Drum Samples – Layering
To layer drum samples effectively, one should be aware of the technical techniques and methods to utilize. You can only go so far with creativity when it comes to something so technical and focus-driven. If you can read on the history and major changes in the way we have made and perceived drum samples, you’ll be many steps ahead of your competition. From the sampled drums of the 70s and onwards (even on this day there are people sampling!) to the synthesized sounds coming out of TR-808s, there is a lot of knowledge to be absorbed!
When layering sampled and synthesized drum samples, closely monitoring the distortion is advised. Synthesized samples can be pretty loudly generated without losing much data, but combining these with drums played by a professional band drummer in a studio can lead to metering issues in most cases.
The start of any drum sample is called the attack. This is the initial phase and is responsible for the sound coming through and shining despite many other sound layers that may be pushing the drum track down naturally.
The middle of a sample is what sustains it. A drum sample with a boomy middle, like the 808 kick, for instance, may have a slow (soft) attack, so its announcement is not as pronounced as a snappy snare to give an example. But you can sure feel it, and this is what has made it such a cultural phenomenon since the 80s.
The end of the drum samples is up after the sustain. So we’ve gone from start to middle and now to end. The only thing to really worry about here is that your sound does not clip as it stops. A lot of truncations can cause this sound due to sudden cuts in volume. To fix a clip, use the filter that would have come with your audio editor or fix it yourself by fading out the last few milliseconds. The end of a drum sample is not that important and is mostly determined by the sustain of said sample, so don’t worry about it too much and focus on the earlier stages.
Layering is not as hard as it is said to be. Much of the time, you can’t just combine two samples after lining them up. What you should concentrate on is combining the phases of different samples. So if one particular kick drum has a great middle but lacks a punchy entrance, take the entrance from another sample and mix-paste the wave forms to form a hybrid that please the ear both through its announcement and guest talk, so to speak. When it comes time to ‘leave the party’, the drum sample can simply be faded out or have a reverb tail it out. The possibilities are endless.
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