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SEPTEMBER 2020 / CM285

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HOW TO USE DOWNLOAD

See page 81 to find out
how to download this
issue’s exclusive content

DOWNLOAD We’ve got a new system for downloading welcome
files. Whenever you see this icon, you can
grab the files on your PC or Mac by going
to filesilo.co.uk/computermusic.

Tutorials featuring this icon make
use of our own Plugins – find
out all about them at filesilo.co.uk.

A very wise person once said – think Mr. Miyagi in The

TUTORIAL This icon means there are extra files Karate Kid or the prime minister of New Zealand – ‘never
to help you follow a tutorial feature:
FILES project files, audio examples, etc. compare major DAWs with one another’. And I’ve held

those wise words close to my heart, believing that

There’s extra video content selecting your sequencing weapon is very much a
wherever you see this icon.
personal choice. All DAWs offer enough features to turn

your ideas into music, and it’s really the workflow – that

most personal of preferences – that should be your

WWW deciding factor. But when Apple dropped its Live Loops

computermusic.co.uk bomb into Logic 10.5 – not to mention a couple of

[email protected] “Naughty, samplers, along the way
facebook.com/computer.music.mag – it was pretty clear

twitter.com/computermusicuk naughty, very which road they were
youtube.com/computermusicmag travelling down (and

instagram.com/computermusicmag naughty” there were signposts to
Berlin all along it). So my

rather sensible ‘try before

you buy’ philosophy has now been blown out of the

window and shoved aside by the sensationalist journalist

in me. (And yes, I did want to put a pair of boxing gloves

shaped like both the Apple and Ableton logos on the

cover.) Bringing some calm to my quandary, former

editor and DAW ‘grandmaster’ Ronan

Macdonald compares the form and

functions of the two on p16. Whether

this was wise or ‘naughty, naughty,

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computermusic.co.uk/cmdigital

ISSUE 285 SEPTEMBER 2020

contents

Cover feature

LOGIC VS LIVE 54 68
70
Which is best? p16 /experts

54 80S
FLAVOURS

How to get that in-vogue
80s sound into yours

56 THE FILTER

Scot Solida looks into that
most important of shapers

Acoustic Beats Special Interviews

26 THE COMPLETE DRUMKIT GUIDE 58 THE
PROFESSIONALS
Plus ways to create the perfect drum sounds
Top advice from different experts on
34 RECORDING DRUMS how to make it in music production for
films and video games
How to capture an amazing kit sound
Your Free 58
40 PROGRAMMING DRUMS Plugin!
Essentials
How to add a human feel to machine beats
82 PULSAR SMASHER 6 NEWS
46 MIXING DRUMS
How to use your free compressor
The effects and technique you need to mix beats

/15 questions with… 784SUBSCRIBE

We ask producers from many different backgrounds to give us Reviews 96 BACK ISSUES
their takes on computer music making 98 BACKCHAT

68 ARTURIA OB-XA V

12 DANDY WARHOLS 70 ROB PAPEN QUAD

Lead guitarist and producer 72 HIT ‘N’ MIX INFINITY
Peter Holmström offers the
tech spin on their latest album 748BABY AUDIO
COMEBACK KID
50 GOT SOME
758MINI REVIEWS
The Bristol-based producer
on sampling, production and 768SOUNDWARE
losing his first job REVIEWS

94 JORIS DELACROIX 12 75

Would you give everything
up to start a cannabis farm
instead of music making?

4 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020

downloads / contents <

downloads

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Go ‘all buttons in’ for the classic British

82 Mode sound with this amazing free
compressor. On the DVD or File Silo (p81)

ACOUSTIC free samples
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BEAT, LOOPS & BLEEPS
88
Two all-new beat sample packs, plus
incredible loops and vintage blips. On the
DVD or download via File Silo (p81)

free videos

MASTERCLASSES ON FILM

Two masterclass videos on synth filters and

93 80s music production Download from
File Silo (see p81)

DOWNLOAD plugin suite

THE CM PLUGIN SUITE

An all-new PDF detailing the complete
Plugin Suite of instruments and effects
Download from File Silo (see p81)

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 5

> news

NEW RELEASES • COMMENT • INDUSTRY HAPPENINGS

Cherry Audio Voltage Modular 2

Get your Eurorack-style fix on your Mac/PC with Voltage Modular 2

Version 2 of Cherry Audio’s Voltage The new and improved modules are exciting enough, but it’s the patching that sees most improvement
Modular has landed, introducing a raft
of profound changes and new features to them manually or via CV input for complex that we can’t wait to get into. And the best
one of the most expansive and powerful generative performances. Modules can now news for existing users is that the Voltage
software modular synthesis systems on be tagged for organisation in the library, too, Modular 2 update is completely free!
the market. and the built-in recorder captures your Newcomers, meanwhile, can get the full
First – and, for some, foremost – will be performances as 32-bit audio. Voltage Modular 2 Core + Electro Drums
the addition of a number of new modules to bundle (featuring over 90 modules) for
the Voltage Modular Core package, We’re huge Voltage Modular fans $150, or Voltage Modular 2 Ignite (over 40
including the Poly Vintage and Poly Super – indeed, the Nucleus version is a highlight of modules) for $100.
Oscillators, Poly Ladder Filter and Poly our Plugins suite – and version 2, which is
Super Envelope Generator, Spectrum available now, looks to be a massive upgrade cherryaudio.com
Analyzer, MIDI File Player, Octal Switch and
Micro Mult. Many of the incumbent modules
have been redesigned and improved as well,
with linear FM being worked into the
Oscillator, resonance modulation added to
the Filter, and the Delay module offering
tempo sync, for example.
The biggest changes, however, are to
Voltage Modular 2’s patching capabilities
and workflow. For starters, there’s now no
limit to the number of cables that can be
connected to any patch point (up from the
previous maximum of six), and all cables
connected to a jack can now be dragged
collectively to another jack – careful with
that one! Then there are the new signal
busses for grouping jacks, the ability to hide
all cables at a click, randomisation of
module parameters, and patch variations,
the last letting you store multiple parameter
states within a patch, then switch between

Obsession’s Synapse Audio Obsession
step
sequencing, Hot on the heels of Arturia’s OB-Xa V (see review on
effects and p68), Obsession is another Oberheim OB-Xa synth
more take it emulation, modelled on the original polyphonic
to the next hardware. Promising to recreate the “organic, lively
OB level sound” of the real thing, it boasts two oscillators, a
12/24dB/octave low-pass filter, two LFOs and two ADSR
6 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020 envelopes, as well as a step sequencing mode for the
LFOs, and delay, reverb and chorus effects. It’s out now
for Mac and PC, priced £79.

synapse-audio.com

news <

App watch

We report on the latest
developments in phone
and tablet music making

This ecclesiastic- Cubasis 3
tastic plugin
showcases what the We rarely talk about a major Android
SoundFactory music-making app release in these pages,
platform can do but Steinberg’s Cubasis 3 is precisely that.
Seemingly a pretty comprehensive port of
MeldaProduction the entirely separate Monastery Grand the mobile DAW that’s already proven a hit
Monastery Grand Creative instrument, which constantly loops on iOS, this lets you use as many audio and
the samples for processing with its onboard MIDI tracks as your device can handle, and
The prolific MeldaProduction have released resonators and filter. offers both realtime timestretching and
Monastery Grand, a free sample-based pitchshifting facilities. There are several
virtual piano. As the name suggests, the Perhaps the most interesting thing about built-in instruments, too. All of this doesn’t
3.5GB sample library was captured in a Monastery Grand, though, is that it was built come cheap, though: Cubasis 3 for Android
monastery near “Czech beer capital” Pilsen, using Melda’s SoundFactory modular virtual will set you back €55.
using over a dozen stereo microphones; and instrument platform, which lets anyone new.steinberg.net
sound-shaping parameters include three construct and sell their own instruments,
mic positions, Tone and Width controls, and enjoy a growing range of user creations. Neural Mix
Ambience and more. There’s a handy auto- Find out more about SoundFactory at the
harmonisation system for chord generation, MeldaProduction site. Algoriddim’s djay has always been an
and as well as the main piano, you also get easy-to-use DJing app, but now it’s added a
meldaproduction.com feature that’s genuinely state of the art.
Their new Neural Mix tech lets you break
iZotope Stutter Edit 2 oscillations, v2’s Time Variant Modifiers tracks apart in realtime, with separate
allow for complex ‘designed’ movement, level faders for drums, instrumentation
The second generation of electronic music programmed in a breakpoint curve editor. and vocals. As well as offering new ways of
legend BT and plugin development And naturally, a ton of new BT-made preset mixing, you can also create live remixes
powerhouse iZotope’s ’playable’ multi-effect gestures have been thrown in as well. and mash-ups. Neural Mix works best on
claims to bring “movement to your mix, Stutter Edit 2 is out now, priced $199. devices that contain Apple’s A12Z Bionic
faster and with more versatility than ever”. Chip, which currently means the iPad Pro,
izotope.com but also other iOS devices. It’s included in
The central premise of Stutter Edit 2 is the djay subs fee.
that banks of ‘gestures’ are mapped to the algoriddim.com
keys on your MIDI keyboard, each one a
distinct rhythmic audio slicing, processing Eventide Crystals
and ‘glitching’ setup, and the new Auto
mode lets you hear your gestures instantly Eventide’s iOS market spree continues
with no MIDI routing required. The effects with Crystals, another effect from their
rack has been greatly expanded, too, with H3000 Harmonizer. Blending twin reverse
new Chorus, Comb, Reverb and Limiter pitchshifters with reverse delays and
effects; and the multiband Distort module reverb, this lets you create a range of
has been upgraded to take in 18 distortion shimmering, unique effects. There’s plenty
types. Whereas movement of effects of tweakability – each of the two
parameters within gestures in the original pitchshifters has a four-octave range and
Stutter Edit comprised simple to-and-fro the two delays can be adjusted
independently, for example. £15/$15.
Novation Launchkey Mk3 of the full-sized Launchkey can at last get eventideaudio.com
their hands on the same new features
The Mk3 iteration of Novation’s Launchkey offered by its diminutive counterpart. September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 7
Mini Ableton Live (other DAWs are also Promoting tighter integration with Live than
supported) controller keyboard has been ever, Launchkey Mk3 includes dedicated
around since November 2019, but now fans buttons for track arm, loop, click, quantise
and the Capture MIDI function, and a Drum
Launchkey Mk3 brings ever closer Live integration Mode for working with Drum Racks. That
said, the new Scale and Chord modes, and
Arpeggiator can be used with external MIDI
gear thanks to the 5-pin DIN MIDI Out port.

Launchkey Mini Mk3 is in shops now, in
25- (£160), 37- (£180), 49- (£210) and 61-key
(£260) versions.

novationmusic.com

>  news

Get with the UVI Drone
programmers
The latest from French ROMpler specialists
Toontrack head of development, Erik Phersson, takes it UVI is a dual-layer sample-based instrument
EZ while discussing their hit virtual instrument range geared up for “evolving textures and

Toontrack What challenges did you face in the atmospheres, from deep and
development of EZbass? powerful low-end ambiences to rich
Erik Phersson EP “Designing good software is a complex and shimmering environments”.
and creative process with many twists and 50GB of longform WAVs (losslessly
turns. So yes, lots of hurdles and lessons reduced to 17.5GB FLAC) include
learned along the way. One recurring acoustic, electronic, synthesised and
challenge is figuring out the balance between environmental sources. These are
usability and complexity. Traditionally, our EZ transformed in a granular engine with
Line products have, by design, been fairly Swarm unison and Feedback Loop modules,
limited in what the user can control. This has then processed with Keygroup and Bus
served its purpose well for EZdrummer, effects, gate sequenced, and modulated via
EZmix and EZkeys. EZbass, however, called LFOs and controlled randomisation. €149.
for more features and user control but we of
course didn’t want to make any sacrifices in uvi.net
terms of making the product easy to
use. Getting this right took a number of SoundDevice Digital
iterations, but I think we hit the sweet spot.” SubBass Doctor 808

What sets EZbass apart from other virtual bass instruments? Giving the producer mixing in less-than-
EP “EZbass sort of flips the concept upside down – it’s a bass player that ideal monitoring situations a remedy for the
naturally comes with bass sounds. I think that’s really the core of what potentially overblown low frequencies that
makes EZbass stand out. It doesn’t just play back bass sounds, it also has
the tools that enable you to write, customise and freely edit your bass their system doesn’t let them hear,
parts to fit your music, without the need to ever leave the program. It’s a SubBass Doctor 808 rebalances the
one-stop-shop for efficient yet creative bass production. EZbass is also a bottom end via the operation of just
very natural instrument to play live using a keyboard – something that’s two knobs: Cure (“frequency solving
easy to forget when you look at all of its features on a computer screen.” of your bass”) and Sub (“sub-bass
expansion on healthy frequencies”).
What made you pick the two bass guitars that you did? You can also dial in parallel saturation
for presence and warmth. Effective on
EP “For the core library, we wanted to offer a combination of bass tones five-string bass and double bass, as well as
the obvious synth bass and drums, SubBass
that would work with a broad range of music styles. The ‘Modern’ has an Doctor 808 is available now for €59.

amazing tone for anything from old-school blues or funk to more unitedplugins.com

aggressive or modern styles of music. TC Electronic Master X and
“EZbass sort of flips the The ‘Vintage’ bass has more of a Brickwall HD Native
woody tone, and the attack that’s
virtual instrument Based on the hardware DSP-powered Master
typical for these types of instruments. X for Pro Tools, PowerCore and System
Combined, these two basses really 6000, these plugins give mastering
concept upside down” complement one another and offer
versatile sonic scope.” engineers a pair of compelling new
high-end native options for dynamics
What’s your favourite feature of EZbass? processing. Master X HD Native ($199)
EP “Too many to mention, but I like the Audio Tracker and Drums & Keys serves three bands of separate
features, as well as the fact that we’ve made it possible to program compression, expansion and limiting,
with target curve control for keeping
convincing basslines without the need to use key switches.” lows and/or highs on point; Brickwall
HD Native ($149) is an adaptive “content-
Bass guitar is clearly a viable instrument for physical modelling. optimised” limiter, putting transparency and
What made you decide to stick with the sampling method? compliance with streaming and broadcast
EP “Because each instrument has its own personality and characteristics, standards at the top of the agenda.
we feel we capture them best using our sampling technology.”
tcelectronic.com
Presumably there will be expansions released for EZ bass. Can
we get any info on what the next couple of bass guitars might be? Apogee/Clearmountain’s
EP “We never comment on possible future products. What we can say, Spaces
however, is that there will be bass expansions.”
A visionary collaboration between über-
With four lines in the EZ range now, how would you sum up the producer Bob Clearmountain and posh
overall EZ concept. How has it changed since the first EZdrummer? hardware/software house Apogee,
EP “Our aim with EZdrummer was the same as with all other EZ products:
that when users are in the creative zone, they should be able to devote all Clearmountain’s Domain floored our
their energy to music – not getting stuck on complex features.” jaws with its sound but also its
stratospheric pricetag in our review
toontrack.com (7/10, 279). Clearmountain’s Spaces
breaks the superb convolution reverb
out of his Domain and prices it more
realistically at $49. Three of
Clearmountain’s favourite real-world echo
chambers have been captured as impulse
responses, and a three-band EQ and de-esser
tidy up the input prior to processing.

