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Just shooting off some ideas and questions about using the right drums with the right types of samples or sounds. This is based on the beattips manual and my own experience.
How do you develop the knack for choosing the right drums for a beat? It obviously depends on the other samples and or sounds.
From what I learned from the beattips manual soft or medium kicks are effective for beats with extensive compositional arrangements and sample based beats that feature highly creative uses of samples. Soft kicks are also effective for beats in which the frequency levels range mostly from mid to high. Hard kicks work well for beats with simple melodies and minimal changes, also low bass driven/synthetic sounds based beats.
All the drums I choose for a beat are based on this knowledge. I don't worry about the hi hats or snares I just focus on the kicks (this is because all the drums I use are from the same drum kit or break) when choosing the right drums for the sample.
All my core drum programs are separated into two categories (1) Hard Kits, (2) Soft/medium kits.
I then decide which drum program to use based on what the sample is. If it is a bass heavy sample I will trial and error the hard kits in my library, if it is a guitar sample I will trial and error the soft/medium kits in my library.
I'm gonna list out some more examples that come to mind and tell you my decisions based on them. It would be great to get any input on what other's do, or other successful combinations you guys have experienced or any other insights at all.
1. Piano samples seem to be strange to me, I study other people's beats as well as my own and it seems both hard and soft/medium kits can work with piano samples.
2. A lot of the time samples will have a variety of different instruments in them, in these cases I choose my drum sounds based on the most dominant sound in the sample. The sound that is the loudest and/or featured the most.
3. Another thing to note is that I judge whether a drum kit is hard or soft/medium by the kick drum, but essentially I'm just making an educated guess. I would say that "when the levee breaks" by Led Zeppelin is an examples of a hard kit, an example of a soft/medium kit would be Al Greens "i'm so glad your mine". Would you guys agree? What about the "apache" break? I've categorised it as a hard kit but have had success using it with a guitar sample which I usually use with soft/medium kits.
4. With mid to high frequency samples I will always use a soft/medium kit.
5. If a sample is complex in it's arrangement (lots of different instruments and very active I will usually use a soft/medium kit.
6. I've noticed as a sample based beatmaker I tend to use the soft/medium kits in my library more than the hard kits, is this the same for you guys or not really?
7. I also make my drum choices based on what instruments are in the sample, guitar samples I will use soft/medium kits, I've had success with hard kits with trumpet samples but need to experiment with these types of samples more, most wind instruments I use soft/medium kits though, like flutes and such because of their higher frequency ranges. Any records with weird synth sounds I will use hard kits.
So basically my process for choosing the right drums is analysing the sample for what instruments or sounds it has and figuring out what type of frequencies are the most dominant. Also I consider the complexity and the general activity level of the arrangement, then choose either a hard or soft/medium drum kit based on my analysis, I gave a few examples above.
I wonder which is more important though? The frequency of the sounds in the sample, or the complexity of the arrangement when deciding on a hard or soft/medium drum kit. From my experience it would be the frequency ranges but i'm sure it is a combination of both.
I'd like to know how other's approach this, if they agree or disagree or do some parts differently, any insights from your guys experience. I'll continue to add to this topic as things come up for me as well.
How do you develop the knack for choosing the right drums for a beat? It obviously depends on the other samples and or sounds.
From what I learned from the beattips manual soft or medium kicks are effective for beats with extensive compositional arrangements and sample based beats that feature highly creative uses of samples. Soft kicks are also effective for beats in which the frequency levels range mostly from mid to high. Hard kicks work well for beats with simple melodies and minimal changes, also low bass driven/synthetic sounds based beats.
All the drums I choose for a beat are based on this knowledge. I don't worry about the hi hats or snares I just focus on the kicks (this is because all the drums I use are from the same drum kit or break) when choosing the right drums for the sample.
All my core drum programs are separated into two categories (1) Hard Kits, (2) Soft/medium kits.
I then decide which drum program to use based on what the sample is. If it is a bass heavy sample I will trial and error the hard kits in my library, if it is a guitar sample I will trial and error the soft/medium kits in my library.
I'm gonna list out some more examples that come to mind and tell you my decisions based on them. It would be great to get any input on what other's do, or other successful combinations you guys have experienced or any other insights at all.
1. Piano samples seem to be strange to me, I study other people's beats as well as my own and it seems both hard and soft/medium kits can work with piano samples.
2. A lot of the time samples will have a variety of different instruments in them, in these cases I choose my drum sounds based on the most dominant sound in the sample. The sound that is the loudest and/or featured the most.
3. Another thing to note is that I judge whether a drum kit is hard or soft/medium by the kick drum, but essentially I'm just making an educated guess. I would say that "when the levee breaks" by Led Zeppelin is an examples of a hard kit, an example of a soft/medium kit would be Al Greens "i'm so glad your mine". Would you guys agree? What about the "apache" break? I've categorised it as a hard kit but have had success using it with a guitar sample which I usually use with soft/medium kits.
4. With mid to high frequency samples I will always use a soft/medium kit.
5. If a sample is complex in it's arrangement (lots of different instruments and very active I will usually use a soft/medium kit.
6. I've noticed as a sample based beatmaker I tend to use the soft/medium kits in my library more than the hard kits, is this the same for you guys or not really?
7. I also make my drum choices based on what instruments are in the sample, guitar samples I will use soft/medium kits, I've had success with hard kits with trumpet samples but need to experiment with these types of samples more, most wind instruments I use soft/medium kits though, like flutes and such because of their higher frequency ranges. Any records with weird synth sounds I will use hard kits.
So basically my process for choosing the right drums is analysing the sample for what instruments or sounds it has and figuring out what type of frequencies are the most dominant. Also I consider the complexity and the general activity level of the arrangement, then choose either a hard or soft/medium drum kit based on my analysis, I gave a few examples above.
I wonder which is more important though? The frequency of the sounds in the sample, or the complexity of the arrangement when deciding on a hard or soft/medium drum kit. From my experience it would be the frequency ranges but i'm sure it is a combination of both.
I'd like to know how other's approach this, if they agree or disagree or do some parts differently, any insights from your guys experience. I'll continue to add to this topic as things come up for me as well.
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