Ableton Forum

Hey

I'm pretty ok at finding my way round Ableton and learning my synths nicely, but still struggling with programming my drum breaks. (for Breaks genre tracks)

I know this is probably the holy grail and takes time, but would really appreciate some help.

I'm not bad at getting the samples and hits to sound nice, but its really more about getting the groove right and just getting some tools under my belt for the breaks to sound right so I can really start progressing with my tracks.

Love to hear techniques you all use?

Shall I get the 'sample the plumps' out the way now?

haha.. sample the plumps ftw! i can't imagine how many tracks out there have their snares

seriously tho, i found grouping my drums and applying some light compression and minor distortion it beefs them up as a whole and makes them sound closer to an actual kit rather than a bunch of individual samples.

i keep kick, snare in mono and often layer a few samples for each to get a full bodied sound. a lot of samples out there are great on their own, but if you're comparing something to the plumps.. layer layer layer (and eq, etc)

hats, crashes, and higher frequency drum hits usually get their own bus, in stereo and are panned slightly to the left or right (usually try to think of where they are placed in an actual drum kit and pan accordingly)

on a nuskool breaks forum there was a recent discussion about using loops in your productions. there's a lot of producers out there using classic breaks and fattening them up by replacing some of the main hits, simply using them to get a nice groove going (a live/funk drummer isn't something that you can emulate well with just a computer), or even chopping them up via slice to midi and re-arranging them, etc..

if you're not already there i'd highly suggest the production forum on nuskoolbreaks.co.uk - hands down one of the best resources for someone getting into producing breaks, or learning more about breaks in general. there's a wealth of knowledge there that i don't think can be found anywhere else - http://www.nuskoolbreaks.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=4

Thanks cotdagoo some great tips in there!

I have posted this same thing over on nuschoolbreaks, so hoping to get some tips there too.

Lots to take in, i guess it takes practice and time like everything.