apogeedigital.com

8  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  September 2020



> news

years
back

Back in time we go, Apple embark on two-year
a-fishing for insight-bites transition to ARM silicon
from our back catalogue
At this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), Apple made
Some problems are perennial – software the long-expected announcement of their planned transition from Intel
crashes, latency issues and optimisation processors (and graphics chips) to their own ARM-based CPUs, as
headaches, for example – so we tried to deployed very successfully indeed in the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.
solve some of them in September 2010 While it’s far too soon to predict exactly what effect this fundamental
( 155). There was some solid advice in change to the architecture of the Mac will mean for musicians, Rosetta
there, but try telling a 2020 producer that 2 compatibility technology will ensure that existing apps work fine on
“2 to 4GB of RAM is more than sufficient ARM until they’re updated to run natively (the original Rosetta serving
to keep your machine purring along”. the exact same purpose when Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel
in 2005), and Apple have promised support for Intel Macs “for years to
Something else that never goes away come”. No need to panic, then, and more news as we get it.
is the ‘hardware vs software’ debate,
though we did our best to settle it by apple.com
calling in three music technology
Ins & outs NI PLEDGES TO DO BETTER
“Needless to say, no Native Instruments’ public
definitive conclusions SINE O’ THE TINES support of the Black Lives Matter
were drawn” We know that the DX7 is a movement was called into question
prized synth, but we never when ex-employees said the
luminaries – John Foxx, Gary Numan and expected Prince’s trusty old company hadn’t done enough to
Pentatonik. Needless to say, no definitive Yamaha keyboard to fetch more deal with racism when they worked
conclusions were drawn. than $70,000 at auction. It was there. NI say they’re now working
used by the star when he was in his to improve matters.
Elsewhere, we asked if it was still 80s pomp, including on classic
possible to make money as an artist – we albums such as Purple Rain. TEMPEST BLOWN OUT
still haven’t quite forgiven ourselves for After nine years in production,
using the phrase “think about yourself as JEAN-VIRTUAL JARRE synth legend Dave Smith has said
a brand,” even if it’s probably even truer With ‘real’ gigs still off the agenda in that Tempest – the drum machine
now than it was then – and we reviewed that he created with Roger Linn –
Toontrack’s Beatstation, which turned out most places, Jean-Michel Jarre is to be discontinued, taking its
to be a rare misstep from the usually picked the perfect time to perform place in “the great electronic
reliable rhythm-centric developer. his first live VR gig, which could be retirement community in the
sky”. So long, ta for the beats!
Finally, our star letter bemoaned the viewed in 2D or 3D on tablets,
fact that not all software came with a smartphones and computers. Could A HARD SELL
proper printed manual. Presumably a A site that lets you buy and sell
slow month for correspondence, then. this be the future of live music for music software licenses sounds
the foreseeable? like a reasonable idea – if you
September 2010 – famously the year that Computer have the rights to do so, of course
Music mag brought world peace to the masses THAT SINGING FEELING – but there were a few raised
As an electronic music producer, eyebrows among UK producers
12 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020 when it was revealed that it was
you might be reluctant to get in called Knobcloud...
front of the mic, but recent research

shows that singing can help keep
you looking younger, imbuing a

‘natural glow’ and tone to the face –
which sounds good to us pallid
studio hounds.



> 15 questions with /  the dandy warhols

15 questions with… Photo: John Thackray

THE DANDY
WARHOLS

Peter Holmström is the guitarist and
founding member of The Dandy
Warhols. With their new record taking
a few technology twists and turns, it’s
time for 15 questions…

Peter Holmström is best known as the lead alternate tunings. I’m less likely to fall back into seeing Pro Tools in action later I got a refurbished
guitarist for The Dandy Warhols, air traffic my old habits. New toys make new things Pro Tools III rig (the Digi 001 came out the next
controller for Pete International Airport and happen. Combining disparate sounds is always year). This was too much of a jump for me and it
collaborator in Walls Of Dada. He formed The interesting to me too.” took me a while to figure out that I needed to
Dandys in 1994 with singer/songwriter and approach it like ‘tape’ and ignore all the bells and
guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor. They have 2 How did you discover the route to whistles until I understood what I was doing. I’m
released 11 albums over the last quarter of a computer music making? still learning.”
century, the third of which, 1999’s Thirteen
Tales from Urban Bohemia, spawned the PH: “I first saw the full potential of Pro Tools while
worldwide hit and Vodaphone soundtrack
Bohemian Like You. The band have just recording 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia in early 4 Tell us a little about the rest of the gear in
unleashed a 214-minute opus of unreleased your studio
Dandy’s material called Tafelmuzik Means ‘99. We were at Dave Sardy’s studio in
More When You’re Alone, which is described
as: “never-before-tasted Dandies goodness”. Williamsburg doing some overdubs and editing. I PH: ”I have a pair of Shadow Hills Mono GAMA
We talk to Holmström about how he creates
his distinctive sound and what he’s learned was completely blown away with little things like mic pres, a pair of Phoenix Audio mic pres, a Little
from 25 years in the industry…
stretching audio (in the middle of Horse Pills Labs VOG and an Inward Connections The Brute

there is bit of my guitar that was stretched compressor in an API lunchbox. I also have a

beyond recognition). A little over a year later I Universal Audio Apollo 8 (which I just got as my

had the privilege to see Neil Davidge at work at RME Fireface 800 died). I use AEA N22 ribbon

the Massive Attack studios. The speed with mics and in my studio I also have a Sontronics

which he edited the tracks we were working on Delta. Lately I’ve been borrowing a pair of

was amazing.” Neumann KM 184s for recording acoustics, and I

1 What is your overall philosophy or have an Electro Voice RE20 for vocals.”
approach when it comes to music?
3 How has working in the box changed the
Peter Holmström: “I’m always trying to push way you work? 5 What are your favourite five plugins?
Fabfilter’s Pro-Q 3 EQ “This was the first EQ
myself a bit further, and I’m always obsessing on PH: “I got into recording pretty late, I was given a

a sound or vibe that I’m trying to incorporate into 4-track in ‘98 and started using it to work out that made sense to me. On others I would twiddle

what I do. I also love messing around with parts for what would end up being 13 Tales. After knobs until it ‘sounded good’, but I guess I needed

12  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  September 2020

a visual representation to make sense to 9 What is on your wish-list studio ISSUE285 SEPTEMBER 2020
me. I don’t do much mixing, so it’s nice to be gear wise?
able to quickly see potential issues and deal Future PLC
with them. All the other Fabfilter plugins are PH: “More mic pres. I’ve been eyeing the Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA
great too – super easy to find settings that Tel: 01225 442244
work in a creative way that can take the Helios Type 69 500-series and the Skibbe Email: [email protected]
track farther than expected. And they all Web: computermusic.co.uk
sound amazing.” Electronics 736-5. Both don’t seem to be EDITORIAL
Sound Toys Crystalizer “I love reverse Editor: Andy Jones, [email protected]
echo stuff. I first became aware of it when available at the moment so maybe I missed Art Editor: Mark White, [email protected]
working on the first PIA record. Jeremy Managing Editor: Kate Puttick, [email protected]
Sherrer, the engineer/mixer used it to great my opportunity. New monitors are probably CONTRIBUTORS
effect. Along with the Decapitator, EchoBoy Scot Solida, Dave Clews, Ronan Macdonald, Ben Rogerson, Jon Musgrave, Adam
and the FilterFreak.” the most important thing I need.” Clifford, Robbie Stamp, Oli Bell, Joseph Branston
Valhalla Shimmer reverb “So easy to make Photography: Getty Images, Shutterstock, Perfect Circuit
a beautiful pad out of anything. Not really 10 What would you like to see ADVERTISING
subtle, but incredibly musical. Definitely the developed in terms of studio Media packs are available on request
first reverb plugin that made me sit up and Chief Revenue Officer: Zack Sullivan
pay attention.” technology and why? UK Commercial Sales Director: Clare Dove, [email protected]
Universal Audio 1176 limiter “Just got the Advertising Sales Director: Lara Jaggon, [email protected]
UA plugins with my Apollo 8 so I’m still PH: “I’m still catching up on equipment from Account Sales Director: Kyle Phillips, [email protected]
learning them, but I’m familiar with the Account Sales Director: Alison Watson, [email protected]
Bomb Factory BF76 and so far I’m loving the the 80s and 90s! New shit keeps coming MARKETING
UA – it’s super smooth. The LA2A is great Direct Marketing Campaign Manager: Will Hardy
too of course.” out that’s amazing, far beyond what I could PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION
Echo Farm “That was a fun plugin, there are Head of Production: Mark Constance
still things I did with that that I can’t have imagined.” Production Project Manager: Clare Scott
replicate. The sweep echo was something I Advertising Production Manager: Joanne Crosby
used a lot, I would automate the repeats and 11 What advice have you picked up Digital Editions Controller: Jason Hudson
control the oscillation. I ended up using from playing live? Production Managaer: Fran Twentyman
Mod/Delay that comes with Pro Tools. It’s Printed in the UK by: William Gibbons & Sons on behalf of Future
very basic and easy to use, but definitely not PH: “Be on time, make friends with the Distributed by: Marketforce (UK), 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU
the same thing.” CIRCULATION
house engineer and maintain your gear. Head of Newstrade: Tim Mathers
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Basic stuff that seems really difficult when UK reader order line & enquiries: 0844 848 2852
Overseas reader order line and enquiries: +44 (0) 1604 251 045
you’re young.” Online orders & enquiries: myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
Email: [email protected]
12 … and from working in the studio? LICENSING
PH: “Always label everything in your Computer Music is available for licensing. Contact the Licensing team to discuss
partnership opportunities
session. Being slightly obsessive/ Head of Print Licensing : Rachel Shaw, [email protected]
MANAGEMENT
compulsive has been very handy.” Chief Content Officer: Aaron Asadi
Brand Director, Music: Stuart Williams
13 And from the music industry as Content Director, Music: Scott Rowley
a whole? Head of Art and Design: Rodney Dive
Group Art Director: Graham Dalzell
“Be nice to everyone. There’s no point in Head Of Design (London): Brad Merrett

being a dick; it’s a small world, and an even NEXT ISSUE ON SALE: 12 August 2020

smaller music world. You’ll run into the We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed,
certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this magazine was sourced and
6 How does a track typically start out same faces somewhere down the line.” produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and
and then progress? socioeconomic standards. The manufacturing paper mill and printer hold full FSC and PEFC
certification and accreditation.
PH: “Before I start recording, I generally 14 Tell us about your latest album?
PH: “Tafelmuzik Means More When
have the basics of a song worked out,

usually on guitar. I figure out a tempo and You’re Alone was an experiment in using

program a very simple beat to track to – I different instruments to create music. I was

find this gives a better feel than a click track. in a bit of a rut with the guitar and we had a

I’ll use a drum machine, modular synth decent collection of thrift shop organs and

drums, iPhone apps, or plugins; I change it drum machines, all of which we ran through

up all the time to keep me on my toes. I then pedals. We recorded hours of this, lots of

record the chord changes. Since I don’t sing fun, but ultimately it didn’t turn into a

or write lyrics I will make a rough traditional album. It is an interesting

arrangement that will most likely get snapshot of where our heads were at. At

moved around.” more than four hours it’s a very

unfiltered snapshot…”

7 Do you have any production tricks? 15 What have you got planned for the
PH: “Something that I’ve been doing near future?

for the last seven years is using a Lightfoot

Labs Goatkeeper pedal. It’s a kind of clock- “I have been working on the next Pete

able tremolo, with different waveforms. Just International Airport record; most of the

playing the root note on a bass or synth music is done. Some vocals have been

through it creates a rhythmic part that has a added, but I’m waiting on others or trying to

melodic content. Malekko have reissued it figure who to ask to sing on the rest. The

now and I use their version more often. The third Walls Of Dada record is also underway

Boss Slicer pedal works too. I’ve used a – Chris Olley and I are trading files across

guitar through it to create a melodic the Atlantic. I’m also producing records for

percussive line that has an almost hand my long time collaborator Jasun Adams and

drum feel. I find that these tracks support for Evan Harris, a local artist who has a more

the rest of the song without taking up a lot traditional musical style, as well as working

of space.” on the next Dandy’s record.”

8 Tell us about some of the other Tafelmuzik Means More When You’re Alone is
collaborations you are involved in?
priced at $11.11 with $1 from each purchase
PH: “I’m always collaborating with different
going to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, a
singers, either on music that I write or lately
charity who provide financial assistance to
the records I’m producing with Jasun musicians. Find more info at sweetrelief.org.
You can download the album now at music.
Adams and Evan Harris, where I get to play dandywarhols.com
For more information on Pete International
guitar, bass, synths and program beats. Airport visit peteinternationalairport.com

There is also the project I have with Chris

Olley from Six By Seven.”





> cover feature / logic versus live

16 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020

logic versus live / cover feature <

LOGIC
VS LIVE

When Logic Pro X 10.5 showed up to the
party attired with a Live-tastic new feature

list, we geared up for a faceoff!

