it, suddenly the pattern seems to have lost spice.
Try a low or mid tom on the 15 (assuming 4 on the floor) and play with velocity, filtering, microtiming. Or maybe 14 or 16 can work, also depends on the other elements.
Following @onthebannedwagon’s Burundi suggestion led me to this article. Haven’t read much of it yet but I’m definitely going to fool around with some of the patterns.