How do you guys approach layering up your drums?

[Genevieve]

Putting a pretty wide notch around 500 hz on the compressed channel when you parallel compress can be nice too. Adds some punch and definition while keeping the mud away. When to use it depends on how the drumbus already sounds (I don't always do it), but can yield some favorable results.

There's an audio rack preset in Ableton called "Brooklyn compression" that does this, but to an extreme. And I mean, like, extreme. It cuts out basically everything from 500-5k, those numbers could be wrong, but it's pretty close. And it squashes the fuck out of the compressor, but it actually sounds pretty good. One of my favorite producers at the moment "Memorecks" uses it in his template for his drums, or at least he did at one point.

It's a thing? Here I thought I was being original

[Milaflore]

I used to layer my snare and kicks, but now I just use one kick and one snare sample and process them to hell and back. If you find the right source sample your golden. I think because I like to keep things as simple as possible trying to fit 2 or 3 snares together annoys me sometimes, if it doesn't work within 10 mins

[cyclopian]

Something basic that a lot of people miss when layering is making sure the two samples you are layering actually start at the same time. Theres usually a tiny gap you need to snip out to make sure both the transients line up properly.

I hear it all the time when people layer kicks and they are slightly out of phase.

[benjam]

I used to layer my snare and kicks, but now I just use one kick and one snare sample and process them to hell and back. If you find the right source sample your golden. I think because I like to keep things as simple as possible trying to fit 2 or 3 snares together annoys me sometimes, if it doesn't work within 10 mins

I reckon processing them to hell and backs just as bad as layering a few and fighting to get them working. I aim to pick samples that need little to no work because as you say find the right sample and your golden.

[Dub_Fiend]

I used to layer my snare and kicks, but now I just use one kick and one snare sample and process them to hell and back. If you find the right source sample your golden. I think because I like to keep things as simple as possible trying to fit 2 or 3 snares together annoys me sometimes, if it doesn't work within 10 mins

I reckon processing them to hell and backs just as bad as layering a few and fighting to get them working. I aim to pick samples that need little to no work because as you say find the right sample and your golden.

You can't always find that though and to be fair, sometimes a sample is worth using so you will make it work. I like sculpting and layering the sound of my snares/kicks because I then get to tailor them to the track in question and I feel like I have more control on the whole.

[JBE]

I usually don't layer any of my drums except for when I want to use a clap and a snare together.Other than that I tend to look for a sound that will work on it's own and then I can usually use an EQ to flush it out where I want it. Even the times when I do end up layering just for effect I usually offset the layered sound so you still can hear the attack of that sound along with the main sample.

The thing is I always feel like I'm doing everything wrong cause when you go and watch videos of the "pros" you see that they are layering everything. One kick Drum is like 3 different samples and one snare can be upwards of 5. I always wonder if maybe I'm just an idiot and I'm not understanding something.

It's not just the drums either. I see people making leads with like 6 layered synths and it all just seems really excessive to me. There's only so many frequencies for sound to occupy. Sometimes I wonder if one person did it for effect years ago and now everyone does it just because they think that's how everything has to be done.

[zosomagik]

I feel your pain JBE. Part of me feels like excessive layering is exactly that, excessive. But part of me feels like I should layer more because I'll be working on a track and be like "damn, this is dope" but then later when I go back and listen to it, it just seems thin and empty. Possibly due to the lack of layering.

[fragments]

Yea...but a lot of those masterclasses and producer vids are kinda misleading in most cases IMO. Most of the time they are only showing you about 10% of what they actually do...not because they are keeping secrets...but the videos are what...like 45 minutes? What can you show someone in 45 minutes?

Hell...yall ever consider that maybe these guys are just like yall and have always heard that you should layer drums or leads so they do it in the video even if it isnt what they actually do...again not to hide anything, but perhaps so they dont look/feel dumb. I am somewhat doubtful of it, but its possible.

I feel like if you are using 5 samples to make on snare you will have to do some aggresive filtering/EQ work or else that snare will be a muddy mess.

[zosomagik]

If I do layer drums, I won't use more than 2 kicks or 3 snares. When I was layering kicks a lot, I would just use something really subby and then something with some smack or nice higher end stuff, but I've been using just saturation on one kick drum to get high end lately.

[leaflet]

Drums are most important part of track IMO. Getting em is sometimes difficult. 3 things to take into consideration:

- always start with great samples.
- try not to layer more than 2-3 hits and make sure they are in dif frequency range
- stay away from things like parallel compression cuz these techniques only works sometimes and shouldn't be used everytime
- only eq and compress if you HAVE to
- ignore the above

LOL

[Covant]

Well I usually have a punchy kick drum layered with a more clicky kick that has more high end. I'll low cut the punchy kick to take out the sub frequencies and low cut the clicky kick a lot more so it doesn't interfere with the first kick. As far as snares go, I usually layer 2 or 3, EQ and compress them each individually very slightly, and then route them all the 1 bus on the mixer and EQ/Compress them together. I compress and EQ them seperately and then together because EQing them seperately allows me to change little details of the final sound. If I have a sample that I really like and has more high end presence but sounds a little muddy in the mid/lows then I can fix that with EQing and compression without having to duck those frequencies in the final sound and make unnecessary changes to the other samples I'm using. I still compress and EQ them all together because it makes it easier to fit the final sound in the mix well. I rarely do very much EQing or compressing on my kicks.

