YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Mixing Pro Modern Drums: Blending Sampled Drums with Acoustic Drums | Reverb Recording Techniques

Mixing Pro Modern Drums: Blending Sampled Drums with Acoustic Drums | Reverb Recording Techniques — Transcript

by Reverb · 4,561 words · 618 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00hey what's up everybody i am jay moss
0:01with reverb comm and today we're gonna
0:03talk about blending drum samples with
0:06live drums there's actually a lot to
0:08this and it's a really common thing used
0:10on modern records however there's a lot
0:12of pitfalls that you could fall into it
0:13you're not careful it takes a little bit
0:15of nuance a little bit of understanding
0:16and I'm gonna help demystify that stuff
0:19today oh my god this is insane this is
0:22not a drill
0:23that just happened I just got a message
0:26about how to blend drum samples with
0:28real drums while I'm making a video Wow
0:33the question he asked is one of my main
0:35takeaways it might be the biggest
0:36takeaway so I want you to watch this
0:38video I'm gonna show you what to avoid
0:39and how you can really pull a lot of
0:42great benefits out of blending but doing
0:44it the right way so there's two main
0:46ways I like to do this one of the ways
0:48is I like to take my audio and generate
0:50MIDI and pull from a drum sample library
0:52and blend that in the other way I like
0:54to do it is by using a plug-in that
0:55analyzes the audio in real time and lets
0:58you blend in samples that way both other
0:59plusses and minuses but both are totally
1:01viable so let's check them out now
1:02alright so I want to show you two
1:04different ways where we can take live
1:06drums and incorporate samples in with
1:08them in this particular instance I'm
1:10going to try to do it s transparently as
1:12possible
1:12I think the composition calls for it I
1:14love this band it's like super rock and
1:16roll I think honesty and the samples if
1:20they were to forward would probably come
1:22across a little disingenuous that's
1:24definitely something I want to avoid so
1:25in this particular instance I'm gonna
1:26use a drum sample library that we are
1:29going to trigger with MIDI the library
1:31I'm gonna use unsurprisingly is my own
1:33not just because it's my own but also
1:34because I think it is a really good fit
1:37for this mix when I was mixing this
1:38record I was trying out all kinds of
1:40stuff so I promise you we landed on
1:42using my own library for this very
1:45organically because it was the right fit
1:47for the record so let's check that out
1:48now basically what we're gonna do is
1:49we're gonna look at the top snare track
1:51we're gonna listen to it I'm gonna talk
1:52about it and I'm gonna show you how we
1:54can derive what we need in order to
1:56create this blend all right let's dig in
1:59so this is my snare track I want to take
2:01a quick look at it and I want to talk
2:02about it because as mixing engineers
2:04maybe you're tracking things yourself
2:06when you have total creative control or
2:07maybe you're receiving files from
2:09someone else a different engineer who
2:11has
2:11their own opinions thanks filter through
2:13their own ears and maybe they would do
2:14things in ways that you wouldn't
2:16particularly do or maybe you would but
2:17you're gonna be dealing with that output
2:19from other people so what I want to draw
2:21your attention to is this line right
2:23here do you see how even that is that
2:26means that the engineer chose to apply a
2:29healthy amount of limiting and
2:30saturation I don't hear any digital
2:32artifacts or any issues like that I
2:34really do believe that this was a
2:35creative choice and it does sound like
2:37kind of cool and junky but one thing it
2:40does do that makes it trickier for the
2:43mixing engineer not impossible of course
2:44but just a little bit trickier is that
2:47it creates a smaller gap between the
2:49tops of our transients and the tops of
2:51our bleed right this ratio is often
2:54higher where maybe my snare is up here
2:56and my bleeds all the way down here that
2:58normally would give me a little bit more
2:59separation between the top of my attack
3:02and me dealing with some of these lower
3:04line and honestly not overly Pleasant
3:06issues the good news is we are more than
3:08equipped to deal with this this is a
