Audiotool board archive

hi ford

Percussion is something I always struggle with. I never feel like drum machines are expressive enough for percussion.

Percussion is supposed to be on top of everything in music wise.

@noirgreyson yeah i can feel that occasionally, loading some rando foley into a machiniste and messing around with patterns can be really inspiring though, you can make some really cool sounds that way. especially if you use organic stuff like sticks crunching/pen clicking/water drops

Im with Pen in terms of percs

it's my fav part

A really fun thing to experiment with is odd groupings; groupings of 5, 7, 9, 11, etc in sixteenth notes or triplets. It's kinda odd sounding at first but once you get used to it you can add a lot of rhythmic complexity to your beats and/or melodies. A reeeaally good jazz drummer who does this well is Ari Hoenig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyKSL-9kpOg
^ in that video he's playing in 5/4 but at some points is doing groupings of 7 in 8th note triplets while keeping a 32 bar form. It verges on not being very musical but he makes it flow super well.

Just random niche jazz drummer stuff, hope it could be interesting at least :)

I'd really appreciate if VLTRA or Mourn shed some light on this topic. Their tracks have some of the best percussion on this site.

i think someone should create a group separate to trap samples, because a lot of them seem the same and trap on audiotool needs more discussion. for example most trap producers on here only use other peoples samples, leads, and even 808s. this gets boring.

here's some things i do (might update if i feel like it)

• offsetting things by 1/128 sounds pretty cool
• going on freesound and searching some random word can lead to some great stuff (ex. "watermelon" gives you a snare, shaker and kick drum)
• upload your own samples. most of the public ones aren't that great, and the ones that are get boring
• play around with the pitch and filter in the machiniste. you can make some really cool sounding stuff.

For kicks and snares a always layer like 3 or 4 oneshots to create a very good sounding kick/snare. It takes some time to get used to it, but u can create amazing percs this way. I mostly make neurofunk-like stuff so i mostly want heavy kicks and snares.

If a Machiniste sample has some unwanted reverb on the end of it, you can use the knob titled "Env. Slope" to trim it to have a less abrupt ending.

on the machiniste once you plug in your pattern you can drag down on the squares to make the noises softer, good if you feel the drums sound to generic cuz theyre all the same volume xD
everyone already knows this tho probably

if you want a nice crispy snare / clap hit, layer a snap or rimshot over a snap and offset it by 1/128. gives it really good texture!

also i agree w @ultimabruh messing w the velocity of kicks gives a nice feel to your percs, especially when working with lofi. having a basic kick snare beat is great but if your want it to pop a little more, place a kick about 1/16T behind the snare and turn down the velocity to give it some bounce :)

on the topic of kicks, switching between 2 or 3 kicks makes them sound a lot more dynamic as well

if you're going to a lazy lofi sound, you can keep the kick and snare on beat but offset your hat or shaker pattern by 1/128 or even 1/64 to give it some bounce and make it feel like the overlaid percs are catching up with the main kick/snare pattern.

The world does not have to only exist in 4/4. 6/8 trap? Interesting.
Something obvious, but I think loads of people, myself included, get tunnel vision when it comes to time signatures.

@savvage I'm trying my hand at some 5/4 stuff.

Maybe shakers for hi hats in 20% shuffle with a rasselbock for 1/2 speed (for more deepness)

ayyyyeee

When using 808s try putting and 808 one shot into a Machiniste then create a note track. After that place down a pitch track and there ya go...

I've often found a lot of inspiration for finding beats, patterns and references for drum sounds on the masterclasses of the "Drumeo" YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/freedrumlessons

Talking a lot about offsetting things. What would be the best way to do that?

@slay11 copy your machiniste pattern to a note track, change your grid snap to 1/128, and move certain percs slightly forward or backward. sounds good on hihats.

You can also offset the pattern itself.

How do ya get this started

What's the basic pattern for riddim I'm kinda struggling on that any advice would be much appreciated

Random thing that sounds cool: delay 3/8 or 3/16 on hi hats

I like to stick with a few decent-sounding drums for each genre so i know exactly which oneshots to get when making a beat

i primarly stay with drum's and chorus seem's to add flavor to certain tracks that you may be making idk just my thoughts but i mean you guy's can do whatever though i do love the drums and chorus maybe a little dubstep up in there a little lol.

Integrating ghost notes does wonders for a cooler-sounding beat. If you've got a simple beat, like kick snare kick snare, or something along those lines, ghost notes for the snare really help fill in the blanks in some areas, and help your drums achieve a special complex-sounding flare. Another thing is just messing around with odd placement of percs in general. I do a lot of experimental stuff, which this is especially good for. Moving a kick slightly sooner or later in a beat will make the difference between a simple beat and a complicated beat, and that goes for any other bit of percussion. In terms of general arranging, I'd say start with the kick, then add the snare, then add any other small percs into your beat, like hihats or something.

This is an example of ghost notes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdoKq0t2PBo