[hirszu]

So far layering both kicks and snares works for me. When it comes to kicks I layer the low and the high sound. With snares I usually take three sounds - low, mid, high, sometimes a fourth one to add a bit of character (could be a subtle cymbal sound to give it slightly more high end, or something crunchy).

I haven't tried parallel compressin yet. But I've read so much about it, not only in this thread. So I guess this will be my goal for the next tune I start making. I always try to introduce a new idea or technique every time a start a tune, to just learn something new and see how it works for me

My mate sent me this article yesterday - maybe someone else will find it useful.
http://www.attackmagazine.com/technique ... ter-drums/

I feel your pain JBE. Part of me feels like excessive layering is exactly that, excessive. But part of me feels like I should layer more because I'll be working on a track and be like "damn, this is dope" but then later when I go back and listen to it, it just seems thin and empty. Possibly due to the lack of layering.

Yeah I have the same problem. Layering synths however seems much harder to me. When you're layering snares, it's easy, you just have to find three snare samples. With synths it's like... Ok, I have one sound, but what's next? You could choose from anything basically. Seems like a pretty long and exhausting job, cause of all the possibilities.
I hadn't done it though, so I maybe wrong. This just scares me away...

Guys, btw, could you suggest any good free drum packs? I know this is a question you hear a lot, but I don't want to download anything I find on the web. I've never really took any effort to create my sample library. I have relatively few sounds and I slowly run out of possibilities.

[ddnnqq]

This is a really great video on layering up snares. I found the pitch envelope part very very useful.

[Genevieve]

The more I layer, the more my advice is.

Make/get great sound and mess around with it.

If you think it needs some more stuff or a certain characteristic in a particular frequency range, add a sound you like that is in that range. EQ this appropriately; this can mean anything.

Then process it well. Again, this can mean anything.

You don't need to know more than this. Some types of processing you'd wanna do is EQ'ing, compressing. transient shaping, or (me especially) saturate/distort.

Don't overthink it. Don't think about what you're just supposed to do. Just make stuff sound good.

[Gewze]

choose drums that are good in the first place, make a beat then accent that with samples and loops. that been my process for the last month of two, i like it. trying slowing down 170 loops and speeding others up, you get some incidentals and accents that give a pattern a new lease of life.

[Gewze]

So far layering both kicks and snares works for me. When it comes to kicks I layer the low and the high sound. With snares I usually take three sounds - low, mid, high, sometimes a fourth one to add a bit of character (could be a subtle cymbal sound to give it slightly more high end, or something crunchy).

I haven't tried parallel compressin yet. But I've read so much about it, not only in this thread. So I guess this will be my goal for the next tune I start making. I always try to introduce a new idea or technique every time a start a tune, to just learn something new and see how it works for me

My mate sent me this article yesterday - maybe someone else will find it useful.
http://www.attackmagazine.com/technique ... ter-drums/

I feel your pain JBE. Part of me feels like excessive layering is exactly that, excessive. But part of me feels like I should layer more because I'll be working on a track and be like "damn, this is dope" but then later when I go back and listen to it, it just seems thin and empty. Possibly due to the lack of layering.

Yeah I have the same problem. Layering synths however seems much harder to me. When you're layering snares, it's easy, you just have to find three snare samples. With synths it's like... Ok, I have one sound, but what's next? You could choose from anything basically. Seems like a pretty long and exhausting job, cause of all the possibilities.
I hadn't done it though, so I maybe wrong. This just scares me away...

Guys, btw, could you suggest any good free drum packs? I know this is a question you hear a lot, but I don't want to download anything I find on the web. I've never really took any effort to create my sample library. I have relatively few sounds and I slowly run out of possibilities.

to your sample question. download every sample you possibly can. it will all come in to play at some point. Just dont take that as me saying download everything willy nilly, you dont need 10 hundred 808 samples

[leaflet]

I don't see what the obsession is with layering drums sounds on top of each other. Yes you can layer a maximum of 2-3 sounds on top of each other if you really want, but it will suck away the dynamics of the sounds if your not careful and will leave you with really dull drums. Better to spend good time searching for the drum sounds that you dream of having in your tracks and gently eqing, compressing and distorting when building the track so as to make them fit. Keep it simple...

[hirszu]

The way I see it, by layering I create a new sound that has never been heard before.

[NinjaEdit]

My current thing is to rip a snare from a break and layer with a machine clap.

Guys, btw, could you suggest any good free drum packs?

Try Goldbaby.

[leaflet]

The track will sound far better if you keep layering to a minimal. If you do layer here is a little tip. Bring the drums together with 'glue' by layering them with a hi-pass break or some noise/atmosphere. Sounds tasty but doesn't always work.