Drum Tracks ???

What kind of software are you guys using for drum tracks? Or are you getting pre made tracks? I have just started using Cool Pro Edit 2.1 and have learned how to mix different guitar parts. Now I am ready to move on to drums. Any suggestions?

I use a combination of royalty free loops, a couple of drum machines called Battery and Lm-4, a ton of royalty free sample CD's with various drum hits plus a couple of real kits sitting in my drum room.

The best bet overall is to use a combination of Free Loops and a drum machine like Battery.
You can get a ton of free loops off the net or just for a low fee (PLP Peace Love Productions... a place I'm producing loops for myself right now) offers a ton of loops as majorly low prices.

The best thing to do is what I'm doing now.
I've loaded up a whole song with several dozen loops. Then I've run Battery through a bunch of MIDI files to produce original loops.
Then I run my songs midi files through a couple of dozen synths and store all the files on a Cubase song file. In the end it looks like a huge grid.

then you can just pick and choose how you want your song to sound.

I'm gonna post links to a bunch of examples of what you can do as soon as I can get em converted so stay tuned

Thanks Schmange. That was a great reply. Tons of info. I will keep checking back for updates. Thanks again!

Ok, further info on this.
You can get drum loops from just about any source on the net. PLP Loops is a decent one at a great price (plus they're doing a deal with me to feature my own stuff :)

Basically, if you haven't worked with loops before... you download a bunch of em that can be anything from straight drum loops, to just percussion, bass loops, guitar loops, or combo loops with several instruments.

What i do to make loops for myself is play a midi file of a couple of chords like "A and B". Then run that through a dozen different synths. Then I use a drum machine called Battery and and randomly come up with a ton of different patterns.
I load about 120 tracks up with various different variations of sounds.
then I go though and mix and match them. ie, mixing drum loops with the synth loops, then adding the drums and bass etc...,

Then I divide them up so you can take each individual loop and build your own song.

The possiblilties are endless cause even with just a couple of chords, you can come up with hundreds of different styles.

I've upload a zip file of about a dozen examples here:

http://s9374450.onlinehome.us/SchmangeOnline/schmangeloops.zip

**note: if the link doesn't work just PM me and I'll send you a proper link.
for some reason I can't get the above link to work**

From these, I'll usually load them into ReCycle so I can splice them up and adjust the tempo.
Basically... it's the same two chords played on a guitar synth, then run through a dozen different synths like Absynth, Pro53, B4, MoogModular, Plex, X-Phrase etc.. then backed up with Battery for drum loops. Then guitar added.... then I break them down into individual tracks so you can build your own songs. These ones are at 95bpm, but with ReCycle you can adjust that up or down as you see fit.

I guess the thing to notice here is that even with just a couple of chords, you can get all kinds of atmospheric styles. Now all you have to do is add lyrics and a vocals. Then expand them into full songs.

The end result here for me is to come up with several dozen loop CD's in different tempos and then offer them for sale online to places like PLP as well as my own site.

A lot of major studios use this stuff to expand on their recordings so it's kinda suprising to suddenly hear your own guitar playing in a Gwen Stephanie or Spears song. (kinda suprising too cause it's like " hey.... that sounds like my song!!)

I use drum tracks that I make myself with Fruityloops which I didn't download from a torrent site hardly at all. Just a little bit.

Originally Posted by: schmangeOk, further info on this.
You can get drum loops from just about any source on the net. PLP Loops is a decent one at a great price (plus they're doing a deal with me to feature my own stuff :)

Basically, if you haven't worked with loops before... you download a bunch of em that can be anything from straight drum loops, to just percussion, bass loops, guitar loops, or combo loops with several instruments.

What i do to make loops for myself is play a midi file of a couple of chords like "A and B". Then run that through a dozen different synths. Then I use a drum machine called Battery and and randomly come up with a ton of different patterns.
I load about 120 tracks up with various different variations of sounds.
then I go though and mix and match them. ie, mixing drum loops with the synth loops, then adding the drums and bass etc...,

Then I divide them up so you can take each individual loop and build your own song.

The possiblilties are endless cause even with just a couple of chords, you can come up with hundreds of different styles.

I've upload a zip file of about a dozen examples here:

http://s9374450.onlinehome.us/SchmangeOnline/schmangeloops.zip

**note: if the link doesn't work just PM me and I'll send you a proper link.
for some reason I can't get the above link to work**

From these, I'll usually load them into ReCycle so I can splice them up and adjust the tempo.
Basically... it's the same two chords played on a guitar synth, then run through a dozen different synths like Absynth, Pro53, B4, MoogModular, Plex, X-Phrase etc.. then backed up with Battery for drum loops. Then guitar added.... then I break them down into individual tracks so you can build your own songs. These ones are at 95bpm, but with ReCycle you can adjust that up or down as you see fit.

