Drum Samples are quite commonly used these days. This is no surprise, as there are some good software packages out there such as BFD. This and other high-quality drum sample software features extensive sampling of a wide variety of drums, in different rooms, with different sticks/mallets/brushes. I did the brush samples for the BFD FXpansion and played a plethora of sweeps and hits.
So clearly there is no problem with the individual samples within such software. They are amazingly thorough in terms of capturing great drum sounds individually. The problem is that they are only useful in a compositional sense. They are not useful in terms of a good end result. Why? Because there is no natural flow, no matter how much time you spend putting all these samples together to sound like a real performance. And the listener can tell something is amiss, even if fooled that the succession of samples constitute a real drum performance.
If you really want your music to sound professional and not to sound “canned”, then you have to have custom drum tracks performed for your song.
Make no mistake, if you use drum samples instead of a professionally recorded session drummer you will severely limit your music’s potential. How do you accomplish this on a budget? The solution lies in the use of an online session drummer.
Congratulations! If you are reading this article then you must be hip to the advantages of online drum recording, that is getting drum tracks from an online session drummer. This is the easiest, most cost-effective way to get custom drum tracks for your music.
There are many considerations when choosing an online session drummer, and the drum sounds are as important as any. The actual drum sound quality being achieved on an engineering level is extremely important.
All of the online drum recording websites have drum sound samples that can be heard. Some may be examples of a fully produced song with that particular session drummer on it. In most cases you can also hear examples of dry, unprocessed drum sounds by themselves. Be careful to compare the quality of the drum sounds being achieved by each session drummer.
While it is obviously essential that the performance (in terms of the session drummer’s playing) on your drum tracks is top-notch, a great performance can certainly be squandered if the drum sounds are not what they should be.
The quality of drum sounds are the sum of: 1)how well the drums are tuned, 2)the way the session drummer hits the drums, 3)the sound engineer’s level of expertise, and 4)the recording gear being used.
Obviously if the online session drummer is engineering his own sessions, this can translate to lame drum sounds unless the drummer is a trained sound engineer. Great mics won’t even remedy this situation if the online studio drummer is not an expert engineer.
So for great drum sounds to be achieved there must be high-level, pro mics and outboard recording gear involved –and a high level of expertise in the use of that gear.
On the other side of the coin, if drums are not properly tuned and struck in a way to provide a great tone, all the high-end recording gear and engineering expertise in the world won’t save the drum sounds from lameness.
For example, the bass drum sounds must be good. You don’t want to have drum tracks that end up with the bass drum sound being weak in some way.
Few things are worse than an overly-clicky bass drum sound, for instance. Some metal-type tracks might call for some extra articulation in the bass drum sound, and thusly perhaps some closer mic placement and/or a hard bass drum beater. But there must be sufficient bottom end to the bass drum sound, without it being too much. Yet many drum tracks suffer from an anemic bass drum sound that has been acoustically sabotaged through the stuffing of pillows and blankets into the bass drum.
Another annoying bass drum sound commonly heard is the “boingy” sound. This is when the bass drum has not been properly tuned and sounds like an empty water cooler jug.
Another important factor would be the snare drum sounds being achieved by any given online session drummer. Does the snare drum sound have great punch? Does it have enough “crack” without losing “fatness”? Certainly the snare drum sound should not be “papery”. That weakens the overall vibe of the drum tracks.
How about the toms? They should be warm and articulate. And the tom sounds should also be consistent. Toms should resonate equally, there shouldn’t be one that blatantly rings way longer than another. Nor should any two toms create a “flutter” sound when ringing together.
That can be a real problem with drum tracks.
Each drum in general should be tuned well, with no obviously nasty overtones. That doesn’t mean that the drum sounds have to be dead or completely without overtones by any means, but no headache-inducing frequencies ought to be standing out in your drum tracks.
Overall the drum sounds have to be easy for you to mix and EQ. And of course any EQing of drum tracks must be for aesthetic, stylistic purposes—NOT as an attempt to cover up bad drum sounds.
Plug-ins (which this author is not a fan of) such as Vintage Warmer should be used on drum tracks only creatively, not to “polish a turd”.
Good luck on your quest to get drum tracks from a session drummer online.
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