youandewan wrote:I'm using Reason 4 & Cubase SX3 at the moment. I'm pretty maxing Reason for its capabilities. Im on windows but im told mac & logic etc are good for this stuff. should my bank balance lose a ball and go apple?
What do all the big boys use. For example the minus/richie hawtin/gaiser. What are they using because I'm finding it hard to emulate sounds as smooth and professional as thier stuff. Ive actually been told my production is good but to me its only half way there. My biggest problem is kick drums and perc. Do I need thousands of refils? I've tried all sorts to try get em sounding half decent...So any advice on how to make them sound like they should sound would be appreciated.
Thanks
Ewan.
have a listen anyway.
www.myspace.com/youandewan
if you want good drums... you can do the following
Turn of quantize and hand program them with your keyboard or drum pads.
Learn to Synthesize drum sounds. You may have better success with your kicks
Use consistent quality drum sounds. Mixing low and high quality sounds can be a dead giveaway... you'll be trying to use an eq to mix your low quality sounds with the high quality ones and they "generally" wont sound as good.
Be extremely careful with the sounds you choose. They all have to fit together.
Tune your drums.
Pan your drums
Layer your drums.
Use reverb and effects to build some space around your drums.
Spend time with your drums.
EQ you drums
I've learned that over the years this is definetely one of the hardest things to get right. People are hooked on a tune sometimes just on the rhythm and bass so it can be the most important element to a tune. Which is probably why your feeling you don't have some sort of secret VST or killer app that will give you killer drums.
It can help to learn another app just because it may give you a sense of freedom or even a sense of limitation because you won't know the app. But its really not that much different between the apps. I've heard amazing tracks come out the most popular daws, reason, fruityloops, and even trackers.
So Making loops in ableton, reason, cubase, logic, fruity loops is no different. Again all it really takes is a couple ideas, some good samples or synthesis, some tuning and some rhythm.
If the rest of your tracks are coming out fine to you then. Make this your focus next time you write tunes... simply just make a couple drum tracks but really focus on the drums and a simple bassline. see what you come up with.
