Simple/Dre Style drums

[Hi-Lo]

i've noticed dr.dre, scott storch, rotem, a lot of the west coast guys will often use very simple drum patterns on their beats. especially dre, sometimes its just

K-S-K-S, etc

I'd like to do this with some of my beats, i think keeping the drums this simple is nice for some compositions, but i'm having a little trouble getting the right bounce to my beat doing this. I've gotten fairly close by putting on some heavy swing in FL and using an MPC groove template, and i've also found it helps to have some rolling shakers set at a low level.

Anyway I realize nobody can tell me how to make dr. dre drums, but I think theres probably some techniques you guys know to help this out at least a little. Should I try putting some delay/reverb/extra compression on these? (I already have the kicks pretty heavily compressed). any advice is much appreciated.

 

[open mind]

make sure your bpm is slow.dres beats are mostly at 90bpm.

 

[Elementree]

i would go with an 87-90 bpm. layer your snare with a tamb or a shaker. also set your snare back a notch in piano roll. not a whole square but just a notch. claps are good too. make sure your hi hat sounds real too. no 808's in dre shit

 

[Relic]

put a Shh sound every downbeat.
myproducer page has a beat called no name that has it on it.

 

[Hi-Lo]

i would go with an 87-90 bpm. layer your snare with a tamb or a shaker. also set your snare back a notch in piano roll. not a whole square but just a notch. claps are good too. make sure your hi hat sounds real too. no 808's in dre shit

yeah thats some solid advice, after going back and listening to some of his stuff i see what you mean. right now my kicks are right on the first line of each measure of the piano roll (like right on the 1, 3, 5, 7), should i shift those just a bit over to the right also?

thanks for all the advice guys...relic good looking on that info, i checked out your track and see exactly what you mean. that will help a lot. did you just use a hi hat kind of sound for that?

 

[Ash Holmz]

actually there is 808s in dre shit .. layered under a punchy kik in many beats if u pay attention .. but dres sound comes from a comnibation of things .. his drumz hit hard but also have alot of ambience at the same time.. im still tryin to do that i think part of that is how he is using gated reverb on his drumz ....i havent explored the technique in depth so i cant really give any conrete info .. but dre is dre ... every producer pro or not is chasing his drum sound ... join the club lol

in regards to getting them drumz to swing just try recording with no quantization at all on drums that gives u most nautral swing to your drumz

 

[Icemanbeats]

put your drums a bit to the right if u want a lazy feel, put em left if u want a rushed feel

If you wanna get your groove like dre u could chop like 2 bars from one of his beats up, put em in your sequencer and align your drums to it.. not in a biting sense but gettin an idea of how his drums work

with cubase/recycle its easy because it has the part to groove option dunno what sequencer u are using

 

[Hi-Lo]

actually there is 808s in dre shit .. layered under a punchy kik in many beats if u pay attention .. but dres sound comes from a comnibation of things .. his drumz hit hard but also have alot of ambience at the same time.. im still tryin to do that i think part of that is how he is using gated reverb on his drumz ....i havent explored the technique in depth so i cant really give any conrete info .. but dre is dre ... every producer pro or not is chasing his drum sound ... join the club lol

in regards to getting them drumz to swing just try recording with no quantization at all on drums that gives u most nautral swing to your drumz

yeah i layered a 808 kick with a punchy kick on this cause i noticed its hard to get that thump out of those real punchy style kicks he uses. i hear what you're saying on the ambiance though, i think that was what i was really trying to figure out. like this dude's drums are so, so simple, but they just sound...i dunno for lack of a better word like elegant or some shi*. i'll try messing with some reverb tho

for anyone who knows whats the difference between gated reverb and a regular reverb? i know noise gating is, is gated reverb just a reverb with the lowest levels almost completely attenuated?

put your drums a bit to the right if u want a lazy feel, put em left if u want a rushed feel

If you wanna get your groove like dre u could chop like 2 bars from one of his beats up, put em in your sequencer and align your drums to it.. not in a biting sense but gettin an idea of how his drums work

with cubase/recycle its easy because it has the part to groove option dunno what sequencer u are using

using Fl but i'll try movin them to the right. thats a good idea w/ recycle too, i'll give that a try sometime.