Apple Logic Pro X and Ableton Live 10 are two
of the most popular music production
applications in the world, and as of May this year,
they’ve got far more in common than just their
version numbers.
Before the release of Logic Pro X 10.5, Live’s
Session View gave it a creative angle all its own, but
with the promotion of the Live Loops Grid from
GarageBand iOS to Logic, that differential has been
flattened. Not only that, but Logic Pro X 10.5’s new
Sampler and Quick Sampler plugins are positively
brazen in their similarity with Ableton’s Sampler and
Simpler devices, while the remade Drum Machine
Designer is more than a little reminiscent of Ableton’s
Drum Rack.
Once upon a time we knew where we stood with
these two qualitatively individual music software
heavyweights, but now the similarities are enough to
make the undecided DAW buyer’s head spin. So to
help you decide which is most deserving of your hard-
earned cash, over the next few pages we’ll pit them
against each other in an eight-round, no-holds-barred
battle. Before we start, though, a few points of note…
First, in the interest of parity, we have to put
forward the Suite edition of Live 10 for the
’Instruments’ and ‘Effects’ rounds, as the Standard
edition doesn’t make for a fair comparison with Logic,
shipping with far fewer virtual instruments and
effects. That also introduces the complication of Max
For Live – a Suite-only add-on to which Logic has no
counter attack, but that any prospective Suite buyer
may not actually want or need – and can’t fail to have
a bearing when we get to the ‘Value for money’
section, as Live 10 Suite costs over two and a half
times as much as Logic Pro X.
And second, in case it needs saying, if you have no
intention of switching to Mac, all of this is entirely
moot, as there’s zero chance of Logic Pro ever being
made available on your computing platform.
Let battle commence!

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 17

> cover feature / logic versus live

MIDI
composition

ROUND Logic Pro X’s history as a MIDI
sequencer stretches all the way
1 back to 1992, when it started life as
Notator Logic, so it should come

as no surprise that it offers a lot

more in the way of MIDI manipulation than the

newer, wilfully minimalist Ableton Live.

Although all the essentials are in place –

including quantise and groove extraction, audio-

to-MIDI conversion, multi-clip editing, and a

solid array of MIDI plugins – Live’s MIDI facilities

appear meagre compared to Logic’s rack of

handy Inspector-based MIDI shaping controls,

powerful MIDI Environment, multi-faceted MIDI

Transform module (enabling humanising,

randomising and more), Audio Units MIDI FX,

Score Editor and more versatile Piano Roll tools.

For most Live users, however, none of that

matters – the MIDI programming paradigm, and In Ableton Live, less is more…

the contemporary producer’s technical

expectations, have changed a lot since the 90s,

and most won’t even be aware of the things that

their DAW is ‘missing’. Indeed, Ableton have

done a sterling job of keeping this fundamental

part of the system free of clutter. Very rarely do

we find ourselves wishing for any specific MIDI

editing feature in Live that can’t easily be

worked around – with the possible exception of

an event list, as being able to filter and alter MIDI

data numerically would be hugely useful.

On the other hand, Apple are to be equally

commended for maintaining the formidable

complexity for which Logic’s MIDI architecture

has always been known. Defying the popular

assumption that their buying of original Logic

developer Emagic in 2002 would lead to a

dumbing down, the fruity tech Goliath hasn’t

removed a single MIDI-related feature – it’s all

still there, from the Environment and Transform

module to the Dynamics, Gate Time and ‘Q’

settings in the Inspector. In fact, it’s only been

added to over the years with a raft of worthy

new MIDI features, the most notable being Logic

Pro X 10.5’s superb Step Sequencer.

WINNER: LOGIC PRO X … whereas Logic treats users to an increasingly full selection of composition options

Audio recording and editing

ROUND For today’s fast-moving saving track freezing, nifty slip editing
music producer, capturing and unfussy overall demeanour are
2 and editing audio often geared up spectacularly to cater
needs to be as quick and knowingly to the requirements of the job
at hand.
intuitive a series of
As with the MIDI side of things, though,
processes as possible, and on those Logic’s long development history and
more expansive architecture yield a
terms, Live is the exemplar. Taking wider range of audio recording and
editing bells and whistles than you’ll find
electronic and dance music producers as in Live, and if your recording needs are of

just one category to themselves, Live’s

game-changing elastic audio engine,

Live used to be the best show in town for recording… cleverly conceived Sample Editor, CPU-

18 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020

logic versus live / cover feature <

Logic (right) takes the round again with its more holistic song creation features

Linear arrangement

ROUND Despite Ableton’s best efforts to promote its Arrangement View as a Logic has traditional arrangement
features with clear markers and tools…
3 fully viable alternative to the conventional timeline-based
environment of Logic Pro and other DAWs, Live has never quite … but Live has a lot going for it too
managed to shake off its image as a heavily loop-orientated system including great automation
with a focus on the freeform Session View. That simply isn’t a fair assessment,
however, as many Live users spend most of their time making music from left
to right in the Arrangement View, ably served by its nippy navigation,
responsive UI, smooth automation and generally obstacle-free approach.
Once again, though, the long-term refinement of Logic’s more ‘traditional’
sequencing background shines through, even if it is a lot less profound in its
effect here than in the MIDI and audio editing departments. Section-defining
Arrangement Markers, the scissors, glue, erase and other mouse pointer
editing tools, and broader snapping and dragging options aid in cutting and
moving regions around; eye-catching track icons enable at-a-glance sound
identification; and Logic Pro X’s Global Tracks provide dedicated lanes for
project-wide Transpose and Beat Mapping, as well as the Marker, Tempo and
Time Signature options that Live has equivalents to.
That said, in practical terms, linear song arrangement in either DAW is a joy.

WINNER: LOGIC PRO X

the more demanding kind – ie, a full band, in the Session View for non-linear … but now with its own take, Logic wins the audio crown
or even just guitar and vocals – it jamming and experimentation. With
definitely does the ‘virtual recording Logic Pro X now boasting its own well
studio’ thing rather better. Multitrack thought-out and tightly integrated take
recording and punching in/out are on the same concept in the shape of the
obvious givens for both DAWs, but when Live Loops Grid, however, that edge has
you’ve got those clips on the page, Logic been blunted.
affords greater control over them,
whether you’re applying natural- With that new-found dualism in mind,
sounding pitch correction with the this one comes down to whether or not
excellent Flex Pitch, or building the you prioritise (Live’s) transparency and
perfect vocal take with swipe comping. lightning-fast workflow over (Logic’s)
sheer editing power; but to our minds,
And, of course, prior to Logic Pro X Logic takes the audio handling crown.
10.5, Live had a unique and compelling
selling point in the ability to record loops WINNER: LOGIC PRO X

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 19

>  cover feature  /  logic versus live

Instruments

5ROUND To get the numbers out of
the way first, Live 10 Suite
bundles 13 virtual
instruments (three of them

Max For Live devices, and

DrumSynth comprising eight separate ‘kit

piece’ instruments), while Logic Pro ships

with 21 of the things. It’s the quality that

counts, however, not the quantity, and

although Logic’s Retro Synth and Vintage

keyboards are well worth shouting about,

the older ‘ES’ series – ES1, ES2, ES E, ES P

and ES M – EFM1, Sculpture and EVOC 20

synths, and Ultrabeat drum machine are

showing their age. They’re all sonically

serviceable, but the fact that most of them

haven’t even been updated to support the

Mac’s Retina displays suggests that they’re

Live takes the loop arrangement round on a technicality with Follow Actions… really only still there to keep the numbers

up. Being much newer, Live’s line-up isn’t

as diluted by antiquities, but the Analog

synth could do with some upgrade love.

The flagship synths that we need to

focus our attention on here are Logic’s

Alchemy and Live’s Wavetable, both of

which are quite magnificent. Alchemy –

once a pricey third-party instrument, until

Apple bought its developer, Camel Audio

– is the more overtly powerful of the two,

taking in additive, granular and analogue-

style synthesis, with four simultaneous

sources, tons of filters and copious effects.

Wavetable certainly holds its own, though

– a two-oscillator (plus sub) wavetable

synth with over 100 well crafted

wavetables onboard, two filters,

comprehensive modulation options, and a

supremely accessible interface and

workflow, that sounds phenomenal.

As of a few months ago, when Apple

completely rebuilt the venerable EXS24 for

Logic Pro X 10.5, Live Suite and Logic Pro

… although, once again, it seems Apple have been watching Live’s Session View developments closely now each include full-featured and slimline

Loop-based arrangement samplers, and while Logic’s Sampler has

more going on in its modulation section

than Live’s Sampler, both are a match for

any producer’s multisampling needs.

Meanwhile, on the perc front, Logic’s

4ROUND It took a few years for Ableton was expected that the Live Loops Grid would at Drummer puts a very convincing virtual
Live’s innovative non-linear some point end up getting ported to its
Session View clip recording and professional Mac sibling, but we’re nonetheless drummer and their kit at your fingertips,
launching interface to change the blown away by the seamless embedding of the
new system into Logic’s well-established and the newly overhauled Drum Machine
interface. As you’d hope, it offers the same
bidirectional exchange of clips between it and Designer is a great improvement on the
the main arrangement, and you can record your
world of music technology, but clip launching performances directly into the previous iteration, putting it on an even
Tracks view, too. Vertical ‘scenes’ work just as
that it surely did, becoming the de facto they do in Live, but unlike Live, you can have footing with Live’s much-loved Drum Rack.
both the Grid and Arrangement open together
standard for laptop DJing and dance music in the same window. Speaking of Racks, while Logic’s Track

production, and putting the Berlin-based Before we mail the trophy to Cupertino, Stacks are a great solution for grouping
though, Live still has one feature that keeps it
company on the map. In a nutshell, the Session firmly at the top spot for on-the-fly loop tracks to play multiple instruments from
recording and launching: Follow Actions. This
View lets you rack up (and/or record) any seemingly innocuous little Clip View control single MIDI parts and process their outputs
panel gives producers and live performers the
number of audio and MIDI loops in a series of means to automate and randomise clip collectively, Live’s limitlessly nesting Audio
launching within Scenes – something no other
vertical Scenes, and ‘launch’ them in perfect DAW can do. So Live nabs this one. Instrument Racks, in combo with Audio

sync with each other, literally performing your WINNER: LIVE 10 and MIDI FX Racks, make building your

productions live with no possibility of anything own tentacular macro-controllable split

going out of time. It’s even more awesome and layered devices ridiculously easy. And

today than in the audio-only v1 days of 2001. don’t forget, Live 10 Suite includes Max For

Just as Ableton have since had to work up Live itself as well as the aforementioned

Live’s Arrangement View in order to address prefab M4L devices, enabling you to make

public perception of the DAW’s emphasis on your own Live instruments (and effects),

loop-wrangling, so Apple have very recently (in and giving access to an ever-expanding

version 10.5) added a full-blown Session View- world of free and commercial patches. For

style clip-launching interface to Logic Pro X us, those two factors tip the scales.

– and very nice it is too! Having been part of the

iOS version of GarageBand for over four years, it WINNER: LIVE 10

20  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  September 2020

logic versus live  /  cover feature  <

Ableton Live’s Wavetable is a flagship synth

Logic’s Alchemy has flourished since its acquisition

September 2020  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  21

> cover feature / logic versus live

On the effects front,
both DAWs offer rich

pickings

Effects

ROUND Starting with stats again, Ableton already impressive line-up of distortion,
Live 10 Suite scores you 44 Audio dynamics, equalisation (the integrated Channel
6 Effects, 11 of them Max For Live EQ is particularly good), reverb, delay,
devices (we’re not including the modulation and other effect types to give you
absolutely everything you need to get the
nine CV routing/control modules), mixing job done.

and 16 MIDI Effects, ten of them M4L; and Live takes a different tack from Logic,
putting equal weighting on ’sound design’ and
Apple’s Logic Pro X rocks 66 Audio Effects and ‘mixing’ processors. The staples are well
represented by the likes of Glue Compressor, EQ
nine MIDI Effects (plus, it’s uniquely able to load Eight, Multiband Dynamics, Saturator, Delay,
Chorus, etc, but just as important are the
Audio Units MIDI Effects by a string of third- creatively intriguing Corpus, Auto Filter,
Resonators, Spectral Blur, Beat Repeat, Pitch
party developers). Hack et al.

Happily, Logic’s Audio Effects menus aren’t And again, Live’s Racks – this time the Audio
Effect and MIDI Effect variants – set it apart, with
as troubled by legacy devices as their Audio front-end macros assignable to multiple tweak, say, Echo’s Feedback parameter in one
parameters across multiple devices, so you can direction and Overdrive’s Drive parameter in
Instruments counterpart, with all but a handful the opposite way with the twist of a single knob.

of older plugins having been refreshed in recent This round in our face-off goes either way,
depending on your primary plugin needs: Live
years. And 2018’s 10.4 update added some real for sound design, Logic for mixing.

doozies, including the stunning Chromaverb WINNER: DRAW

algorithmic reverb, the Camel Audio-rooted

Phat FX and Step FX, and the gorgeous Vintage

EQ Collection. These newcomers joined an

Workflow

ROUND Both DAWs supply all the functions on the table, Live can hardly be
workflow-enhancing bits and expected to match that, but where Ableton’s
7 pieces we’ve come to expect from DAW finds its own groove is in the instant
any production software these assignment of QWERTY keys and MIDI signals to
clip launchers, knobs, faders, buttons and all the
days, including a largely single- rest, and the always-on (if you want) but
unobtrusive ‘Computer MIDI Keyboard’ feature,
window interface, searchable file and plugin for playing MIDI instruments using your
QWERTY ’board. Logic’s ‘Musical Typing’ can
browsers, track- and clip-based automation, annoy in its always-on-top presence.

in-place rendering of virtual instruments and Both manufacturers offer dedicated
controllers for their DAWs, but Apple’s free Logic
effects, MIDI-assignable device controls and so Remote app for iPad and iPhone, as cool as it is,
obviously can’t hold a candle to Ableton’s Push
on. But there are also marked differences… 2 (£529). This amazing hardware controller
features an RGB backlit 64-pad grid for versatile
Logic’s relative complexity might put it melodic and percussive note input, a bank of
contextual buttons and rotaries for mixer and
Ableton’s Push 2 ahead of Live in the arranging and editing plugin control, and plenty of buttons for
…versus Apple’s iOS-based Logic Remote app governance of Live itself – a truly spectacular
stakes, but that intricacy naturally brings with it fusion of hardware and software.

a commensurate reduction in operational For us, DAW workflow is all about getting
things done as close to ‘the speed of thought’ as
fluidity, with the potential for more menu-diving possible, and by that definition, Live is the
hands-down victor in this round of the contest.
and window-hopping, depending on how deep
WINNER: LIVE
you need to go. In contrast, with its less

stratified, comparatively accessible interface,

Live is about as lean and mean as DAWs get, and

the speed with which the seasoned user can fly

around its Session and Arrange Views, Piano

Roll and Sample Editor is something to behold.

