Another couple tips to give your drum tracks more style is to introduce a filter.Basically, you need two instances of the same audio file, so start by either duplicating your audio track or creating a stereo aux send. While leaving the original track as it is, put a bandpass filter on the secondary audio track or the aux track. Find a frequency that adds a characteristic color to the regular sound – snares and hi hats are always good to mess with because the high frequencies are so perceivable to hearing. As the new frequency pops out of the mix, adjust the levels to your liking – maybe add a compressor to keep your levels under control. Now as the track plays, you can make subtle adjustments to the filter settings to add some variance to your audio. Try boosting and cutting the resonance and adjusting the filter frequency throughout the song. Adding a pan-oscillator also works wonders to give your texture-track a more “swimming” character while the original audio holds the foundation.
Note – If you are using an audio track as your secondary track instead of an aux track, you will need to have a bypassed instance of the filter plug-in on the main audio track to avoid unwanted phase issues.
Need a fade out? Why use the volume knob when the filter cutoff works with more style? Add a high-pass filter and use the frequency cut-off to fade-out your track – progressively cutting out the high-end.
Experiment with various settings and voila! Your dusty drum tracks have modern styles.