3:09common problem so I thought it was a
3:11really great example to show you kind of
3:13like how do we deal with an imperfect
3:15situation because honestly as we start
3:16mixing more and more we're gonna run
3:18into unusual situations this being one
3:20of them
3:21but we can totally handle it let's do
3:22this alright so let's solo this top
3:24snare we're gonna listen to this totally
3:26raw this is just how I got the files so
3:37what do I think I think it's got a
3:38pretty cool crack I think it does have a
3:40lot of bleed maybe like one or two
3:42mid-range issues I want to clean up but
3:43overall I think it fits the vibe of the
3:45song so let's do that let's clean up
3:47this mid-range issue real quick before
3:49we get into it I just want to make the
3:51the real snare sound a little better
3:54this is the EQ I used I'll show you why
3:56this joke down here this is just Rumble
3:58this is just cymbal hits we don't need
4:00either of those things and then I
4:01searched around and I found since this
4:03is a higher tuned snare I found that my
4:05mid-range cut which a lot of times lives
4:07down around like 400 500 it was just a
4:10little higher on this one alright so
4:11let's listen to the snare real quick I'm
4:13gonna have the EQ on then I'll turn it
4:14off then I'll put it back on just you
4:15can get an idea for what my thought
4:17process was surrounding this
4:21[Music]
4:29cool so I think that sounds a lot better
4:31of course we still have a lot of symbol
4:33bleed to deal with so of course we're
4:35gonna grab a gate and the point of this
4:37is to hear more of this and less or none
4:40of this we're gonna try to attenuate
4:41that symbol bleed in a natural way that
4:43doesn't sound too weird here's the thing
4:45though when we have a snare with this
4:47much bleed you can gate all you want but
4:50when that gate opens up all of a sudden
4:52so yes in between the snare hits we're
4:56gonna take away that cymbal bleed it's
4:57gonna clean up the center it's gonna
4:59help the vocal sit the center is such an
5:01important part of our mix we don't want
5:02to clutter it up with that stuff however
5:03we're still gonna have to deal with that
5:05splash every time that gate opens up and
5:06I'm gonna show you that right now
5:14[Music]
5:17so this right here is where blending
5:19samples is going to be really really
5:21cool because if we pick the right sample
5:23one that complements the composition
5:24that sample has no bleed and as we blend
5:27them together what we're effectively
5:28doing is we're raising our transient
5:30volume up above that bleed that's really
5:33important because we don't need no bleed
5:35but it's nice to have a greater distance
5:37between the top of our transient and our
5:39cymbal bleed and that's what we're gonna
5:40do here by supplementing that sample
5:42alright so first thing is we need a
5:43sample and as I said before I decided to
5:45choose my own library here again of
5:47course I love it it's my library but I
5:49know it so well and I knew we could find
5:51this big deep seven by fourteen kind of
5:55garage sounding snare that I think would
5:56just be such a good fit for this let's
5:58check it out so that snare obviously has
6:03that sort of big rock vibe and a lot of
6:05that has to do with the fact that I
6:06totally boosted the room mics here I
6:08think boosting the room acts when you're
6:10blending samples in a way where you want
6:12it to be more transparent and organic is
6:13a really good way to go check this out
6:15let me play this sample with the room
6:17mics muted it still sounds great but it
6:22doesn't sound as expansive and huge as
6:24I'd like so I'm gonna go back here I'm
6:26gonna turn these rooms back on let's hit
6:28it one more time yeah that just feels
6:31like it's gonna blend in with the room
6:33mics and the overheads
6:34much better all right so you probably
6:35thinking cool that's great how do I get
6:37my snare drum to make that sample snare
6:40drum do its thing
6:41well the way we're gonna do that is
6:42we're gonna analyze the snare drum
6:43there's a couple ways we can do it first
6:45I'm gonna show you the way I do it in
6:46Cubase and I'm gonna show you a
6:47secondary way that you could do on any
6:48DAW so in Cubase as we all know I'm a
6:51big fan we just double click our snare
6:53it's gonna bring up this window we go
