GGD: Learning how to Blast Beat with Misha Mansoor

GetGood Drums: Invasion is available now ▸▸▸ bit.ly/2Yb6JKF
The Invasion is the ultimate metal drum library. Unapologetically ferocious, it combines outright impact with absolute precision to deliver drums that will cut through even the fastest and most chaotic music.
In true metal form, The Invasion is based around a gigantic drum kit, with the terrifyingly aggressive kicks and snares augmented by a perfectly tuned battery of toms and an onslaught of cymbals ranging from tiny bells and splashes all the way to monster chinas and crashes. Metal musicians need look no further to turn their sonic visions into devastating reality.
We designed The Invasion to offer incredible power, clarity and separation. We distilled the spirit of the greatest metal drum recordings and fused it with the hard-hitting aggression, impeccable engineering and obsessive attention to detail that GGD has become known for, in order to create a library that truly stands out amongst the crowd.
Quick Features:
▸7 Snares
▸12 Toms
▸4 Kicks
▸30 Cymbals
▸Drums tuned to perfection
▸Fully-featured and intuitive UI
▸Built-in Groove player
▸Built-in processing and a reverb
▸Envelope and pitch control for each mixer channel
▸Every sample is phase-coherent for easy layering

[@Albie_SOHR]

“Let’s jump into blast beats” whole face gets blown off

[@thecartatree]

right like how the f am i supposed to watch w/ my face currently over yonder.

[@josuastangl7140]

1:00 Did. I. Just. Hear. ... SOLO ALBUM?? *breathes heavily*

[@James-yt6to]

Oh lordy lordy lord I'm fuckin hyped

[@aymericmarchand3472]

coughs*B U L B*coughs

[@Drpepperkiller10]

8 of them

[@josuastangl7140]

@@Drpepperkiller10 8 Bulb archives + solo album at the end of the year afaik.

[@heardlessmusic]

Oh its comin

[@bennyelsensohn9299]

YES! We definitely need more programming videos on this channel. We love GGD a lot and there are only a few videos about programming heavy drums. See it as a kind of service for your (future) customers ;)

[@Syklonus]

Could you please stop calling it "programming", becasue there's no coding involved here. This is "sequencing".

[@Kalsten]

@@Syklonus There is no coding involving in programming a washing machine either. To program is a verb that is not exclusive to computers, you know?

[@Mr.Sirb0si]

If you want to add some feel and furiosity to your "split blasts" I recommend dragging all snares a little early and every 2nd kick a little late. Works really well especially for black-ish stuff. :D Great tutorial Misha!

[@JacobraRecords]

16th notes on the snare and cymbal while 32nd notes on the kick is referred to as a "super blast". The split blast is more commonly known as the "Euro blast".

[@t3hgir]

thanks, learning blast variations is like collecting pokemon lol

[@JacobraRecords]

it's fun stuff! I love extreme drumming. I'm lucky enough to have a drummer in my band that can do whatever I throw at him!@@t3hgir

[@psychrot]

As a drummer I love this. I have appreciation for all sounds of drumming; synthetic, organic, realistic or not I think it all works in the right context. When you brought up low tuned snares with blast beats the first thing that pops into my head is Humanity's Last Breath. Not the most realistic drum sounds maybe, but it's totally fitting and it's crushing.

[@t3hgir]

the slight flamming added to the unison blast is interesting. I'm often blown away at how precise a lot of prog metal drum recordings are and it's reassuring to know that it actually is realistic for real live drummers to not play everything perfectly on the grid. Some cats get damn near close though :D It's a totally different headspace for me time-wise playing a song recorded to a click versus a recording of a 60s/70s era song with no click.

[@hacksaw_jeffery6664]

yo thank you for this. the way you breakdown things so simply is so helpful and im not even using GGD yet

[@peterbrentrie]

I appreciate Misha's usual devotion to the idea of programming realistic human performances. That said, I'm kinda saddened when world-class drummers in the genre (Halpern, Gartska, Koperweis, Postones) are pushed into the box of "live drummers" because the aesthetic choices of guitarist bandleaders necessitate wholly programmed drums. Technology and genre-blurring are both great. And I program drums myself, but usually only as a writing or practice tool. The demand for drummers who sounds like machines has given rise to really good drummers to augment their sounds and techniques, and to use even more and more "studio magic" to keep up appearances.(looking at you, Rudinger and Sastry). Fear Factory set a bit of a blueprint for utilizing triggers and quantizing to incorporate a more programmed sound, but their whole aesthetic was mechanical, so it worked. It continues to be seen as passe for guitarist to overproduce and quantize and clean up their performance too much, but it's just a given that those sorts of techniques are used heavily for drums. I'm probably just being self-serving, as a drummer who prefers the real thing.

