So you need a kick sample. None of the one I have works. I try to buy some, but they’re not exactly what I want. Plus I feel bad about using someone else sample for some reason. I’m a musician shouldn’t I create my own sample.
Put the purchased sample in my project. Doesn’t really fit, try to filter/effect/tweak it. Still kind of feel like it’s not at the right place.
Buy a shitload of cheap sample. Still nothing works and take so much time to figure out which is which… Finally find something half decent. All right, now to the snare.
Same crap happens again, but the snare has to match the kick. I don’t want to buy one of these sample, but can’t do better so go about shopping and buying. End up buying a whole kit of drum sound.
Now I have way too many sample to choose from, cannot figure out how to make them sound well together. Try to record my own sample…
Now I haven’t been trough that process in few months as I don’t buy shit anymore and I know that I end up wasting all my time. Ended up using a Model:Cycles, it’s synth based sound, for whatever reason that works with my brain, I CAN MAKE IT SOUND THE WAY I WANT. Even if the machines are quite limited when it comes to sound design…
What is the problem with my head? Why can’t I deal with samples?? To be clear I do field recording and use these as texture/bg ambiance and other fx sound (rain/raven/thunder) but can’t do the sample drum kit…
Anyone else in sample paralysis?? How do you get you? Or should I simply avoid it?
I hate to suggest buying something else but I’m really into AI sample selectors.
My favorite lately is XO.
You tell it where all your sampler libraries are and it makes a nebula of sound types from all of your libraries. You can select all of your kicks and when you find something close you can quickly find similar ones.
It also has a decent little sequencer. Once you get the samples selected you can quickly drag them into the sampler/daw of your choice.
I think it helps with getting the right samples faster.
Oh yes, this is absolutely something I deal with. If I set out to find samples that fit some preconceived notion, I’ll be in that particular purgatory for some time.
A few things that have helped me:
Just pick a few samples - a kick, a snare, a couple of other perc samples. You don’t have to like them - better if you don’t. And make something that fits them…without overthinking it, no matter how cheesy or “not you” it may sound. Just make anything. And repeat. And over time, you find that you won’t be overthinking it as much.
Another thing to do is to start treating samples more like a synth - make very tight loops and put an envelope on it. Crank the resonance up and put the filter on a sharp envelope - you have a kick drum out of anything. Put wild fast LFOs on things, play them backwards, make them super percussive and short — anything shaping tool that’s available to you, use it. Take the same samples you used for the first exercise i mentioned and mangle them until they are unrecognizable, and shape them to your specifications much like you would a synth.
Repeat this with the default stock samples - twist them so that none of them sound like they did originally. Do this a couple more times, so you can get a feel for how different you can make these generic stock samples sound.
If you find that you are able to work with synths more, all of this will help you approach samples differently - you may not make a masterpiece with the first few, but I can guarantee you that you will think less about choosing the sample and mor about what you can do with them if you repeat these things enough, and you’ll find more inspiration from the samples you pick, as opposed to always trying to find the perfect sample.
Last few years had me realise I’m not so keen on samples for drums.
I like synthesis. Occasionally I’ll layer a sample in for flavour.
TR8-S is my drum machine. It does everything I want. I can make the sounds i want. Sample use is minimal, and usually snares claps or hihats, not kicks.
Ivw got massive collections of drum samples on hard drives, that I never use.
There’s also Atlas 2 (cheaper) and Sononym (no plug-in for the latter one).
I just find that the way XO works with its sound editing and sequencer is really nice. You can also export the “edited” versions of the samples so it sounds exactly the same.
Edit:
Looks like it’s 50% off right now too
I still like the speed I can work in XO. Atlas has most of the same functionality as XO. Lacks the transient shaper of XO and I find the interface much slower.
Whatever you pick, sample or synthesis or both, sounds alone don’t work the same as sounds together.
The balance between them is more important than every sound alone.
Now @bitshifter put it pretty well…
The hunt for the perfect sound is meaningless, what’s making the difference is the tool you choose to balance/shape/mangle them.
I have a handful of samples in an Ableton drum rack, and also in my OP-Z. That way I can come up with a pattern on the Z, and record the MIDI back at the computer.
Also great are Ableton’s drum synth modules, and you can drop a sample into the synth and shape it. I have a few of these too.
The way I think of it is that if a drummer in a band doesn’t change their kit for every song, then why should I?
I asked Marlow Digs the Hip Hop Producer this exact thing. How fo you choose from your vast library. Well it turns out when it comes to drums he has his favorites that he uses every time. In fact only 4 of each. 4 kicks. 4 snares etc etc. There is no reason to have any more. You can mould the sound anyway with compression or fx or whatever.
Millions of rock songs have been made with simple drum kits , and millions of electronic music trax have been used with nothing but 808/909 sounds …the difference lies in how the drums are played/programmed , eq-ed , filtered , compressed … so pass a little less time dealing with thousands of static drum sounds in a library and spend a bit more understanding the nature of rhythm itself .
I got to a point where I was tired from all the samples I collected because none ever really fitted and I returned to using the same over and over again. Now I do synthesize everything myself. First using single cycle waveforms on the DT and now using the very versatile engine of the DN. A dedicated drum synth that fits into my budget would be a really nice addition, too.
I really like his YouTube channel… and completely agree, I only use the mpc60 sample kits from samples from mars…
If you don’t enjoy samples for kicks I really recommend the volca kick… it’s pretty cheap and with the right processing you can get some very nice kicks.
I almost exclusively use samples for drums, and for most other sounds too lately it seems, but I mostly synthesise them myself first and then after too, occasionally I will use drum machine or real drum samples, or other sounds made into drums. I enjoy the process even if it can be time consuming. I almost always process them in some way too.
But I’m not married to these techniques, one day I might change to a completely different method, previously I used a lot of drum machines and enjoyed running them together, getting different feels and sounds.
I think the most important thing is to listen, then act, drums are an important part of my music so I think it is worth spending the time getting them how you want them. If you don’t know what you want then just lay down something basic to get started and go wherever that takes you.
Don’t be reluctant to use staples/classic sounds either, they became popular for good reason, they work. You can easily tailor them to suit the music you are making.
Lots of reasons why a particular drum sound won’t work in the context you’re providing - but most likely it’s pitch and it can be difficult to ‘know’ sometimes particularly as drums are often a complex mixture of non pitched (noise) and tonal information. Suggest you go for precurated sets of drum sounds or use an librarian app that can accurately detect pitch. Lots of good options listed above - my choice is Loopcloud Drum, but presumbably XO, Cosmos and Atlas will perform the same pitch classification duties.
Also challenge yourself to create percussive sounds from the field recordings you do. If you use an atmosphere from a field recording, use that same sample to create most or every drum sample. It will help your sound design skill progress.
