Any tips for more realistic MIDI drums?

[CoffeeKeepAwake]

Hi all,

This is not an S1-specific question, but I am using S1, version 6.x, to compose.

I have Steven Slate Drums (SSD5), and they are the best sounding sampled drums I've used to date. I play my parts on keyboard or little drum pads (finger drumming), and do a lot of massaging in the notes view. For more complex parts I'll add/edit notes in that view. I vary volume and fills, and keep parts evolving so they sound more like a real drummer.

I don't care much for loops or MIDI files as sources, because they tend to be generic or just not fit the sound I'm hearing.

Here's an example of a demo made with S1 and Steven Slate Drums. https://versastudio.com/bandpdx/demos/songs/A.downFromTheClouds-demo.mp3

What tips and tricks can y'all provide to help my drums sound closer to real? Thanks!

 

[Craig Anderton]

Here are a few off the top of my head:

• No two consecutive drum hits are the same.
• "Humanize" functions should be labelled "number of beers consumed by the drummer." Real humans don't make random changes, good drummers push and lag the beat in a conscious way. Here's a short article from craiganderton.org about timing, and how it influences a drum part's "feel factor."
• Tempo changes are a huge part of expressive drumming. Check out another of my articles, The Truth about Tempo Changes. It includes tempo maps of some pre-click-track hits that are very revealing.
• Use quantization strength to get closer to the grid instead of right on top of it.
• Synthesis modules can add expressiveness to individual drum sounds. For example, have high velocities raise pitch (drum skin stretched tighter) and brightness. These should be very subtle, but even so, they make a big difference.
• Don't forget about "ghost" notes.
• The room sound really matters in giving the aural cue that "these are drums." I did a PreSonus blog post about compressing only the low-level parts of drums to bring up room sound, but it was in the pre-2023 group of posts that were purged. It's archived here (not affiliated with me or PreSonus) but without the image or audio example, the archive is kinda useless. If you have my Studio One eBook it's in there, or use the Waves MV2 and apply only upward compression for the low-level signals.
• Cymbals don't always hit on the downbeat, but add accents.
• There's more to quantization that the power-of-two options. I did a PreSonus blog post called A Deep Dive Into Quantization, which you may find helpful if you want to integrate quintuplets, septuplets, and swing into your drum parts. There are five audio examples. Given how much you use toms, if the kick and snare are rock solid you can get exotic with the tom timings.

I normally use acoustic drums, but the Take Me Back to Tomorrow "tropical pop" album from 2020 is all electronic drums. It might give you some ideas to apply to your own music. It even has the only drum solo I've ever done with MIDI drums . Hope this helps!

 

[Davey]

My three drum tips would be ghost notes, ghost notes and ghost notes.
Although I've never really found a good way to add them so they sound natural.

 

[Lukas]

Also, take a look at the Studio One Tutorial Database. In this case I'd recommend the videos from Max Konyi:

Drum Tutorials by Max Konyi | Studio One Toolbox

Studio One Toolbox - Free online tools and scripting add-ons for Studio One users. Our Tutorial Database includes more than 500 free Studio One video tutorials!

s1toolbox.com

 

[Stuart Welwood]

I have Steven Slate Drums (SSD5), and they are the best sounding sampled drums I've used to date. I play my parts on keyboard or little drum pads (finger drumming), and do a lot of massaging in the notes view. For more complex parts I'll add/edit notes in that view. I vary volume and fills, and keep parts evolving so they sound more like a real drummer.
Here's an example of a demo made with S1 and Steven Slate Drums. https://versastudio.com/bandpdx/demos/songs/A.downFromTheClouds-demo.mp3

The drums at the intro sound quite natural. I can see why you like them.

It's a bit ironic that, back when all synthesizers were analog, percussion sounds were considered to be among the easiest to produce., timing issues aside. Now, I find adequate cymbal sounds are difficult to get. This is particularly true with hi-hats.

My disappointment partly stems from having a old Roland R-8 Mk II. On it, most of the instruments have a "Nuance" parameter. These instruments can vary on what they do in response to a change in nuance. Most sound like they're being struck in different places. For example, a ride cymbal may sound like it's been hit at the rim with nuance at 0 and on the bell with nuance at 127. This effect can make a snare or hat sound more realistic in a meaningful way.

Craig's comment on the humanize function applies to every instrument. I don't use it. Instead, I try to find improvements by varying each note in as many ways as I can think might help. I also mostly ignore the names of variations and just go by the sound. So I might use legato strings as part of creating an up bow.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Now, I find adequate cymbal sounds are difficult to get.

For a while I gave up, and overdubbed physical cymbals. I'm no drummer, but I can hit a cymbal at the right time, in the right place.

Hi-hats...I'm with you on that, because of all the expressiveness involved with how a drummer "works" the hi-hat. I do have one hi-hat tip. If there's an acoustic loop with a hi-hat playing on every instance of a particular beat, sync X-Trem to tempo, and give it a 50% duty cycle.

 

[js1]

The approach that I take is to start with MIDI parts recorded by a drummer, then edit them to get what I want. OP, you said you don't like libraries because you find them generic, or don't do what you want them to do. I don't find that to be the case - where they excel is capturing the feel of a real drummer, which is extremely difficult to program. If nothing else, you can use them as a timing and velocity template.

As far as generic, my issue with some libraries is that they often lack usable meat and potato grooves, and get overly complex. But even those grooves can be thinned out with a little editing.

Be aware that some libraries scale the MIDI velocity so that the hardest hits are maximum velocity instead of the velocity the drummer played (this was revealed by Chris Whitten, who was a drummer for some Toontrack libs). If you don't want the sound of the drums being hammered, scale back the velocity.