Drums, drums and more drums?

[EnjoyRC]

I seem to have plenty of great drum samples with HALion Sonic, Ableton Live Suite, Stylus RMX, and hardware devices like my Korg M3. What I seem to strugle with often is getting that right feeling beat for a certain project. Is there a VSTi that will assist with creating drum beats, fills, intros, etc.. for various types of music genres. I have a wide array of needs, from New Age to rock, worship, etc.. Hopefully it has a human feel instead of so drum machine feeling.

Long ago, I used Stenberg's Groove Agent. Never upgraded to GA2 or GA3. And while my currently installed Stylus RMX sounds absolutely fantastic, it all seems to be a bit hardcore. I feel like I've auditioned nearly every beat in there. And there doesn't seem to be many normal beats. All obscure.

Any suggestions?

[aizo]

Man there is no magic plug I can think of. But there is plenty of hope! My 3 biggest pieces of advice to you would be to use lots of dynamics when programing your drums. After creating your skeleton beat, turn the damn grid off and put some accents that are slightly before or after the beat(depending on what you're goin for) and finally use Live's groove pool. A little swing will add lots of flavor!!!

[alekst1923]

have you tried the Ableton grooves?

[EnjoyRC]

have you tried the Ableton grooves?

I have not. Not sure what they offer.

[The Leveller]

Swing baby, swing!

Groove is useful but don't underestimate the power of velocity variation. We had a discussion recently where you can set up a drum ki and beat and the slide a Random and Velocity 'add some random' plug in front to randomise your hits and humaise your beats.

You can always go in later and tweak them, but its great to keep your beat interesting while you work.

In terms of sounds themselves i think it's horses for courses really, depends what type of music you want to make etc. but you certainly have enough options in your arsenal, you must be able to mak them work with that amount of choice!

Although, there is an argument that says too muich choice is a bad thing. perhspas try and lmit yoursle f to one choice and really really work the beast to make your beats work.

That said, I am a big fan of audio samples either from packs or snipped from recordings. I love working with the audio, slap them in a simpler/sampler and off you go.

[EnjoyRC]

Although, there is an argument that says too muich choice is a bad thing. perhspas try and lmit yoursle f to one choice and really really work the beast to make your beats work.

That use to be Steinberg's Groove Agent for me. It did all my drums. For my upcoming projects, I just wasn't sure if I should go for Groove Agent 3, Or something else. I'm not a drummer. I hate it when my drums don't sound human. My original intent for Stylus RMX was for it to me my main 'Go To' drums. But, even with all the expansions available for it, I don't think it touches on my music styles enough.

Thanx for everyone's input in this thread. Exactly the talk and ideas I need to help me work this out.

[3phase]

i ve heard that NI´s Machine gives a pretty impressiv beat creating plug in.. with associated hardware control...

[EnjoyRC]

i ve heard that NI´s Machine gives a pretty impressiv beat creating plug in.. with associated hardware control...

Thanx for your reply. How much of that price tag is for the hardware? I'm really interested in just a VSTi to assist with drum track creation.

[Nick Shepherd]

get Maschine & learn structures of the genres you are working in

I mean there are certain "rules" that apply that you have to be aware of and that you have to figure out, but on the other hand - anything goes as long as it sounds good to you and your happy with it.

totally love the hands on workflow that Maschine provides - it was a total game-changer for my drum programming

[bicarbone]

Toontrack's EZdrummer!

[milesahead]

you already have drumracks to your disposal,
you have simpler, impulse and instrument racks, right?
then, having RMX, is also a nice weapon.
find the one that suits you best,
that should do the trick.

just load some samples and try to set up a reasonable amount of drumracks,
impulses or instrument racks,
that you want to work with.
and forget about all the rest for a moment.

as been said, too much choice isn`t a good thing,
you get lost in the possibilities.

so, my advice is to make up a certain workflow, that you follow,
(until you find a better one, and have it replaced) -
but stay with one thing you learned, and judged to be worth using it -
and use it to really make music.

and to help you finding your way of working, see youtube or some tutorials from
other users that produce "your" genre of sound.
that will give you an idea on where to start.

that was the best way for me to get out of the circle where i would
try out 1000 different things, and never really made it to make some good music out of it.

if you keep on practicing, (as if you leared an instrument) -
wich kind of is true -
you`ll be able to come up with some progress.
hopefully, you find your way,
also, there`s plenty of stuff available, just using ableton live.

cheers

[EnjoyRC]

@milesahead,
Thank you so much for your input. Even though I know Live well, there are some areas that I haven't touched. I need to investigate those areas tonight.

[seattletruth]

I suggest watching Groove 3's tutorial on house drums. It doesn't apply just to house. It could help you a lot... good series.

[Observer-A]

Toontrack's EZdrummer!

^This

This is a great all around plug. When I make breaks on my V-drums with EZ most people think they are acoustic recordings.

[EnjoyRC]

Toontrack's EZdrummer!

I did it.. and I love it! Wow... the human feel is mind blowing. So easy to set up. And also easy to modify. You can get 90% if the way to what you want, then make those final intricate tweaks.

thank you so much for the suggestion.