Back across the pond, Logic is famous for its

unrivalled key commands scheme, with which a

vast array of shortcuts can be customised to

suit the specific tactile needs of the user, no

matter how eccentric. With far fewer menus and

22 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020

logic versus live / cover feature <

Value for Conclusion
money
Ultimately, Live 10 and Logic Pro X are both comprehensive in their
ROUND Clearly, Apple and provision of MIDI and audio recording, editing and mixing facilities,
Ableton are coming at bundled plugins and brilliantly realised workflows, so deciding
8 this music software between them comes down to three things.
malarkey from two
First, the kind of music you make. Even with Logic now equipped
wholly alternative for loop-based recording and arrangement, Live’s interface, workflow
and devices just fit better for dance and electronic music. And
perspectives and with a pronounced although there’s no reason why you couldn’t record and mix a band
or produce chart-friendly pop in Live, Logic was built for exactly
disparity in terms of pricing flexibility. those kinds of jobs, which is why it ranks second only to Pro Tools as
the platform of choice in professional studios across the globe.
Ableton only make and sell Live, Max
Second, what kind of producer are you? Do you like to keep your
For Live and Push, while Logic’s sessions creative and fast-moving, or are you more of a tinkerer,
happy to take your time finessing sounds and arrangements, but
corporate raison d’etre, requiring the most powerful engineering tools you can get your
hands on to do it? Again, both can absolutely play to either approach,
understandably, is to shift Mac but Live’s slick, modernist interface inspires the former, while Logic’s
deeper editing and mixing functionality lend it more to the latter.
hardware, so ‘profitability’ means very
Finally, budget, which is such a personal consideration that we can’t
different things to each. With Logic really offer any guidance beyond saying that if you can’t afford Live
10 Suite but aren’t short on third-party plugins, Live 10 Standard is
Pro X tagged at £200 and Live 10 Suite well worth thinking about.

landing at £539, and both packages Predictably, when the dust has cleared, neither of these two music
production powerhouses qualify as markedly ‘better’ than the other
including similar amounts of bundled in any category, with the exception of ‘Value for money’, where
Apple’s unrivalled market power lets them knock Logic out at a
samples and sample-based
frankly silly price.
instruments (70GB apiece, of highly

variable relevance/quality in both

cases), then, unless we’re to also

factor in the fact that you can get a PC

to run Live for much less money than

a comparable Mac for Logic, Logic’s

superior value proposition simply

can’t be denied. Sure, Live 10 Suite

includes Max For Live, but that might

not be of interest to you; and even

dropping down to Live 10 Standard at

£319 – losing almost all the

instruments, many of the effects and

Max For Live, but being otherwise

identical to Suite – Logic still easily

holds the lead, however unbalanced a

comparison this might be.

WINNER: LOGIC PRO X

And the winner is…

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 23



beats special  /  make music now  <

BEATS 26 Drum kit
guides
SPECIAL
We take a look at what
We’re covering all of your acoustic makes up an acoustic drum
drumming needs with 22 pages of kit and then show you how
technique for perfects beats to get perfect kick, snare,
hi-hat and cymbal sounds

34 Recording
drums

Recording a real drum kit is
easier than you might think.
Here is our very own Easy
Guide to setting up the mics,
and using a typical DAW and
interface to capture the
perfect kit sound…

40
Programming
drums

Don’t worry if you don’t want
to record a complete kit. You
can program very realistic
acoustic drums with any
DAW and a decent ROMpler.
Here’s how to bring the
human element to your
machine-like beats

46 Mixing
drums

In order to get the perfect
kit sound, you’ll need to treat
each recording with care.
Here’s our complete
mixing guide

On the DVD

And if recording and
programming beats sound
like way too much hard
work, then we have you
covered with 600 all-new
acoustic and electronic
loops on this month’s DVD
or over at filesilo.co.uk.

September 2020  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  25

> drums special / drum kit guide

A quick guide to

We have a bit of a beats special in this issue of Computer
Music. But before we get started on our digital drumming
journey, let’s take a tour of the instrument it’s all about…

For as long as human beings have walked If you’ve spent any time hanging around really is no upper or lower limit to the amount of
the earth, there have been drums – and for drummers, you may have heard them refer to metalwork a drummer might choose to hang
almost as long, they’ve been accompanied by their drum kit as comprising a number of around the kit – space and reach permitting, of
cymbals! From hollowed-out logs and ‘pieces’. This only refers to the number of drums course. Some drummers like to envelop
frame-mounted hides through all manner of in the kit – cymbals aren’t counted. And with the themselves in veritable clouds of the things,
vaudevillian, military and orchestral kick and snare being absolutely essential, the while others are satisfied with a couple of
percussion paraphernalia, the history of rest of the pieces are usually tom toms: a four- crashes. If you're looking for examples of some
drumming is epic and diverse. This tale writ piece kit will have one mounted on or really over-the-top setups, try Googling the
large and loud ultimately culminates in the suspended over the kick drum – also knows as a drum kits of Terry Bozzio, Mike Portnoy and Neil
modern drum kit, a seemingly disparate rack tom – and one floor tom, while a five-piece Peart. They might look kind of ridiculous, but
collection of instruments that came together will add an extra rack tom (or possibly a second their big-name owners absolutely make use of
at the start of the 20th century and forever kick drum). every component.
changed the face of music.
From jazz and rock ’n’ roll, through pop, rock, Beyond that, there are really no limits, and Today’s sample-based virtual drum kits pack
soul, country and funk, and on to hip-hop, any number of rack toms, floor toms, rototoms, all of these elements into a flexible software
house, techno, drum ’n’ bass and every other octobans, concert toms, gong drums or interface for triggering by keyboard, drum pads,
genre of the last 80 or so years, the drum kit, anything else the drummer fancies can be manual note entry and, in most cases, an
whether real, synthesised or sampled, has been added into the mix. As touched on a moment included library of MIDI clips.
a constant presence. And although many of the ago, many drummers also employ a second kick
playing techniques and styles have changed a drum, although space-saving double pedals are Throughout the following pages in this
lot over the decades, the essential make-up of available as an alternative, enabling the same month's set of features dedicated to the beat,
the drum kit has remained largely the same, functionality to be had from the one drum. we’re going to be dealing with both real and
centring on the kick drum, snare drum and virtual drum kits. Our step-by-step walkthroughs
hi-hats/ride cymbal, supplemented by tom toms Metal works will show you how to record the real thing,
and crash cymbals. program and humanise the sample-based
As for the cymbals, beyond the fundamental alternatives, and process, mix and enhance
requirement of a pair of hi-hats and a ride, there both. Let’s get started!

And what of the drum machine?

This issue is primarily dedicated they’re often programmed to play They won’t fool anyone into thinking they’re the real thing, but classic drum
to recorded and sampled acoustic exactly the same sorts of parts machines like these Rolands have fabulous a sonic character all their own
drums, but (of course) no that real drummers play, or at the
programmer of beats should very least interpretations of them.
overlook the characterful,
sonically expansive sounds of the It’s testament to the longevity
synthetic drum machine. and continued relevance of the
classics – most notably the Roland
With a history going all the way TR range – that many of the
back to the 30s, the drum software plugin drum machines
machine has gone through we use in our DAWs today are
endless changes, fashions, emulations of them. It’s not all
declines and revivals, ultimately nostalgia, though: there are also
finding its natural home in dance plenty of completely original
and electronic music. Although virtual drum synths on the
the sounds made by these market, taking the concept to
electronic boxes might be miles amazing new heights. Some of
away from their acoustic the best drum apps we've looked
counterparts, all of them still at recently include Sugar Bytes
categorise their sounds as regular DrumComputer, Accusonus
drum kit components – kick, Rhythmiq, Mixed In Key Captain
snare, toms, hi-hats, etc – and Beat and Auddict PercX Pro.

26 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020

drum kit guide  /  drums special  <

the drum kit

Crash cymbals Tom toms Hi-hats

Crashes are thin cymbals, generally ranging AKA rack toms. Used to provide A pair of 12-15" cymbals mounted on a stand
in size from 8" to 18", with anything below 13" syncopated embellishment to grooves and brought together by pressing down a
referred to as a splash. They’re used for and pseudo-melodic meat to fills and pedal at the base, the hi-hats can be played
accenting significant beats and marking solos, tom toms range from 8" to 16" in with sticks (with the cymbals closed most of
changes in a track, such as the transition into diameter and are tuned to a specific set the time, but often half-open for a ‘splashy’
the chorus, and are almost invariably struck of pitches that also incorporates the sound) or pedalled to provide a distinctive
at the same time as the kick or snare. floor tom(s) at the lower end. ‘chick’ sound. The most commonly used
Variations on the crash cymbal include the playing technique is with the right hand
China type, the crash-ride and, er, the (assuming the drummer is right-handed)
Rocktagon – Google it. ‘riding’ the hats on eighth-notes, crossing over
the left hand, which strikes the snare. In some
styles (most notably disco), the hi-hats play
16th-notes using both hands, with the right
hand moving to the snare for the backbeat.

Ride cymbal

A large (20-24"), heavy cymbal struck
with the tip of the drumstick on the
body, or the shoulder of the stick on the
bell (the bulging section in the centre).
While the majority of eighth-note riding
action takes place on the hi-hats, for
choruses and middle eights, drummers
often switch to the ride cymbal for its
bright, floaty, sustained sound. The bell
can also be struck for a shorter, louder,
more cutting sound that’s typically
associated with rock but is thoroughly
usable in any genre.

Floor tom Snare drum Kick drum

Essentially extra-deep tom toms on A shallow (between 3" and 6.5" deep, usually) drum with a The kick drum (or bass drum, as it’s traditionally
legs, floor toms range in diameter rack of ‘crimped’ springs stretched across the bottom head, known) delivers the power and bottom end of the
from 14-18" and sit next to and behind the snare provides that cornerstone of popular music drum kit. Measuring between 18 and 24" in diameter,
the kick drum. They’re quite simply known as the backbeat: relentless hits on beats 2 and 4. The and sitting on its side on the floor, it’s played with the
an extension of the rack toms, snare can be struck on the head alone, or on the head and foot using a pedal-mounted beater. In pop, rock and
providing a deep bottom end to the rim at the same time – this is a complicated-sounding many styles of dance music, the kick drum generally
tom tom frequency range. manoeuvre called a rimshot that’s actually an almost complements the bassline, directly following it or
unconscious technique for any half-decent drummer. The weaving around it. In house, techno and other
sidestick (often erroneously also called a rimshot), four-to-the-floor styles, of course, it simply nails every
meanwhile, involves holding the tip of the stick on the beat of the bar – surely the most ubiquitous and
centre of the head and dropping the butt end down onto powerful rhythmic device of the last 30 years. Many
the rim. This produces the distinctive ‘click’ that’s been the metal drummers use two bass drums for the fast
mainstay of many an 80s ballad. double-kick grooves that are essential to that style.

September 2020  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  27

> drums special / the perfect kick drum

THE PERFECT

KICK DRUM
A good drum track starts with the bass drum –
find out here how to make sure yours kicks ass

The kick drum, or bass drum, is the TR-808 and 909. Then we have amazing hybrid any. The low part is the boomy bit, and it breaks
powerhouse behind the music. In a club, kicks sampled from acoustic kits, machines and down into three elements: sub (60Hz), punch
it’s the kick that’s nailing the four to the floor, records, then blended and resampled into (150Hz) and ‘honk’ (350Hz). Getting the perfect
and at a rock gig it’s the kick that’s making infinite variations on the bass drum theme. kick drum sound begins with balancing sub,
your chest compress. Context is key, as anyone who’s trawled through punch, honk, mid and top (see opposite).
The kick started life as a hollow log being 300 kick drum samples and still not found the
whacked by one of Dave Grohl’s ancestors about right one will know. So how do you control and When recording an acoustic kick with a
60,000 years ago, and evolved via marching perfect all these different sounds? microphone inside the drum, you have the
bands to its current status as the logo-bearing added problem of internal shell resonance. This
centrepiece of the modern drum kit. Now, of Easy. Regardless of their origins, all kicks wouldn’t normally be heard, but with a
course, it also exists as a sequence of zeros and break down into three sonic elements: low, mid microphone stuffed in there you’ll need to know
ones, filed away in your sample collection. how to get rid of the parts of the sound that you
The kick drum is all about low frequencies. It “Getting the perfect don’t want. This is all done with filters and EQ. As
has mids and highs, but its full weight can be felt with any acoustic recording, a huge amount
from 150Hz all the way down to 45Hz, where kick drum sound depends on how you tune the drum, how it’s
your speaker cones (and possibly you if it’s too played and the shape of the room it’s in. Turn to
loud) will start farting uncontrollably. This begins with balancing p34 for a tutorial on acoustic drum recording.
‘bottom end’ is a wild beast – it’s the hardest
element to contain within a mix, demands the sub, punch, honk, mid What next?
most power to deliver live through a big sound
system, and is the area in which most rooms will and top” Once you’ve shaped your basic sound, you have
misbehave when monitoring or performing. the option of layering several kick drums
and top. Grab a few kick samples, put them up in together to combine their different qualities,
The spice of life your DAW, insert a graphic equaliser and and using compression and limiting to alter their
experiment with cutting and boosting dynamics. The walkthrough on the facing page
Of course, despite our snappy title, there’s no frequencies using a narrow Q (making a thin, demonstrates these basic processes and shows
such thing as the ‘perfect’ kick drum – a subby pointy spike). As a rough guide, the mid and top you how to create a kick sound that’ll give your
808 from a minimalist electro-house anthem frequencies (1kHz and 7kHz) comprise the clicky track the backbone it deserves.
won’t work in a metal track. We have the basic part of the sound, and are often the area in
acoustic kicks that the drummer plays using his which you’ll hear reverb or ambience, if there is You’ll recognise perfection when you can
foot and a pedal. We also have electronically hear the kick drum sitting nicely with your bass,
synthesised kicks like those of the classic Roland punching through the mix without being too
loud, and sounding deep and fat without making
the speakers distort.

28 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020

the perfect kick drum / drums special <

> Step by step Cleaning up, layering and compressing a kick drum

1 Filtering out unnecessary frequencies is good practice 2 Find unwanted resonances by inserting a graphic EQ with
with all sounds, but essential with kicks and other low- a big boost and narrow Q, and sweeping upwards from
frequency instruments. It’s almost always good to remove 500Hz until you find the most resonant notes, which will seem
everything below 40Hz and above 10kHz. Rogue frequencies to sound almost continuously. When you’ve settled on the
in these areas might be inaudible but can still affect offending frequency, switch the boost to a cut. Repeat with
compressors on the kick and over the whole mix. other resonances until you hear a good, clean kick.