I guess the thing to notice here is that even with just a couple of chords, you can get all kinds of atmospheric styles. Now all you have to do is add lyrics and a vocals. Then expand them into full songs.

The end result here for me is to come up with several dozen loop CD's in different tempos and then offer them for sale online to places like PLP as well as my own site.

A lot of major studios use this stuff to expand on their recordings so it's kinda suprising to suddenly hear your own guitar playing in a Gwen Stephanie or Spears song. (kinda suprising too cause it's like " hey.... that sounds like my song!!)

Okay once again great info. I have tons of questions about synths etc....but I figure I better wait until I can actually check some of these out and then maybe some of the answers will be obvious. I tried you link and it did not work for me either so I sent you a PM. Once again thanks for the great response. Thanks

Originally Posted by: Julian VickersI use drum tracks that I make myself with Fruityloops which I didn't download from a torrent site hardly at all. Just a little bit.

Thanks for the info. I am downloading a demo copy of the FL Studio 7 right now to check it out. Thanks again.....Rep points for you and Schmange :)

I just realized that my zip file got corrupted cause my secondary HD ran outa space so I'm uploading it again.

http://s93744050.onlinehome.us/loopsforguitartricks.zip


Hopefully this one works.
Basically it's a dozen or so identical loops done using various differnet synths and drum loops that illustrates how you can get different styles of music from just a couple of chords.

If you load it up into a sequencer, you should be able to mix and match em.
Best thing to do is load all of them up into a sequencer app like Cubase or whatever.... mute all the tracks and then select 3 or 4 tracks at a time to play together. On top of that you can easily add guitar leads or vocals.
You can also take individual tracks and run them through effects like SpectralDelay or Amplitube to further expand on the possibilities.

When you run out of ideas, just cut and paste the various blocks to different parts of the song..



To make your own, all you have to do is grab a midi file and run it through several dozen ths and drum machines. Then you can also alter the tempo or even automatically change the key and velocities.

Just a suggestion, but buy yourself an application called ReCyle. It'll allow you to split up your own loops among other things.


http://s93744050.onlinehome.us/loopsforguitartricks.zip

I just started using Cool Edit Pro 2.1 So hopefully I can drop the files in that program and try and use them like you suggested with Cubase. I am still fairly new to it all but I seem to be getting along alright so far with mixing multiple guitar tracks. One step at a time I guess. Thanks again for the info. Way more than I expected I really appreciate you taking the time to help. :)

I make my drum tracks different from everyone else :o

I got my own method which i think many might think is rediculous and time wasting.

I personally don't like to use loops, cos I like to do everything myself, more original and my own style.

Over the years, I've collected one hit drum samples from keyboards, recorded real drum samples in a studio, or getting some samples from friends etc. It's been about nine years now looking for the right sounds.

After I got my samples selected, I load them up in Cubase's 'Pool'
I then create seperate tracks for the different hits

ex: track 1 = Kick
track 2 = Snare etc.

After that, I insert each sample into Cubase's timeline creating a beat.

What is good about Cubase is that you can set the Quantize to whatever timing you want, like 1/4 notes, 1/8 notes, 1/16 notes etc.

If I insert one sample in the timeline, and I wanna reuse that sample again, all I do is just hold Alt and drag the sample, and it duplicates it. Quite easy I think. That's how I do it.

The reason why is that I'm not in a good financial position to go out and buy hardware or Sample CD's blah blah. I just try to make do with what I got. I call it Economy recording :p And everything I have is Genuine, no pirated software, free VST's which can be found on the net, so I'm happy about that.

Hope this makes sense at all.

Do I have a weird way of doing things?

Good luck with your drumming :)

Shaz

Hey Shaz that Sounds intense. I tried the drums once and I sucked. So I might be a little intimidated doing it your way. I did figure something kinda cool out though. I downloaded a free backing track to a blues song. So it was a pretty basic drum beat with high hat. That seemed to work pretty good. But I tried to drop it into my cool edit pro to use it for mixing and it would not take. It was just a garbled mess. I can record guitar mp3s and drop them in and they work fine. So I am not sure what the deal was there....maybe a bad file or maybe I will try to convert it to a wav file.....I will give that a try I think.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Lots of good information. More rep points for you guys! :D

I use toontrack EZDrummer. It comes loaded with a few hundred loops. Best thing is you can add as many midi loops as you want to it. Then it plays the midi loops using real drums samples.

Then all you do is drag and drop to make a song out of the loops.

There are alot of good cheap midi loops around the net. And even a ton more for free.

jt419oh

I have been using Reason in Pro Tools and have been having a tough time.
I've heard of the Toontracks from another person also.
I had difficulty finding it.
Any idea of where I can get it?

You can get it discounted at www.soundsonline.com

Thanks for the link.
Any good sites to learn how to use it?