help me find some cool drum sounds

May 5, 2008 10:29 PM

ProducerFilter: i'm looking for inspiration and influences for my drum sounds. what electronic/dance/rap producers have interesting, unique, forward-looking drum sounds?

my band does something pretty much no one else does (we're based in bali and mix electronic music with traditional indonesia instruments and percussion, but don't worry about that too much - i'm not nessesarily looking for something that "matches" that idea or anything) and as the band's producer/beatmaker i want to get beyond the standard 808/909/electro/minimal/crunk sounds and make some beats that just as unique as our concept. however, most of the producers i can think of with really unique drum sounds (neptunes, timbaland, deadmau5 etc) are already famous to the point of ubiquity, and thus would make lousy influences. so who out there haven't i heard of yet who has really unique drum sounds? fwiw i'm probably not looking for anything too harsh, i'm not sure just what i *am* looking for but i'm pretty sure industrial/glitch-y stuff wouldn't really work for us...

as i'm based in indonesia, where there are no decent record shops, it would help immensely if i can find examples of these artists on the web (juno clips will do in a pinch, bonus points if i can buy them on beatport or download them via soulseek)

also recommendations for virtual instruments, sample cd's or obscure drum machines might also be helpful.

posted by messiahwannabe to media & arts (6 comments total)

i'm pretty sure industrial/glitch-y stuff wouldn't really work for us

That's where most of the freshest beats are in my opinion - going by your request for "really unique drum sounds."

So if you don't want to go that way though, why don't you go the other way - more melodic beats. So, for example, a quick guitar strum and deep hum would make up the backbone of a beat.

Sample everything! Speed it up, slow it down, reverse it, layer it, delay it, granularize it, -- that's your key to coming up with "really unique drum sounds" make everything in your kit - YOURS. Own it.

Some favorite drum machines:

MachineDrum - glitchy wonderful goodness
Monomachine - more than just a drum machine - it's lovely (yes I heart elecktron)
RS7000 - an excellent sampling beat workstation

and just for fun: midines. better demo - buy here.
posted by bigmusic at 11:15 PM on May 5, 2008

Do you read createdigitalmusic? The question you're asking is what CDM was created for. Also check out the forums.

Glitch, chiptunes, (using Gameboys, Ataris, NES's and the like) and circuitbending are all on the forefront right now; that's the hot area to explore if you're trying to be on the leading edge. Also, it's only as harsh as you make it. Chiptunes especially lends itself to playful and high-energy beats.

Also on the chiptunes angle, I believe both the MachineDrum and the Monomachine (yes, I heart Elektron too) feature SID chips, which are considered prime analogue oscillators with the bonus of coming from old Comodore64s. So analogue synth+chiptunes=awesome.
posted by lekvar at 11:41 PM on May 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I believe both the MachineDrum and the Monomachine (yes, I heart Elektron too) feature SID chips...

Machinedrum does not have a SID chip but has great synthesis capabilities, Monomachine has SID emulation.

You might be thinking of the SidStation, which does have the MOS6581 chip from the commodore 64's.
posted by bigmusic at 11:17 AM on May 6, 2008

i tried to respond before, but my computer crashed mid-answer. anyway thanks for the suggestions guys!
posted by messiahwannabe at 10:37 PM on May 6, 2008

You might look here if you haven't yet.
posted by lekvar at 10:15 AM on May 7, 2008

I'm waiting for nu skool break kits to make a comeback.

Modeselektor has the drums down, especially the release with Pfadfinderei. Some examples: 1 and 2. Really it's just about with tweaking what you got, fiddling the knobs till you have that unique balance that shatters the uniform sound of the staple kit you downloaded.

And some in drums in dnb, tech, and electro.

As far as hip hop drumming goes, they haven't sounded good in years.
posted by ageispolis at 7:39 AM on June 13, 2008