3 You may be using two kick drum samples for the ‘in’ and 4 You should almost always send your kick drum sound
‘out’ channels, or have recorded two microphones. The through a compressor. This automatically adjusts volume
best way to layer kick sounds is to have them as audio files and is of particular help with acoustic drums performed by a
rather than MIDI so that they’re always locked together. The live player, where the volumes will vary somewhat. Adjusting
waveforms should look like this – this means the sounds are ‘in the compression parameters while listening to the kick in the
phase’ and the low frequencies won’t muddle up the sound. context of the mix is a good way to get it sitting correctly.

Sub, punch and honk

Together with mid and high click, the what makes the kick drum really sound like vintage-type kick sounds have a lot of
balance and length of the sub, punch and it’s deep, and it’s the main element of any honk, so cranking up this element will help
honk elements are what shape the bass 808-type kick. evoke these styles.
drum sound. These combine to give you a
either a long, subby, 808-style kick, a Punch happens around 150Hz, providing The Roland TR-808’s kick drum was phat and subby –
house-esque, clicky all-rounder, or a top- the ‘thwack’ of the bass drum sound. soul, hip-hop and R&B artists loved it!
heavy Metallica rocker. Start with the Adjusting this frequency area of the kick at
nearest thing you can find to what you the same time as playing with a
ultimately want – whether that’s a sampled compressor placed on the drum kit bus can
sound or a synthesised one – then go ahead be very effective when working out how
and sculpt away. to make your kick ‘voice’ the way you
want. Punch is essential in both rock
Sub happens at around 60Hz. Make sure and dance genres.
you cut or boost in this area using a narrow
Q, otherwise you might unhelpfully add or The honk element of the sound is
remove frequencies on either side of your very important, as it really determines
chosen range – even small adjustments at the character of the kick. If you remove
30Hz or 100Hz will have a surprisingly big everything at 350Hz from a kick, you’ll
effect on the sound. The sub element is hear it become increasingly ‘dead’ or
‘solid’. A lot of old-school hip-hop and jazz/

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 29

>  drums special  /  the perfect snare

SNARE DRUMTHEPERFECT
Now let’s get cracking and take a closer look at
the kick drum’s constant companion, the snare

The snare drum is huge! Not that it’s Clearly, then, it’s vital that your snare sound the sound of an acoustic snare drum will
ever been unimportant in the grand is always great – perfect, even! The dynamics change drastically with different types of
drumming scheme of things, but the rise of and tonality of the snare will affect all your head, and with the tuning, the relative tension
several forms of dance music has seen decisions about your final mix, and if it’s too between the top and bottom heads, and the
more attention focused on the snare than dull, too pointy, not pointy enough, too long, way in which the batter (top) head is being
at any time since the massive T’pau-style short, dry or wet, you’re going to have trouble struck. The snares can be tightened or
extremes of the late 80s. In the real world, getting your mix to work. If you’re recording loosened for a shorter or longer ‘sizzle’, and
the snare drum is the one placed between an acoustic kit there’s plenty of advice in our the batter head can be left bright and ringy or
the drummer’s legs, with a band of sprung Recording Drums feature, starting on p34, to damped with tissue, tape, Moon Gel or
wires stretched across the bottom head to get you off to a good start, but whatever kind anything else that’s up to the job.
give it its unique crack and sizzle. Add to of snare sound you end up working with, the
that some lively resonance from the top A good snare sound will take all of these
skin and you have an instrument that’s “The dynamics and elements into consideration, possibly
capable of producing a huge variety of combining disparate samples in order to
sounds, from the warm, deep ‘doosh’ of the tonality of the snare create a sound that could never be made with
70s to the high ‘ping’ of nu-metal, and a real-world drum. One popular trend for
everything in between. will affect all your snare sounds is a combination of deep
In terms of rhythm, the snare generally 70s-style fatness and a longer, clappier type
decisions about your of tone.
emphasises beats 2 and 4 of the 4/4 bar. In
final mix” The density of the other instrumentation
combination with the kick drum, it gives us will govern how the decay or tail of the snare
problems – and techniques for solving them – needs to work. A wall of guitars, for example,
the ‘kick, snare, kick, snare’ pattern known as will be the same. will absorb ambience and decay, so the snare
will probably need compression to lengthen
the ‘backbeat’ – that most enduring staple of Top to bottom it, and more ambience added, using plugin
effects or by bringing up room mics.
rock and pop. Given a chance, however, the Like the kick drum, the sound of a snare drum
can be broken into top, mid and low elements. In summary, your perfect snare will need to
snare can also be waaay busier than that – in Imagine taking the snares off the bottom properly balance various tonal elements and
head and you’ll be left with the deeper part of have the right attack, decay, ambience and
jazz, rockabilly or drum ’n’ bass, for example. the sound, a bit like a low timbale. Obviously compression settings. The walkthrough and
tips on the facing page will illustrate some
When mixing, it’s said that the last two basic treatments; use them as a springboard
for experimentation and you’ll be creating
things you should be able to hear when you sizzling snares in no time.

gradually turn a mix down are the vocal and

snare drum. This shows how important the

snare is in the mix: the element that joins the

backing track with the vocal. Careful

placement of it helps define the soundstage

on which your whole mix happens.

30  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  September 2020

the perfect snare  /  drums special  <

> Step by step Fattening a snare with parallel processing

1 First let’s layer a couple of snare sounds. Start with a fat, 2 Add three more Aux busses. This will vary according to
‘dooshy’ 70s kind of snare, then create another track and your DAW. (In Logic, use the Options menu) and set them
set up a higher, ‘clappier’ sample. Balance them together and all from Bus 1 and to the main outputs. Now when your snare
set the outputs of both channels to a shared buss – in this case, plays it will come out of four parallel stereo aux channels, each
Bus 1. of which can have its own effects applied. This is what’s known
as parallel processing.

3 Keep the first channel clean. Insert a pitchshifter into the 4 Now combine the outputs of all four snare aux channels on
second and down-tune by 3-4 semitones. Insert a a new bus – Buss 2. All the effected snares will now appear
distortion plugin into the third one and crank it to the point of together at this new master channel. The final touch is to add a
filth, then pull it back a bit so that it adds excitement rather subtle saturation plugin to ‘glue’ all of the snare elements
than decimates the sound. On the last channel, add a quality together (we’ve used a little soft saturation via Phat FX).
compressor with a fairly low Threshold and a high Ratio. Balance the four aux channels for a monster snare sound.

Six ways to beef up a snare drum

Pitch replacement plugins can help with this, into the other one. Try some radical
such as WaveMachine Labs Drumagog treatments and blend the clean and
Duplicate your snare sound, pitchshift it up and Slate Digital Trigger. effected sounds in together so that the
or down and blend it with the original for natural sound is still preserved.
instant depth and texture. It can also be Double and delay
worth pitchshifting ambient mics down on Distortion
a kit recording for extra fatness. Boost the size of a snare sound by adding
in a different snare sample 40 or 50ms Gentle distortion or overdrive can make a
Layer and replace later, softening the attack time and huge difference to the presence of a snare
blending it in. This will give the impression and is always worth trying.
If your recorded acoustic drum track is of more ambience.
giving you problems, layer in some Add more bottom
samples over the close mic channel and Parallel compression and EQ
blend with your overhead mics. Andy Most snare drums benefit from a bit of
Wallace did this to devastating effect on Route your snare to two identical auxiliary low-frequency boost. Try a dedicated bass
Nirvana’s Nevermind album, and it’s now busses. Keep one of the busses clean and enhancement plug-in or simply apply an
common practice. Various drum insert either a compressor, an EQ or both EQ boost from 80-120Hz.

September 2020  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  31

>  drums special  /  perfect hi-hats and cymbals

THE PERFECT

HI-HATS AND CYMBALS

So you’ve got your kick and snare – now let’s add

some sizzling metalwork to complete the kit

The hi-hats are a pair of cymbals mounted almost always quantised exactly to the grid, but some jazz drummers even use ride cymbals
on a stand, one upside down and the other moving other elements around can create a fitted with loose rivets or fine chains for
the right way up, both held in place on a much groovier feel. A bit of swing will slightly exaggerated sizzle and ‘air’. Crashes are there to
central spike and connected to a footpedal at delay every other beat in a pattern of 16ths, mark occasional accents in the song (the ends
the base of the stand. By operating the pedal, creating a ‘shuffle’ feel. The quantise functions in of significant phrases, mostly), and it’s really just
the drummer brings the hi-hats together. If your DAW will have loads of variations of swing a question of choosing one that you like from
you watch a jazz drummer play, you’ll see for you to experiment with. the endless samples available.
that the hi-hats spend most of the time
closed, but open and shut quickly on the “Cymbals should be Artificial energy
second and fourth beats of the bar. In just
about all other modern styles the hi-hats are there to enhance and It’s tempting to add energy to a section of your
kept closed or half-closed and played with mix by ramping up the cymbals, and a powering
sticks, anchoring the drum track by beating articulate the musical crash or sizzling half-open hat certainly does
out eighth-notes. sound exciting. A good test of the dynamics of
The role of the hats is to give life to the kick energy, not be the your music, though, is to turn the cymbals off. Is
it still dynamic? Does the music itself have
and snare pattern. Acoustic hats vary from source of it” energy? If the only thing adding change or
excitement is the cymbals, you have a mix that
small, thin and bright (jazz, pop, dance) to big, Crash and ride will become boring very quickly. Cymbals
should be there to enhance and articulate the
thick and dark (rock), and only really have four The two other essential cymbals are the crash musical energy, not be the source of it. Some
and the ride. There are others, like China-types great pop tracks even contain no cymbals at all –
sounds: closed, half-closed, open and pedalled. and splashes, but they’re just smaller and Hey Ya! by Outkast springs to mind.
‘trashier’ variations on the crash, respectively.
Of course, each of these has endless tonal To achieve cymbal perfection, you need to
The ride cymbal sounds with a clear ‘ping’ set your cymbals at the right level in the mix and
variations, as a browse through any good drum followed by a wash of airy overtones. It’s not add too much high-frequency EQ.
generally used as an alternative to the hi-hats, Controlling levels is easy with samples but far
sample library will illustrate. changing the feel of the drum track for the less simple when recording a live drummer, as
chorus or middle eight. There are many flavours: cymbal spill can dominate. (If you want to record
A good drummer or programmer will use light and thin for jazz, dark and heavy for rock – an acoustic kit, check out the tutorial on p34 to
learn how best to capture cymbals.) A wall of
accents (where certain hits are louder than the guitars or constant ride soon becomes like white
noise, so pick your moments.
others) to bring what might otherwise be a

boring hi-hat pattern to life, but as well as the

volume, a skilled player or programmer will play

around with the timing.

Moving or playing the hi-hat part slightly

ahead of or behind the beat will subtly change

the feel of the groove, making it feel more

urgent or laid back. In dance music, the kick is

32  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  September 2020

perfect hi-hats and cymbals / drums special <

> Step by step Sidechaining hi-hats for swing

1 Working with a 16th-note hi-hat pattern, start by selecting 2 Now create an auxiliary send from your kick drum channel at
every other hit, then move the selected hats forwards slightly 0dB (if you’re using Logic, this is done from the Options menu
(only a few ticks). You’ll hear a swung feel start to emerge. The – other DAWs will vary but it’s usually pretty easily done). Ensure
further to the right you move your hi-hats, the more swung the that the aux send is pre-fade so that it continues to send the same
beat becomes. amount of signal even if you turn the channel fader down.

3 Insert a sidechain-enabled compressor plugin into your hi-hat 4 With the pattern running, lower the Threshold on the
channel and route the kick drum channel to the sidechain compressor until you see gain reduction happening on the
input. Now the hi-hats will be compressed when the kick hits and meter. Then play with the Attack and Release times until you
come back up in level in between. get the hi-hats pumping nicely in between the kicks. You may
need to up the Gain to make up for the volume decrease.

Cymbal programming tips

PHYSICAL REALISM MULTI-HATS the compressor and cause the cymbals to
‘Be’ the drummer! If you’re aiming to For floor-filling dance music productions, try duck, mimicking the way in which we
program realistic sounding hi-hats and placing one hi-hat sound on each kick drum hear loud sounds in the real world.
cymbals, it’s important to remember the to help it poke through the mix, and use a
mechanics of what a real player would do. A totally different one for the main pattern. And Cymbals come in a range
drummer only has two arms, so make sure no why stop there when you can add a third one of types and sizes, but
more than two cymbals are ever hit at the for accents, too? generally speaking,
same time – and that’s without the snare or they’re all crashes or rides
toms, of course. BUS COMPRESSION
Adding the hi-hats and cymbals to your main
DUPLICATE HATS drum bus and inserting a
Many ROMplers and ‘virtual drummers’ compressor into it will
automatically apply mute groups to hi-hat help bring your
samples, meaning that a closed hat will end patterns to life and
the decay of an open one. Although this make the cymbals
mimics reality, it’s often good to disable it or sound like they’re
have a duplicate hi-hat that you can use for part of the kit. The big
overlapping pedalled and half-open hits – set bottom-end frequencies of the
up your own ‘choke’ key if you need one. kick and low mids of the snare will activate

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 33

> drums special / recording drums

THE EASY GUIDE TO

RECORDING DRUMS

Inject real life into your tracks by recording a real human

drummer (no jokes, please) playing actual drums! Follow our

walkthroughs and you’ll see how easy and effective it can be

Record drums? Why would you bother background of musical influences; they don’t we’re going to assume you haven’t got one of
when it’s so easy to simply launch know how to make your songs come to life; and those and show you how to turn your DAW into
Superior Drummer or BFD, bash out a quick they don’t sound unique. If you’ve ever spent a drum studio with nothing more than a basic
beat on the keyboard, hit the quantise button hours trying to program a fill that sounds right, set of microphones, an eight-channel audio
and get stuck into recording everything else? or hi-hat parts that groove, or grace notes on a interface, an extra set of headphones and a
It’s certainly true that some of these virtual snare, or a convincing crash-ride, then you’ll splitter box.
drums/drummers sound awesome, and offer know that for all their amazingness, these
a mind-boggling choice of sounds and superb virtual instruments require a lot of work Apart from the recording gear, the drum kit
patterns. Not only that, but they don’t argue, to produce totally lifelike results. and the room, there is, of course, one more vital
and they don’t issue demands for payment, component: the drummer! If your drummer’s
writing credits or bowls of Smarties with all But isn’t recording drums a total not up to scratch, all your efforts will have been
the blue ones taken out – so it’s effectively a nightmare? No, that’s a myth – recording drums wasted. There’s no point listening to a great
no-brainer, right? is actually surprisingly easy. Admittedly, it’s recording of something crap – but there’s
Well, here are some other things that those often the sound of a badly recorded kit that definitely a point in listening to a crap recording
pieces of drum software – and all the rest of makes an otherwise great track sound like a of something that’s great! So make sure your
them – don’t do. They don’t know how your song ‘demo’, but if you follow some simple rules, you drummer is experienced, knows how to tune his
goes; they don’t have ideas; they don’t have a can avoid the pitfalls. Of course, a big, posh kit, hits well and consistently, and can play with
recording studio would make things easier, but a click.

