#stevenslatedrums

I recently posted a Youtube video on how I create realistic sounding MIDI sampled metal drums.  I suggest you go and watch it, but if you prefer to read lists (like me!) then enjoy the below blog. Here is a quick breakdown of how to  program MIDI sampled metal drums: 1) Appropriate Velocity

Velocity is how hard or soft your virtual drummer hits the snare, kick, tom, etc.  Big snare hits should hit really hard but ghost notes should be soft.  Are all of your MIDI notes maxed out at 127 velocity or tiny at 42 velocity?  Treat your MIDI like how a real drummer would.  Go big during the heavy parts of a song but dial back when the drummer needs to hit softer.

Don’t forget that during blast beats, a drummer’s overall velocity is going to be lower.  Keep snares on blast beats closer to the 100 velocity mark, +/- 15.

2) Timing Randomization

No drummer’s timing is perfect; that is why perfectly quantized drums sound so fake.  Your virtual drummer should be slightly off time in some parts; especially during rolls, fills, and blast beats.  This little bit of timing variation will add SO much life to your drums.  I find that between 3-5% “humanization”, or timing randomization, can bring a drastic amount of realism to your drums. 

Make sure to test out what percentage you think is appropriate before just changing everything.  Too much will make your drums sounds sloppy and incorrect.  I like to leave down beats or big snare hits right on 100%, but any other notes will get some amount of variation.

3) Velocity Randomization

This is just as important as timing randomization.  Even if you set the timing on your virtual drummer to be slightly off, if the dynamics (aka velocity) are all the same, it will sound weird.  Even very consistent drummers have variations in how hard they hit their drums.  Even slight variation will add tons of life to your virtual drums.

This is especially important during busy parts, like fast hi-hats or blast beats.  First choose the overall appropriate range of velocities(i.e., 90-100, 100-127), set your MIDI to an average within that range, then randomize whatever is an appropriate amount, like 5-10%.  Occasionally you will have to manually edit this randomization to account for awkward random seeds, like that place one really loud note between two really quiet notes.

4) Fills, Rolls, & Double Kick

If you have ever played real drums, you will know that there are dominant and non-dominant hands/feet.  For me, I am a righty; that means that both my right hand and foot are dominant.  If I were to hit a snare drum as hard as possible with my left hand, it could never be nearly as hard as my right hand.

We must keep this is mind when writing snare rolls, tom fills, and double kick parts.  If I am writing a triplet double kick part, I should know that the 1st and 3rd kick will be with my dominant foot and the 2nd note will be with my non-dominant foot.  That means that I should make a strong 1st hit and then weaker hits after that.

I have played with variations on this concept.  One is that all notes go down in velocity.  For example a quadruplet kick pattern might have the following velocities: 125, 115, 105, 95.  This shows that kick patterns get weaker as you go.

I have also used another variation on this concept that emphasizes the dominant foot/hand.  An example of a quadruplet kick pattern would be: 125, 115, 120, 110.  This nuance accomplishes both that the overall trend is downwards, but it also demonstrate (see 3rd note velocity) that the dominant foot/hand is stronger.

5) Write How Real Drummers Play

This might be the most difficult part of non-drummers writing drum parts; what would a real drummer play?  I don’t think this is just a mater of preference or genres.  I know that I tend to write drum parts from the perspective of a guitarist, because I am a guitarist above everything else.  So I find that I write parts that a real drummer might never think of.  This can be both really cool and really awkward.

When you spend more time critically listening to albums that have great drummers, you can pick up lots of cool tips & tricks on how to write better more realistic drums.  Maybe that drum fill doesn’t need to be 32nd notes; it might sound more appropriate with 16th notes.  Maybe one longer drum fill at the end of the verse is better than two smaller drum fills halfway between the verse.

When you critically listen to real drummers, you will write better drum parts.  I like to show my drums to real drummers and get their feedback.  Keep in mind everyone is going to have preference on what they like and how they would personally write, but there is something to be said about common techniques.  If you are constantly writing drum parts out of the norm, you might consider getting critiques from a drummer friend and asking them to comment on your fills or overall grooves.