''Progressive All The Way''

Hello music creators!!

I was wonder if you would share your thoughts with us on making drum beats.

First, what are you using to create a drum pattern? I have been looking into Battery and Groove Agent 3 and I’m not sure what to get. I’m sure there are tons of others that I don’t know about. Maybe someone can shed some light on those. Would love to hear thoughts on what people use the pros and cons. What’s easy to use and something that I would be able to throw something together quickly if something popped in my head. I am a drummer so I do know drum theory so to speak.

Second, do you just buy sample packs and use pre-recorded loops. This seems a little like cheating, plus I can’t get the vibe that I want. I want to throw in a fill here and there or just add a quick cymbal or tom hit but making it sound like it belongs.

Third, do you use just “one hit” drum samples to make a beat and lay this out in a loop based program? This seems VERY tedious!!



Any who, I would be interested in hearing some feed back!
Cheers and thanks in advance!!

I use Live - I used to use Battery to output all my sounds to separate tracks, but now I tend to just use individual MIDI tracks for each drum hit with Impulse as the sound generator and a string of whatever plugins I like in Ableton Live. What sequencer are you using?

I work with individual drum hits, but sometimes I'll chop up loops and use the individual hits or resequence the loop. Yes, it can be tedious, but with the right tools and workflow it becomes quite quick, and gives you total creative control.

Don't think of using drum samples as cheating. Just because you've got the individual drum sounds, it doesn't mean you'll be able to make good drums, just like having all the right synths etc doesn't mean you can make monster basslines straight away. Getting individual hits working together is all part of the science.

Think of it another way - are you prepared to go to a recording studio and record a session drummer if you don't want to use other people's samples? I think this is a terrible idea, as there are professionals out there who have devoted their lives to the science of rigging up and recording drumkits, who have already put out far better drum sample CDs than any of us would get in a years worth of trying. So there's no point trying to reinvent the wheel here, unless you really want to go for authentic live drums in your track.

Individual drum sounds on their own are not the essence of a track - it's how you use them and process them that counts for creativity. I'd recommend reading some books on mixing. Good luck. Smile

I use Logic and typically go to the EXS24 for all my drum patches.

Anytime I'm working on stuff but having a day where I'm "just not feeling it" I've learned to use that time as "admin time". This often includes trawling through my existing sample library and putting together different drum kits and saving them for later when I am "feeling it".

I also use that time to take samples I have from wherever and turn them into .REX files - included drum loops. IMHO .REX files are a great way to tap into drum loops without necessarily using them "ver batim". Besides, if there was a pot with a pound in it for each time someone's used the Think, Apache, Amen, or Soul Pride breaks "as is" we could all of us be rich! Wink

Having some experience with drums too, I tend to "hear" the beats I want in my head and just program them in tapping my MIDI keyboard if I want there to be a groove or feel in the velocity but just as often step program in the piano roll with a pencil if I want a set velocity or want to get an idea in quickly.

If you're a drummer, it might be worthwhile to look into something like a set of Roland V Drums or similar. These can be patched into your DAW's sampler via MIDI - you can assign different drum pads to trigger one or more samples in the sampler - and you can play the drums "in real life" and still get the sounds from your sampler you want, it's velocity sensitive, and you'll proably come up with more "realistic" grooves and fills or at least ones that are more "you" and feel more natural for you than any cerebral exercise of "hm... what does this need? I think I'll put this there or that here" etc.

I got a set for XMas that I've played with a bit but haven't had time to put them to use to full potential but had some good results so give that a go!

"It feels like cheating"

I often hear the same refrain when people are discussing putting beats together & using samples, usually delivered with serious producer face on ... the fact is that nobody whatsoever will care how you put your beats together as long as they rock. You can spend days trying to create unique sounding, multiple-layered beats via scratch programming & fancy VSTs, by which time you will have lost the will to live and the chances are that your beats will still sound like their constituent parts all sitting uncomfortably with each other.

Then again if people see production as a scientific masterclass in the first place, I'll probably be at the back of the queue to listen to it when it's completed Smile

I used to use mostly Reason for my drums... laying them out in reasons sequencer was vry easy!

I do own battery 3 and have dropped in single hits to make my own drum kits and what not.. then just lay out the beats in cubase, ableton, logic, etc. Although when I use Batt3... espcially with ableton.. it seems like it using alot of buffer to run it... anyone else have this prob?

Ableton's Impulse seems alright... dont really like how the individual channels fail to show the volume/dbs when tryin to level out your kicks, snares, etc. but then that just goes back to using your ears instead of your eyes which can be better at times.

I know some people that lay out there drums in individual channels in ableton.. then they bounce down there patterns and throw them in logic.

the exs24 in logic is just a large sampler... it seems alright but i havent really used it much.

i guess it really comes down to what you feel most comfortable using... if your new to production then you'll just have to get your hands dirty and see what u adapt to.

Well thanks everyone for you input. I love that I can ask a question on here and people actually take the time to answer! Wink

I guess I am being too critical. Guess I should smoke a doob and just turn something out! Cool
I am trying to create something for the breaks side of things. All I have right now are free loops from different sites so maybe I should bite the bullet and buy a good sample pack with tons of choices suggestions are appreciated

Would love to hear what some of the tracks you have made...? maybe I can see where the hell I am at in this whole producing game.


I have looked into the Roland kits. They are a ton of fun from what I’ve played on. I guess it depends what I’m working on…I am currently working on more band type stuff as well with my buddy on live guitar, bass, and then trying to add a drum beat to it(loops). But this sounds so rudimentary. So maybe for something like this I need a Roland kit. Guess it’s a matter of just constantly experimenting and picking peoples brains about this stuff.


Thanks again for the insight! Much appreciated! well done