[@placeholder6517]

I'm not sure about Jay, but the rest of the guys you mention record live drums for their albums. Especially curious that you would mention Matt Halpern since he has been recording live drums since PII

[@lucasjames5682]

Damn I was a massive bulb fan in like 2010-11 and havent kept up with Misha but he looks like hes in his glo now.... bless up

[@KeithShelley1]

Just in time! I'm about to program some blast beats this weekend. Thanks, Misha!

[@SynysterGates70]

So I'm assuming it was just Matt who disagreed to having this as a Periphery song? haha

[@thorntoneaudio5939]

Haha great song title. I thought it was pray for plagues for half a second. Rad tips, thanks!

[@vatases]

Travis Orbin would stand the best chance of managing to replicate those full-velocity blast beats.

[@armandobravo4L]

I was literally looking up videos on how to program blast beats last week, and now I'm blessed with this video?! Great timing and great video! Especially since it's from a guitarists perspective and not too much fancy drummer wording haha. Thank you Misha!

[@MJXtube]

Man. Love the samples. Love the tone. LOVE the writing. A+. F*ck.

[@isakjarlestedt2001]

Amazing! Love Misha ❤❤❤

[@JohnHartmanMortalDecay]

Grind beats! One footers, Suffo blast, Blast beat(cannibal grind), Gravity, Hyper blast. Bomb blast! Grind rules!

[@vertigopulse]

suffo blasts! We used to call them that too!

[@alrecks619]

what i've found is that the most realistic you can get with traditional (or trve) blast beats are with the snare velocity that goes from 80 and lower except if you're a grindcore drummer, ofc...

[@LifeofEbb]

UNLEASH THE PWNIES

[@wesleytrott6397]

Damn Misha! Those guitar riffs are bad ass!

[@aye5kay]

Great stuff. Blast beat fills tutorial please.

[@stefanmccabe4705]

YES SOLO ALBUM! Strizzwald!

[@Aliga16]

16:17 Does anyone know how to do the "randomize position max" in logic pro x? The only way I find equally moves the hits to both sides

[@JohnHartmanMortalDecay]

Great vid dude! Cubase for the win!

[@kashmiridanish]

5:52 it cuts through a lot in the part right after that central interlude of Hero of the Half Story by abr

[@mcgarnacle21]

WOAH - solo album!? Am I out of the loop or is the first hint at this?!

[@cjlc93]

We've been waiting for his solo album for years lmao

[@TheDjfranco100]

New album from Haunted Shores soon ???!!!

[@MrDaoJones]

Cool Trifonic shirt. They kick ass.

[@megustale69]

this sparks joy

[@brothercartman]

Misha is my favorite guy named Misha

[@carazy123_]

0:18 alright so that’s how to program blast beats thanks for watching bye guys

[@spion92]

Misha, can we has your Cubase template...purtttyyy please?

[@johnborba2422]

Hey GGD, please give us the midi files when you post stuff like this.

[@Syklonus]

The point is to make your own.

[@marcellosandoval459]

Thanks for the programming tips!

[@JustinP.]

Misha, is it possible to purchase the invasion library and import the samples into superior drummer 3 and use them that way, or is it better to just use kontakt? This song is sick.

[@palmmutestudio5791]

Please make a video on the mixing of these drums!

[@sparklegeist8345]

what are the best drum programs for the most realistic sounding blast beats? a lot of the brutal slam bands seem to use really good ones.

[@boostuse]

It's crazy, I had asked you about making blasts on software Misha.

[@boostuse]

@Mishamansoor Please make a solo playthrough of the guitars of Unleash the Pwnies

[@joeytocd]

Please save this for the next Periphery album. All five of you on this track would be so sick, Misha.

[@SAmfp2p]

thx misha!

[@scot483]

Could you please release a GP file for this song?

[@LarsBauer74]

sick riffs!

[@bikesnbeerz]

Yep, I want to buy this but I don't see any demos with built in patterns. I want to jam, no program. Same with SSD5. Great drums but kinda of lame patterns.

[@ratlinggull2223]

Make your own bruh

[@violentopposition7313]

How do you get realistic blasts on the crash though?

[@shea_o_keith]

Yes!

[@myprophecyofficial]

Will Blast Beats sound good on GGD Modern and Massive or only on Invasion?

