How to Program Realistic MIDI Drums (TODAY!)

[@InfiniteIntelligence17]

Tip: go to midi-transform and then humanize. You’ll save a couple of minutes

[@masteringcom]

Absolutely, if your DAW has that feature, use it!

[@MostlyEarTraining]

The tip on muting the reverb on the drum software (and using the your track reverb) is a good one.

[@MrMetalclay]

Great tips! I like to use a midi keyboard to get a groove going, it does not have a response as good as playing real drums, so some parts I have to drag around, maybe some bad single hits. I also find that being able to record your own multi layer drum samples helps with realism, as most drum plugins different velocity layers are too perfect (all hits in the exact location on the drums) or not enough variation in the hi hats. But with the techniques you showcased, you can get a pretty decent drum sound on most plugins, even the inexpensive/free ones.

[@DylanHutto]

Another good tip... download an IR loader and get some reverb IRs. Creative Soundlabs has one and it's great for getting a real room sound without having to be in a room. I've asked my other music friend to get an ir of his garage so that way when I'm doing demos and stuff for our band I don't have to always be at his place in order to get good drum sounds.

[@ileryon4019]

Convolution reverb!

[@nickienok9643]

All his tutorials are real good! Great job, very well explained! :)

[@masteringcom]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@j3st3r3911]

Great video brother and one of the first times I thoroughly enjoyed the music being demoed in the tutorial of one these types of vids !!

[@mikewallace1270]

This an outstanding tutorial. Big fan of your channel.

[@masteringcom]

Happy to help!

[@tylersunn4017]

Abelton has an 'extract groove' function (from a beat) that retains drum timing AND velocity. Very quick and easy to drag a loop to the groove pool and then drag the groove to your programmed midi clip. Instant Questlove.

[@Zxios]

Dude that's awesome. Totally using this in a minute.

[@koa3952]

You....... Girl....... Runing out of my mind

[@konstantinosgrammenos8492]

Absolutely great vid. Thank you for sharing your knowledge will try all your tips.

[@zoharkahila]

thank you !

[@perrygoround]

Great info, very usefull video. Thanks a lot for sharing this knowledge!

[@bearpitrock]

Great stuff. Thanks mate

[@masteringcom]

No problem 👍

[@thimovijfschaft3271]

I wish my drum vst had options to change the drumkit. I can only change the mics but I want more toms and cymbals

[@Yourhousefitness]

Get addictive drums!

[@magisterwarjomaa3858]

I often find it simplest to start building my midi drum track (assuming that the guitars, vocals and what-have-you are already in place and aligned more or less in time) by importing 2-3 similar, yet slightly varied beats from the plugin's library (at least AD automatically matches them to your project's tempo), and copy-pasting them across the song. Then I would import various drum fills into pertinent sections of the song. Then I'd start the time-consuming, yet strangely satisfying, process of editing the individual drum hits/passages to taste...maybe placing the first/third hit squarely on the beat/grid, matching the velocities according to my understanding of a drummer's psychology...when will he be likely to hit the kick and snare the loudest, and when not? I'll also include some deliberate mistakes in timing or in the "purity" of an executed hit to further humanise the performance...I'm trying to emulate instances when a human drummer would get (over)excited in a song :) Choice of kit? Sometimes it can pay off to play with the listener's expectations, e.g. using a jazz kit in a metal song, or vice versa...with suitable tweaks according to the genre, so as not to wholly alienate the audience. At any rate dynamics should be IMO maintained regardless of genre. None of this "always have the kick and snare hitting at max velocity in e.g. metal" nonsense. I'd treat at least the snare track(s) differently than the other drum channels...maybe apply more reverb, tape simulation, "general" saturation, compression or whatnot. Obviously best to experiment and try different options out...analogue console and/or tape emulation applied to the whole kit or just parts of it? You decide...

[@masteringcom]

Very cool!

[@Eleni_Be]

"yet strangely satisfying" - YEEES. that's my favourite part of drum prog. given enough time results are far better than a mildly interested real drummer (but obviously can't reach human qualities of a good and ambitious drummer)

[@SilentVictim1]

I feel so fascinated with that reverb on the vocal! Do you have the tutorial for using reverb on the vocals like on this video?

[@marcoszaldivar1646]

wich one do you recomend to play in live with a band,we dont have a drum player in the band and we want to use a daw,but we want the most realistic posible

[@samuelsolano5759]

super helpful, thank u

[@notme-cb4jg]

hi so i'm trying to learn how to read the drum track. /what is what?? especially on the long squiggly lines.

[@spammburgers78]

I'm pretty good at drum programming, but I'm never completely satisfied with the hi hats, - they can be a dead giveaway that the drums are programmed and I can usually tell, no matter how much humanization I use for them. There are just too many variations in the way they can sound when played by a real drummer. So I'm looking into getting a set of real hi hats to mic up and play them over my drum tracks. The multilayered samples I use were created by me using my friend's drum kit (very well cared for and tuned) and they sound awesome, so hopefully the real hi hats will blend well with my samples. If it works out well, I may end up doing the same with a ride cymbal, and maybe even a snare. I'll still be missing overhead and room tracks, but I guess there are ways to simulate them ( I haven't tried them yet though).

[@sandiblues]

What if you use e-drumkit for triggering vst, then the midi "humanization" would be already there in the performance/midi track and not necessary I guess? Thanks

[@kylewilson1623]

Can you make a video on automation? Why and how you use it? All the different functions of it and such. Thanks.

[@masteringcom]

Sure!

[@JonnyBriers]

Thanks! When my drums sound fake it completely ruins my songs. The saturation tip is a good one

[@masteringcom]

Absolutely, give it a go!

[@surfohio]

Whacking in a home studio....too true hahaha.

