Smoothest electronic drum loops?

[mrdelurk]

It keeps amazing me how even the so called "smoothest" electronic drum loop libraries sound like a kung-fu movie slapfest. When I ran a search on "smoothest electronic beats" on the Net, the first match was some yoga music whose drum tracks still sound like a street fight. Energetic yes, smooth these aren't.

So where are the toned down, plush, sensual electronic drum loops, something one'd use for date music to put a lady to ease in this space age? Did anyone see such a drum loop library? More eyes see more things...

[yur2die4]

Perhaps an example of a track? There are many kinds of 'smooth', from Enigma to Toni Braxton. From LTJ Bukem to Tony Williams. Some types of trap can be considered 'smooth' because of the seemingly indifferent interplay between the polyrhythmic elements. When the Levee Breaks isn't smooth at all, until it is seemlessly looped to infinity haha

So yeah, many kinds of smooth.

[njh]

Is this a troll attemp? How is anyone suppose to know what smooth drums means to you? That is so subjective.

[Stromkraft]

It keeps amazing me how even the so called "smoothest" electronic drum loop libraries sound like a kung-fu movie slapfest. When I ran a search on "smoothest electronic beats" on the Net, the first match was some yoga music whose drum tracks still sound like a street fight. Energetic yes, smooth these aren't.

So where are the toned down, plush, sensual electronic drum loops, something one'd use for date music to put a lady to ease in this space age? Did anyone see such a drum loop library? More eyes see more things...

Tried loop loft?

[eyeknow]

Is this a troll attemp?

Are you being funny? I see nothing wrong with the post.

[eyeknow]

Tried loop loft?

Can't say this about "everything" but everything I've listened to is the most "no-fi" trashy crap I've ever heard. I made the mistake of downloading a "free" thing of their's once and now get spammed to the ends of the earth (even when asking them not to)

[njh]

Is this a troll attemp?

Are you being funny? I see nothing wrong with the post.

I just never heard some one call drums smooth. I heard them called punchy or boomy but not smooth so I really don't know what that would sound like.

[Willyum]

So where are the toned down, plush, sensual electronic drum loops, something one'd use for date music to put a lady to ease

I'm gonna say this at the risk of sounding like a total ass... not to mention you asked for 'loops' which this is not... But I'm gonna say this ass backwards comment anyway bucause of the second part of your request.

So here it goes......
Make your own drum loops (WAIT! that's not what I am saying, let me finish!!!...), Make some drum loops USING Impulse. Yes Impulse, the oldest instrument in Live... the forgotten instrument! On every drum pad, click the 'Soft' button... it's the first button on the bottom.
There are tons of kits from Old-Live so you may have to download some of the Legacy packs (I'm guessing there are about 100 drum kits that were not included in the 'New' Live 9)
At first it kinda sounds like they just turned up the attack, but it's not... I'm not sure what else they did in the Soft button, but it makes every drum that you put through there very round and smooth. Whenever I'm looking to do some really smooth melodic shit for panties I use Impulse with Soft enabled.

Challenge: I dare anyone to do what I described and come back and tell me you are not in love with Impulse all over again... No really, I want to hear what you guys think about this (also try out the built-in Timestretch, saturation and filters). Impulse is an actual drum machine... Drum Racks is just a housing for instruments!

'Soft' on EVERY pad! Every pad...
Get back to me.

[tone61]

It keeps amazing me how even the so called "smoothest" electronic drum loop libraries sound like a kung-fu movie slapfest. When I ran a search on "smoothest electronic beats" on the Net, the first match was some yoga music whose drum tracks still sound like a street fight. Energetic yes, smooth these aren't.

So where are the toned down, plush, sensual electronic drum loops, something one'd use for date music to put a lady to ease in this space age? Did anyone see such a drum loop library? More eyes see more things...

These are probably not electronic drum loops (haven't listened nearly all), but there are several styles of high quality loops IMO.
Some are more energetic, some not.
They have special deals that are valid still today.

http://www.drumsondemand.com/collection ... /products/

[mrdelurk]

Perhaps an example of a track?

