Saturday, December 05, 2009

Adding Reverb To Drum Samples

By John Gellei

Using drum samples with reverb is grossly under-utilized in today's music production. For those who do use it, a lot of it is to take the sample beyond recognition and this is incorrect usage as far best practices are concerned. Using it correctly is an art form!

When considering using this samples, make sure to specify (at least to yourself) the role that the sound is supposed to fulfill. If it's for a single sound, you run the risk of making the other drum samples take a backseat to the reverb of this one instance. So if it's a noise that plays all the time and consistently, you should turn down the bleed/return.

The length of the reverb on any particular cannot really be determined on a global scale, but needs to be adjusted on a project-by-project basis for maximum effect and precision. Some people say that you can use a longer tail on the reverb for samples in a slow-tempo song, and if you're particularly aiming at one of the drum samples, it will relieve the others from needing to perform for the sake of performing. In a slow tempo song, you can either have many samples triggering all the time, back-and-forth collaboration, or strategic placements with reverb, which fills space effectively.

You can apply a single reverb patch to all of your drum samples, and there are hundreds of ways this can be achieved, and equally as many different programs and plug-ins to use for the task. With environment simulations (called Impulse Responses -or IRs for short), you can make your song sound like it was recorded at any world-famous location you have IR files for, such as the Louvre Museum if you wish. You can also apply the IR sound processing to your instrument tracks so that there is a total coherence between tracks.

Having offered these tips, though, you can really experiment as much as you want, as there are no limits in electronic music production. Whatever sounds good for you will usually work - you know your audience better than anybody else.

To really get experience and a natural knack for applying reverb effectively, you do need to try out different settings. Turn knobs, even if you're not sure of what they do. The deeper you get into it, the more knowledgeable you will get with time. Of course, there are always points at which you should read the manual and ask for advice if you're not sure why something works or doesn't work. Also, try different programs as they will have different parameters for you to modify and you may find one plug-in that just 'clicks' with your workflow and that you find really good - you may amass a collection of favorite plug-ins to use for modifying drum samples. - 2361

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