6:56over here we say hit points and then we
6:58just adjust this threshold until we
7:00don't want all this stuff if we bring it
7:02too low we're gonna get a hit point on
7:04all the cymbal bleed and we definitely
7:06don't want that we only want the tops of
7:08the snares we don't want to miss any
7:09right like we don't want that we want
7:11that after that we're gonna hit create
7:14many notes I like dynamic velocity is
7:16it's going to vary the MIDI based on the
7:19performance I think that's really
7:21important to keep your stuff sounding
7:23more and more natural I happen to know
7:24that d1 is the note value used to
7:27trigger the snare in my library other
7:29libraries may vary you just have to look
7:31at the key map to figure out which one
7:32you're supposed to use I did a quick
7:34scan through my session and realize that
7:36my smallest note value is a sixteenth
7:37note so I set my MIDI note length two
7:40sixteenth notes for that reason and my
7:42destination could have been the first
7:44selected track below it it could have
7:45been right to the clipboard but I'm just
7:47gonna make a new MIDI track and I'm
7:48gonna hit OK boom if we go down to the
7:52bottom of the session here what do we
7:54have
7:56presto we just created MIDI from our
8:00real snare track it was that fast it was
8:02that easy there's one last step now that
8:05we've created MIDI we have to tell it
8:06where does it go we go over here to
8:08outputs and we say go to contact that's
8:11where my drum sample library lives check
8:13this out solo I like to rename this
8:15stuff we'll just say
8:17snare MIDI sure nice and creative right
8:20okay so let's bring up the library we've
8:23got our snare MIDI so load and let's hit
8:25play cool totally works right away we're
8:31hearing the fact that it's not as loud
8:33as it should be doesn't have that big
8:34crack so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna
8:36select all of this MIDI right and I'm
8:39just gonna pull all the velocities up
8:41now you see there is still some dynamics
8:44incorporated in the velocities I find
8:47for heavy hitting
8:48stuff feel free to come right close to
8:50the top yes you can leave some of these
8:51dynamics in there they will make a
8:53difference particularly in 16th note
8:55passages but for big rock stuff I find
8:57everything lives best right up in here
9:00now of course for more nuanced stuff
9:02more of an indie rock composition some
9:04sort of ballad or whatever it was you
9:05might choose to do something totally
9:07different so I don't necessarily
9:08recommend setting your MIDI velocities
9:10all the way up close to the top for
9:11every composition type okay awesome so
9:13now that we've generated our MIDI here
9:16what I like to do is just take this
9:17whole track drag it all the way up I
9:19like to keep it like signals together so
9:21I'm just gonna pull this up here and I'm
9:23gonna put it right next to our snare
9:25track that just sort of helps me keep
9:27organized boom there we go now we could
9:30move on from here but I want to show you
9:32one more quick way to generate MIDI from
9:35your snare or any other drum source
9:37provided you're having difficulty doing
9:40this in your digital audio workstation
9:42there's sort of like a platform agnostic
9:44way to do this and that's by using a
9:46plug-in called trigger okay so here we
9:49go here is an instance of trigger as you
9:51can see I've got it on my snare top and
9:53all we're gonna do is adjust our detail
9:56so that we're getting the tops of all of
9:58our snares but we don't want to go so
10:00low that we start getting bleed and
10:01stuff like that once again we just want
10:03to accurately grab the information that
10:05we want to make MIDI from this is just
10:07like how we did the hip points except
10:09we're using a third-party plugin to do
10:11it let's check it out
10:19[Music]
10:29okay this looks really good to me from
10:31what I can see it's just grabbing the
10:34snares that we want it's not grabbing
10:35anything else so what you want to do is
10:38you want to clear your buffer down here
10:40you want to make sure that this is empty
10:42and then it's really simple we zoom out
10:44let's drag this down for a second we're
10:47gonna go to the beginning of our song if
10:49you pull this back up now all we have to
10:51do is just let this play all the way