 

[mp3]

I think about this a lot too and my simple drum patterns sound wack to me too but then I thought about it, its a combination of the samples and other elements and how they fit around the drums as far as timing wise. That makes a lot of difference. I'ma try some of these other tips too.

 

[LonChainy]

here is another Dre tech to try...layer up 2 of the same kick..track delay (not FX delay) one of the drums..juuust by a few cents, then pan those two drums wide left and wide right..then place a 3rd drum (even the identical drum if you want) and keep it dead center...filter out any highs on that center drum...and truncate and eq each drum to your liking...ever notice how wide Dres drums sound?? Timbo uses a similar tech

 

[Hi-Lo]

here is another Dre tech to try...layer up 2 of the same kick..track delay (not FX delay) one of the drums..juuust by a few cents, then pan those two drums wide left and wide right..then place a 3rd drum (even the identical drum if you want) and keep it dead center...filter out any highs on that center drum...and truncate and eq each drum to your liking...ever notice how wide Dres drums sound?? Timbo uses a similar tech

thanks a lot man, that is some serious knowledge right there. i appreciate it

 

[sYgMa]

I think about this a lot too and my simple drum patterns sound wack to me too but then I thought about it, its a combination of the samples and other elements and how they fit around the drums as far as timing wise. That makes a lot of difference. I'ma try some of these other tips too.

I was gonna say the same thing, but you beat me to it... For instance, listen to That 1st song on Busta's latest LP... you'll see what I'm talking about. The piano chord specially.

 

[Ash Holmz]

I was gonna say the same thing, but you beat me to it... For instance, listen to That 1st song on Busta's latest LP... you'll see what I'm talking about. The piano chord specially.

that track is so damn ill .. and simple .. there like 4 elements but they all are so big .. that piano sounds like a thunderstorm when it comes in its so heavy and big sounding .. i need whatever he used to get that sound so big NOW

 

[skidflow]

I think its all about fucking with the "decay" and "sustain" controls along with the "delay" and "attack" controls. But first and foremost you have to have the tempo right and that depends on how your sample feels. But if you are not sampling the tempo plays a big part in the feel of the track.

 

[berserk]

here is another Dre tech to try...layer up 2 of the same kick..track delay (not FX delay) one of the drums..juuust by a few cents, then pan those two drums wide left and wide right..then place a 3rd drum (even the identical drum if you want) and keep it dead center...filter out any highs on that center drum...and truncate and eq each drum to your liking...ever notice how wide Dres drums sound?? Timbo uses a similar tech

thats a pretty ill ass technique... and i've never thought of that myself

thanks g

 

[Agent Smith]

also, quantize your kicks and snares to straight 16th's and then quantize your hi hats to shuffle or vice versa...

 

[Hi-Lo]

also, quantize your kicks and snares to straight 16th's and then quantize your hi hats to shuffle or vice versa...

sorry man i know this is basic but shuffle is what exactly? do you know how I would go about doing that in FL 6?

 

[adomav17]

in Fl6 theres a shuffle switch... in the step sequencer i believe its in the right top corner..... the more you turn it right the more it shuffles the patterns you put into it...

shuffle is kinda hard to explain to me.... just put the straight 16ths into the step sequencer, then turn on the shuffle.... you should immediately hear the difference.... it sounds like its being slightly offset to give it a certain groove that has a certain sound to it....

 

[Hi-Lo]

in Fl6 theres a shuffle switch... in the step sequencer i believe its in the right top corner..... the more you turn it right the more it shuffles the patterns you put into it...

shuffle is kinda hard to explain to me.... just put the straight 16ths into the step sequencer, then turn on the shuffle.... you should immediately hear the difference.... it sounds like its being slightly offset to give it a certain groove that has a certain sound to it....

isn't that swing though?

 

[50 cal]

here is another Dre tech to try...layer up 2 of the same kick..track delay (not FX delay) one of the drums..juuust by a few cents, then pan those two drums wide left and wide right..then place a 3rd drum (even the identical drum if you want) and keep it dead center...filter out any highs on that center drum...and truncate and eq each drum to your liking...ever notice how wide Dres drums sound?? Timbo uses a similar tech

what is track delay?