A Modular Approach to Drum Sounds

Finding the perfect drum sound for your track can sometimes feel like the quest for the Holy Grail.  One kick has that perfect level of sub-bass, but lacks the 'smack' you're looking for.  One snare might have the perfect amount of punch, but is lacking body and weight.  And if you're like me, you probably have literally thousands of drum samples on your hard drive.  You can waste hours auditioning sounds looking for that mythical perfect drum sound when all you really want to do is make music.

One great way to avoid this problem is to take things into your own hands and create your own "Frankenstein's monster" drum sounds by combining multiple drum sounds that each have a component to the perfect sound you're imagining in your head.  Layering has always been a great way to create new sounds, but when working with drum sounds, there are some important things to remember.

• Be sure the sounds are sufficiently different.

If you're layering drum sounds with different characteristics, it's best not to select two very similar sounds with varied qualities.  In other words, try not to layer a really bassy 909 kick, with another 909 kick that has more smack to it.  While you can make this work with some clever EQing, it can introduce phasing problems and frequency mud when the shared frequencies combine.

• Be smart about EQ

Speaking of which, in the interest of keeping your sounds clean, be sure to be smart about EQing the unneeded frequencies in each layer just as you would when you're mixing a song.  If you're using a layer to add sub-bass oomph to your kick, be sure to filter out any higher and mid frequencies since these will be added by the layer you're using to add the smack/impact. Likewise, if you're using a layer to contribute to that mid-range punch, you don't really need all those low frequencies, since they're being provided by your bass layer.   

• Compressing twice as nice

The nice thing about building drum sounds this way is that each layer can have its own processing.  So you can compress with a really fast attack and long release on a layer to add sustain and body to one layer, and compress the layer you're using to add punch with a slower attack to emphasize the transient.  When you're done, applying some light to moderate compression to both sounds together via a bus can help glue together the different sounds to make it sound more like a single sound than two sounds combined.

•  Process separately

Don't stop at compression or EQ, though!  Each layer can have a completely different processing chain to help you further shape your sound.  Add some saturation or distortion to your sub kick for a harsh gabber kick, but keep the attack clean to preserve the transients that can sometimes get destroyed by distortion.  Add a little ambience to the crack of a snare to help it "smear" into the dry body portion of the sound.  Don't be afraid to get crazy with filters, glitch effects, and all other manner of more extreme effects, either!

•  Change your tune

Most drum sounds contain at least some semblance of a musical note to them.  When you're combining sounds, it's important to make sure that all the layers are tuned to the same general note.  Your ears are your best guide here, and when you hit the "sweet spot" where both layers are in tune, it should be obvious.  But if you need a little help, you may be able to get some help via a guitar tuner plug-in that detects note pitch.  This depends on how prominent the tonal characteristics are, obviously.

•  Resample your sample

Once you've got the processing and balance between both layers of your drum sound, take the time to bounce the sound out as a single sample that you can import into your sampler of choice.  You'll build a decent customized drum library in no time and save yourself a lot of work in the future.  You might also consider bouncing out the individual components.  Build a library of processed layers, so you can have, for example, a bunch of attack and punch samples, or sustain and body samples that you can freely interchange and experiment with.