10:53through let's do that right now okay so
10:58now that that is done let's move trigger
11:00out of the way a little bit let's go
11:02ahead we're gonna add a track we're
11:04gonna add a MIDI track we'll just call
11:06this snare MIDI from a trigger whatever
11:12you can name it anything you like this
11:13is the cool part so just literally where
11:15it says drag on track you look at this
11:17button right here and you drag on the
11:20track there is one weird thing and if
11:22anyone knows how to fix this please let
11:23me know I noticed that when I drag on
11:25track it has a tendency to maybe not go
11:27where I dragged it but there's a really
11:29easy fix here just find your first snare
11:31drum move your cursor to the beginning
11:33of where your first MIDI snare drum
11:35would be you can drag this you can drag
11:38it manually in Cubase you can hit
11:39control al boom it goes right to where
11:42you need it
11:42alright so now you've got two different
11:43ways we can take a real snare drum and
11:45convert it into MIDI the next thing
11:47we're gonna do is we're gonna check the
11:49phase when it comes to drums or any
11:51multi mic source but particularly with
11:53drums phase is everything and I can't
11:55stress this enough because if your phase
11:57isn't right no amount of EQ in the world
11:59is gonna save you so let's take a look
12:00at that right now it's super easy but
12:02it's super super important ok just to
12:04exemplify how important phase is I want
12:07you to listen to these drums right now
12:08before I put the sample in and this is
12:10all natural snare that you're gonna hear
12:12we're gonna hear it in phase because it
12:14was recorded appropriately and recorded
12:16in phase but I'm gonna make the top
12:17snare out of phase just so you can get a
12:19vibe for what out of phase drums sound
12:22like it's very important to acquaint
12:24yourself with this
12:26[Music]
12:29cool sounds good now let me open up my
12:32edit window let me flip this face this
12:34is gonna put it out of phase listen to
12:36how much smaller and how much depth we
12:39lose out of our snare drum wow that
12:46sounds terrible let's flip it back okay
12:53so hopefully you notice that when I flip
12:54the snare out of phase it got really
12:56really small and it lost all its low-end
12:58and the moment I flipped it back it got
13:00way way better so that exact same thing
13:02that we heard with the real drums can
13:04happen when you add samples too so
13:06that's why it's so so important that we
13:08get this right so I know two things for
13:09sure my real drums are in phase and I
13:11know my drum sample libraries in phase
13:13however what I don't know is my drum
13:16sample library in phase with my real
13:19drums and that's what we want to check
13:20now I think the easiest way to get that
13:22done is to solo your snare top and then
13:24come in here and solo your snare top
13:26inside the drum sample library this will
13:28give us a really clear image between the
13:30top head of our real snare and the top
13:32head of the snare and our drum sample
13:34library alright let's check it out right
13:35now okay so to me right away that sounds
13:40a little weak I wouldn't be surprised if
13:42when I flip the phase we gain a lot of
13:44body back let's hear that wow that's a
13:48lot let me do that again just so you can
13:50hear it one more time here it is out of
13:52phase alright and here it is again
13:56flipping the phase on the snare top in
13:58the library yeah it just has way more
14:02low-end so since we know that we can
14:04unsolo our top snare and we can just go
14:06ahead we can flip the whole library
14:08right now because we know that while the
14:10library's in phase and our real drums
14:12are in phase they were out of phase with
14:14one another and we've just corrected
14:16that here we go let's listen to all the
14:17drums together now with our sample in
14:19and I'll mute our sample as we go and
14:22you can hear what a difference that
14:23makes
14:24[Music]
14:34Wow that's an enormous difference the
14:36sample sounds really really organic
14:38you wouldn't even know it's there but
14:40it's reinforcing our snare so much it's
14:42adding so much depth in so much body and
14:44it's not done in a plasticy cheesy way
14:47whatsoever it really blends in the last
14:49thing I want to do is I'm gonna show you
