DIY drum sample pack

[andychamp]

I'm thinking about hiring a pro drummer I know, to record a bunch of one-shot drum samples for personal use in my mixes.
Like it or not, sample augmentation (or outright replacement) has become a standard tool in modern music production, clients aren't as reluctant about is they used to be, and sometimes even expect it.
I'm not trying to compete with the dozens of commercial products out there, I just want access to my own pool of sounds (possibly develop some kind of "signature" aesthetic in the process, although that's by no means the main goal)
Any pointers/experiences/pitfalls to share?
(multiple post)

[digitaldrummer]

I mean you could, but there is a plethora of material out there already. And sure, you could try to make something unique that nobody else has but will that really matter? A long time ago (in a galaxy not so far away) I made my own samples for Drumagog and would use them occasionally (when I still had a bedroom studio) but once I got a good room I really didn't need them for most projects (but then I don't do a lot of metal). And on a very rare occasion I'll supplement a track with some samples (adding to the original but never replacing). It's usually with stuff I did not record myself. The Steven Slate stuff is decent but I have a bunch of other samples too. There is really a ton of stuff out there and a lot less work to just buy it (or some is even free sometimes).

Also long ago, I recorded drums to be used for samples - some beats and one-hits, and they are used in a commercial release (and I still get some mailbox money every year). I guess if you hire someone to do it, and do it as "work for hire" and you don't ever re-sell it, then you won't have to pay royalties (but something to consider if you ever did try to resell it).

I also tracked drums for a project once where late in the game, the mix engineer replaced all my drums with samples and it sounded horrible. I mean he totally sucked the life out of the songs. The drums sounded thin and one-dimensional. I won't mention names, but totally did not expect this. The artist actually contacted me directly about doing his next project and was saying he didn't really like the drum sound from the previous album so I told him to go listen to the rough mixes, and suddenly he knew what happened too (and never used that mixer again). But I'm not saying all samples suck. but they can! I've used them alongside real recordings and it can work fine as long as you know how to do it properly. But used wrong they can kill an album (or song).

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I have a handful of home brew samples that I use from time to time. If I'm the tracking engineer (and if i remember) I like to get clean hits of all the drums at the start or end of a session. For those occasions where the drummer is a cymbal basher it's nice to have clean tom and snare hits that aren't full of hihat and cymbal hash. Its also nice to have options when I get a song to mix tracked with e-drums using a sample pack not really appropriate for the song. That happens more and more often these days.
When rolling my own samples the hardest part for me is what the mix is going to be for the sample. That's also the thing I want to tweak and customize song to song. How much room? How much OH vs close mic? I could end up with a half dozen tracks for every sample element. Maybe drum replacement software has an elegant solution. I'm usually just pasting bits of audio into a daw track.

[Recycled_Brains]

https://www.roomsound.com/products/kurtballou2/

[MoreSpaceEcho]

Maybe drum replacement software has an elegant solution.

Superior Drummer makes it easy. It can quickly take lets say your snare track and make a trigger from it, then you can do whatever you want: close snare, under snare, oh, any number of different room mics, all within their mixer, one track in your DAW. There's a ton of vids on their site that explain it all. There's a learning curve but it's not a steep one.

To the OP, maybe 10 years ago I made some samples of my snares in the big room at my old loft. I've used those only a couple times since then, now I'd just use Superior Drummer. Back then, I thought about making a more legit sample pack, because that room really sounded great, but I never did because I felt like it was going to be a ton of editing busywork trimming the samples and blablabla.

So I don't want to discourage you, if you've got a killer room and a bunch of nice snares and mics, and don't mind all the editing, go for it. But there's so much good stuff out there already. I've not used those Kurt Ballou samples Recycled Brains linked to, but I've heard lots of people I trust say they sound great.

[kslight]

At the start of the session I would get clean hits, but I’m not a big fan of sample replacing. Taking your suggested approach, I feel like you’ll still be prone to the same issues with using canned sample packs, that is it still won’t sonically be a match to what was recorded (whether that is a factor I guess is more of a stylistic choice).

[Recycled_Brains]

At the start of the session I would get clean hits, but I’m not a big fan of sample replacing. Taking your suggested approach, I feel like you’ll still be prone to the same issues with using canned sample packs, that is it still won’t sonically be a match to what was recorded (whether that is a factor I guess is more of a stylistic choice).

If you're using the samples to supplement the existing kit, then I would think you wouldn't want it to be the same sound. Otherwise what's the point?

I record solitary hits (when I remember to) at the beginning of a session as well, but in my experience, layering those samples into the kit that generated them in the first place is pretty pointless. I used them to trigger gates and replace shitty hits or tom hits where there's too much of a cymbal bleed rushing in when the gate opens, etc.

[T-rex]

If you're using the samples to supplement the existing kit, then I would think you wouldn't want it to be the same sound. Otherwise what's the point?

So I do this when I need something the snare isn't giving me, mostly on other peoples tracks I am mixing, like a rehearsal room demo. So if it's a thud snare with no crack on a fast punk tune, I'm gonna use a sample with that high end to supplement the thuddy snare. Even if the recorded snare is way off what the song needs I will still try to salvage it and just sneak a sample in with it so it sounds more natural.

Logic has an option to make a drum track from any wave and it will convert the transients to a midi track which is pretty awesome. But I usually use Trigger by slate on a dup of the snare track or BD etc.

[Scodiddly]

If you don't need to hold down a groove, do you need to hire a professional?

[andychamp]

If you don't need to hold down a groove, do you need to hire a professional?

- he owns the local drum shop and has access to a big variety of instruments
- sells his own brand of custom-built snare drums
- has much better control of dynamics than I do
- I can concentrate on the technical/sound design part of recording the samples and won't have to switch back and forth between brain halves the whole time

[T-rex]

So will you do like direct sounds and room / OHs etc.?

When I first used samples I was kind of shocked at how meh sounding a lot of them were but then when I realized those work better when you are augmenting versus replacing sometimes. Then the amount of options on the samples was crazy, at least with the slate stuff.

If you do it, definitely document the process and post it here. I’d be really interested in what all is involved / how it turns out.