[@theunsaturated354]

Plz make a video about programming guitar in piano roll with strummed acoustic

[@outwithcows8785]

After 3 years of dedicating hours and hours and hours of life to try to achieve this.. I recommend spending 50$ on an audio interface and recording guitar yourself. It was the best investment i ever made.

[@theunsaturated354]

@@outwithcows8785 I am asking for basic strumming patterns and i don't have enough money to buy an audio interface right now and don't even know to play guitar all i have is my mac book .

[@thirfytash7286]

@@theunsaturated354 ample sound has a strummer feature built in, check them out, you can play or program only 1 note for each chord and select what strumming patterns you like from a variety of pre made patterns or easily make patterns yourself using a grid like system, then it has knobs for humanizing and swing and stuff, super easy and fun

[@theunsaturated354]

@@thirfytash7286 Thanks man I definitely give it a Shot

[@thirfytash7286]

@@theunsaturated354 no problem!

[@hansy1305]

Thank you

[@mikesauer1530]

Where's part 3 of building a home studio? I'm looking forward to learning about sound treatment.

[@masteringcom]

Next week :)

[@RiversideProductionz]

Can you do a tutorial on song arrangement next Rob ?

[@masteringcom]

We'll keep this in mind!

[@jakeyboy2929]

Musician on a Mission did you ever do that?

[@OskarCzechowicz-OmniMusician]

I'm programming a lot of drums and I already knew those tips. What I can add: stick to symbols and try to avoid "solo" drum parts. Two ones I'd like to present: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGnTaHt4oK9skLM soundcloud.com/oskarforever/blues-ultimalny They resemble real performances, but still sound artificial, despite having really lots of velocity layers and sounds (8 hi-hat playing techniques!). Each drum sample is just a SYMBOL, fitting a steady groove in a particular style and most commonly the velocities of all parts need to be REALLY carefully adjusted, so the drumset sounds natural, but only when in background. The more drums are pulled to front by playing fills or solo parts, the more unnatural they sound and the more we can hear it. A half-opened hi-hat sample, for example. It barks violently, when too loud, or keeps the timbre of loud hit when turned down, thence we need to reduce its dynamics, but reduced dynamics don't allow fills to sound expressive. Low-velocity snare hits a) keep the loud timbre, preventing us from doing ghost-notes (as they sound like a bang just turned down) b) usually have bad volume and timbre change ratio when compared to other samples. So my hints are: 1. Keep the programmed drums as far in background as possible. Apply the more dynamics and fills the more instruments play and distract us from listening to drums. When there is nothing to distract, minimise the velocity changes. Play with it, when the drums compliment the whole ensemble. 2. Differ repeated hi-hat sounds. Either alter the thechniques or balance between velocity layers, so we don't hear the exactly same sound twice. Also use half-opened sound if possible instead of full-opened - use full opened only if it blends with other samples. I also noticed full-open usually sounds good when playing like 16th notes mixed with half-open and closed. 3. Stick to fills and grooves you know will work on a particular VSTi. Check this was just a preview track. I kept copying just the same flam-ish fills all around and it still sounds dope. (Drums enter at 0:17) www.dropbox.com/s/zyrkfzrn53am5kb/mad%20world%20-wokal.mp3?dl=0

[@subscribetobanbasstabs2599]

sounds great man. were you using logic?

[@OskarCzechowicz-OmniMusician]

@@subscribetobanbasstabs2599 Naaaaah, I am a cheapo guy. Samplitude (and since a month also Cakewalk). But DAW doesn't really matter.

[@江東峻-f5b]

Hi Rob. I always wonder can I mix the drum by not using something like overhead channel when it comes to midi drums. Can I export the kick, snare, hi-hats, crash, ride, etc all to the seperate channels and make sure there will be only one sound in one channel. Isn't it gonna be easier to do the balance and add plugins?

[@David-yl6bc]

You would end up with more control, but usually the overheads help to glue things together and add a lot of realism. But: there are no rules, just do what works for you.

[@XiyuYang]

You can, all the sampling software focusing on drums (Kontakt, Superior, Ezdrummer etc) can do multi out into your daw. But I wouldn't ditch OH if I were you, OH is very important.

[@jjm9741]

cheat sheet link is Broken

[@Supernova26]

Wow, Zero dislikes!

[@masteringcom]

I'm waiting...

[@johnfkay8341]

+Musician on a Mission I'll give you a dislike just to put you out of your misery if you want one. Great tutorial actually. Thanks for uploading.

[@natfingerboard]

The best midi way is for sure an eletric kit, I don't have it, so I find it quicker and easier to just play it on the keyboard, Having different strokes in different keys and also having the velocity helps you get a huge amount of dynamic on the spot. I'm a drummer so maybe that's why I find it easier to play rather than program. But I would rather not have drums on a song, or just simplify it than programming it lol, i'll stay away from programming it as long as i can.

[@shamicentertainment1262]

I make my drum tracks with midi, and then learn them on my acoustic. I can only play an acoustic at my bands garage, so I need to write stuff at home

[@tahsinislam5161]

name of the sftwre plz??☺

[@bearpitrock]

Ez Drummer 2

[@feggyo]

sorry for all live drummers, but they are actually the easiest to replace by virtual instruments :)

[@jacobedwards8814]

6:02 wHy DiDnT i ThInK oF tHaT

[@TomGrubbe]

Flams and ghost notes.

[@oriomenoni7651]

I was hoping to find a video that explains dufferent ways how a real drummer plays his instrument in a typical, say, funk, rock, country pattern etc... there is nothing of that.

[@28rwags]

Thats what she said...LOL just a joke if anyone gets it...j/k guys hope I made you laugh

[@linguafranca86]

Method no 4: only program metal drums.