Best Way to Humanize Acoustic Drums

[BradfordMoeller]

In your experience, what is the most efficient or believable way to humanize the timing and velocity of drum hits of a quality acoustic drum plugin or RE?

(In my case, I am using EZdrummer in Reason, writing the patterns out on the piano roll, or playing them on my controller before quantizing/humanizing, trying to figure out the best ways of doing so!)

[MrFigg]

In your experience, what is the most efficient or believable way to humanize the timing and velocity of drum hits of a quality acoustic drum plugin or RE?

(In my case, I am using EZdrummer in Reason, writing the patterns out on the piano roll, or playing them on my controller before quantizing/humanizing, trying to figure out the best ways of doing so!)

This maybe?
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... humanizer/

[gregmarksimpson]

In your experience, what is the most efficient or believable way to humanize the timing and velocity of drum hits of a quality acoustic drum plugin or RE?

(In my case, I am using EZdrummer in Reason, writing the patterns out on the piano roll, or playing them on my controller before quantizing/humanizing, trying to figure out the best ways of doing so!)

Get some real acoustic drum loops and steal the groove information from them to make ReGroove patches to apply to your sequenced MIDI.

[adfielding]

Get some real acoustic drum loops and steal the groove information from them to make ReGroove patches to apply to your sequenced MIDI.

+1 on the Groove Mixer. Even if you're not using ReGroove patches, you can still use it to non-destructively add a bit of random timing & velocity variance to your sequenced acoustic drums. Additionally, you can use the tools window (F8) to randomise velocity values directly in the sequencer.

[selig]

Get some real acoustic drum loops and steal the groove information from them to make ReGroove patches to apply to your sequenced MIDI.

+1 on the Groove Mixer. Even if you're not using ReGroove patches, you can still use it to non-destructively add a bit of random timing & velocity variance to your sequenced acoustic drums. Additionally, you can use the tools window (F8) to randomise velocity values directly in the sequencer.

+2 on the groove mixer, or a little shuffle (51-59% range). Adding random changes is not "human" and isn't what drummers actually do.

But that only gets you half the way there IMO. Drummers also use "time" to add energy or or to relax a track over time. Things like pushing a bit going into a chorus, or laying back on a verse are obvious examples. This subtle pushing and pulling is something all great drummers do either intentionally or naturally, and something sorely missing from most sequenced drums IMO. This is why, as a life long drummer AND programmer myself I've always "played" my programmed drums from start to finish when going for a "drummer" feel. I also LOVE pattern based approaches for some drum parts/song, just to point out I'm not a drummer "snob" .

[guitfnky]

unfortunately, in Reason there aren’t too many great options. the groove mixer is probably the best, if you need to automate the process, but it’s limited (only to 16th note resolution, I think). adding shuffle helps slightly, but still feels very robotic in its precision—and does nothing with velocity. there are VSTs that do a great job of this, but there’s no way to get the MIDI into a Reason track without exporting it from another DAW at this point.

the best option right now is, as selig suggests, play it yourself. I’m not a great keyboardist, but if I play stuff by hand and quantize it to the nearest appropriate note length, it sounds much more realistic—just make sure you’re only quantizing to 50 or 75 percent. the thing about this method is that you at least have to have enough of a groove in your hands to make it sound good, or you’ll end up having to do a lot of editing anyway.

they really need VST MIDI in Reason.

[xboix]

All of the above plus use a drum instrument/library that has multiple samples per drum (and per velocity) and randomly uses a different one each time. Sometimes that can make more difference than timing variations.

[guitfnky]

All of the above plus use a drum instrument/library that has multiple samples per drum (and per velocity) and randomly uses a different one each time. Sometimes that can make more difference than timing variations.

this, absolutely. multisampled kits are super important if you’re doing music where the same kit piece is being played in close proximity to itself, timing wise (snare rolls, being the obvious example). makes a huge difference.

[BradfordMoeller]

unfortunately, in Reason there aren’t too many great options. the groove mixer is probably the best, if you need to automate the process, but it’s limited (only to 16th note resolution, I think). adding shuffle helps slightly, but still feels very robotic in its precision—and does nothing with velocity. there are VSTs that do a great job of this, but there’s no way to get the MIDI into a Reason track without exporting it from another DAW at this point.

the best option right now is, as selig suggests, play it yourself. I’m not a great keyboardist, but if I play stuff by hand and quantize it to the nearest appropriate note length, it sounds much more realistic—just make sure you’re only quantizing to 50 or 75 percent. the thing about this method is that you at least have to have enough of a groove in your hands to make it sound good, or you’ll end up having to do a lot of editing anyway.

they really need VST MIDI in Reason.

You can drag in midi to Reason from EZDrummer, but it can be a bit limiting at times, thanks for the response!

[BradfordMoeller]

Wow I'm glad I asked during a pandemic, so much useful information here- thank you everyone!!!

