improve drums, better heavy kicks, less harsh hats

[Leejohnson222]

here is my drum loop

http://www.sendspace.com/file/55wr5y

i have them in sections, cld hats, open hats, kick, snare,

maybe its missing some percussion to give it a hooky feel,
the kick is just not heavy enough, need it to punch and have weight,
also i never like the hats, always sound too harsh, not enough swish,

i can change the samples used but what advise would anyone offer?

[102455]

Suggestions. Use individually or together. Experiment!

need it to punch and have weight

Compress it, add low end EQ, transpose it down, give it a sharper attack (edit the waveform)...

not enough swish

Add high end EQ, transpose it, add a touch of reverb or other effect (chorus, phasing).

If you want things to punch through the mix, try finding the dominant frequency with a parametric EQ. You can then "cut holes" in your other sounds at that freq to allow the wanted sound to poke through, or EQ out the unwanted freqs from the original sound so that it has one main frequency.

[Leejohnson222]

i do try this, i cut out a little notch for the snare from the kick freq
and cut the low end from snares/ hats etc, cut some hi end from the kicks,

maybe its all about compression and i need to learn more about this,

[Leejohnson222]

anyone else ?

[saulosneto]

anyone else ?

hi dude, eq is a GOOD choice (try don't use eq three, use eight or a personal vst), compression too (read about this, is for each channel have ur own space), and see on the spectrum in ur kick.. analyze the frequencies. if u want a really badass kick, make ur own kick with library.. u can change parameters like attack, decay, release, tone, velocity.. search for perfect kick on google is loss of time and creating ur own kick u can shape to ur style and it serve for all music styles

[Leejohnson222]

thanks saulosneto, create my own kicks, i would like to try this, saw a very useful video on youtube about this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7rwxQ7SFyw
but i do not have operator ?

what would you suggest ?

[102455]

i do not have operator
what would you suggest?

Buy Operator! Or do as the guy in the video did, and use Analog.

[Baffin]

For your snare and hats create a send track then put a EQ eight ,instrument rack first will able you to macro stuff.Then i trow a saturator BIT WARMER when you left click on triangle beside saturator.For macro1-Freq on Eq 2-Dry/wet on saturator 3-drive on saturator ,that will really help tweak your sound faster if you have a midi controller of course.For kick i would suggest layering your kick in a instrument Rack with 3 different simpler ( i use simpler but drum rack and impulse should be fine).Set each simpler with a Eq one will be LOW freq the other MID freq and last is as you guess HIGH and drop a utility on each simpler to raise sound if it to low .Tweak a glue compressor on that rack to make heavier. Hope it can help you a bit.

[Leejohnson222]

thakns baffin will give this a whirl,

to be honest i think its time i invested in quality samples also, want something fresh, i hear quite a few house tracks these days and lots of the drums sound like disco / live sounding drums, probably loops but they sound good

[Angstrom]

to make hats and cymbals fit into a track it can be worth using a very mild nearly static Phaser. A phaser is a type of complex notch filter which can provide colouration without dulling or thinning.

turn the modulation off, move the center frequency around and then set the 'feedback' parameter to the strength required. Also pay attention to the various 'color' settings of Ableton's phaser.

after I get a good central frequency set I usually allow a little bit of slow modulation to give movement, I may dial back the wet/dry a bit too.