| Drum Samples - Eliminate Frustration |
| Articles - Lifestyle |
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Most music producers today, especially those just getting into the game, are overwhelmed by the thousands of drum samples and sounds offered by the multiple drum libraries offered through programs like Fruity Loops, Native Instruments' Battery and Redrum (by Propellerheads, and included in their flagship program, Reason). So what can we do about it to prevent hair loss and allow us to get on with beat making?
Most music producers today, especially those just getting into the game, are overwhelmed by the thousands of drum samples and sounds offered by the multiple drum libraries offered through programs like Fruity Loops, Native Instruments' Battery and Redrum (by Propellerheads, and included in their flagship program, Reason). So what can we do about it to prevent hair loss and allow us to get on with beat making? The solution in this case is to organize the drum samples to the best of our ability. Sometimes this can be an extremely difficult task, but why? The reason is because some manufacturers make it near-impossible to extract the actual sounds from their databases. This makes it that much harder to converge and organize the bulk of the available sounds. Sometimes the next best thing to do is to get very familiar with the default patches (multiple sounds pre-selected by the sound designers) and keep a cheat-sheet of the genre-specific ones that appeal to you. If you have successfully saved all the drum samples you can and have access to the rest, you can try to take up this organization system. Name all of your drum samples with descriptive names but also place them into folders that describes just the sound type. So for instance, the hi-hats would all go into a folder named 'hi-hats.' Do this with all of them! If you want to take this organization system up another notch, there are a few things you can do today to make your life easier. If you switch regularly between different genres, this will especially make a lot of sense for you. Group the different percussion and drum folders under genre titles. For instance, for all kicks you deem dance-worthy, place them into a folder called 'dance'. So this way, you could go into the Dance folder and find the different groups of drums that work great for Dance! This sort of a system will ensure that your creativity is never sapped when looking for a particular drum sample. Imagine needing a decent sound and spending 15 minutes auditioning one hundred or more different samples before finding one that could possibly work and could possibly match what you hear in your head. With this system, you simply go into the genre's folder (like 'Rap') and check out the drum samples folder (ie. 'Snares') and test out a handful of samples before deciding on one. You can apply these strategies to sounds other than drum samples as well. Think how much time it could save you if you were going to have all of your sound patches and drums organized by genre and then also by the type of sound or drum? Only one disadvantage is on the mind right now: what if the sound is good for two different genres? Well, what you can do is include it in both folders or simply have a transitional folder, labeled, perhaps, Rap-Dance-Drums. This would indicate that the drums are good for rap music and dance at the same time. DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice. Want to make rap beats? Use online forums and communities to help you with your questions. Making rap beats can be easy! |