Question About Drum Sequencing

[Stooper_Dave]

I'm a guitar player in the process of recording a solo album from my house. I've made all the drums for my songs using a midi sequencer. How do I go about making the drums sound real instead of like they come from a Nintendo game? I've seen where I can download real sounding drum samples. So I guess what I'm asking is how do I get my computer to trigger those sounds instead of the cheesy computer generated sounds? I hope this makes sense. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Hope Leaves]

there are several drum sample libraries out there, which host a large amount of realistic samples which can be triggered via midi, I personally use EZDrummer by toontrack, which is a slightly simplified versiong of their drumkit from hell series which as far as I'm aware is discontinued while they work on the release of superior drummer 2. but there are more options available, a quick google search on drum vsti's should point you in the right direction

[pdalmolin]

I'll tell you what to do....GET REAL! Real drums that is... I can play drum tracks for your songs and take the load off of you to figure out what to program, what sounds to use, how to make it not sound like a robot, etc...
tell ya what...go to my website Realstudiodrums.com, check it out and I'll play your first song FREE! any song you want. If you don't like it...don't use it. If you do, use me. The simple American way....

[richiebee]

What sequencer are you using Stooper? What style of music?

I wouldn't be without Superior Custom & Vintage, but I got some good sounding drums even from one of Garritan's libraries. A good comprehensive library with sounds that are at least close to what you're shooting for should be a starting point.

[pdalmolin]

In my humble opinion/experience, you can spend lots of money chasing samplers and libraries (I own Halion, Gigastudio3, BFD) and still not compare to real drums. I've constructed many a frankenstein drum track in an effort to find the holy grail of midi drums. In the end it's always still a monster, and not a pretty one. In some cases the monster is cool if you want that sort of thing, but every song...the whole album?...
I even have Drumagog and never use it anymore. There is NOTHING like a real (good)drummer playing a real (good sounding)drumkit in a good sounding room and capturing that performance.
.....If your set on doing it midi, I'd go with BFD. It's the easiest to use and the best sounding (using the term "best" loosly)...
Yes, I have a real studio drum service but, my replies to this stream are not only for self gain. I'm truly trying to share with people my road long traveled. Finally coming to this "Real is it" conclusion.
Sincerely...good luck!

[richiebee]

Originally Posted by pdalmolin

I've constructed many a frankenstein drum track in an effort to find the holy grail of midi drums. In the end it's always still a monster, and not a pretty one.

Just because you suck at it doesn't mean it can't be done.

I'm curious to know what you think is so special about a real player that can't be replicated in MIDI, because listening to the samples on your site, I'm not hearing anything. Programming good drums requires good samples and an understanding of what drives the beat. Knowing stylistic nuances, swing/microgrooves also helps. It can be done well in MIDI.

Don't get me wrong, I think your business is a good idea, but its not the only valid solution for people who don't have access to a real drummer.

There is NOTHING like a real (good)drummer playing a real (good sounding)drumkit in a good sounding room and capturing that performance.

I won't argue that in an ideal world, real musicians should always be your first choice, but it's certainly not always practical, appropriate or necessary, and it can be an inflexible way of working (the last piece I wrote had 12 tempo changes and 7 time signature changes... and it was only 1 minute 42 seconds long, but it had to sync frame accurately to picture).

Prove your worth - add your drums to the attached, and lets see if it added $100 more to the value of the song than my MIDI drums.


By the way, I was browsing through your site and notice that you accept AIFF files, but not WAV files, and your reasoning is that WAV's are uncompressed and too big. Do you not know that WAV and AIFF are essentially the same format? They just have different header information. File sizes would be very similar. Also, what kind of format do you send back the files if you don't accept uncompressed wavs?

Looks like you need a new web host with a greater bandwidth. Bluehost offers 1500 Gb of storage, plus 15,000Gb of monthly transfer bandwidth for $7 a month. That's pretty darned cheap. They offer a fantastic interface too.

[pdalmolin]

I just had my site newly revamped. I know aiff is just another format for wav. The guy who did my site doesn't know about audio, and I missed it... you got me, I'll need to correct that. Thanks for telling me.
On the other hand, I have built some decent midi drum tracks because I am a drummer and I do understand quite a few techniques for making midi drums happen. Bravo to those who can. I'm basically talking to those who can't. Sorry if I stepped on your midi capabilities. You're right, my service is not the only thing that can be done, BUT for most, it IS the way to go. Most guys don't even know what a tempo map, or swing factor is much less how to build it.
I'd be thrilled to play to your track it sounds great... can't get to it until monday. I'll post what i do...
Thanks for the advice about bluehost, I'll check them out...

[richiebee]

No offence taken man... I look forward to hearing your drums on my file - an interesting test for sure.

[pdalmolin]

Hey Richiebee, Here is my Realstudiodrums to you Soul Power midi tracks. They were fun to play to. I think the real drums pushing the fill just a tad at the 4th measure add some excitement and on a clients tracks I wouldn't put the flashy double kick lick at the end. But, this is "flashy demo" so I did it! Your organ sounds great! ...well your whole track for that matter...

[richiebee]

Sounds great man!! I don't think its over the top at all... it is an intro afterall. It's not like it would be taking away from the vocals. The drums are mixed a tad loud, but I can understand you'd want to do that so we can hear the drums with added clarity.

The mix of the drums themselves is really good. Any chance you can do a quick mix with the drums a little lower? It'd be good to have a side by side comparison that lets you hear them in context.

Here's my MIDI version...

http://forum.recordingreview.com/att...i-midireal.mp3

Would it be worth me paying $100 for your version? Dunno... I really like what you did. Maybe it would be worth it. What do people think?