Ableton Forum

Hello friends of music,

I have been trying my hand at making music for a good 3 years now. My goal is not and never has been to publish my pieces on a large scale. I mainly want to make beautiful music for myself. I experienced first-hand the emergence of the new kind of music using synthesizers at the beginning of the 70s. The changeover from classical musical instruments such as guitar, piano, saxophone, drums, etc., was quite a change. When I heard Klaus Schulze, Jean-Michael Jarre or Mike Oldfield's "Platinum" for the first time, I knew my musical direction. However, I had to put the desire for my own synth aside for a few decades. Work, family and also the cost factor of such devices....., you know.

Well, when the corona pandemic struck, the old idea came up again. Instead of a vacation, how about a Synteziser? After a bit of googling, I was pleased to discover that the previously unaffordable devices are now available for a "ridiculously low price". 10 VSTs may cost less today than a Synteziser did back then. That's how I ended up with Ableton. So far, so good.

I'm now well stocked up and actually have everything I need. Except for ........., a decent drum kit. So far I've always used Ableton drums, but I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that I can do better. Since there is hardly any music that doesn't contain drums, a good drum kit is one of the most important things. How do you see it?

My question now is whether you have any recommendations for a good drum kit that you can buy once and then only use. At the moment I always choose something from the Ableton library for every new piece of music, but I don't really like it. I want to have one drum kit and always only use that one.

My idea was also to pull the various samples from Splice and build something myself with the Ableton drum rack. But I think that you then start wanting to improve things again and again. I don't want that.

I've already found a few promising VSTs myself. Unfortunately, some of them are very expensive (> 300$) or require Kontakt. I have a certain aversion to Kontakt. I don't know if it's justified, but it's there.

What do you think, how do you create your drum tracks?

if you’re looking for realistic sounding drum kits, you might check out Addictive Drums or EZDrummer. not sure what the current pricing is like, but I know at least AD goes on sale fairly regularly and the base cost is like $170.

there are plenty of other options out there, but I’ve used AD for years and it’s still fantastic. both sound awesome, but the mixing options inside EZD aren’t as robust as AD. generally not a concern, but worth noting.

Keep in mind that it’s not just what you have access to but how you use it. Having a good kit to start with can definitely give you less problem solving to have to deal with. So it’s good that you are seeking that out.

But even after you have it, getting something meaningful out of it can be the part that gives your piece the individualized art of your own personal touch.

There are various forms of expression with dynamics. With timing. With fx processing. Some people like running a drum kit on a single channel. Some have it on separate channels and then group it, so they can process individual elements.

The things you have access to in Live already are probably a bit limited in some ways. But even those can be used in clever ways that end up giving your pieces a lot of unexpected meaning.

And when you acquire a nice full range, drum option. Just be careful with whether or not you feel satisfied after getting to use it. Sometimes we have a nagging feeling we need somethin and then after we have it, we target yet another thing heheh.

It looks like the two suggested above have trials. Probably some YouTube reviews and even comparisons. I like checking that stuff out when looking for what I want (the only drawback being that I often times end up wanting both haha)

As it's available relatively cheaply at the moment, and most of the reviews aren't too bad, I bought the MODO-DRUM from IK Multimedia. The drums are not played back as samples as usual, but are generated in real time using physical modeling.

I was skeptical at first, but the many test reports and sound examples convinced me that I should give it a try. And, what can I say. I am not disappointed. This is actually exactly what I wanted.

Even if the simulation through physical modeling still has a bland aftertaste for many, I am personally very satisfied and do not regret the purchase in any way.

Thanks to those who responded to my request.