Workflow with drums?

[Ajacky]

Hey all,

I'm a starting producer and currently my biggest obstacle is getting a smooth workflow with drum programming. I'm hoping to get some advice here to get me on the right track. These are my two main questions:


1. One channel for drums vs. multiple channels / Which Instrument to use

With Live, should I have all my separate drums in separate channels? I have the impression that pro's do it always like this to get maximum control over each drum sound. Now my question is that if I put kicks, snares, hi-hats etc all on different channels, which instrument should I use them with? Should I load a Simpler to every channel? Or Impulse? Or a Drum Rack for each channel? How is it different compared to having all drums on one channel using just a Drum Rack there?


2. Drum hit samples vs. Software drum samplers vs. Maschine

If I had some extra money, considering the improvement of my drum patterns would it be best to invest that money to quality drum hit samples using Live's own instruments, or getting a software drum sampler VST like NI Battery, or perhaps getting Maschine with it's own sequencer for drums? At the moment I just want to lay down some good sounding beats and practice different patterns for genres like Trap, Dubstep and House.


I highly appreciate it if someone can help me out

[snakedogman]

as with all things it kinda depends on how you like to work...
If you use Live's Drum Racks, it will automatically put all the different drums on seperate channels in a group. The only limitation on this is that you can't have individual FX send levels for these channels.
I usually find myself with several different setups within one project. Some drums will be in a drumrack, while others might be coming from a Simpler on a seperate channel, or from audio channels with some loops.
I kind of dislike having all my drumsounds come from one drumrack because it means you have to program all the drums together in one midi clip, which then means you can't really see well what's going on when it comes to arrangement. Whereas if you work with all seperate Simplers on tracks every sound will have it's own midi clips associated with it so it gives you a better overview when in arrangment view.

I haven't really used Battery much since I've moved to Live but it does come with a good library and I haven't checked the new version which was released recently so I don't know if that adds stuff that might make it more interesting again. At least the new interface looks really nicely organised and it does seem to have browser with metadata and a built in audio editor!

[sowhoso]

If you use Live's Drum Racks, it will automatically put all the different drums on seperate channels in a group. The only limitation on this is that you can't have individual FX send levels for these channels.

not true

you can use the I-O in a drum rack to route any part to one of the main returns and that includes setting the level

so you can do it within a rack as well as externally to a main return

[Because789]

I like to start in drum racks because in my opinion it's the easiest way to lay down a drum loop quickliy. When I later realise that I want to have a sound on a seperate track it's as easy as dragging a chain to a new track (Manual 18.8.1: "All chains can be dragged from their parent Racks and placed into other tracks or Racks, either from the chain list or from the Session View mixer. A Drum Rack’s return chains can also be extracted, and will create new return tracks if dragged to the mixer. Drum chains have an additional feature: when dragged from the mixer to a new track, they take their MIDI notes with them").

You write you're a starting producer, if you have some extra money I would rather save it or invest it in gear you might need. (Just as a random example: I bought my first proper monitor speakers after two years working with Live. The first time I was listening to my stuff on the new speakers I realised that I waited way to long to buy them.) To improve the sound quality of your loops I would recommend firstly to learn how to layer your drum sounds and process them properly. It's often amazing what you can accomplish with sounds which don't sound that good as they come. I never felt the need to get additional sounds to what comes with Live Suite.

[Ajacky]

Thanks for the tips! I didn't know you could separate different drum sounds from a large drum rack into their own channels. This certainly helped my workflow. Thing is that I have a basic understanding of drum processing as I've read Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio by Mike Senior and a lot of computer music magazines. I just didn't quite know how to operate in Ableton.