Beat Construction
Constructing drum beats and laying down grooves can be daunting for those without drumming abilities.
Fresh new drum breaks can be created in many ways however! Sampling from vinyl, slicing the samples to get individual hits and then rearranging those slices to form a new beat is a common method. Working with pre-existing commercial loops or programming rhythms using a MIDI editor are also viable approaches but THE most powerful technique is to extract both timing and notation information from a commercial beat and to use them with your own custom sounds to create completely fresh new grooves.
In this category I show you how to create unique drum beats and groove templates using the above techniques as well as how to polish the results using dynamics processing and other effects.
Tutorials
Chopping/Slicing Beats Using Recycle
Beginner
How to chop/slice drum loops using Propellerheads Recycle.Duration: 10 mins
Combining Ripped Beats to create new Beats
Intermediate
A sound design technique covering how to rip two different beats, at different tempos, replace all the drum sounds within the beats and then mash them up together to create a new beat!Duration: 7 mins
Creating a beat and an effect from a drum loop
Intermediate
A sound design tutorial on how to create a drum beat and an effect from a single drum loop and combining them to create new textures.Duration: 9 mins
Processing a Snare to fit in with a Ripped Drum Break
Intermediate
Using drum replacement software to rip a snare drum from a commercial drum beat and then creating new snares using a string of dynamics!Duration: 7 mins
Working on the Sub Layer of a Kick Drum
Intermediate
How to process a sub kick to blend in with a ripped beat!Duration: 7 mins
Topping and Tailing Ripped Beats - Truncating and Normalising
Beginner
How to top and tail drum sounds extracted from a beat. Topping and Tailing refers to truncating and normalising audio along with fade ins and outs.Duration: 6 mins
Extracting Drum Sounds from a Beat using Drumagog
Intermediate
How to rip and replace drum sounds (drum elements) within a beat using Drumagog.Duration: 9 mins
Ripping and using Timing Information from a Drum Beat
Advanced
Rip timing and feel information from any beat and use it as a quantise template on your beats.Duration: 5 mins
Extracting Audio Slices from any Beat and Converting them to Midi
Intermediate
How to extract timed audio slices from an existing drum beat and converting them into Midi data to use in your beats.Duration: 5 mins
Automation Lanes - what are they and how to use them
Intermediate
Using automation lanes and nodes and understanding what are source and destination targets.Duration: 7 mins
Using Midi Expression and Continuous Controllers
Intermediate
How to use Midi Expression and Continuous Controllers to add life to your mixes.Duration: 6 mins
Comparing Different Opto Compressors
Intermediate
Understanding the differences in Opto compressor designs and how and when to use them.Duration: 5 mins
Compressing Roland TR 808 Kick Drums
Intermediate
Understanding and exploring Roland TR 808 kick drum compression techniques.Duration: 12 mins
Compressing Roland TR 909 Kick Drums
Intermediate
A detailed journey into how best to use a compressor for processing Roland TR 909 kick drums.Duration: 15 mins
Compressing EDM Drums Beats
Beginner
A detailed tutorial on how to compress a driving EDM Drum Beat.Duration: 9 mins
Compressing Hip Hop Drum Beats
Intermediate
Transparent and parallel compression techniques for processing Hip Hop drum beats.Duration: 9 mins
Pumping and Swelling Drum Beats using Compressors
Intermediate
Learn how to use a compressor to pump and swell a drum beat.Duration: 14 mins
Side-chaining Bass and Kick for EDM
Intermediate
Creative side-chaining techniques for low end management using compressors.Duration: 19 mins
Side-chain Expansion - Bass and Kick processing
Advanced
An advanced tutorial on how to use the side-chain of an expander to manage the kick and bass in a mix. The expander is used to extend the dynamic range as opposed to narrowing it like a compressor.Duration: 6 mins
Band Pass Equalisation - cleaning audio channels
Intermediate
How to prepare your audio for mixing by using band pass equalisation for cleaning and making sure to shape the filter slopes to match the audio's response.Duration: 13 mins
Layering drums using middle and side processing
Advanced
Sound Design tutorial on how to create a background ambient texture from a drum loop using M/S (Middle and Side) and Layering it with drum sounds.Duration: 6 mins
Processing Low End Kicks
Intermediate
Very cool techniques on how to process Low End kicks for a bigger sound!Duration: 7 mins
Side-chain Pumping Effect
Advanced
Detailed tutorial on how to use side-chaining and filtering to create the famous Pumping effect.Duration: 9 mins
Using Phase Cancellation in Sound Design
Advanced
An advanced Samplecraze sound design tutorial on how to use flip/inversion, sample nudge and phase cancellation within your DAW to create new sounds.Duration: 15 mins
Harmonizer Effect - what it is and how to use it
Intermediate
What is a harmonizer effect - how does it work and how to use it for adding harmonies to vocals or to create interesting special effects. In this video, I use the mighty Eventide Harmonizer 910 to maul a drum beat!Duration: 7 mins
Noise Gates - Side-chaining Tricks
Intermediate
What is a gate, how it works and how to use the side-chaining facility. In this video I use the side-chain of a gate to process a drum beat.Duration: 12 mins
Using Expansion - the power of Side-chaining
Advanced
An advanced tutorial on how to use the side-chain of an expander to create new textures for a drum beat. Expansion is a well know dynamic that professionals use for a number of corrective and mixing processes.Duration: 6 mins
