Drum Synthesis

Let's discuss drum synthesis. I've got a couple questions about it. You see, I've grown tired of using Roland drum machines and my drum set which I've sampled. I want to get more extreme and electronic sounding drums in my music, but I don't know exactly how to make them. I don't like the idea of using samples packs, to me it just seems like a cop out to actually forming your own sounds, I have no problem with other people using them, I personally just don't like the concept. So I decided I better go get some drum synthesizers to make my own sounds. This is where my problem lies. Every drum synth I've tried so far, has these "built in" drum sounds already there, and it seems like all I can do is manipulate these given sounds. What I want is a clean slate. A blank synth. A fresh untweaked synth designed for me to make percussive noises. I mean with most of all other software synths, the parameters are usually at value 0, sine wav usually selected, and then you have to tweak all the knobs to get good sounds. why aren't drum synths like this. it feels like I'm just modulating a sample or something.

the drum synths i've been trying are drumsynth, drumatic, DKS D-Hammer, and a few other shitty ones. They all have one thing in common. a sound must be loaded or already given to you, in order to produce sound. wtf?

am i missing something here or what's the deal? maybe there's a different method to creating percussion that i don't know about

You can make drum sounds with any synth that let's you control the osc pitch with an envelope.

sound forge. you can even draw parts of the sound.

absynth is good but you'll probably need extra processing with that too. it's good because of the amount of envelope control, and wave control.

i usually make all my synth drums. it took a while to learn (and i think i've forgotten now from not doing it anymore, should have jotted shit down). a lot of synths have drum presets so look at those. after a while you'll know what to do in sound forge and might prefer that. you can also record lots of raw sounds like white noise and stuff from various synths, then mix, edit, process in sound forge. or do stuff with recorded sound. endless possibilities

surely you can just use a preset drum sound on one of your synths, then totally alter it so it's completely different...like, change the waveform, alter the oscillator, add some white noise, change the ADSR settings etc - that way you should be able to create sounds almost from scratch

Stomper Hyperion is alright, though i've only ever used it for kicks.

you could say the same about any synthesis though.

that's a good way to start, but you'll end up doing it from scratch. once you know what you're doing it's quicker than fiddling with a preset.

you can also take a long sample of white noise or sine wave or anything and put it through a load of modulated effects, with like, lfos with saw, random ramp, sample and hold.. modulate the lfo speeds, granular stuff, etc. you can end up with some percussive sounds you can cut out. you sometimes get cool sounds out of randomness. you could also do that directly in a modular synth.

dr008 is good

microtonic + RMIV + hardware generally does me

can't believe nobody has mentioned waldorf attack yet. the software or the hardware. holy grail of drum synthesis. puts stomper into a casket.

yeah, waldorf attack ftw!

or orangator if you want to go oldskool. the source of 90% of orange dust's drum sounds before he started doing glitch hop and dnb.

i use operator to make all my drum sounds - i am anal like that.

  Jonas said:

renoise drawtool + loops in sample editor, patterncommands, instr-editor & dsp/vst effects = awesomeness.

fuck yeah! oldskool. i used to draw my own samples all the time in fasttracker2!

First off: It may sound like cop out by me saying "go read this", but seriously read the manual for Waldorf attack. It's pretty good has some good tips and it's not just applicable to attack. PDF Link: Here. I know half the fun of making music is just messing around and not reading things, but the attack manual is short and really helpful.

Suggestions (some have been mentioned, and there's good reason why!):

Software:

Waldorf attack

Sonic Charge Microtonic (aka uTonic)

Dr008

Pluggo (break garbage especially)

Drumatic

ERS Drums

Kontakt

Also on the modular front:

Vaz Modular

Reaktor

Stomper is fun too but mostly for noises, fx, synthy beepy percussion.

Harware:

Korg electribes (any of them)

MPC

Old skool cheap 80's drum machines that let you edit them (casio, etc) and are cheap on ebay (under 200 bucks).

Compression, layering, and meticulous editing are your friends. Layer a sine wave under your snare drums, match the pitch, and then cut out the low frequencies and mix together and you get a nice compressed sounding snare w/o compression. Compress it and it's even better.

Personally as far as actual self made synthesis, I use uTonic, and Attack on every song. I use Dr-008 and Kontakt all the time too but mostly for sampled stuff.

I've heard good things about izotope's "iDrum" but don't know much about it and haven't used it but I'm a big fan of everything izotope makes.

Also try buying a korg electribe Er-1 on ebay. They are dirt cheap and while the sounds get kind of samey after a while, it is a great learning tool and very fun to use. It is an actual synthesizer and has lots of editing capabilities.

Some SOS articles : http://www.soundonsound.com/search?section...=drum+synthesis

KVR Drum synths search results: Here

Edit: Also a lot of software synths, that aren't exactly linked to drum synthesis in an obvious way, have drum maps set up across the keys (ala nord lead/modular, waldorf q, and millions of workstations and general midi devices). Look around. The one's you would be looking for would be virtual analog type soft synths that let you actually edit the parameters instead of having just samples and general midi type stuff that has minor tweakability.

I agree w/ dildo on the microtonic.

I actually bought it because I liked it that much.

personally, I do all my drums with my G2, but Logic also has a pretty nice drum machine built in, called Ultrabeat. 2 oscs, and one noise osc. one of the oscs can load a sample or a physical modeling type synthesis, the other is subtractive/phase or FM (or side chain input). filter section with distortion and bit crush, and ring mod. 2 eq bands, lfos, multiple envelopes etc. also has built in sequencer.

ive said it before, and Ill say it again.... $500 is a steal for all the stuff you get with logic...

personally, i do all my drums by hitting my bathtub with a ratchet.

i drum muy oh ebutt into th e wall at sciho so hre girld will smell; thr leadk prehrmones to be had with frm cracks cpread edmiitilms. poppofre, pictariset,. er cannot reveide the heg on her goldnales do we rotato prodfessions and i become a bcattle drufrher all dsdy long for me to have a rprhanckhwoiuedk brejusdtturjriirvsoidfefcojcvosemdsokdjhgtofnkcm sbgahjdkflgo,

  Polymershapes said:

i drum muy oh ebutt into th e wall at sciho so hre girld will smell; thr leadk prehrmones to be had with frm cracks cpread edmiitilms. poppofre, pictariset,. er cannot reveide the heg on her goldnales do we rotato prodfessions and i become a bcattle drufrher all dsdy long for me to have a rprhanckhwoiuedk brejusdtturjriirvsoidfefcojcvosemdsokdjhgtofnkcm sbgahjdkflgo,

/agree 100%

  Polymershapes said:

i drum muy oh ebutt into th e wall at sciho so hre girld will smell; thr leadk prehrmones to be had with frm cracks cpread edmiitilms. poppofre, pictariset,. er cannot reveide the heg on her goldnales do we rotato prodfessions and i become a bcattle drufrher all dsdy long for me to have a rprhanckhwoiuedk brejusdtturjriirvsoidfefcojcvosemdsokdjhgtofnkcm sbgahjdkflgo,

polymershapes for lifetime member

holy FUCK. i 100% swear that i have no memory of writing that, and that i took ambien last night with a beer.

  Polymershapes said:

heg on her goldnales

Yes

:)

I would like to hear the music made using these techniques polymershapes.

PS- I just got a kontakt library of timpani samples. Best drums ever. I wonder if anyone's ever synthesized a decent timpani. I've never heard any "timpani" sounds in kb's or software that sounded remotely real or useful.