14:50the whole mix I'm gonna pull the sample
14:52out I'm gonna put it back in and I think
14:54it makes a really really positive
14:55difference all right cool let's jam the
14:57whole mix we'll start with a snare
14:59sample on and then we'll turn it off
15:09[Music]
15:18okay so let's look at the second way we
15:20can get this done and we're gonna use a
15:22totally different project this project
15:23is exceptionally metal it is
15:25exceptionally heavy I think it sounds
15:27awesome we're still using some real
15:29snare which actually in this day and age
15:31is sort of shocking so many metal
15:33records this day are either just
15:34straight programmed or fully replaced
15:36personally when possible I think there's
15:38something to having real snare blended
15:40in with the samples because each snare
15:41hit is infinitely unique it's infinitely
15:44variable and when combined with samples
15:46I think it's such a cool thing you can
15:47get it done right because it just brings
15:49more character to the record however the
15:51use of samples and the types of samples
15:53we use are going to be a lot more
15:54heavy-handed so let's jump in I'm gonna
15:56show you guys how I would approach
15:57handling blending samples with live
15:59drums in a much punchy air composition
16:01okay so let's just quickly listen to the
16:04course of this song
16:16it's cool since huge lets doesn't adjust
16:19the drums right now
16:21[Music]
16:30oh boy oh boy do I have a lot of things
16:33going on okay let me start by showing
16:34you all the real stuff first so this is
16:36my top snare awesome
16:43here are my overheads you might have
16:54just noticed that in my overheads you
16:55don't hear any kick drum that's not by
16:57accident for compositions this intricate
16:59where precision is so important
17:02sometimes we'll just deal with the kick
17:04drum later and that's what we did in
17:05this instance I actually had him play on
17:07a MIDI pad that was really quiet just to
17:09get the overheads as clean as possible
17:11because when you have a million
17:12sixteenth notes and you're trying to
17:14edit you don't want to have to rip the
17:15cymbals into all those little bits so
17:17for that reason I decided let's do the
17:19kick drum impost and lastly here are the
17:22room mics okay so while I'm using
17:28trigger in this particular situation
17:30it's sort of the one that I know the
17:31best I've sort of grown to like the best
17:33there are other options out there SPL
17:35has sound exchanger avid has sound
17:37replacer and then wave machine Labs has
17:39drum agog and actually believe it or not
17:41drum agog is the first one I ever used
17:43it really sort of opened me up to
17:44realizing how powerful sound replacement
17:47can be
17:47so there are a bunch of other options
17:49out there that I just wanted to make
17:50sure I was making you aware of will
17:51continue on with trigger now but they
17:54exist feel free to check them out one
17:55thing I want you to think about when
17:56you're mixing drums is that the snare
17:58mic is not the only place you get your
18:00snare sound from so even if we were
18:02fully replacing the closed mics which of
18:04course we aren't we would still be
18:05blending with the overheads we'd still
18:07be blending with the room mics and that
18:09actually does make a huge difference I
18:10like to blend with a close mic when
18:12possible I'm happy that I was able to do
18:14that in this particular situation but
18:15think about that while you're closed
18:17mics are of course very impactful the
18:19sound of your drums is really also
18:21guided by the microphones that are a
18:23little further away they add a lot of
18:25character and a lot of depth alright for
18:27this track I did a bit of a stack as I
18:30showed you this is my real snare and
18:33under it I've stacked three different
18:36layers of samples so this time I'm
18:38triggering directly off the audio
18:40without making MIDI in between to do
18:42that I'm using slate
18:43trigger which is my favorite plugin for
18:46this and the sample pack I'm using comes
18:48from the Terry date collection and for
18:50metal it's really really good let's
18:52listen to just this sample right now
18:57okay that's obviously very different
19:00than how we were approaching the samples
19:02in the last song it's so specific and
