[Dream] Drums - sampled? - Sound Forge

[Mark]

On 3/26/07, Joshua Tinnin put forth:
>I appreciate that. What sort of free VST plugins (to make drum sounds)
>would you recommend? Whenever I search, I come up with so many that I
>don't really know where to start.

That I can't answer.  I don't use softsynths to make trance.  I use
hardware to make ambient.  If I need drum sounds, I have a TR-808,
TR-909, and a few other antique gizmos I could use.  I also have a
hardware modular that has lots of knobs and little blinky lights and
stuff.  That's what I like.  You need to see what you like, and what
works for you.

While there are softsynths specifically designed to make drum sounds,
the subtractive synthesis is not all that complicated.  All you need
is a synth with a noise generator, a filter for the noise, an
oscillator, a couple of VCA's, and a few envelopes.  A ring mod,
frequency shifter, or some other thingamabob that does multiplication
can be useful in making bells and cymbals.  You can even put the same
or different synths on different tracks in a DAW, or mix synths with
samples, etc. and then mix the results.

You might find these articles helpful:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Feb02/articles/synthsecrets0202.asp?print=yes&session=0fd3a36acaa7836d26305a3c3922f329

http://www.analoguesque.com/vintsynthesis.htm


Also, for an entertaining collection of Flash simulations of vintage
drum machines, check out the Virtual Drum Machines at Audio
Playground:

http://www.keyboardmuseum.com/d_machines/vdrums.html

OK, not all the knobs and stuff work, but it's still loads of fun!!


Anyway, it all depends on your perspective.  As others have said
there is a massive plethora of drum sounds on the internet.  For some
people, auditioning sounds until they find ones they like is worth
their time, for others, making the sounds they want is a more direct
path.  It's up to you.  If all you want is a psy-trance kick, taking
one from a psy-trance track might be the easiest way to get started.

>I agree that a lot of trance drums sound the same. I'd like to avoid
>that, but in the meantime I do need something more solid, particularly
>the kick.

One way to make kicks sound more solid is to use a
compressor/limiter.  You don't have to use it as an insert on a track
(although that can be a better option to get it to fit a mix).  You
can use it on a sample, then resample the results.  You can also use
EQ, reverb, gate, and other plugins to process drum sounds in the
same way, by processing a loop or single sound and then resampling
it.  While it might not be the most flexible situation, having a set
of drum sounds you have already processed -- that you can just load
into your sampler all at once -- can save you time and reduce the CPU
usage of your DAW.