I can only describe it, I'm not trying to imitate something I heard.
Basically, any time I hear an acoustic snare slam in a song, it makes me feel like I'm sitting, chained on a slave ship, having to oar it at the sound of that horrible primitive snare whack. "Remember your short, brutish life, slave." A snare is an aural face slap. In this 21st century can we get a smoother, plusher, space-age like snare sound successor that's more like a sonic caress ?

I notice the Billboard Top 40 set has a problem with snare too. Their better, sensual songs where they try to get away from snare are heavy on cymbal, hi-hat, sidestick, guitar noises etc.; with all their million dollar digital gadgetry no one found any definitive "snare successor" yet.

[Martin Gifford]

I totally agree with mrdelurk. The options all seem to be "smash you in the face loops" or "glitchiest loops ever" or "classic dance loops".

When I go through sample packs, I hate most of them. So maybe its an individual taste thing. I always thought sample makers should post samples and loops that fit their taste rather than fitting a genre. Or samples should be arranged according to the maker's personal taste rather than according to genre. Something like that. Anyway, they probably keep the best loops for themselves.

[TomViolenz]

1: I would suggest that smooth is probably not the word used to describe what you want. Maybe dubby, or chill, or whatever.
2: I'd second the suggestion to make your own. That would let you dial in exactly what you want.
3: I'll also second the request for example tracks. Music for the background on dates sounds like Kruder and Dorfmeister or even Buddha Bar samplers or something.
4: Did you consider going the remix route and cut them from the tracks you like, if they indeed don't exist as commercial loops?

just my 2ct

[mrdelurk]

Thank you for your replies, I did visit Loop Loft and Drums On Demand. Both of these sell acoustic samples only. What I'm looking for will most definitively be electronic timbres.

Willyum, thank you for the Impulse tip. From what I hear, the Soft pad fades in the attack of the sample with an envelope. I often do this with drum loops. However, no enveloping in the world will make a gunshot snare smooth (unless you fade it in over time like sea noise, but then it won't be much of a rythm element.)

Chasing smoothness, I took this enveloping technique to the next level already. I took a typical drum loop, sliced it to a new MIDI track with Ableton, duplicated the result, changed the copy's every device from Simpler to Sampler, and then clicked "Reverse" for each duplicate slice. Then aligned each reversed slice to upswell to the forward slice's start. The result sounded smoother all right (almost to say, slimy ), but not very memorable. The search continues...

(I *do* research the ways of creating smooth rythms on my own, as you can see. I asked for your input on drum loops to cover all possible angles.)

[yur2die4]

Maybe look for non-main sections of drum loops. There are usually sets that have Intro, A, B, chorus, alternate, etc. Look for the odd ones.

Also, look for maybe just the 'top' of things maybe. It's mkstly just hi hats and percussions. Some are more robotic Marchy than others but some might fit the bill with a little tinkering.

I also am pretty curious about that type of drum playing. I try to pay attention when I hear it. They'll usually use like, a verbed tamborine or side stick or a finger snap. I'd probably look into 90's R&B haha.

Just going off what pops in my head, this probably isn't what you want but it triggers this moment in me for some reason http://youtu.be/at8NbqGwZ6A 48 seconds in haha

[mrdelurk]

Since I got more than 1 request for a sample, even though I already said there is no precedent, I'll offer the next best thing.
Here is a music snippet where these new smooth drums would be totally needed. Guy plays a swanky sax solo, there is the obligatory strings pad, this could work fine as date music... if it weren't for those dang drums. The overall effect is like being at a romantic restaurant with your date, and these hammering power drums are like two waiters slapping each other in turns behind you, or a construction with backhoes demolishing the nearest wall while you're trying to sweet talk.

If all you ever heard in life was love songs with drums like this (better fitting a military march or a gym) this might not seem out of context. Why, if every times you had a date at a romantic restaurant, a backhoe was demolishing a wall, that might not seem out of context either after seeing that for years. But I think there's a better, smoother rythm for sensual songs. There must be.