My drums suck. Teach me how not to have shitty drums?

[Ematyael]

I can make fairly good rhythms and patterns if I take the time too, but my samples and sounds are really weak. Don't just say "get better samples" please, I want to be able to get more creative then that. Does anyone have a good method for sampling my own sounds from things? I don't have any good recording equipment for real life, so my options are tech based for the meantime. I have a general idea of tricks like warping sounds into snares, or sampling basic wave patterns into things, but I could use a more experienced guide on how best to do that.

I also could use some tips/tutorials on how to make more complex/nonorthodox rhythms. I'm not going for things I can just copy, I like to get the basic concepts of a style down and then incorporate that into my own creative process. Copypasta is no good. I'm absolutely mesmerized by the sounds coming from so called "future garage"(Four tet, Whistla, Burial etc). I don't just want to copy their style, but I can't wrap my head around the sequencing of their rhythms at all.

In general I just have really weak percussion skills, and any links, videos, or help you all could offer would be very much appreciated. Please be gentle with me

[GothamHero]

I'll be gentle, sailor

Humanizing drums
http://www.loopers-delight.com/LDarchiv ... 00225.html
Human drums - courtesy of nfxbeats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_A-trEbWI0
Breakbeat drum programming tips
http://hattrixx.co.uk/breakbeat/showpag ... 1085400333
Dubstep Bible: Drums
http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=54827
Drum n Bass MIDI patterns - to get a better understanding of complex arrangement
http://www.simonv.com/tutorials/drum_patterns.php
Breakbeat patterns to analyse
Drum synthesis - make your own drum sounds with synthesis
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electron ... rials.html
http://www.soundonsound.com/search?page ... Subject=12
Essential drum production tips
http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/ ... ips-154042
Effective drum processing
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb98/a ... rythm.html
EQ
http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-thin ... q-tutorial
Compression
http://www.dnbscene.com/article/1474-co ... n-tutorial
Dubstep drum processing - courtesy of Risky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvWwhB3vfKg

Books I recommend buying
Art of drum layering by Eddie
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Drum-Layeri ... 1906005109
Beat production bible by Eddie
http://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php/ ... ion-bible/
The Dance Music manual by Rick Snoman (It has an entire chapter on drum element synthesis. And at the end, it dissects genres norm drum patterns. There's no mention Dubstep, but there is Hip Hop, Trip Hop, and D&B. Covers a lot of percussion work too.)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dance-Music-Man ... 0240521072
Music Composition for Computer Musicians (A lot of information for programming drums, both percussion and rhythm advice.)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Composition-Com ... gy_b_img_b
260 drum machine patterns (this will help a lot. It goes over modern and classic genres and dissects their drum patterns, breaks too. From Disco to Pop, it has a lot of great visual aid. Great for getting your head around rhythm.)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Machine-Pattern ... pd_sim_b_6

I think that covers a lot of ground briefly, from there I hope you can branch off from tutorials to tutorials. By the end of these you should know quite a bit on drum programming, EQ'ing, compression, layering, and humanizing drums.

Oh, and here is Cali Swag Distrct teaching you how to dougie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJxYiIfr4WM

Happy reading

[legend4ry]

Getting better samples is the only option to get better -sounding- drums

If you're baking a cake and use cheap products, it won't taste as good if you went for more expensive, richer ingredients.

That statement is awfully naive...You can't shovel yourself out of a hole so don't dig one in the first place.


But on rhythm and such; post above me has plenty of material

[Ematyael]

Getting better samples is the only option to get better -sounding- drums

If you're baking a cake and use cheap products, it won't taste as good if you went for more expensive, richer ingredients.

That statement is awfully naive...You can't shovel yourself out of a hole so don't dig one in the first place.


But on rhythm and such; post above me has plenty of material

I wasn't implying that I don't need better samples, its obvious I do. What I meant was that I didn't want just "go download this sample pack, tada!" but more information on how to generate my own better samples. Not necessarily with a drum synth, but just how to capture my own sounds. Im not great with sampling in general.

[Ematyael]

@ GothamHero

Dear... God... ... I love you.

[oprs]

this thread is full of production wieners touching

good look out gotham

[drooka]

if youve got the money, pick up a field recorder. youll be banging on stuff all day and building up a solid library in the process

[dopocc]

@ GothamHero

Dear... God... ... I love you.

great post-thanks!