Adding some snap to drums

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:29 am

Layer-in an identical drum and/or kit pitch-shifted up a bit. Adjust the balance of the layered drum(s) to get the sound you're after.

This technique works surprisingly well.

Royston

dj_yaron · Post by **dj_yaron** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:38 am

Nice trick ! Thanks.
I'd also EQ the additional layer to taste

Post by **hubird** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:59 am

Hi CP, I did that in my latest song Bazurk (now called Last Tango).

It's a nice trick indeed, because you get nice variation possibilities, by filtering or eq-ing one of both drum tracks, without drifting away from the initial idea too much

F.e., in the intro you can hear the 'original' beat, but with a highcut filter applied.
Then, after a while, both beats together take it over.
Also you can hear several res-filtered fills built from that beat.
cheers.

Post by **garyb** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:17 pm

add a little distortion.....

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 6:57 am

or a little bitcrushing

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 7:33 am

Fun topic!

With a compressor: raise attack time untill the initial snap of the drum gets through uncompressed.

Using expansion of the highest levels with a short attack and quick release.

By EQ: You can amplify the initial snap of a Kickdrum by raising some higher frequency levels - the snap has a high frequency. Sometimes a hihat can by made less snappy by cutting some lower freq's (HPF?), where the initial tapping of the stick is.

DIY: Hook up an envelope follower (the one from Flexor is very fast), half-invert it. Now let that amp-modulate the drum sound. For example with a ringmodulator, VCA or even AmpMod. Congrats, you've made yourself a compressor

Want an expander? Get rid of the Half-Invertor.
Now you could cut the lows or the highs before the EnvFollower's input. This will make compression only react to the remaining frequencies. There's a topic on cross-over, so you can even do multi-band dynamics with that.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 9:14 am

I found that after adding the pitch-shited drum(s) and tweaking the relative levels (this affected the pitch/tone of the drum as well as the added snap), for the snare particularly I needed to then re-adjust the compressor settings to squeeze off a some of the additional snap that was created.

I found it worked well for all of the percussive elements; snare, bass, hats and cymbals although they each needed a different amount of pitch adjustment, relative levels, compressor tweaks etc. Different qualities of the sound can be enhanced/improved; presense & brightness as well as the "snap" of the drum.

In comparison, I found that more subtle changes could be made using this technique than e.g. using the Transient Designer.

Royston

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 9:44 am

fantastic reading, you fellas

Can't add anything, really - except for hit 'em harder

(in a martial arts kinda way

)

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 9:50 am

To confess, it was a suggestion from a friend-of-a-friend. His thinking was, "if I can layer more oscillators in a synth to create a thicker patch, why not drums?"

Bingo!

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 10:09 am

Sound reasoning, sir!

emzee · Post by **emzee** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:34 am

I've just started triple tracking and shifting one track forward and one back to thicken the sound. EQ on those adds nice timbre. Hadn't tried the pitch shift. Thanks for that..........Anyone tried these techniques on vocals?

Faxi Nadu · Post by **Faxi Nadu** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 5:41 pm

Hey great stuff,
Just want to add stereo detune works great on anything not just on drums. Try with synths, instead of the usual detuning of 2-3 oscs for sound, try panning 1 osc left, another to the right and then detuning.

Faxi Nadu · Post by **Faxi Nadu** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 5:42 pm

@ Atomic -

You rock, thanks for another great and clear explanation and tips.