34 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020

recording drums / drums special <

Preparing to record

When setting up a recording session, the first make is over-damping the drums in pursuit of a vocals and tons of plugins is going to mean
thing you need to sort out is the room in which dry, 70s type of sound. Bear in mind that lots of complications down the line. By printing or
the drums are going to be recorded. The top-end resonance and room ambience gets bouncing down the key elements of your track
question is: live or dead? If you’re making a rock absorbed in the mix by guitars – especially in as new audio files, you can unload all plugins
track, you’ll need a ‘live’-sounding room or an rock music. Over-damping also makes the from the session. This will prevent latency
adjacent live-sounding room where you can put drums quiet, so easy does it! Keep a selection of problems, so that the drummer will hear
ambient mics. If there’s a rug on a wooden floor, blankets, pillows and bricks around to help get everything right in his headphones and there
get rid of it – drums always sound better on a the kick drum right. Try and keep some life in won’t be any complicated latency compensation
hard surface. For a dry, disco-sounding kit, you’ll the sound; don’t muffle it so much that it sounds processes happening in the background.
need a ‘dead’ room, like the lounge or bedroom, like a cardboard box. Use the dampening to just
where soft furnishings help to calm the sound. shorten the sound. The best thing for You should aim to end up with a few bounced
dampening the top head of the snare is Moon ‘stems’ – guide drums, bass, guitars, keys, vocals.
The drum kit Gel by RTOM. It costs about £8 and makes fine- Make sure they all start on bar 3 or later, so that
tuning snare sounds easy. you have at least a couple of bars of count-in.
A good drummer will know how important it is The click or guide drum loop can be MIDI-
to get the kit sounding right. Freshly tuned, new The session triggered or printed as audio. These few tracks
heads will have a crisp attack and make the then need to be turned down to around -15dB –
drums nice and loud. Loud drums make the Before you hit the record button, you need to this will leave plenty of headroom for the click to
room sound better and don’t get drowned out prepare your session. Working with a sprawling be clearly heard by the drummer over the
by cymbal wash. A common mistake people production featuring 20 tracks of backing backing track and the drums.

> Step by step Getting the spot mics right

1 Once you’ve got your kick sounding good, put a dynamic 2 This next step isn’t essential, but is well worth trying. Take
cardioid mic, like the AKG D112 shown here, inside it. The closer another mic (dynamic or condenser) and place it outside the
it is to the beater contact point, the punchier a sound you’ll get – kick – this results in a more rounded and meaty sound. Don’t get
5-6" away is about right, at a 45º angle to the batter (top) head. A any closer than 5-6" to the skin, though. Weight both kick drum
small boom stand is ideal for this. mic stands with bricks so they don’t flop around.

3 Use a dynamic cardioid mic, like this Shure SM57, for the snare 4 Again not essential, but a mic under the snare can help to
batter head. Try to have it looking in and down onto the centre bring out the rattle of the snares, as well as improving the
of the head. You’ll need to keep it outside or near the edge of the fatness of the overall sound. If your overheads are good (see next
drum so that it doesn’t get in the drummer’s way, but this will page), you may end up using more of this in the mix than the top
sound better anyway. As an alternative, try having the mic looking snare channel. If your audio interface has a phase reverse button,
horizontally across the snare. activate it for this mic’s channel.

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 35

>  drums special  /  recording drums

Overheads

The most important microphones in our whole “The more mics become something of a standard over the years:
setup are the two overheads, which basically you use, the more Overhead 1 (cardioid condenser, panned left)
record the whole kit sound. Ideally, you’ll have a complicated the phase is about 4-6" above the floor tom, facing the
pair of large diaphragm condenser mics on tall relationships get” hi-hats across the snare.
stands two or three feet above the kit and about Overhead 2 (cardioid condenser, panned
four feet apart. These are a ‘spaced pair’ of ORTF and MS overhead miking techniques, all of right) is about 2-3' above the kit, pointing
omni-directionals or cardioids. Omnis will give which give very different sounding results – and down between the toms and snare.
you more of the room sound, while cardioids all with just two condenser mics. Experiment to Snare spot mic.
achieve more focus. find out which suits your kit and room. Kick spot mic.
Room mics, bottom snare mic and second
Although this setup is common practice and The Glyn Johns method
can sound great, it’s not actually the easiest to kick mic are all optional. This method does
get right, and it can also sound terrible. The Mega-producer/engineer Glyn Johns has depend on having a great-sounding kit and
main problem is phase – you need to ensure that recorded many of the greats. Here’s his quick room, though, so it could be a bit unflattering to
the sounds from your drums get to all of the and economical kit miking method, which has a home setup.
overheads at roughly the same time. The more
mics you use, the more complicated the phase Below we’re going to use the two-mic
relationships get and the less focused the sound overhead technique that’s become known as
can become, leading to a loss of punch and low the ‘Recorderman’. It involves quite a close mic
frequencies in the recording. Google the XY, placement, and minimises the room sound in
the overheads. Here’s how it’s done…

> Step by step Getting the ambient mics right

1 For overhead 1, mount a large diaphragm cardioid condenser 2 The second condenser (OH2) looks directly at the snare over
(if possible) looking down on the snare drum from a height of the drummer’s right shoulder. To set the distance, make a loop
roughly two drumsticks. This is a starting point that can be of string starting at the centre of the kick, going up to the top
adjusted to tweak cymbal and room spill. This technique will give overhead mic, looping round your finger, and then down to the
a tight sound, focused on the snare – to tighten the sound further, centre of the snare. Keep the snare end in position and bring your
you could set a hyper-cardioid pattern. finger back towards the second mic.

3 In a dead or bad-sounding room, the ambience won’t be great, 4 Even though we’ll be getting most of our sound from the
but it’s useful to set up an ambience mic some distance from overheads and kick mics, it’s a good idea to put dynamic mics
the kit anyway, as we’ll see later. Even better is putting a mic up in on the toms in the same way we did the top of the snare. If nothing
an adjacent space that’s bright-sounding, like a bathroom, kitchen else, these can be used to trigger tom samples if your tom sound
or corridor. This signal can be delayed to create the illusion of size. isn’t that great.

36  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  September 2020

recording drums  /  drums special  <

> Step by step Getting a great recording

1 Plug the mics into your audio interface. The overheads go to 2 Get the drummer to beat the hell out of the kit. They always
inputs 1 and 2 and will need 48v phantom power (unless you’re play louder on the actual takes, so don’t worry about getting
using ribbon mics – in which case, don’t touch that switch!). Kick in too hot a signal – having the highest peaks spike at around -5dB is
and out go to inputs 3 and 4, while snare top and bottom go to 5 a good target. There’s something to be gained from clipping, but
and 6. The ambient mic (hopefully a condenser, so requiring not on the way into the interface – keep it clean.
phantom power) goes into 7, and the floor tom mic into 8.

3 Once your levels are sorted, it’s a good idea to run a test take 4 Insert a trim or gain plugin into each of your eight drum
to check for silly mistakes and any uninvited hum, hiss, clicks channels. Bring up the first kick mic, followed by the second.
or crackles. You can also use the test recording to check the phase When the two are balanced, try inverting the phase on the second
of the mics and ensure a fully fat sound on playback. Even though kick channel (the left/right Phase Invert icons). Leave the button
the theory of phase is complex, the practice is easy… set where the sound is best.

5 Now turn down the kicks and bring up the overheads, panned 6 Balance in the top snare mic and switch the phase to
centre. Try inverting the phase of one of them. If the whichever setting sounds fattest with the kick and overheads.
overheads sound fatter with just one channel phase inverted, Bring up the bottom snare mic and set the phase to the opposite
leave it like that. Bring the kicks back in and blend them with the of whatever the top is set to. Repeat this process with the floor
overheads. Change the phase on both the overheads now, and tom and ambient mics. This is quick ’n’ dirty, but now you’re ready
leave them set at wherever the kick sounds fattest. to record.

September 2020  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  37

>  drums special  /  recording drums

Quiet studio, please

You should now be ready to press the record “Use folders or for toms to ring and cymbals to decay. These
button, safe in the knowledge that you have the playlists to keep your backup components can then be used to help
sound of the drums completely nailed. Of takes sorted, and you repair almost anything after the event –
course, there’s a whole bunch of stuff to do post make notes as you go” invaluable for moments when the drum stool
recording to turn the raw drum takes into a creaked or a motorbike went by and ruined an
mixed kit, but we’ll cover that in future features. what each take was and why you did it – “Take 4, otherwise perfect take.
First, though, we have to make sure we record felt beater instead of wood”, “Take 9, keep hats
everything we need. There’s nothing worse than closed”, etc. You may find it best to edit different Prepare to build a mix
putting up your drum recordings, long after the takes together to make the perfect
drummer has packed up and left, only to find performance. Once you’ve got your recordings, you need to
that the bottom snare mic hasn’t recorded or get the drums sounding killer in the mix, so get
that your middle section has click track from the Record single hits the session organised. Work with your stem
headphones spilling all over it. That’s why a test session to start with, then bring the rest of your
take is important; here are a few tips on how to After you’re done, record individual hits of each multitrack back in. Organise the key elements of
get the most out of the session. drum at different volumes. Allow plenty of time the mix into auxiliary busses, and bring them all
down to -10dB. As a rough guide, your kick drum
Get lots of takes should be metering between -12 and -7dB. This
kind of setup will leave you with loads of
If possible, use folders or playlists to keep your headroom to build a punchy drum sound
takes sorted, and make notes as you go as to without clipping your master outputs.

> Step by step Setting up a rough live mix

1 Although you won’t create your final drum sound until the 2 Next, insert a room reverb over the second aux return set to
mixdown, you’ll need to get your mix half-decent for around 0.6s Decay time. Compress this and add a harmonic
recording. Here’s some CPU-friendly advice to help you get it distortion (we’ve used the Phatr FX again). This artificial space will
right. Create two auxiliary sends and returns from the ambience help the kit sound more ‘finished’ while you’re tracking – and a
track. Insert a delay plugin over the first return and set the L and R more exciting sound will make your drummer play better.
Delay times to 30ms and 60ms.

3 Take your individual drum channels and the two new aux 4 You should now have five or six ‘master’ faders, making it easy
returns and set their outputs to a new bus. Create a new aux to create a good working balance and hear the drums
return for this bus and call it ‘Kit master’. This is your main drum properly in context. You can also create a separate sub-mix for the
channel. Now create two or three more busses and returns for the drummer by adding aux sends to the master faders and routing
rest of your recorded track stems (guitars, bass, vocals, etc). them discretely to the headphones output. To minimise latency,
keep your audio interface buffer size as small as possible.

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recording drums / drums special <

Drum recording tips

SKINS, STICKS AND BEATERS PLAYING TO A CLICK mics can sound good too. Put these types of
mic in a place where they can hear the whole
It’s much easier to get volume, clarity and If you’re tracking to an existing recording, kit. The corners of the room can offer
brightness from a new set of drumheads. If your drummer will need to be able to play to a interesting results – experiment!
possible, get them on, tuned and ‘played in’ a click track. The best drummers are able to sit
day or two before the session. Different types exactly on the click, but tend to flow around it RECORD WITHOUT CYMBALS
of head give different types of sound: single- in order to create a better feel. Recording to a
ply heads are bright with less sustain (jazz/ click makes it much easier to edit between Recording a kit in a difficult space without
pop); two-ply heads are deeper and more drum takes at a later stage. If the whole band ideal equipment can be a fruitful and
controlled (rock/metal); coated heads are is tracking together, it’s best if only the rewarding experience, but you might still feel
warmer in tone (disco/70s). Your choice of drummer gets the click. Using a little beatbox that your results sound amateurish. One of
sticks or hotrods and felt or wood kick drum or percussion groove usually makes a better the classic drum sound problems is too much
beaters will also have a big effect on the ‘click’ than an actual click, and will also spill cymbal spill. This happens in the best of
sound of the kit. Get close to the sound you over into the microphones less. studios, and when it does, the pros just record
want before you think about microphones! the crashes afterwards. That way you can
PREPARE THE CLICK FOR GAPS bring up all the exciting roominess of the
TUNE UP drums themselves in the mix, then blend in
Prepare for stops and gaps in the song by perfectly recorded cymbals afterwards. As
This should be the drummer’s responsibility, automating the level of the click in the long as they share the same bus compressor
yet it’s more often than not the engineer or drummer’s headphones. During the stops, no one will ever know (although your
producer who realises that the drums sound lower the volume so that there’s no click spill drummer will hate playing without cymbals).
wrong and knows what to do about it. Here into the drum mics from the headphones. If
are a few tuning tips and things to check if you’re recording the whole band, it’s also a ESSENTIAL GUBBINS FOR A
you’re having problems. Check that the head good idea to send a click to the other players TROUBLE-FREE DRUM SESSION
diameter is exactly right (fractionally larger at that point, so the drummer doesn’t have to
than the drum) and that it’s mounted count everyone back in. This will save lots of Moon Gel, for damping; 3-in-1 oil, for squeaky
perfectly centrally. Always make tension painful editing and remedial work later on. pedals; a drum key, because the drummer will
adjustments in opposite pairs to avoid forget theirs; an adjustable spanner, for rattly
forcing the head off-centre. Seat the head by GET A CRAPPY MIC stands; gaffer tape, for holding stuff; masking
applying gentle pressure with your palm to tape, for attaching damping materials and
the centre, then tune out any new wrinkles Tape recorders used to come with built-in the like; empty cigarette packets and
that appear. condenser or electret microphones. Put one J-Cloths, for that 70s sound; blankets; stage
of these old machines into record/pause weight or sandbag; and Japanese cooking
BOTTOM HEADS ON TOMS mode and take the output into your DAW for chopsticks – great for tom parts!
an exciting, super-crunchy sound.
Wherever there are two heads, there are Sometimes, rubbishy old battery-powered
three possibilities. If you tune the bottom
(resonator) head of a tom to the same pitch as Your trusty oil and
the top (batter) head, you’ll get a purer tone adjustable spanner –
with more sustain – perfect for jazz and its music-making equipment
derivatives. If you tune the resonator lower, doesn’t get much more
you get a slight pitch drop-off and less decay analogue than this
– great for rock. Tuning the resonator higher
shortens the decay further, which can be
great for close miking. A good starting
interval for the difference in pitch between
heads is a minor third – ie, three semitones
either way.

