Programming Realistic Drums

[@Stevie-Steele]

Every guitarist would benefit from developing their "drummer mindset" even if they don't intent to program drums. It's a brilliant creative springboard for riff writing. People usually thinking that "drum patterns are inspired by guitar riffs" but the opposite is also true - a lot of guitar riffs are inspire by drum patterns. And you don't even need to physically learn drums to be a good drum pattern writer. Thanks for this great tutorial! very inspiring and awesome to get a head start from someone with decades of experience, helps avoid the years of trial and error that too many unfortunately go through.

[@chzzyg2698]

Thanks for the lesson. I've been stuggling with endless unrecorded songs because I don't know how to program the drums. This helps.

[@calitheguitarist]

The shifting off the grid is gonna be a total game changer for me. I’ve tried with a lot of the velocity changes but it’s always still sounded too polished or mechanical. Totally gonna use that shifting from now on. And also being mindful that the right hand is (usually) more dominant is definitely going to help

[@proggigs]

For anyone new to writing with virtual drums, Misha Mansoor's old videos on this are absolute gems too.

[@marshallcreates_]

Gonna check em out too

[@DaveW_GuitarStuff]

Great work Josh. Everything you need to know about programming metal drums here in half an hour that most other courses take hours to explain.

[@MoreMeRecording]

This Gentleman really knows his stuff. Appreciate this, Josh. Cheers.

[@Ryanrickybobby]

Ive been drumming for over 20 years and I still learn something new everyday. Watch myself play in the mirror. Got it!

[@SimonKranzDrums]

Thank you for putting this out! I'll make sure to send this to every non-drummer I know, cause even being a drummer, I picked up some new ideas here. The rest of the time, I wholeheartedly agreed with what you were saying or went, "huh, I guess I always do that while drumming". Props especially for the part about snares being too loud in blast beats (Euro Blasts), that drives me nuts so hard I deliberatly play my snare less loud (and programm them at lower velocity, of course). P.S.: You were spot-on the first time, Paiste is pronounced as "pie's tea".

[@DarkPhantomSky]

Great video, man!

[@falricthesleeping9717]

holy moly, I always paid attention to what a decent drummer could play, but the flams and the off grids that you showed, I'm gonna fix those ASAP, much appreciated

[@lukeiggy]

Thanks Josh! As someone like me who (finally) started to program drums on my own for songwriting that's the perfect starting point. 👌

[@Bren8682]

This is exactly what I needed. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to programming drums/bass. Any plans to expand your STL pack in the future with more amps? I'd love some ENGLs tossed in there. Cheers man.

[@MASTERRIFFS]

🎸🎸🎸pretty crazy. Josh🇧🇷

[@valentinzwick5408]

So much great information in there. Heavily leaning towards drum midi which I am tweaking to my needs. Will have to check my current project to make sure all snares are slightly behind the kick during the 4 on the floor beats. Josh, I hope we can also see you using the new submission audio architects bass during one of the next mix walkthroughs?

[@HenryhyphenS]

Great video Josh! I would love to see a full programming video from you. Picked up the midi pack and it’s really fun 🤘❤️

[@timmypix]

Enjoyed this! I've been programming drums in Guitar Pro since my teens but always struggled with fills, so this helped. As you say, watching drum cams is endlessly informative! Would love to see a follow on from this, maybe looking at "intermediate" programming, as it were.

[@JohnDoe-rj8nd]

Really good stuff here. Though I've been cognisant of a lot of this myself, I never considered some things such as varying the velocity between each "hand". Thanks for sharing this!

[@omynel]

Really good stuff, thanks for sharing. Would be keen to learn more about some different fill types. This one finished too soon!

[@joebreakerx]

Man that Derek Roddy video was a classic. I remember watching that and the guy from Warface on repeat

[@olipruy]

Thank you so so much!

[@Almostgfx]

Great Video, thanks Josh

[@artsal]

Awesome video thanks, are there any updates coming out in the future to help Mapping on mainly hi hat settings on electronic drums? Thanks

[@Stumpy801]

I needed this video lol thanks Josh

[@the_awful_guitar_player6666]

Dude my drum programming is basically ripping off everything Gene Hoglan does on his playthrough of skeksis by strapping young lad 😂😂

[@jakecrawford3106]

Superb shout. What a tune. A real showcase of his flare and taste.

[@omramoryth]

A man of culture.

[@bengreenbank]

Ripping off music you like is the foundation of all songwriting

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

@@bengreenbank👆🏻

[@the_awful_guitar_player6666]

@@bengreenbank this drum fill 😍😍😍 kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5bEeqmea6p_jMk

[@ErikAnders]

Doing the lords work 🎉

[@Durkhead]

Can you do like the oposite sort of video? Like what would you do if you did have 3 hands?

[@mcchurch118]

I use EzDrummer 3 since I have 0 rhythm on drums but this give me a better starting point 🙌🤘🔥🔥🤘

[@Luemm3l]

funny to come from the other side as a drummer picking up guitar recently, I find having a library of basic beats like blasts, skank, different Doublebass grooves and varying Backbeats helps, you pick one you like or compare different ones under the same beat and ask for what feel you want To go in that song or part... more laid back and chill ? why not try to have the downbeat on the 3 or even off beat kilter shit like on the 3 and or the 4 and. want more aggressive, driving part? stick probably best to the classic skank on 2 and 4 With downbeat 9r q blast. from these groundbeats it is just embellishments, so fills, accent or snare permutations, a little additinsl splash or china or crash here and there,little additions to keep things from getting to stale. sometimes something as simple as changing a cymbal from hihat to ride in say the classic slayer skank beat can change the feeling of a riff fundamentally. last but kit least, experiment and have fun. if you like how ot comes out and the feel it creates, fuck the opinion of others.

