Ableton Forum

Hi all,

Hope you can help. I want to spend a bit of time getting a really nice drum loop together. So far, I am not getting it to sound anything like how I want. I have listened to a lot of tunes, and basically I want to try and get as close as possible to the drums which kick at 44 secs here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAjAVUeMB3g

I am relatively new to ableton music production so I am unable to listen to that loop and understand what is going on in there. Can any of you clever music bods help to answer these questions;

- Do you think sounds like the kick are layered, or is it just a simple kick sample?
- How does he get the sound so bright, both at the bottom end and at the top end. Do you think there is a kick drum part, a snare part and a hats part all eq'd separately. It is bright, yet the kick is still really meaty?
- Is there any compression used here?
- Is there anything else "technical" going on in there?
- Any other tips gratefully received!

My drums sound really amateurish and I am trying to change that.

Thanks in advance...

snowmonkey wrote:Hi all,

Hope you can help. I want to spend a bit of time getting a really nice drum loop together. So far, I am not getting it to sound anything like how I want. I have listened to a lot of tunes, and basically I want to try and get as close as possible to the drums which kick at 44 secs here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAjAVUeMB3g

I am relatively new to ableton music production so I am unable to listen to that loop and understand what is going on in there. Can any of you clever music bods help to answer these questions;

- Do you think sounds like the kick are layered, or is it just a simple kick sample?
- How does he get the sound so bright, both at the bottom end and at the top end. Do you think there is a kick drum part, a snare part and a hats part all eq'd separately. It is bright, yet the kick is still really meaty?
- Is there any compression used here?
- Is there anything else "technical" going on in there?
- Any other tips gratefully received!

My drums sound really amateurish and I am trying to change that.

Thanks in advance...

It sounds like a live recording or sample from an older record. Very swing intensive too but the essentials are quite basic. Kick, snare, clap, high hats. The type of beat I think would be classified as hip hop or breakbeat where the kick is emphasized on beats 1 and 3 and snares on 2 and 4. You can then fill in kicks on the 16th notes between 3 and 4 to get that double peddle effect.

I'm sure if you google breakbeat or hip hop production you will find some sort of tutorial or blog post. Best thing for you to do is loop a 4 beat section in able ton and mess around with patterns. Your ears are your best friend here, and to get those sounds able ton lives sessions drums is a great start.

Thanks for the reply. Are you listening to the drums right at the start, or the loop which kicks in at 44 secs. Interesting that you think it is a live drum loop sample. That never occurred to me at all! I assumed it was all built using a drum sequencer...

Great advice! Thanks...

agreed. sample selection is just as important if not more important than the actual production of a song. Still sounds like live drums to me though with a few samples layered over top of each other. Its very common to use 2 or 3 kicks/snares to get a harder attacking loop. It really spices things up when you do that.

Anyway play around with session drums if you have it and analyse break beat music to get the sound you are looking for

have fun!