GUIDE TO PROGRAMMING DRUMS

Piranha Music
Nov 24, 2020
3 min read

Updated: Jan 27, 2021

Getting live drums for your next production is not the simplest thing ever. It requires a good drummer, tons of expensive equipment including a full kit, a studio and not to mention a whole set of mics which can get fairly expensive. This is where programmed drums come to the rescue and done right, they can sound damn good!

I have a certain protocol I tend to follow when it comes to getting your drums sounding as realistic and believeable as possible. Here goes :

Start With a MIDI Loop :

This can seem a bit like cheating but once you get past that mental barrier you’ll understand how important this is. If you’re working on Logic, just use it’s in-built ‘Drummer’ function to get a groove thats closest to what you want. You can subsequently easily convert this into MIDI by simply dragging the drummer track onto a new software track. This is going to be your starting point. Else you can also download MIDI loop packs and there are plenty of resources for that available on the internet, both paid and free (links on the bottom). Get the loop thats closest to what you want for your song but don't get too bogged down by the details just now.

Sorting Your Snare + Kick

Now that you have your basic loop in place, this part is very simple. Lets say you want the kick on 1 and on the 2& but your loop has it on 1 and 3. Simply get into the piano roll on your DAW and adjust the kick and snare as you want it. As for hi-hats and ride, I would highly reccomend getting that right in your starting loop only. Kicks and snares are easy to adjust but hi-hats and rides; these can easily get pretty crazy and you should ideally start messing with them only when you feel a bit more confident.

Fills and Extras

Getting your fills right can be tricky and to do this well one must have a basic knowledge of how drums are played. Beyond that, it can be very subjective. Some people like almost no fills at all and some people like to go full Keih Moon on their songs. Develop a good taste and do what sounds good is the best advice I can give to you for this. Dont be afraid to get help from friends who may be drummers to understand how they play fills.

Humanizing Your Track

Now that we have the drum track ready, we just need some final touches in place. This is fairly simple but not easy in any way. Your starting loop may or may not be fully quantized depending on where you aquire it from. You can easily find this out from your paino roll. You ideally want your drums to be on time but not fully quantized. Now with kicks you can quanitze them close to 100% but snares should not be exactly lined up on the beat. A little off the beat snares sound way more organic and the trick here is to randomize them manually on every songle hit. This can get very tedious but trust me, it is worth it. The other thing you want to humanize is the velocities. Again your intuition and taste are your best friends here. Get your velocities in place such that your drums flow organically. Try air paying an imaginary drum kit and you’ll be surprised how quickly you get a hang of it.

And that’s it…..this will never fully replace a good drummer recorded well but for bedroom producers this skill is a must have. Good luck with your projects and keep on rocking on!