forums : Producing

Snappy drums

I realise I have been asking the wrong questions in relation to the way I want my drums to sound.

I want my drums to be snappy. U know, with a little bit of smack to them so u can feel the peaks punching through but I have tried every concievable trick to get the to sound the way I want but have not yielded anything successful. I guess its the learning process but I'd appreciate it if u could put an end to the circles I have been running in.

I am looking for this sound in particular. The really snappy drums in this song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLvbV4BVyE4

[ blackadonis - 16 Jan 2010 06:52 ]

Re: Snappy drums

proper layering of certain samples and EQing gives you some good snap, with maybe some compression. Battery is pretty good too, try it out.

Re: Snappy drums

Yeah I have tried layering different drums ontop of my snare but they sound out of place. I dont know how I am meant to do it. I use envelopes to gate the snare I want to layer ontop of my amen and then play them together but it doesnt sound right. i have tried countless samples but still nothing. I tried paralell compression and had a really hard compressed amen on a seperate track but it still sounds weak. Maybe I'm using the wrong attack\release\threshold settings?

Re: Snappy drums

I've found that hits ripped off of vinyl breaks have the proper amount of thwomp

Which reminds me, I need to get to cutting... only rex'd 10% of that all the breaks cd i bought

Re: Snappy drums

If you want crisp, snappy breaks, first you need a pristine recording of that break. Then process it in a way that doesn't completely destroy the dynamics, and make sure the other elements in the tune don't interfere too greatly with the key frequencies in the drums (i.e. 100Hz kick, 200Hz snare, etc.). You probably don't want to compress all that much - the more you compress, the thinner and less snappy your source material will become, no matter how loud it is.

On the general production tip, lately I've been layering synthetic house kicks and house/breaks snares beneath my other kick and snare samples. It adds a lot of meat, and then you can contrast the tonality of the synthetic hits with breaks, etc. You can do this without overpowering meaty synthetic sounds...

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According to blackadonis ...

I realise I have been asking the wrong questions in relation to the way I want my drums to sound.

I want my drums to be snappy. U know, with a little bit of smack to them so u can feel the peaks punching through but I have tried every concievable trick to get the to sound the way I want but have not yielded anything successful. I guess its the learning process but I'd appreciate it if u could put an end to the circles I have been running in.

I am looking for this sound in particular. The really snappy drums in this song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLvbV4BVyE4


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Re: Snappy drums

Also, if you do use compression, make the attack slower than you normally set it. This will allow the transient of the drum (the snappy part) to play through before the rest of the drum sound gets compressed. This can make your drums sound a bit snappier since by compressing (aka lowering the volume) the rest of the drum sound, you are making the transient more apparent. Play with your settings on the compressor to dial in the sound.

Re: Snappy drums

devoe dropping the knowledge


re read his post for the secret to snappy

Re: Snappy drums

phrantek and devoe are spot on.

I like to add a hint of distortion as well to give it an extra pop, but mixing your drums/layering properly (with quality sounds), and compression is the key.