Continuing from a previous article on denverrecordingstudioblog.com, recording beats is an art form with numerous ways to make something work. Here are just a couple of my own ways of making a beat sound better.
First decide what style you are going for and plan from the start. At least have some kind of starting idea here. Is it the crisp-bumpin club banger, or the smooth riding chill beat? The ecclectic abstract beat, or the aggressive thumpin beat?
I like to stack several snares and several kicks, of different flavors and preferences, and create a total sound composite that fills a wider spectrum of sound. The drum parts become a thick crack or kick with various noticeable characteristics that hit harder, or just differently, than just one sound in the stereo field. For instance, you can find the perfect “high-end” kick to accompany a nice “low-end” 808 kick to create a more appealing knock without relying on post fx to get this kind of sound… and usually you can’t. I typically use 3-8 sounds/samples to create one snare or kick. Also, by using multiple elements to create one snare or kick, the producer or engineer can use variant panning, reverbs and equalizations, etc. on the individual elements to further evolve the drum mix. I actually do this with most of my drum mixes, even if it’s not a banger. ReCycle is one of many good softwares for this by being able to control compression, EQ, attack velocities, etc., of the same beat to make multiple versions with different sound characteristics.
Another valuable tool in beat making is the timeless art of sampling… I LOVE TO SAMPLE. Think about the fact that most “sampled” material has already been mixed and, most likely, mastered. This eliminates a lot of time on your, the producer’s, end and can be easily time-stretched to accompany an existing beat you are trying to evolve. Also, I use ProTools and enjoy moving the sample off of the regular, “on the one”, count to find nice polyrhythms for added texture that can get mixed lower/subservient to the main beat. Besides, sampling is fun and easy if you take some time to get a quality recording, preferably uncompressed, and chop it up to your needs. Tailor the sound a bit to fit your track and boom. It’s amazing how things work out sometimes. That’s all for now, stay tuned for more short articles on beat making.
— Mike
Boom, boom, shake ya boom-boom!
