Ableton Forum

Hey guys, sorry for the Deadmau5 question. Was watching The Hangover and his song Sofie Needs a Ladder came on (during the strip club scene with the machine gun going off by accident). Couldn't help but notice how hard the drums hit during parts of the song. It sounds like a Kick drum w/a Snare layered and panned a bit to the left.

How's he getting these to hit s hard? I assume he isn't just slapping a compressor over them because the attack is too quick. A transient shaper? I'd like to practice/learn making this type of sound. Can you guys lend me your knowledge on how one may achieve a similar sound?

Thank you all.

PS: it's @ 1:04 in the youtube link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDndZn0YPdI

Maybe some of this has something to do with it:

Heeeeee don't wanna work, he just wanna bang on the drum all day.

n/m, I'm thinking I'm funnier than I actually am today. Honestly, I'd like to know too (other than the obvious picture jester posted)

well he definitely layers his four on the floor pattern with a nice sharp hat on every beat that is slightly panned to the right, this gives a nice transient to the kick. on every two, there's and a snare slightly panned to the left , this creates a nice effect with the alternating pans of the hats and snare. it also sounds like the kick has a lot of sub-frequencies in it. the kick is also likely warmed up with saturation to give a nice low thud. i am sure the bass has some heavy EQ carved out of its sub-frequencies to give space for the low subby thud in the kick. ideally this would be done with a multi band compressor so the bass doesn't lose its power too much -- see this vid for an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwCRCmWVMco. hope this helps, I'm just thinking out loud here

compression

Ok, so all three of the things I thought it was were guesses so far.

Honestly though, I'm just a bedroom composer.....not sure if I could even come close. Too much tequila tonight, tomorrow I will try some things.

That setup is hard to equate with the Mau5ter's music. I mean, that's like a muffwiggler's wet dream there. He should be making obscure skronky wannabe-autechre sound with it, not clean and mean dance pop

re:dream wrote:That setup is hard to equate with the Mau5ter's music. I mean, that's like a muffwiggler's wet dream there. He should be making obscure skronky wannabe-autechre sound with it, not clean and mean dance pop

Just a hint : do you see any cable ?

chapelier fou wrote:Just a hint : do you see any cable ?

RTFM !!
You have to press TAB to see the cables !!!

re:dream wrote:That setup is hard to equate with the Mau5ter's music. I mean, that's like a muffwiggler's wet dream there. He should be making obscure skronky wannabe-autechre sound with it, not clean and mean dance pop

Yeah I agree. He has so much cool stuff, yet every stream I see or song I hear it's the same old boring 4 to the floor.

Just another canadian cashing in on murican stupidity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTFpMYhRbkQ

Just sayin'

I especially like the pictures of him driving his car.