Drum break video tutorial by me

Hiii. I made a small video tutorial on a specific trick you can do with layering stuff on top an oldskool break. It's aimed more at beginners(or intermediate) so it's probably not that much use to people here, but you're very welcome to check it out.

Watch it high quality on YouTube

(my speech became a bit too loud & trebley sadly, but I hope it's alright anyway)

This is just my second tutorial so all kinds of feedback is very welcome. Cheers!

In fact, I've gotten feedback about it already telling me that the speech has sooo much treble, so I think I'll just have to suck it up and redo the audio

your voice never bothered me. already fixed?

anyway, always fascinated by how other people work.
but i can't let stuff sit on loop like that while i work. wanted to reach in the screen and press stop :P

your voice never bothered me. already fixed?

anyway, always fascinated by how other people work.
but i can't let stuff sit on loop like that while i work. wanted to reach in the screen and press stop :P

Hahah!!! Yeah I always let my stuff loop while I tweak away on the fly. I didn't fix the audio yet, glad to hear it isn't too trebley for everyone though. I'll still fix it, and get it rid of some of the choppiness and "uhh uhm" sounds of my speech too.

Thanks for dropping a comment!

[denaris]

Madcap works like that, looping for AGES. I have to leave the room, really annoys me. But nice to see how you work there Speak. Far too quick for my liking, but some interesting ideas like with the ride. A nice sidechained compressor would get the same effect in different DAWs.

I think you need to explain a little more what you're doing to get the effect you're ending up with. I understand but a lot of beginners would be confused at your speed.

Always nice to see vids like this though.

cheers... enjoyed this

Sounded good to me... Ok admittedly I just listened to that for your accent.

Madcap works like that, looping for AGES. I have to leave the room, really annoys me. But nice to see how you work there Speak. Far too quick for my liking, but some interesting ideas like with the ride. A nice sidechained compressor would get the same effect in different DAWs.

I think you need to explain a little more what you're doing to get the effect you're ending up with. I understand but a lot of beginners would be confused at your speed.

Always nice to see vids like this though.

Yeah mate some good suggestions there. I'm not sure what kind of stuff to explain though, it's always kind of difficult to know what kind of audience your tutorial will attract. Obviously it would take me ages if I would explain everything about loading a loop to SliceX, adjusting the regions, using the piano roll, routing mixer channels etc... So I thought I'd just assume the people watching know how to operate FL Studio. Any suggestions how deep my explanations on various areas should be?

cheers... enjoyed this

You're welcome mate. Thanks for dropping a comment.

Sounded good to me... Ok admittedly I just listened to that for your accent.

Okay!

Madcap works like that, looping for AGES. I have to leave the room, really annoys me. But nice to see how you work there Speak. Far too quick for my liking, but some interesting ideas like with the ride. A nice sidechained compressor would get the same effect in different DAWs.

I think you need to explain a little more what you're doing to get the effect you're ending up with. I understand but a lot of beginners would be confused at your speed.

Always nice to see vids like this though.

This was helpful but I've never really used fL. I assumed the thing with the hi-hats was a type of side chaining? what other way could anyone recommend to achieve something like this? especially the inverted ride thing!!!

Very nice!!!!! That's a nice trick with the peakcontroller. I never did see someone doing that. I'm gonna try something similair with sidechain compressor.

Great tutorial! wish i knew about that peak controller trick back in the fl days

Good tutorial, Speak! I don't think you loop that much though. I tend to loop longer patterns, so it doesn't wear out so quickly, but I guess it's a matter of taste.

My 2 cents:

Next tutorial needs more eqing and less hihat layering

Also the peakcontroller thing is a nice technique (I sometimes use sidechaining), but imo it doesn't really add value to the break to get the hihats to interact that programmatically. The dynamics are very "in unison". Solo'd the hihat sounds great, but together with the break it just adds treble without adding something to the groove.

Taking the time to do it manually will almost always sound more interesting and natural, imho of course.

Keep it up, very nice to see tutorials by break orientated people!

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Next tutorial needs more eqing and less hihat layering

Also the peakcontroller thing is a nice technique (I sometimes use sidechaining), but imo it doesn't really add value to the break to get the hihats to interact that programmatically. The dynamics are very "in unison". Solo'd the hihat sounds great, but together with the break it just adds treble without adding something to the groove.

I guess I could've been more clear about what I was trying to achieve! The whole point was adding more treble to an oldskool break that would otherwise lack treble. (often trying to EQ a muddy break results in a very messy and noisy treble part) Usually I of course spend much more time with an EQ than I did in this tutorial (because the point was adding treble with layering).

Taking the time to do it manually will almost always sound more interesting and natural, imho of course.

Yeah indeed, I agree on this to a certain extent; mostly in theory. In reality you'll end up with less varied breaks if you need to handle 6 different drum layers, because you just can't be arsed to spend THAT much time to truly create different patterns with so many layers going on (also there's keeping the breaks sounding natural and flowing the whole time too which adds another layer of complexity). This is my experience on the case anyway.