Using a Step Sequencer to control Filter Cut-Off and Resonance
Intermediate
Using a Step Sequencer as a Modulator to process both the Filter Cut-Off and the Resonance of a Filter processor to add spice and motion to a drum beat!Duration: 7 mins
Using Modulation with a Single Band Filter - Soundtoys FilterFreak
Intermediate
Create Crazy Effects using a Modulator to process a Single Filter Band on a drum beat!Duration: 6 mins
Using Modulation with a 2 Band Filter - FabFilter Simplon
Intermediate
Creating Cross Modulation by using 2 band Filters in Series and in Parallel to process a drum beat. FabFilter Simplon shines in this tutorial.Duration: 7 mins
Filters and Filtering - what are filters and how do they work
Beginner
What is a Filter, how does it work, what are its functions and how to use it.Duration: 4 mins
Creating the 3 master reverbs using the FabFilter Pro R reverb
Advanced
Crafting the three main master mix reverbs using FabFilter Pro-R reverb.Duration: 9 mins
Constructing the 3 master mix reverbs using Melda MReverb
Advanced
The art and science of working the main mix reverbs in series and in parallel using Melda's MReverb plugin..Duration: 9 mins
Drum Reverb
Intermediate
Covering techniques, pitfalls and advanced functions on how to configure and use drum reverbs.Duration: 6 mins
Reverb Compression for Drums
Intermediate
Cool techniques for processing compressed reverbs for Epic Drum sounds.Duration: 7 mins
Phaser Effect - what it is and how it works
Beginner
A detailed tutorial expounding the virtues of the powerful yet elusive phaser effect, how does it work, how to use it and when to use it.Duration: 9 mins
Using a Delay to create a Crackle Effect
Intermediate
A sound design tutorial showing you how to use a delay effect to create a crackle effect. A great way to add spice and grime to a sound and in this tutorial to a drum beat!Duration: 6 mins
Using a Delay as a Reverb
Intermediate
Reverb can smear low frequency sounds like basses and using a delay effect instead of a reverb maintains the clarity and focus of the sound.Duration: 8 mins
Using Modulation to shape a Delay Effect's Filters
Beginner
Detailed tutorial on how to use source and destination modulators with a delay effect to create spatial soundscapes.Duration: 12 mins
Add Variety to your Drum Beats using Delay Effects
Intermediate
Sound design tutorial on using delay effects to create a variety of drum textures using existing sounds.Duration: 10 mins
Delay Effect - what is it and how does it work
Beginner
What is the delay effect, how do you use it and when to use it.Duration: 10 mins
Using a Delay to Manipulate Stereo Width
Intermediate
Using a delay effect to create and manipulate stereo width. Make your mixes wider!Duration: 5 mins
Compressing EDM Kick Drums
Advanced
Advanced tutorial on how to use a compressor to shape and colour EDM kick drums.Duration: 15 mins
Roland TR 808 Kicks and Multiband Compression
Intermediate
Learn how to use a multiband compressor (MBC) to shape and colour Roland TR 808 bass drums. Getting 808s to swell and bounce has never been easier.Duration: 7 mins
Drum processing using Middle and Side - M/S
Intermediate
An advanced tutorial that details how to use M/S (Middle and Side) processing to shape and colour drum sounds.Duration: 6 mins
Drum Layering in Native Instruments Battery
Beginner
Learn how to layer, manipulate and process drum sounds using Native Instruments Battery.Duration: 4 mins
Mixing Bass and Kick
Intermediate
Mixing the bass and kick in a mix can be troublesome, but that can be negotiated by working on the harmonics and complimentary frequencies of each sound.Duration: 15 mins
Using Recycle REX Files and Constructing New Beats
Intermediate
Learn how to import Propellerheads Recycle REX files into NI's Battery and then create new beats from existing content.Duration: 7 mins
Programming Drum Beats in Cubase
Beginner
Learn how to program amazing drum beats using the Key Editor in your DAW.Duration: 16 mins
Layering Snares using a Noise Gate and Pink/White Noise
Intermediate
Sound design tutorial on how to create new snare textures using a noise gate and generated pink/white noise.Duration: 13 mins
Layering Kick Sounds using Tone Modules
Intermediate
Build the most potent kicks known to mortals using advanced drum layering techniques!Duration: 21 mins
Processing a Kick Drum in Parallel
Advanced
Sound design tutorial - creating a monster kick drum using tone modules and parallel processing.Duration: 12 mins
How to use Reverb for Electronic Drums
Beginner
Let me help you to understand and master electronic drum reverb processing to bring out the best in your beat creations!Duration: 11 mins
The Art of Drum Layering - Advanced
Advanced
The Art of Drum Layering Advanced is jam-packed with over 60 minutes of advanced drum layering techniques. A comprehensive aid for pros and hobbyists alike, build on your know-how with easy to follow tutorials and produce truly epic beats.Duration: 60 mins
Using the Pultec Eq on a Drum Beat
Intermediate
Learn how to use Vintage Response equalisers on drum beats! The mighty Pultec EQ is a weapon. Let me show you how to use it.Duration: 8 mins
Get your 808 Kicks to bounce using Dynamic Equalisation
Intermediate
Give your TR 808 bass drums bounce and colour using this very cool technique!Duration: 13 mins
Using Dynamic EQ to balance Kick and Bass
Intermediate
Don't always reach for the compressor's side-chain to marry the kick to the bass. A dynamic eq can sometimes be better!Duration: 8 mins
Using Dynamic EQ on the Drum Group
Intermediate
Glue the drum group with dynamic equalisation!Duration: 9 mins