Snare rolls in Trap music

[Phil1990]

Simple question: My 32T-64T snare rolls i use in my trap productions sound really robotic. Listening to UZ, Flos, and others and they don't have a robotic sound (or as much). I've messed around with groove pool but i can't land on a good groove preset. Can anyone help me? the sample i'm using through sampler seems to be appropriate.

[infernal.machine]

Isn't "trap music" an oxymoron?

[jestermgee]

Probably because i'm older but I have no idea who those people are... Or this trap door music you kids seem to like...

But a snare roll is a snare roll (I don't believe trap could be any different).

Are you choke triggering your sample (cut off the last trigger with the new trigger) because that makes for a very unnatural snare roll. It depends on the context but:

- You could try create just a full-level repetitive snare pattern, then freeze sample, then fade that in.
- You could try and create an accented snare roll by placing more emphasis on down beat roll hits?
- Try and some delay feedback with a 3 bar offset slightly underneath to make it more busy
- Add some subtle reverb
- Use a full drum machine instrument with a voice of 4 and place the same sample on multiple pads with slightly different tunings and stagger these in lots of 4 so they blend and overlap
- Use a phaser (or a filter sweep) as the snare leads in to help it to "climb" as it rolls in.

Experiment with many other options?

[infernal.machine]

I always thought a trap was a man that dressed like a woman. Somehow that still seems more appealing to me...

[regretfullySaid]

I'd say manually moving the notes will be quicker than trying to find grooves, so do your quantized rolls, then turn off the grid and move 2 or 3 notes closer together, leave a tiny wider gap, repeat. It might help to select the notes and grab the ends to shorten them all a little bit so some of them don't accidentally erase when you're moving them together.

The main key to keeping them from sounding robotic is to turn off the grid though. Or you can hold alt and press the left or right key to move a selected note by a very small amount.

[keydaking]

Simple question: My 32T-64T snare rolls i use in my trap productions sound really robotic. Listening to UZ, Flos, and others and they don't have a robotic sound (or as much). I've messed around with groove pool but i can't land on a good groove preset. Can anyone help me? the sample i'm using through sampler seems to be appropriate.

@Phill990 I come across the same issues when I trying to make trap records. I would get creative with your paint tool. I typically use the 1/32 and 1/64, then paint the variations where I see fit. Aside from FL I think ableton has one of the better arps off all the DAW.

Also, your spinning your wheels asking anything Hip Hop related on this board. The Ableton hip hop producers go to Gearslutz or KVR. I would suggest you do the same fam. Not much material related to HIP HOP in general on here. Its actually kind of sad.

[102455]

Check this out -> https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/get-swi ... ming-tips/

[JuanSOLO]

When doing triplet rolls, and snare rolls etc, I actually spend quite a lot of time manually moving things slightly off in spots that sound good to me. Same with velocity. I like the organics of it, and also try to break the mold a bit. Some times even randomize the decay a little.

Nevertheless, sometime I dig the full robotic sound.

[jlgrimes]

Simple question: My 32T-64T snare rolls i use in my trap productions sound really robotic. Listening to UZ, Flos, and others and they don't have a robotic sound (or as much). I've messed around with groove pool but i can't land on a good groove preset. Can anyone help me? the sample i'm using through sampler seems to be appropriate.

Most trap snare rolls usually have a computer-like precision to them.


But a couple of tricks that are done to give them groove.


1. Try adjusting pitch over time. This is usually done by spreading the sample accross a keyboard and adjusting the midi notes. FL Studio has a pretty elegant way to do this using their step sequencer but they are basically just adjusting each note individually from a sampler that is spread accross keyboard.

2. Alter velocities over time. This has a big effect on the groove. Try crescendos, decrescendos, accenting certain notes, Accenting the upbeats, making random velocity changes.

3. Alter pan over time. This is often done to spread the rolls in the stereo field.

4. Alter filter over time.



For doing trap probably the last thing I would try is the groove quantize settings because usually the goal is the create the machine-gun type rolls. The main thing is just modulating certain parameters to keep them interesting. The only time I do groove-quantize is when I want something to sound more like a live drummer (unless you are just talking about swing), and trap usually doesn't sound much like a live drummer in most songs.