It depends a lot on if you're making oldskool jungle or drumfunk, too. With drumfunk it's more suitable to spend ages on the sound of the drums by layering snares, hihats, bassdrums, and everything (on top of a break), eqing all different hits and adding effects and reverb by different amounts to different layers... But you can hear it in 99% of drumfunk: The drum patterns are less varied than in most jungle. Or, if they're not, then the song is lacking in content otherwise. (of course there are exceptions to the rule) This is my biggest irk with drumfunk generally. It's rewarding to make drumfunk, and listen to it often, but in the end it doesn't really provide me with the content I personally am looking for in music.

(whoops, I guess this was mostly offtopic)

Keep it up, very nice to see tutorials by break orientated people!

Thanks mate! Very nice to get some in depth comments!

I guess I could've been more clear about what I was trying to achieve! The whole point was adding more treble to an oldskool break that would otherwise lack treble. (often trying to EQ a muddy break results in a very messy and noisy treble part) Usually I of course spend much more time with an EQ than I did in this tutorial (because the point was adding treble with layering).

Didn't get that! (although I recall you saying that in the beginning)

Then the whole procedure is completely valid of course and the peakcontroller makes sense If subtractive eqing fails of course

Taking the time to do it manually will almost always sound more interesting and natural, imho of course.

Yeah indeed, I agree on this to a certain extent; mostly in theory. In reality you'll end up with less varied breaks if you need to handle 6 different drum layers, because you just can't be arsed to spend THAT much time to truly create different patterns with so many layers going on (also there's keeping the breaks sounding natural and flowing the whole time too which adds another layer of complexity). This is my experience on the case anyway.

Fair point, but you can always resample.

Most of the time I use a different project file for setting up the beat.
The whole treatment of the loop goes in there. I.e. frequency split, eqing of hihats, snares, kick, maybe layer one or two hihats, maybe a kick and/or a snare, then compress everything slighty and bounce/record/resample the whole mess.

A 4 or 8 bar loop with lots of different variations and fills provides you with a lot of sample material to work with and then you can start the actual track freshly with those processed loops and chop away


Ah, it's been too long since I found time to properly worked on some beats, guess that's why I'm rambling here. Sorry!

It depends a lot on if you're making oldskool jungle or drumfunk, too. With drumfunk it's more suitable to spend ages on the sound of the drums by layering snares, hihats, bassdrums, and everything (on top of a break), eqing all different hits and adding effects and reverb by different amounts to different layers... But you can hear it in 99% of drumfunk: The drum patterns are less varied than in most jungle. Or, if they're not, then the song is lacking in content otherwise. (of course there are exceptions to the rule)

Word. Also most jungle stuff just uses one or two breaks anyway and no layering whatsoever and still sounds dope

Didn't get that! (although I recall you saying that in the beginning)

Then the whole procedure is completely valid of course and the peakcontroller makes sense If subtractive eqing fails of course

Hah, indeed! No worries.

Fair point, but you can always resample.

Most of the time I use a different project file for setting up the beat.
The whole treatment of the loop goes in there. I.e. frequency split, eqing of hihats, snares, kick, maybe layer one or two hihats, maybe a kick and/or a snare, then compress everything slighty and bounce/record/resample the whole mess.

A 4 or 8 bar loop with lots of different variations and fills provides you with a lot of sample material to work with and then you can start the actual track freshly with those processed loops and chop away

Yeah this is true and I do it myself too! Still somehow often usually after an endless amount of twiddling and mangling and layering and whatnot, I usually don't actually end up with that great sounding break, and any groove that was in the original break has probably vaporized away. But this could well be just lack of skillz!

Ah, it's been too long since I found time to properly worked on some beats, guess that's why I'm rambling here. Sorry!

I've been working so much on breaks that it's nice to just ramble about it without do anything every once in a while.

I guess I could've been more clear about what I was trying to achieve! The whole point was adding more treble to an oldskool break that would otherwise lack treble. (often trying to EQ a muddy break results in a very messy and noisy treble part) Usually I of course spend much more time with an EQ than I did in this tutorial (because the point was adding treble with layering).

well since we're getting into this...
i strongly feel you never need to layer to make up for absent frequencies. this is one of the biggest misconceptions you get reading around places like doa and such.
approach it with "what do i need to pull down to reveal the highs better?" (hint 5k usually but not always has some noise the dulls the sharpness) or "which frequencies specifically sound scratchy when i boost?"
you do need a good eq though. i like the voxengo ones.

approach it with "what do i need to pull down to reveal the highs better?"

If subtractive eqing fails of course

Hah, indeed!

Will be checking this when i get home.

For the ableton heads, you can get a similar effect by using the ableton Vocoder with a noise carrier + maybe combined with the auto filter.. tweak envelope settings to taste...

Nice tut! I use a similar approach in FL, I ussually split up the hits tho; then try to enhance each (kick, snare, hat), then route them to a stem for a bit o saturation/compression. Reverb on the send. I use the peak controller trick for ducking the bass with the kick. Never tried with the hats/rides
Neways,Check it, my first "choppage" attempt.
http://soundcloud.com/parenzeej/muted-ve...itude-clip
Done it about 3 yrs ago now. careful ya ears