FRONT HEAD ON THE KICK OR NOT?

The front (resonator) skin on the kick drum is
important for creating a good, meaty tone.
Jazzers love it, and most rock/poppers have a
hole cut in it to allow microphones and
dampening material (a small blanket, say) to
be placed inside. For metal styles, where
you’re mainly looking for click and thud, you
may as well just remove the front head so that
you can get a mic right in on the beater point.

TIGHTEN THE KICK DRUM

It’s possible to create a little kick drum
chamber using, blankets, duvets or even a
coat. These are draped over the kick drum,
and any microphones are placed in and in
front of it. Use a couple of small mic stands to
hold the blankets up. The chamber prevents
spill from the cymbals and snare getting into
the kick drum mics, making it easier to boost
the high frequencies at the mix stage and
thus enhance the ‘clickiness’ without adding
harshness from the cymbals.

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 39

>  drums special  /  programming ‘real’ drums

You might not be a drummer, but that needn’t prevent you from
programming your own totally convincing ‘live’ drum tracks. All it

takes is a good set of sounds and a bit of MIDI know-how

Many computer musicians shy away loops of real drummers playing real drums to that governs dance music and electronica is
from programming their own acoustic create your percussion parts? equally dominant in pop, rock and most other
(as opposed to electronic) drum tracks, genres in which you’d find a live drummer. It’s
understandably concerned that since they While the above is always a wholly viable that fabulous 4/4 backbeat, with the kick drum
don’t know how to play a real drum kit, any option, the results will be qualitatively different emphasising the first and third beats (either
attempt to create a performance on a virtual to what you’d get from building your own parts. directly or by implication), and the snare on the
one will fall short in terms of technicality and You would have to choose a loop based on its second and fourth, embellished by incidental
sound. Others go in the opposite direction, particular production and rhythmic qualities, grace notes and fills. The vast majority of
naively and over-confidently penning beats and you’d have a very finite level of control over modern music adheres to this straightforward
that at best would require five or six limbs to them. Program your own drums, though, and structure, which is good news for programmers
actually play, and at worst come across as mad you have total command over every element of looking to emulate the real thing.
and unconvincing, even to the untrained ear. the ‘performance’ – from the notes themselves to
The fact is that programming realistic, groovy the sounds of the individual drums and cymbals. What’s more, knowing how drummers play
So, if you really want to take full ownership of their drums isn’t just useful for programming
drum parts is well within any desktop producer’s your beats, building them yourself from the live-sounding parts: even your drum machine
ground up is the way to go. patterns will benefit from a true understanding
abilities. All you need is a MIDI sequencer, a quality of what the human ear has semi-consciously
Same difference come to expect from contemporary percussion
sound source and some insight into the rules, elements. With all that in mind, then, it’s time to
If you’ve programmed electronic beats before, take a drum lesson…
limitations and standard practices that real you’ll be glad to hear that the rhythmic paradigm

drummers work to and within. But is it really

worth the effort? Why not just use sampled

40  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  September 2020

programming ‘real’ drums  /  drums special  <

Drumming 101

The drum kit comprises a kick drum, a snare drum Real drum kits can reach
and a pair of hi-hats, plus a variable number of impressive proportions –
tom toms and cymbals (usually two or three toms but of course, your virtual
and four or five cymbals, although the only limits
are space and reach). Most of the action takes kit can be even bigger!
place on the kick, snare and hats, while the toms
and cymbals are used for accenting and fills.

Most tracks will see the drummer spend the
vast majority of their time playing a groove,
which, generally speaking, involves nailing the
backbeat on the kick and snare, and tapping out
a metronomic eighth-note ‘tick’ on the hi-hats
(known as ‘riding’). Assuming the drummer is
right-handed, the right foot plays the kick drum,
while the left foot controls the hi-hat. The top

“No drummer can hit something you need to master in order to programmed a snare, a tom and a hi-hat hit on
program realistic drums, but you do need to the same beat, realism has left the building.
more than two drums understand the forms that these intuitive
patterns might take beyond the elementary Little extras
with their sticks at any ‘kick, snare, kick, snare’.
A couple of drum kit variables worth bearing in
one time” Generally speaking, the kick drum should mind are the ride cymbal and double-kick drums.
work in tandem with the bassline, so try placing The ride cymbal is an alternative to the hi-hats. In
hi-hat cymbal is struck with the right hand kick hits directly on top of your main bass notes. pop and rock, it’s traditionally used in choruses
(crossing over the left), while the left hand hits Most of the time the snare will fall on beats 2 and and middle eights, where the energy of the track
the snare. Try it now on a desk or your thighs: tap 4, but shifting one forwards or backwards by needs to increase. In jazz, it replaces the hats as
out eight evenly-spaced hits with your right half a beat can utterly transform a groove – try it. the primary riding instrument – but jazz
hand, simultaneously tapping your right foot Other variants are the half-time groove (à la drumming is a whole other kettle of fish that we
on hits 1 and 5 and your left hand on hits 3 and 7. dubstep), with the kick falling on beat 1 and the don’t have space to get into here. Another time…
Don’t worry about the left foot – just repeat ad snare on beat 3. Then there’s the disco-style
nauseam. Congratulations – you’re drumming! hi-hat pattern, too: you play 16th-notes with both Double-kick drums are found almost
of your hands, with the right hand moving to the exclusively in the realm of metal, where they’re
Feeling the groove snare for the backbeat. the bedrock for blisteringly fast double-time
grooves and fills. Feel free to use them where
Those are the fundamentals, but of course Although it should go without saying, we’ll say appropriate, but be aware that they can quickly
there’s much more to it than that. Rather than it anyway: no drummer can hit more than two overpower a track, and that a drummer in the
consciously calculating the placement of kick, drums with their sticks at any one time. Just real world can’t easily pedal the hi-hat and play
snare and hi-hat notes while playing, the trained like us, they only have two arms! So, if you’ve that second kick drum at the same time.
drummer ‘feels’ where they should go. He or she
places them in the context of the rest of the
track, in which – never forget – the drums play
an underpinning, supporting role. This isn’t

> Step by step Laying down a basic groove

1 This is about as simple as a drum kit 2 Now we are upping the complexity a 3 Displacing the first snare hit makes
part gets: kick on beats 1 and 3, snare bit, so we draw in another kick drum the groove become something else
on 2 and 4, and hi-hats riding on every note leading into the second half of the altogether. At the moment our drum part
eighth-note. If this was the chorus of our bar. You will hear what a big difference is authentic in that it doesn’t make any
track, we might move the hi-hat part to the this seemingly minor change makes to unreasonable demands on our ‘drummer’,
ride cymbal. We’ve used the Ableton the groove – although you still wouldn’t but it’s way too rigid and programmed-
Session Dry kit but most DAWs will come call it a complicated pattern. sounding to pass for the real thing.
with some decent acoustic kits to
experiment with.

September 2020  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  41

>  drums special  /  programming ‘real’ drums

Dynamics and timing

As you’ll have no doubt noticed, our drum If you can’t or don’t want to play your part Of course, it’s not enough to trigger just the
part so far, while making sense in terms of in live, draw the notes in with snap turned off, one sample per drum at varying velocities –
playability and pattern, still sounds totally aiming for the grid lines (and being sure to fall you need a properly multisampled drum kit, so
mechanical and unrealistic. This is because we within a few milliseconds of them). When you’re that low-velocity hits trigger samples of drums
drew all the notes in by hand, snapped perfectly done entering the part, manually tweak your played gently, while high-velocity hits fire off
to the grid and at a constant, fixed velocity level. velocity levels or use a MIDI plugin to introduce full-strength recordings. Your DAW most likely
a touch of randomisation/humanisation. has a decent multisampled kit built in, and there
The best way to remedy this problem is to are several fine third-party solutions: Toontrack’s
play the part in live using a MIDI keyboard or Keep it believable EZdrummer and Superior Drummer, XLN
drum pads. It does require a modicum of skill Audio’s Addictive Drums, FXpansion’s BFD
and the ability to ‘feel’ the groove rather than Varying velocities and timing is the best way series, NI’s Battery and Studio Drummer are just
just rigidly bash it out, but you don’t have to play to make your parts sound realistic, then, but some of the great titles available.
the whole thing at once. Set up a record cycle don’t go too mad! Keep your velocities within a
and play each element in separately as the track relatively narrow range – a drummer will strive Finally, an important timing consideration
loops round – hats, then kick, then snare, for to be as consistent as possible, so obvious leaps is push/pull: skilled drummers will deliberately
example. The result will be a MIDI part with in volume from hit to hit will sound wrong. For play very slightly behind or ahead of the beat
naturally varying velocities and subtle timing hi-hat and ride cymbal patterns, the drummer to create a driving or laid-back feel. To emulate
fluctuations from beat to beat (and they do need will play the notes that fall on the beat harder this, simply apply a bit of channel delay to the
to be subtle – if anything sounds noticeably out than those falling in between (or vice-versa, if whole part, or manually shift selected elements
of time, move it closer to the grid). they’re looking to accent the off-beat). of it after you’ve made all your other edits.

> Step by step Getting real with timing and dynamics

1 Our drum part is currently triggering 2 We’ll load up our groove from the 3 Let’s go back to our rigid, manually
one of Ableton Live’s bundled drum previous walkthrough in a moment, programmed part. The first thing we
kits, but you could try any of the third but first, here is our not so great attempt need to do is inject some human feel into
party options we mention in the text to play the same part in on a keyboard – our groove by deactivating snap and
above. We experimented with some of the one pass and no edits. Note the natural moving the hits slightly ‘off the grid’,
kits in Battery 4 for ours. variations in timing and velocity. Well, we emulating the intrinsic subtle variations
were after a more natural sound, but this in timing that you get with a real drummer.
might not be the ideal route for you… These edits need to be very subtle in order
to work properly.

4 Dynamics next, and we repeat Step 5 Shifting the hits back or forwards on 6 Alternatively, we can give our tune a
3 but for velocity rather than timing. the timeline to emulate the push or more driving, energetic vibe by
Again, our adjustments are small – we pull of a real drummer changes the feel of pushing the drums ahead of the beat –
want our snare drum hits, for example, the whole track. Or you could introduce dialling in -30ms of Track Delay increases
to range from loud to slightly less loud, your own delay – apply 12ms of Track the momentum nicely. Generally, you can
rather than loud to soft. We also want to Delay to the drums to pull them slightly push your drums further than you can pull
make our off-beat hi-hats consistently behind the beat. them before things just start to sound
quieter than the on-beat ones, as per the out of time.
drumming norm.

42  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  September 2020



>  drums special  /  programming ‘real’ drums

Ghost notes, accents and fills

Our groove sounds pretty authentic and ‘live’ so character to the groove and/or emphasising ever hit a crash cymbal on its own). It’s designed
far, but there’s still more to do if we’re to make other track elements. The classic example of this to lead into the beginning of the following bar,
our drums sound like they’re being played by a is the off-beat hit following the backbeat, or the which will serve a purpose in terms of phrasing –
real drummer with a real drummer’s brain. drummer in a funk band rimshotting the snare introducing a chorus or key change, say.
in time with the brass section’s horn stabs. Open
To bring syncopation and a feeling of forward hat strokes (whereby the left foot releases the Fills can be simple but effective or complex
motion to the groove, we need to employ ghost hi-hat pedal, moving the two cymbals apart) and impressive, but all the usual programming
notes. These are very quiet (often barely audible) serve a similar purpose, being deployed to lead rules apply: turn the snap off; vary the velocities,
incidental snare hits, funkily filling the spaces into a bar or phrase, or doubled up with a snare bearing in mind that the first hit in a series of
between hi-hat strokes. They can take the form hit to add bite and a burst of splashy sustain. strokes on one drum will naturally be played
of single hits or gentle presses, where the stick is harder than those that follow; and don’t ever
pressed into the drumhead to create a very short, Fundamental fills trigger more than two things (plus kick drum
fast roll (three or four hits). Applying ghost notes and hi-hat pedal) at once. If your sound source
is an automatic, almost unconscious process for Every eight or 16 bars, the drummer might throw offers them, alternating between separate left-
the experienced drummer, who will play them in a fill, bringing the toms and crash cymbals and right-hand samples can only boost realism.
pretty much constantly. For the programmer into play. A fill is a roll around the toms, a series
who takes the time to draw or play them in, the of enthusiastic snare hits or any other free- Finally, fills don’t have to be full-on. There’s
sonic results will always be well worth the effort. flowing deviation from the groove, usually nothing wrong with a simple ‘rat-a-tat-tat’ on the
concluding with a cymbal crash (which is always snare – in fact, for many tracks, anything more
The snare drum is also used for accenting, with accompanied by a kick or snare – you’ll hardly than that will feel like overkill. Exercise restraint
strategically placed full-strength hits adding in your fill programming endeavours.

> Step by step Adding ghost notes, accents and fills

1 Ghost notes add movement and 2 Many drummers will play ghost notes 3 The only thing a real drummer would
syncopation to any groove. We draw between most of their hi-hat hits take issue with in our groove now is
in some very low-velocity snare presses almost semi-consciously, so we add a few the lack of hi-hat variation. To remedy this,
and single hits between certain hi-hat hits. more. These really enhance the groove, we place open hi-hats at the end of the
To make the presses sound convincing, and our drum part is now full of first bar of our two-bar phrase and on top
the first hit needs to be a bit louder than movement and sounding pretty funky. of the last snare. These are choked (that is,
the following ones. muted) by the following closed hi-hat hit –
most virtual drum kits include this feature.

