MusicRadar

A drum sampler - such as Battery 3 - could be a good investment.

View in gallery

Even if you don't use samples anywhere else in your music, it's highly likely that you'll call on them when you're creating your drum tracks.

Simple, static samples have a habit of sounding rather flat, though, and that's not what you want at all. So, here are 18 things you can do to give your drums the wow factor.

1. Think about the high-end
When picking kick drum samples, pay particular attention to the high end of the sound. A hi-hat on top of the kick may feel inconsequential when you're concentrating on finding a sound with a solid attack and bottom end, but it can interfere with the highs of your drum mix later on, which obviously isn't ideal.

2. Layered snares
Getting the ultimate snare sound can be easier if you layer up different samples – this way you don't have to find a single perfect snare sample to do all the work. A good technique is to start with a snare that has a solid bottom end, then fill out the frequency range with other samples.

3. Double snares
If your snare sound has good impact, but lacks room ambience, there is an alternative to simply slapping a reverb on it. If you have another, roomier snare, you can place it after the main hit and use a short fade to bring in the sound.

4. Control the tail
Using amplitude envelopes or fades is a pretty useful technique for tightening up any kind of drum sound. The majority of samplers have simple decay and/or release stages, but some sequencers feature customisable fade-out curves that give you a high level of control over the volume of the drum sample's tail.

5. Shift the pitch
You may find you need to make slight tuning adjustments to certain drum sounds so that they fit in better with the rest of the drum mix or your track overall. Most sequencers use granular pitchshifting to adjust the pitch of notes. If your sequencer enables you to disable pitchshifting, use this option to preserve the quality of your drum samples.

6. Ride the waves
If you're struggling to find a suitable ride sound, you may find that cutting the attack off a cymbal crash, leaving just the tail, creates a workable alternative. If you find the dynamics of this new sound too aggressive, use compression or volume automation to create a smoother sound.

7. Use two hi-hats
Using just a single hi-hat sample can result in an unrealistic-sounding beat. Usually two hi-hats are enough to create a less artificial (or at least funkier) feel. Varying the volume levels of your hits will make them sound more natural and give them their own rhythm.