Drums more Man than Machine

October 11, 2007 4:44 PM

How can I make my drums sound more real and more human in Reason?

I'm currently without a drummer but I'd still like to have drum parts to play over, so I decided to try using Reason to program some drum tracks. I have soundbanks and patches where the individual sounds sound very real and good, but whenever I try to program them the part ends up sounding pretty bad. For instance, I can never create a hi-hat part that doesn't sound artificial, and everything else just sounds like it's being played by a machine. What are some tips and tricks to make programmed drum parts sound real and human?

posted by god particle to media & arts (11 comments total)

Vary the dynamics in the hi hat part, avoid 16th note and even 8th note hi hat parts.

Don't quantize it too perfectly, either. But really, volume dynamics are they key. And don't be afraid to use the hi-hat pedal sound in lieu of a hi-hat hit sometimes.
posted by The World Famous at 4:47 PM on October 11, 2007

You've probably seen this.
But at the very end they mention note by note recording/editing. There are quite a few really good drum sequencing guys over at MeFiMusic who could e-mail, if you don't get your answers here. In fact you could post your "experiments" over there for some good feedback.
posted by snsranch at 4:53 PM on October 11, 2007

Flapjax's comment here is some pretty solid advice!
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:16 PM on October 11, 2007

Play your drum part manually on a midi keyboard (or a midikeys computer keyboard midi keyboard) one or two fingers at a time. If it's close enough, leave it. If it's too far off the beat, then quantize it less than 100%. Do a few tests quantizing it varying amounts until it's just wrong enough in a way that feels right.
posted by umbú at 6:00 PM on October 11, 2007

have you considered using some loops/pre-recorded drum samples? Especially if you are just filling in until you get a real drummer, seems like the best way. You don't have to leave them as they are, either. Get creative, chop them up, rearrange them, effect them, time-stretch, layer them. Etc and so forth.
posted by Espoo2 at 6:31 PM on October 11, 2007

As well as all the good advice above to mess things up, three things;

- Remember how many arms and legs a drummer has and never use more hits at a time than a drummer could physically do. Sounds kind of duh obvious but you'd be amazed at how many don't do this and how can't-quite-put-your-finger-on-it weird it makes tracks sound. Hi-hat, snare and crash? I don't think so!

- If you can, do some time behind a kit to get a feel for how you would really drum yourself. Helps you get a feel for your drum sound if your head is using stuff it'd really play were it to be sitting at the back of a band with sticks in hand wondering why rest of body looks good while belly slowly expands...

- Push the crashes back a little bit so your bass pedal hits just before the crash. Real drummers do this naturally. Sequencing packages invariably don't.
posted by merocet at 6:50 PM on October 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

if you're samples are good enough sounding as is i'd just play them in manually on the keyboard, one at a time (cos i'm unco-ordinated) to get a loose timing feel, and then play around with the volumes/velocity of various hits - make sure the velocity of each hit isn't constant. also, panning, keep the kick and snare centre, pan the high hat to one side, and the cymbals to the other - but not too wide. i think subtlety is the key to make it all sound human rather than disjointed and robotised.

I recall getting a great loose drum sound by using samples of three differnt brush hits of a snare, and randomly playing either hit whenever i wanted to hear a snare hit, try the same for each drum sound - kick, snare, highhat, crash. a lot sample libraries have numerous varietions of each drum hit.

the best way to make a drum kit not sound like its being played by a machine is to play it yourself though, either on a real kit, or samples on a keyboard - dont over quantise it.
posted by robotot at 7:58 PM on October 11, 2007

If you're recording this, you can get a more "present" room sound by just playing your all-electronic track(s) back over the monitors and mic'ing the room. Of course, depending on your sound, studio, and samples, it also might be counterproductive.
posted by electric_counterpoint at 8:56 PM on October 11, 2007

I use Tracktion, not Reason, but some of these techniques might still be useful to you:

- Try applying a very light chorus or flanger effect to a drum track to create variation in the sound over time.

- Try panning drum sounds somewhat left or right.

- As robotot suggested, try alternating between multiple samples of the same drum sound.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:46 PM on October 11, 2007

I wrote a post about this topic a few years ago. A bit out of date and repeats some of the above info, but still relevant.

I still use FruityLoops for drums tracks on all my recordings.
posted by scottandrew at 12:00 AM on October 12, 2007

It'll cost you a hundred bucks at best, but Oberheim's Drummer module is pretty friggin' kickass.
posted by Reggie Digest at 11:01 PM on November 9, 2007