4 For accenting and elaborating on the 5 Fills are used to mark the ends of 6 This is the sort of thing a skilled
backbeat, extra full-strength snare phrases and lead into verses, drummer would actually play as a fill!
hits are called for. These can be placed on choruses, middle eights, etc. Our first We include a variety of snare articulations,
or off the beat, depending on whether example is incredibly simple – the clichéd different samples for left- and right-hand
you’re aiming for syncopation or ‘beat 16th-notes round the toms, with a cymbal strokes and a set of Bernard Purdie-style
reinforcement’. We go for syncopation smash at the end. We show you this for hi-hat kicks (at maximum velocity). We’ve
most of the way here, with a big on-beat demonstration purposes only – don’t ever even thrown a tearing double-kick drum
accent at the end of the phrase triggering use it unless you’re specifically going for a rip in there! We’ve drawn everything in by
a rimshot sample. naive, amateurish feel! hand, with snap off.

44  /  COMPUTER MUSIC  /  September 2020



> drums special / mixing drums

MIXING

DRUMS

Mix a drum kit to perfection with our
step-by-step guide to processing and
balancing along with some top tips

Mixing drums is one of the most kick mics) and, ideally, control of mic
challenging aspects of music bleed between channels. So we’re talking
production. With so many variables, the likes of FXpansion BFD, Toontrack
you can’t just fly at it willy-nilly and EZdrummer/Superior Drummer, NI
hope to get good results. No, you have Battery or XLN Audio Addictive Drums. If
to know what you’re doing, and here you can afford them, BFD 3 and Superior
we’re going to show you how to take a Drummer 3 lead the pack in this area,
set of raw acoustic drum kit multitracks offering everything you need to make
and mould them into a powerful, superb drum tracks.
cohesive mix.
Before you even touch those level Our example drums for this tutorial
faders, the one thing you absolutely must comprise the audio we recorded in the
have is a decent set of multitracks, either Recording Drums feature starting from
recorded or from a quality ROMpler. No p34. High-quality mics and preamps were
amount of mixing ability can make a used, and nine tracks have been recorded:
rubbish recording sound good – unless close-miked kick, top and bottom snare,
you replace every single sound within it, hi-hats, rack tom and floor tom, plus left
which, although eminently possible, could and right room mics, and a stereo
have a detrimental effect on the overall overhead mic.
feel of the groove.
So, if you’re recording your drums, be We have two primary goals: achieving
sure that you know what you’re doing in good separation between the elements of
terms of mic selection and placement, the kit, and imbuing our part with power,
room acoustics and drum kit setup and presence, character and ‘that pro sound’.
tuning. If you’re using a ROMpler, it needs We’ll do it mostly using EQ, gates and
to be one that features separate virtual compressors – your three most valuable
mic channels (preferably including drum mixing tools. Incidentally, we’re only
separate top/bottom snare and in/out dealing with backbeat-orientated styles
here; jazz and gentler acoustic material
require a looser, broad-dynamic approach.

46 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020

mixing drums / drums special <

Drum miking 101

To mix drums, you need to understand end. These can be blended to taste in further from the kit to capture more of
miking techniques. There are two the mix, provided they’re in phase the recording space’s natural reverb.
fundamental types: close and ambient. (which we’ll come on to shortly).
Turning all these mics up at once will
Close mics are positioned to capture The snare drum most often uses two lead to undesirable interactions between
the direct, ‘isolated’ sound from one mics: one on the top head and another the channels. This can be reduced using
drum or cymbal in the kit. The other underneath, pointed at the bottom head. gates (to silence the signal between
drums will inevitably be picked up in The latter captures the sound of the each hit) and EQ (to remove
the background – this is called bleed or snare wires rattling, while the former frequencies that belong to other
spill. While it usually needs to be reduced captures the ‘thwack’ of stick striking drums/mics) on individual channels.
with EQ and gating, you don’t skin. When mixing, you can process the
necessarily want to eradicate it entirely, top and bottom mics to achieve the The fundamental (lowest) tones are
because a bit of bleed makes the kit desired balance of oomph and sizzle. particularly important in conveying
sound more natural and cohesive. power and punch, so high-pass filters
Ambient mics capture the sound of and EQ can be handy to ensure that the
Toms and cymbals are almost always the whole kit from a particular fundamental tones of the kick and snare
single-miked. One mic inside the kick perspective. Overhead mics are the most are supplied mostly by their internal
drum is sufficient, but some engineers commonly used – typically a stereo pair and top mics respectively. For much
also use an outside kick mic and maybe placed above the kit. You may also more on miking drums, see the
a special ‘sub’ mic to capture the low encounter room mics, which are placed Recording Drums feature on p34.

> Step by step Mixing live drums

1 Although we’re working with a set of 2 There’s a bit of spill from the snare and 3 Let’s up the kick’s power and definition.
live recordings, everything we’re about toms in the Kick channel, so we insert We EQ first, activating a low-cut filter
to do applies equally to a virtual drum kit a gate plug-in to clean it up. We set the at 30Hz to remove headroom-eating ultra-
plug-in. Such plug-ins will ideally give you Threshold to -16dB in order to let only the lows, boosting by a hefty 6.5dB at 70Hz for
total control over mic bleed – a definite plus. kick through, the Attack and Hold times to welly, boosting 5.5dB at 5.4kHz for ‘click’,
So, here are our nine tracks/channels: Kick, 0ms, the Lookahead to 6.8ms, and the and cutting 9dB at 152Hz and 445Hz to
Snare (Top and Bottom), Hi-hats, Floor Release to 310ms – long enough to let the reduce boxiness and make space. Our
Tom, Rack Tom, Overheads and L/R Room. full decay of the drum ring out. We do this compressor is set to catch every hit at a 9:1
with the Kick channel soloed, as no context Ratio, with a long enough Attack to let the
is required for purely corrective work. transient through.

POWER TIP 4 There’s a lot of sympathetic resonance 5 We tackle our Snare Top and Bottom
coming from the Rack Tom channel, channels together. Again, there’s
>Phasing issues and we need to gate out the bleed into the plenty of spill into both mics from the
Floor Tom mic, too. We load gates onto other channels, so we set up a pair of
If your top and bottom snare drum each channel, both set to -9dB Threshold, gates to do away with as much of it as
channels sound strangely hollow with Release times of 351ms for Rack and possible without killing any ghost notes.
and, well… weird together, chances 414ms for Floor. There’s still a bit of bleed This is only mildly effective, but it makes
are that they’re out of phase due at the end of the Floor Tom hit, but there’s enough of a difference to the track to
to the polarity of one of the mics no way to avoid that if we’re wanting to warrant doing, drying out the Bottom
being inverted. Fixing this is a keep the sustain. Snare track in particular.
simple matter of loading the
requisite utility plugin in your DAW
and hitting the Phase Reverse or
Invert switch. Some DAWs even
have this button built into the
mixer. The snare in our track is
fine, though, so we don’t need to
do this.

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 47

>  drums special  /  mixing drums

6 Now for some EQ. We high-pass the 7 The gating and other processing has POWER TIP
Top and Bottom channels with the dried the snare out, so we load a small
steepest filter slope (48dB/oct) at 70Hz plate reverb onto an auxiliary channel and >To pan or not
(for Top) and 180Hz (Bottom). Boosts at send a low amount of both Snare channels to pan?
200Hz (2.5dB), 1.4kHz (4.5dB) and 8.3kHz to it. The Kick channel spill gets caught up
(3.5dB) give the Top channel body and in this in a good way, putting a bit of tail Generally, you want your kit to sit
snap, while deep, tight cuts at 670 and back on our otherwise rather dry kick centrally, especially the kick and
970Hz do away with any odd overtones. drum. With the send levels low, the effect snare. Unless you’re going for an
A compressor with a hefty 19:1 Ratio on the is subtle – you don’t really notice this odd effect or a very retro sound,
Top adds oomph. EQ the Bottom as shown. 0.7-second reverb until it’s bypassed. leave those two dead centre.
Hi-hats can sound good panned
slightly left or right, however, and
toms can also be panned to
descend/ascend across the
soundstage – just don’t go too wide.
Overheads will usually be in stereo
already (or on two mono channels),
but you might want to widen or
narrow them further, depending on
your track.

8 The hi-hats are the easiest part of the 9 Our two Tom Tom channels have 10 With our direct mics done, all that
kit to deal with. In this case, all we have already been gated to silence for the remains are the overheads and room
to do is apply a high-pass EQ to attenuate vast majority of the track, doing away with channels. The overheads are crucial to a
everything below 290Hz – spill from the unwanted resonance and spill. They need good drum mix – they enhance pretty
kick and snare – and then add a gate to get real impact when they arrive, though, so much every element of the kit, particularly
rid of most of said spill completely. We also we give them EQ boosts in the low mids the snare and cymbals. Here the overheads
throw in a 6.5dB EQ boost at 14kHz to up and highs, for stick impact and body, and are of most importance in the second half,
the brightness and ‘air’, bring the level moderately hard compression for greater when the drummer takes to the cymbals.
down a bit, pan the hats left slightly, and presence in the mix. We pan them left and We apply 5.5dB of high-shelving boost
dial in a low send to the snare reverb. right, and send them lightly to the reverb. from 4.4kHz, and turn the level down a bit.

11 The overheads have added a good 12 Finally, we bring it all together with a POWER TIP
amount of width and sheen, but we’re group EQ (moderate, tight cuts at
lucky enough to have left and right room 140Hz and 1.2kHz, and a small boost at >In a full mix
channels, too, for natural reverb. We pan 2.2kHz) and a tube levelling amplifier
these left and right, filtering off everything plugin. We don’t go overboard with the We’re mixing our drums entirely for
below 150Hz to keep the bottom end tight. Gain Reduction, since we’re not looking to their own sake in this tutorial, but
Getting the level balance correct is crucial dramatically crush our drums, and set a the next step would be to get them
with room channels – dial in too much and roughly 50/50 mix between wet and dry. sitting perfectly within the context
your kit will sound unfocused. of a full band. This would probably
involve tweaking the overheads
and any reverb we might have set
up, nudging the kick drum EQ to fit
it around the bass, and generally
finessing the drums while being
sure to maintain their cohesion and
authority. Throughout the drums
mixing process, bring the other
instruments up from time to time,
as well as giving the kit plenty of
solo attention.

48  /  COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2020

mixing drums / drums special <

Drum mixing tips

REVERB INSERTS If you need to give your snare some extra bite, some cunning white noise oscillator layering can really help

Although we used a single bussed reverb in snare track and set the gate threshold and convenient and sonically beneficial. For
our walkthrough, there’s no reason not to use envelope parameters so that the synth only example, grouping all your toms on one bus
inserted reverbs on your separate channels. triggers when the snare hits, then fades out and inserting a compressor, an EQ and a
A short, dark ’verb on the kick, a longer, quickly and smoothly. reverb into that, rather than giving each
brighter one on the snare, etc. If you choose separate tom its own treatment, can make
to do this, though, be careful not to make it Keep the level of the fake ‘wires’ low in the them sound more cohesive, as well as placing
sound like each of your drums is in a different mix, and be aware that it might need muting them all on one handy level fader and saving
space to the others – unless you’re going for during fills. The same trick can be used to add on CPU cycles. Bargain!
deliberate weirdness, that is. sheen to hi-hats and even – using a sine wave
– sub-bass to kick drums. SAMPLE MAGIC
PARALLEL COMPRESSION
JUST A PHASE While the idea when mixing a drum kit is to
Parallel or ‘New York-style’ compression make the results sound like the bringing
is simply the act of mixing compressed and Because a drum hit will take slightly longer together of a set of simultaneously played
uncompressed versions of the same signal in to reach the overhead mics than it does the elements to create a cohesive single
order to reduce the dynamic range but retain drum’s own close mics, its timing will be instrument, there’s no point making life
all those punchy attack transients. Either bus slightly smeared across the channels. This is unnecessarily difficult for yourself in the
your drum group through an auxiliary track part of the sound of recorded drums, and it name of keeping everything organic. If your
with a compressor plugin inserted and mix it can help to create some cool tones as well as drummer neglected to hit an essential crash
with the original, or use a compressor with a smoothen sharp transients. However, too cymbal at the end of a key fill, don’t drive
wet/dry mix control as we did on p47. much can sap punch, power and clarity. yourself mad trying to paste in a cymbal from
elsewhere in the overheads track – just throw
SIDECHAIN THE OVERHEADS You may be able to manually adjust the in a crash from your sample library (on a
timing of the recordings in order to improve separate track, otherwise it’ll sound like a
A range of cool effects can be created by their combined sound. In our example audio dodgy punch-in). Similarly, if your snare’s just
putting a compressor/gate on the overheads files, a subtle increase in low-end solidity can lacking a bit of top but is otherwise OK,
channel and keying it from the kick, snare or be created by moving the snare bottom mic double it up with a high-passed sample. Play
hi-hats. Key a frequency-conscious gate from channel back into time by about 4ms, so that with the mix settings, A/B with some well-
the snare to emphasise the airy overhead the ‘meat’ of the waveform becomes a little chosen reference material and trust your ears
signal with each snare hit, or compress the bit more neatly aligned with that of the snare more than your eyes.
overheads via the kick to draw the sides in top mic channel.
with each kick hit. SINGLE HITS
Remember that you can typically only
OVERHEAD PROCESSING align one drum (the snare is your best bet), as Further to the previous tip, when recording
the timing offsets will vary due to each piece your drums, be sure to capture your
Applying a stereo widening plugin to the of the kit being at different distances from the drummer hitting each piece of the kit on its
overheads channel can work wonders for the mics. And don’t get too obsessed with aligning own a few times at hard, medium and soft
sense of breadth. Two things to avoid with your tracks – they might sound better messy! stroke strengths. Then, if you do need to layer
overheads, though, are overly heavy EQ in any ‘overdubs’ (or even replace any sounds
boosts above 10kHz and compression TAKE THE BUS completely), you’ll have a set of perfectly
(though a touch of compression can be matched sounds with which to do it.
effective for a vintage-style sound). And if In our walkthrough we processed every mic
your overheads sound unexpectedly weird in channel separately, but combining related
any sense alongside the close mic channels, drums/cymbals in group busses can be both
don’t forget to try flipping the phase.

BRING THE NOISE

If the wires on your snare drum aren’t making
their presence felt strongly enough, white
noise can be used to add a synthesised
back-up layer. Load any analogue synth with
just a white noise oscillator active and tune it
quite high. Draw in a single MIDI note for the
duration of your drum track and insert a
sidechainable gate plugin onto the synth’s
mixer channel. Key the sidechain from your

You can use separate reverbs on each drum channel
if you like, but be careful that they’re not too different!

September 2020 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 49