19:04that's another testament to making sure
19:06that we're choosing the right samples
19:07for the right compositions and while I
19:09do really like the crack of this Terry
19:12date sample I was missing a little bit
19:14of body so I went into the CLA pack and
19:16I grabbed another one the samples I'm
19:18using here do you come from the chris
19:20lord-alge e pack they are more
19:21rock-oriented but combined with the
19:23Terry date stuff we get something really
19:25cool so let's listen to this sample on
19:27its own as well so that does have a
19:33sharp attack but it's deeper it has more
19:35of a ring it's a little bit longer
19:38I think they combined really well so
19:40let's listen to those together I love
19:47hearing the snares rattle in the
19:48background I love hearing that little
19:49bit of extra ring I like things that
19:52sound like performance is and those
19:53little details really do go a long long
19:55way okay and this last sample I use is a
19:57bit of a secret weapon for me this also
19:59comes from the chris lord-alge e pack
20:01and it's just the effects print let's
20:03listen to it see how huge that sounds
20:07what I find myself doing a lot is I'll
20:09use this sample but I'll only use it
20:12during halftime parts let me show you
20:13what I mean so you can see here we have
20:15a fast passage
20:23right but every time I have a half-time
20:26passage I'm gonna bring this big snare
20:29in realistically speaking that affects
20:31print sounds awesome but if you were to
20:32put them together
20:33bop bop bop-bop-bop all in a row it
20:35would just turn into all of this noise
20:37so you really can only use it when you
20:38have the space for that decay so that's
20:40why you'll only see me put them in the
20:42halftime passages all right so let's
20:43listen to all our snares together now I
20:52mean that sounds awesome
20:54that's huge sounding and as always
20:57remember to check your phase if you
20:58don't get the phase right all of this
21:00stacking isn't gonna do you any good let
21:02me show you one other thing I do for
21:03low-level dynamics so just like how I
21:05made a separate track for the halftime
21:06parts in that huge sounding reverb send
21:09I made another track for low level
21:11dynamics often sixteenth notes or
21:13something that doesn't want to be so
21:15impactful the reason I do this is
21:16because I find it a lot easier to just
21:18make another track with totally
21:20different settings that's going to
21:21trigger the samples totally differently
21:23in this case my aim is much more nuanced
21:25I want to hear the little details in the
21:27snare let's solo this sample now
21:35obviously we can hear a lot more bottom
21:38snare it's not so impactful and it
21:40sounds pretty realistic for me though I
21:42think you can sound just a little bit
21:43more realistic that's really where the
21:46real snare comes into play this is why I
21:48love blending over just straight-up
21:50sampling now that sounds real as hell by
21:58combining the real snare along with our
22:00supernatural sampled snare along with
22:03our overheads and our room mics let's
22:04listen to this passage that's full of
22:06nuance and sixteenth notes now let's
22:14just take the real snare out and see
22:15what the difference would be
22:21it's not bad by any means but it lacks a
22:23little bit of that like infinite
22:25variability that gets me excited when I
22:26listen to records I like hearing things
22:28to be not totally identical so it just
22:30makes it more exciting for me it brings
22:31me into the mix more and it makes me
22:33have like a closer relationship with the
22:34performances which for me is really
22:35really important let's listen to
22:37everything together
22:50alright that's gonna be all for today I
22:52hope this helped you guys out try some
22:54of this stuff out try some of these
22:55techniques out I've been using for years
22:56I've been refining them for years I use
22:58them every day and I find them so so
23:00useful this is Jay Moss with reverb comm
23:02signing off see you guys next time
23:08you

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Mixing Pro Modern Drums: Blending Sampled Drums with Acoustic Drums | Reverb Recording Techniques by Reverb, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 4,561 words across 618 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.