just what is available right in your hand in front of you . I mean if Radiohead had released the samples used in Kid A , I would have used them on everything I ’ ve ever recorded . That would have been my alarm clock in the morning . It changed my whole life .
All of that to say , I LOVE a real drum kit sound . It ’ s very hard to replace the actual feel of a drummer live . So when I ’ m recording , I might hear a drum sound and realize the snare sound that was recorded was perfect for one song , but not the next one . So , I ’ ll take a sample of mine that is a higher pitched crack , and layer it on the snare that was tracked to add that sonic layer we didn ’ t have before .
You can make utilizing drum samples whatever you want it to be and just let your imagination run wild . It is not an indication of inability to do anything , it allows your imagination to not be cut off by what ’ s available physically right in front of you . When you hear samples others have created or used in a recording , you get to hear exactly what inspires them and how they think about music . That ’ s why I love creating samples on MultiTracks . com . I ’ m honored to be a part of people projects and creative process . You can
check out my drum samples here .
HOW TO USE A DRUM MACHINE - BOTTEGA
Grant Konemann and Benjamin Tennikoff
Whether it ’ s a Roland SPD-SX or any other branded drum machine designed with pads to be hit with drumsticks , learning to use it well is quite easy . It ’ s also heaps of fun .
Load some sounds using the product manual - most come with generic built-in sounds . Think about an orientation that ’ s natural to you and assign pads accordingly . We recommend sticking with a consistent format as best as you can . For us , we ’ ll throw a kick on the bottom left pad , snare on the bottom middle , closed hats on the bottom right and open hats middle right . Toms and percussion usually go along the top .
Good samples are typically at a healthy volume but won ’ t be matched to one another . I ’ ve learned to run my sounds at around 80 % of their volume so that louder sounds can be dropped and quieter sounds have a little headroom to be boosted up to 100 . Also I have found that high frequency sounds like Hi-Hats or snares are much louder live and in a venue than they are when listening on headphones , so I often have those sounds sitting about 30-40 % lower than the kicks , etc .
Another trick is to consider whether you actually want dynamics in the sound … i . e . you may not want anything but a steady , reliable clap . Turn the dynamics off and you ’ ll get that clap smacking just right every time , instead of it fluctuating and risking sounding average .
Don ’ t try to play beats that are wildly complicated . You have four limbs on a real kit but just two sticks playing the parts on a drum machine . Put time into considering how small changes impact the feel and spend time having fun digging deeper with the beat . You ’ re bound to find something interesting and creative that you would not have come up with behind an acoustic kit .