[@deeforty]

Josh , you should consider making an in depth lesson on these ideas , including fills ect and thoroughly cover drum programming , id happily pay for that , i struggle with writing good drums .....im considering buying mishas course on drum programming if anyone has tried that ?

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

I can’t say I’ve seen any courses on drum programming, but I think it’s worth checking out MIDI groove libraries and looking at the MIDI (even if it’s not one of mine) as well as taking more of an interest in drumming

[@Urvos]

Not sure about the course but I would check out misha's videos on youtube about drum programming, blast beats, fills. they're good

[@Paul_Medic]

Roddy is a BEAST 💪

[@josh_lv4268]

Awesome stuff. It's good to have grooves, too, when you are feeling lazy 😅

[@EversonBernardes]

Ideally one should be somewhat aware of what can be done as singles and what's done with doubles, because the dynamics between singles and doubles are vastly different. It gets really apparent in fills, because a lot of the more idiomatic fills are based on singles/doubles combinations (rudiments, etc).

[@bigrick666drum]

Is there a way to do a snare flam on this uhd software?

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

Yeah I always just program them in! I think snare flams are best left when it's depending on the bpm you're working with so we didn't specifically sample flams

[@bigrick666drum]

@JoshMiddletonOfficial cheers man. Loving jamming along with the new midi pack to get me started

[@leonardobucci6801]

El mejor programador de batería midi...es un baterista en un kit de verdad... No se puede reemplazar a un baterista!! Reemplaza a mike mangini a ver cómo te va!!! Reemolaza a Gavin Harrison a ver cómo te va!!!

[@eterevskiy]

I have big problems with hi-hat. What about hi hat?

[@joeylizotte7537]

Random question.. Did you have your tonsils removed?

[@EdsonSantana-f3q]

🤘🤘

[@NPC999]

The hardest part is getting drums to FEEL musical. I.e. the confluence of tempo drift/changes, push/pull/dragging/rushing, velocity, flams, ghost notes, etc etc. The grid really is a prison in this regard. You can do some things within it, but pushing/pulling is hard without "making up" for the difference down the line if you want to remain locked to grid. Metallica just wouldn't feel like Metallica if they were locked to a grid.

[@Lonerstonez]

Why is everyone a techno metal guitarist. 😭 bruh I just want some punk or grunge drums

[@sweeney665]

Great video overall but honestly, I don't get why drawing basic beats by hand is still a thing in 2024. There's literally hundreds of libraries with midi loops recorded by real players, with proper dynamics, variations, fills, rolls etc. In literally any genre from black metal to fusion and cuban and pop. Invest in EZ drummer or Superior drummer and use their midi loop libraries. Yes they will still need minor tweaking, but editing a midi of a pro player's take is far better than doing this whole autistic ordeal from scratch. No offense, still, great video. I just honestly don't understand why people do this by hand.

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

Because if you're writing your own music and lets say a guitarist that's writing a solo record and programming an entire album's worth of drums; it's best to learn how to write beats yourself. This is a very basic beginners guide to programming but having a good understand of programming realistic drums from scratch for most people is better for the creative process than just using someone elses beats. And bear in mind I am selling MIDI groove packs too. I think it's useful to have a comprehensive understanding of drum programming from scratch and being able to visualise the beats. But you've got to start simple. I'm all for MIDI libraries, but this video is for people who want to know how to not rely on them

[@sweeney665]

@@JoshMiddletonOfficial Thanks for replying mate, I appreciate it. 100% agreed that every guitarist (and every musician really) should develop a feel for other instruments. I am a guitarist myself and I have done the whole process so knowing how to edit a groove so it sounds believable is a big (and quite overlooked) skill. Your video does help with that aspect so I do recognize the value. I honestly think however that people simply don't know libraries exist. And my main grievance is that every other "how to program metal drums" is making this glaring omission (not mentioning EzD / SuperiorD) because in the end, they wanna sell their groove packs as the "secret sauce to better sound". (and you plug yours in the end, so that makes this vid part of a sales funnel. Still, I'd take your products over another 127cc GGD wankfest of a metalcore record) There's basically no point of **not** showing (on the second half of your vid for example) how to incorporate & edit those in one's workflow, beginner or not. People, especially non drummers should rely on, study, and incorporate those libraries in their workflow, it's their only saving grace other than actually learning drums. I don't wanna get too negative so here's my "constructive feedback": Get that excellent Sylosis drummer, bust out the real VSTs & midi libraries you guys actually use to demo ideas, and have him go over the mockups you send him, live. Then let him explain "this is shit, this is good, tweak that note / loop / groove like that for XYZ reason" so that people understand what makes a mockup sound great / believable / human. Maybe a part 2 to this vid? :D In any case, thanks for the banter. No offense meant in any of this. Cheers.

[@clarenegracey]

When the guy teaching isnt using a drum map, i click off

[@patrix_guitar]

Hi Josh, is it possible to add a cc learn for the high hat? So the high hat works with an electric drum kit (like alesis). Thanks in front

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

e-kit update coming soon

[@patrix_guitar]

@@JoshMiddletonOfficial Awesome! I am also noticing big loudness jumps between the velocities. Is it intended like this or is it anything that can be improved, to get smoother volume increase?