[guitfnky]

unfortunately, in Reason there aren’t too many great options. the groove mixer is probably the best, if you need to automate the process, but it’s limited (only to 16th note resolution, I think). adding shuffle helps slightly, but still feels very robotic in its precision—and does nothing with velocity. there are VSTs that do a great job of this, but there’s no way to get the MIDI into a Reason track without exporting it from another DAW at this point.

the best option right now is, as selig suggests, play it yourself. I’m not a great keyboardist, but if I play stuff by hand and quantize it to the nearest appropriate note length, it sounds much more realistic—just make sure you’re only quantizing to 50 or 75 percent. the thing about this method is that you at least have to have enough of a groove in your hands to make it sound good, or you’ll end up having to do a lot of editing anyway.

they really need VST MIDI in Reason.

You can drag in midi to Reason from EZDrummer, but it can be a bit limiting at times, thanks for the response!

of course. good call—I hadn’t even considered pre-recorded MIDI clips, but that’s definitely a good option if you don’t need everything to be super customized like I do.

[selig]

the best option right now is, as selig suggests, play it yourself. I’m not a great keyboardist, but if I play stuff by hand and quantize it to the nearest appropriate note length, it sounds much more realistic—just make sure you’re only quantizing to 50 or 75 percent. the thing about this method is that you at least have to have enough of a groove in your hands to make it sound good, or you’ll end up having to do a lot of editing anyway.

To add to this, if you're not a drummer you can slow down the tempo by as much as half, and even if you have to play each part one at a time, you'll get much better/believable results. IMO there's just something about playing a part out in long form that creates more of the "human" feel, remembering that the performances you're trying to emulate were also performed/recorded this way in most cases.

[Bjørn Felle]

i am currently considering a set of midi drum pads for this reason. has anyone used one with Reason? I am looking specifically at this one:

https://www.gear4music.com/Drums-and-Pe ... 4music/O5Y

[xboix]

i am currently considering a set of midi drum pads for this reason. has anyone used one with Reason? I am looking specifically at this one:

https://www.gear4music.com/Drums-and-Pe ... 4music/O5Y

TBH you'd be better off learning finger drumming on one of the many excellent MIDI control surfaces and with the help of Youtube. If you want to learn drumming with drumsticks you need to either spend lots of money on a "proper" electronic kit or, even better, buy a proper drum kit and get yourself some lessons. You'll get frustrated with DD70 level of stuff.

[Bjørn Felle]

i am currently considering a set of midi drum pads for this reason. has anyone used one with Reason? I am looking specifically at this one:

https://www.gear4music.com/Drums-and-Pe ... 4music/O5Y

TBH you'd be better off learning finger drumming on one of the many excellent MIDI control surfaces and with the help of Youtube. If you want to learn drumming with drumsticks you need to either spend lots of money on a "proper" electronic kit or, even better, buy a proper drum kit and get yourself some lessons. You'll get frustrated with DD70 level of stuff.

thanks man, could you elaborate on the frustrations? i am not looking to learn to play drums, only get a more natural input so transferring to a real kit isnt important, but if the drum pad sets are themselves frustrating to use then this would be a problem

[xboix]

TBH you'd be better off learning finger drumming on one of the many excellent MIDI control surfaces and with the help of Youtube. If you want to learn drumming with drumsticks you need to either spend lots of money on a "proper" electronic kit or, even better, buy a proper drum kit and get yourself some lessons. You'll get frustrated with DD70 level of stuff.

thanks man, could you elaborate on the frustrations? i am not looking to learn to play drums, only get a more natural input so transferring to a real kit isnt important, but if the drum pad sets are themselves frustrating to use then this would be a problem

There is virtually no bounce or feel from the pads so it's like hitting blocks of wood. Much harder to play something like that with sticks. You'll end up playing them with your hands and wondering why you bought it. Normally I'd suggest going to a shop to try one but, ah, LOCKDOWN!

[Bjørn Felle]

thanks man, could you elaborate on the frustrations? i am not looking to learn to play drums, only get a more natural input so transferring to a real kit isnt important, but if the drum pad sets are themselves frustrating to use then this would be a problem

There is virtually no bounce or feel from the pads so it's like hitting blocks of wood. Much harder to play something like that with sticks. You'll end up playing them with your hands and wondering why you bought it. Normally I'd suggest going to a shop to try one but, ah, LOCKDOWN!

that’s really helpful, thanks man. I can see how that could be an issue. I actually downloaded a MIDI controller app for my ipad and it uses the accelerometer to measure velocity, and it actually works very well. I do have several physical controllers but only my little Akai keyboard has pads on, and there are only four plus it’s wired into my live rig flight case. So using the iPad is a great compromise. I would love one of those crazy Roland midi drum kits but it is way out of my price range. This will do for now, thanks man you saved me some money! hopefully this will help OP too.