i’m having tons of fun chopping old 60s and 70s breaks on the OT, and getting great results. but occasionally i am looking for an exceptionally clean drum sound, that i hear in certain tracks, like this one:
and this
to my ears this just sounds like drums recorded with semi modern technology. but, perhaps there are just certain old breaks that sound really clean? (i’m not finding them in my collections). or perhaps they are old breaks that are just EQd and processed to pristine clarity? (how?) i’ve tried compression and EQ in the box, still not getting the effect i’d like. my mixing skills could use some sharpening certainly, but i dont think its a simple case of mixing that i’m hearing?
@River basically nailed it. If you’re looking to juice up some one-shots to make them really strong and clean, Icicle’s hybrid approach is worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8keV9Foaljc -
thanks for the info. on a closer listen, you could be right about the paradox track, but listen close to the air in between the kick and snare, there is a faint hat or shaker floating around that lends it that intact break feel. there is of course a cowbell track over it but ignore that, no mystery there to be solved imo.
i really like that feel and like slicing full breaks as opposed to one shot sequencing. my current style is mostly using the AR for individual hits, with the analog engines.
as far as the slicing itself, i have tried both methods, and manually slicing, or manually editing and cleaning slices certainly helps, but i am talking more about the general audio vibe or feel of “clean” and precise sounding.
and yes, the dirty old vinyl sound is awesome and i love it for that, and use it to great effect most of the time. but i am seeking a particular sound in a particular situation with this.
The patterning 2 app for iPad has access to “cloud kits” and I’ve been finding a lot of cool ‘modern’ sounds in there. Sample that to either Digitakt or OT and go to town.
Sampling demos has been another great source of material. …Like a sound pack demo or some new drum machine demo (or the patterning 2 demo)
Sample YouTube is a start.
Check out some kontakt libraries, they got all kinds of stuff.
Check out EZdrummer too maybe, if you want to make your own or sample some of those beats.
Lots of options.
That second track sounds kinda Latino ish in terms of the percussion sounds, like salsa maybe? With lots of hand drumming sounds.
There is no magic here, you just pinpointed two tracks that are based on “clean/crispy” sound beats.
Just chop it up, pitch it to your liking and add reverb.
Yes. But I don’t mean the loops, but the logic drummer. You have much more editing options what “he” plays. You can determine how many fills, swing, hihat or cymbals, percussion, laidback, amount of ghostnotes etc. If you choose a nice drum kit it sounds pretty convincing
I agree, it sounds not bad at all (the Logic Drummer)! Maybe add a layer to personalise it and it’s done for the first draft of sound picking.
I just try to finish as much layers of the tune or loop or beat before getting too picky in sound design … because … I would never ever really get anything done
Yep, I was agreeing with you – the drummer is great! I was just adding that there are some breaks worth investigating in the loops library, too (mainly because I’d actually pretty much ignored the loops for ages, but then got stuck trying to find a suitable break to chop up for a track and eventually found one in there)
welp folks i did some digging and found the original samples used, and turns out they are old 70s breaks same as the ones i have. in fact i have the exact breaks on my OT already. another track which has that “crispy” sound is Brace Yourself Jason by u-Ziq, which uses James brown’s Cold Sweat, which i have actually used a lot before, without getting that effect. also @anon64972012 was dead on with the Dynamic corvettes break in the Paradox track.
so it turns out, i just need to get better at processing, and chopping…
thanks for all the tips and info folks. i’ll be hunched over my OT trying to get gud.
i think a lot of it was done on trackers / atari st , a few old documentaries with squarepusher / amiga / octamed and things like that should be kicking around on youtube.
early muziq stuff was atari/distorted hr16/d50 … the breaks on that track sample wise are in a lot of other tracks, but the editing takes a while to get right.
that paradox tracks has a lot of familiar breaks and vocal snippets in it, sound like a lot of the top end has been removed.
a lot of the new hybrid album has great production , i’m not keen on the vocal / lyric stuff but they do great orchestral lush breaks.
a lot of break collections are on soulseek , if you are into that type of thing. (google it).
coldgrits
rifin
shackup
skullsnaps
apache
botheyesopen
blowfly
I’ve made breaks out of some radiohead stuff…just have to keep an ear out for things… they do lots of weird syncopation …
