Something I noticed about drum production...

[chimp_spanner]

In a lot of videos, especially from guys like ADSR focusing on modern dance and EDM genres, hardly any of them seem to use drum plugins. They do all their beats in the arrange window using samples. I tried it out last night and it does actually lend itself to a different way of working. I was getting a lot more variation out of my top loops (very easy to chuck in a random hat sound here and there or reverse a single hit, time stretch, pitch shift, etc).

Obvious downsides are that you end up with a lot of events and selecting/editing becomes a little difficult. You also can't do stuff like change from straight to shuffle. But I guess you could bounce your layers down and then quantise the hit points later.

Anyway it's just a silly little thing; I'd noticed more and more people working this way and I tried it out for myself and waddayaknow, it does make sense. Way more than I thought it would! Nice to break out of the MIDI trap sometimes.

[selig]

Wow, didn't realize other folks worked this way. I started doing this many years ago, as soon as pro tools allowed audio tracks that followed bars/beats. As an audio editor guy and as there were not many decent drum machine plugins at the time I found it very helpful. It definitely takes you down a different path IMO. Since working with Reason I've not used that technique much-need to get back into it again for some inspiration!


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[Kenni]

I've always used NN19's for my one shots (or NNXT) and then sequence my drums directly in the piano roll. With the bounce to audio in Reason 9, it's even more simple to do specific effects here and there.

To me, drum computers are just too tedious and inflexible, while sequencing my stuff directly leaves me with total control of both the sequencing instead of drum patterns and also in line effects on each one shot drum sample. And with bus channels, redrum and Kong is even more useless to me.

Only thing I've ever used redrum for was for triggering stuff. But that rarely happens.

[challism]

I agree, it's a great way to work.

I like this tutorial:

[selig]

I've always used NN19's for my one shots (or NNXT) and then sequence my drums directly in the piano roll. With the bounce to audio in Reason 9, it's even more simple to do specific effects here and there.

To me, drum computers are just too tedious and inflexible, while sequencing my stuff directly leaves me with total control of both the sequencing instead of drum patterns and also in line effects on each one shot drum sample. And with bus channels, redrum and Kong is even more useless to me.

Only thing I've ever used redrum for was for triggering stuff. But that rarely happens.

There are still advantages to drum machines IMO, such as a quick way to get a pattern going that doesn't need to be copy/pasted to fill an infinite amount of time. Samplers also have the advantage of quicker dynamics and alternate samples etc.

But pasting audio directly into an audio track has it's own appeal, allowing you to substitute different samples for specific hits, quickly reverse or pitch a single sample, and a few other 'tricks' that just naturally happen when pasting audio files instead of midi notes or drum patterns.

Each have their advantages, and I find myself using each from time to time - but it's definitely been a while since I really dug into pasting audio files, and I'm going to have to try it again to "mix things up" mentally speaking.

Thanks chimp for bringing this up!


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[Creativemind]

Excellent video that.

Wouldn't it be better though to isolate which parts of the 3 kick drums he used by shortening the clips and then bouncing down the 3 parts into one? could use the new bounce in place feature, although (if it makes any difference) you can only bounce to a stereo wav in Reason can't you.

You would probably also need to make 4 block set ups for the progression of the drums too..i.e - kick only, then kick / snare etc

[Loque]

I really like sequencing my drums, because i can control the length of the sample and can easily timestretch them. But when it comes to automation of e. g. ADSR you are lost.

[Captain Boyfriend]

The new bounce to track feature is awesome for this. Sometimes I'll come up with a MIDI sequence and immediately print it, then work with the audio samples. It's a nice way to work, already pretty familiar to those with live instrument recording experience. It's all in the mind, but for some reason it's only when I print MIDI tracks to audio that I feel like they're "real."

[aisling]

While I used to work like this in digital performer (many, many years ago circa reason ver1), I had not thought to produce like this in reason. I was inspired and began messing around with a beat that morphed into a potential track. What i notice is that reason is choking hard to handle my edits, cuts, copy's, paste, etc....spinning ball for about a minute with each mouse click. I have about 12 drum sounds and 5 synths (1 stock reason, 4 RE's) on a SSD quad core 2012 mac mini with 16 gigs of ram. The irony is that it was refreshing to change up my production style.

[Galaxy]

While I used to work like this in digital performer (many, many years ago circa reason ver1), I had not thought to produce like this in reason. I was inspired and began messing around with a beat that morphed into a potential track. What i notice is that reason is choking hard to handle my edits, cuts, copy's, paste, etc....spinning ball for about a minute with each mouse click. I have about 12 drum sounds and 5 synths (1 stock reason, 4 RE's) on a SSD quad core 2012 mac mini with 16 gigs of ram. The irony is that it was refreshing to change up my production style.

So you never said? Are you using samples in the sequencer or are your talking about midi notes in the sequencer for drum hits?

[aisling]

While I used to work like this in digital performer (many, many years ago circa reason ver1), I had not thought to produce like this in reason. I was inspired and began messing around with a beat that morphed into a potential track. What i notice is that reason is choking hard to handle my edits, cuts, copy's, paste, etc....spinning ball for about a minute with each mouse click. I have about 12 drum sounds and 5 synths (1 stock reason, 4 RE's) on a SSD quad core 2012 mac mini with 16 gigs of ram. The irony is that it was refreshing to change up my production style.

So you never said? Are you using samples in the sequencer or are your talking about midi notes in the sequencer for drum hits?

I am using samples in the sequencer.