Drums
From DNBWiki
Drums is a collective term for bass drum, snare, high hat, rides, cymbals, shakes, toms and all kinds of percussion - in drumnbass you might also use any conceivable sound as a percussive/drum element.
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[edit] Breakbeats vs Single hits
A breakbeat (in the Drum and Bass sense) is a short section of live drumming sampled from a previously recorded track. A common source of Breakbeats seems to be old Funk records, although any source can be used.
The bar length of each Breakbeat differs depending on the source, but 1 or 2 bar lengths seem to be most common. While Breakbeats tend to consist of solo drumming without any other sounds this is not a set requirement, and we can find many examples of Breakbeats with extra musical elements.
One of the enduring debates is whether to use breakbeats or single hits. Proponents of the latter often claim their drums are more original and completely under their control and direction. Fans of working with breakbeats will defensively respond that the amount of work spent chopping, rearranging, processing and layering breaks makes their approach no less original and under their control.
It is something of a false dichotomy however, since many (most?) producers use a combination of both. Whether building a chunky beat out of hits and then layering a quantised hipass break for some flow, or laying down a chopped, fattened break and then reinforcing main kicks and snares with single hits, people approach the compromise from either direction.
[edit] Quantization
- see Quantization, Breakbeats and Groove templates for more on break grooves
- Grid thread: Do you quantise your dancefloor beats?
[edit] Layering drums
Layering individual drum hits can be used to alter the qualities of a drum sound. Effective layering of drums requires a good in-depth knowledge of frequencies, time (e.g. envelopes and dynamics), sampling, waveforms and of the parts of the drum.
[edit] The Snare Drum
Arguably the most important part of the drum kit, as it the part of the kit which holds the most character. A snare drum comprises of three components and these produce three individually identifiable sounds when struck. The components are the the 'head', the 'shell' and the 'snares'. Along with room ambience, these sounds together make up the overall 'Timbre' of the sound.
- Head - The skin or plastic which is stretched over the drum, and the part the drummer hits, producing the earliest sound or attack. This is what creates the intial snap (around 1kHz) and thump(around 200hz) of the snare.
- Shell - The main metal or wooden body of the drum which provides resonance, often defined by a metallic 'ringing' quality existing between 300hz-900hz.
- Snares - Wires which are placed on the bottom of the drum and rattle when the drum is hit giving the distinct snare sound. The rattle usually exists at a high frequency above 1kHz and can sometimes be described as fuzz.
It is quite usual to take the snap, the thump, the metallic ring and the fuzz each from completely different drum hits. By carefully selecting snare sounds to layer, and the use of filters and envelopes to control each individual part, any snare sound imaginable can be created.
[edit] How to layer guide
Add information on layering, filtering and envelopes here
[edit] Layering of alternative sounds
- Claps - can be used as an alternative source to add snap to a snare.
- Filtered Pink Noise - Can be used on the intial attack to add a hi-fidelity snap, or alternatively, when used carefully to add a higher frequency range to the rattle/fuzz. Useful for brightening up grungy old vintage hits.
[edit] Processing drums
[edit] Arranging drums
[edit] Grid Threads