[@scottymonday]

Solo release??? Hell yes

[@cooperrobinson]

My cpu will not be enjoying this

[@alrecks619]

get a 9900K or 3900X, mate remember to get decent AIO cooling too, like Be Quiet or EK however, if you want more budget solution, 3400G will do the job (you'll get potent integrated GPU on that too)

[@junkawakami3193]

also Hellpern, apparently

[@VegasLoungeAct]

Good hell, what kind of headphones are those, Misha? lol

[@KvbaSawicki]

would like to know as well!

[@pastilance1]

I'm pretty sure they are Sennheiser HD 820

[@kuringmundo]

are all these features in beat making available in cubase elements?

[@supermental5633]

more tricks please Misha

[@nickwilliams6869]

I got a drum michine trying to figure it out

[@ricardoalbertoalmeid]

Is it possible for you to share your cubase drum maps? Because every time i try to make one I cannot hear nothing :P

[@wadspo7155]

Damn, I should have made a video like this

[@TundraCH]

Bring back the Bulb baby

[@s.t.e.v.e.r]

who else is practicing guitar while watching

[@James-yt6to]

😎

[@cliffsharp1771]

Misha! I have Invasion I've just started trying to use it with cubase. But I'm having a hard time figuring out how to run my already written (on 3rd party software) Midi tracks through the Kontakt instance. What am I missing?

[@BrofUJu]

The midi mapping of Invasion needs to be changed. Hit the settings.

[@cliffsharp1771]

Okay changed to what?

[@jackmcbride9939]

Misha gives a grindcore tutorial

[@chopshop777]

What headphones are those he is using ?

[@benjaminsamms]

Wearing those $1,800 headphones like its just a normal day.

[@aalegge]

Unleash the Pwnies on his solo album... Oh fuuuuuck

[@louisturse7396]

Hi I have a saffire pro 40 interface. I have cubase 10. Is there a way that I can press play and practice to a track or audio file while in play mode and monitor me practicing to the audio file without pressing the monitor button each time I press play? I am using tape machine mode of monitoring but every time I have to practice my part for the track, I have to hit the monitor button each time I press play. Logic and studio one have this feature. I think its called auto or direct monitoring. I also want to do this so I can have cubases effects on the track, not direct monitoring from my saffire pro 40. Thanks in advance, Lou :)

[@davidgray4995]

Depends, if you're running your guitar hardware through the interface (ie. mic'ed amp, axe-fx, whatever preamp, etc.), you can just go into the focusrite Mix Console and unmute the channels you're playing through. This would be considered direct monitoring and works wonders if you are just practicing because there is no latency. However, if you are using plugins to get your guitar sound and you have to keep going back and forth between monitoring and not monitoring to record or practice, then why no just duplicate that track and have one for practice and one for recording. (One, monitor enabled, one record enabled). This way if your tracks are right next to each other, it should just take a push of the up or down arrow on your keyboard to move from one track to the other. I haven't used Cubase in a while but I'm sure there is a way to set up your own hotkeys to switch on and off monitoring if you really don't want to reach for the mouse.

[@louisturse7396]

@@davidgray4995 thank you so much. I was just worried about tracking an 8 track drum kit and having to press monitoring each time. Thanks so much for the help. Lou

[@HerrNox]

NEW NECROPHAGIST ALBUM CONFIRMED!

[@FanaticDrummer]

Is he wearing headphones or is he connected to Cerebro?

[@primarypenguin]

Misha Keene

[@lucasvillaquiroz]

THAT DRUMMER HASN'T PRACTICED

[@wencity958]

Haunted Misha

[@wertaw]

split blast also known as euro blast for anyone who cares

[@alrecks619]

oh, no wonder why Matt wasn't there

[@wollsmoth69]

Al R ?

[@alrecks619]

@@wollsmoth69 i think it's a joke coming from Matt opening his mouth when he hits the snare you don't want to open it at 8th notes @250BPM, or if you really want to drop your jaw in the middle of the blast

[@michaelpendergrass6401]

I just got invasion and I cannot get it to sound good for the life of me

[@01left]

Always Talking about Drums :-( but how the fuck he Mixed bass and Guitar !!!

[@taariqahad]

See, that drummer hasn't practiced

[@janti1455]

Death metal is garbage.

[@janti1455]

GGD is not only for Death Metal right ?? Make videos with better music.

[@chucklepadory]

Sounds more like djent or progressive metal to me then death metal but okay..

[@LovelaceCamilo]

This is best music