I use Superior Drummer and I have to say it is so easy to use. But I have bought expansion packs with “mixed drums” and I can never get my final mix to sound good. I’d love to see you mix a song with these pre mixed kits.
I use MIDI drums only because I have no access to a studio, nor do I really have other musicians to work with and I actually prefer working on my own. Also I live in a rather small flat and I have to be careful not to disturb the neighbours too much. With that being said - MIDI drums and Amp Sims are an absolute blessing for me because they enable me to do what I love most on this earth within my few little square meters that I have here. I was fully aware of your points 2. and 3., beeing conscious about the dynamics as well as the possibility of what is actually played. The drums have been my first real instrument as a teenager so I have at least a little experience. Furthermore the new EZ Drummer Software already comes with pre-recorded grooves from real drummers. Most of the time I use these and just edit them, shift around the accents etc. to make them sound as realistic as possible. What I do tend to fuck up and where I am absolutely guilty is the EQing and the Compression though. I feel like an idiot because I did not really think about it before you told us... Of course these drums are already processed, it's kinda obvious. I just was oblivious to that fact and like you said... I tried to treat them like I saw in multiple tutorials that actually dealt with raw drums. Now that I watched a lot of your videos I feel like it's actually still better to leave them alone completely and not use EQ or compression at all rather than overdoing it. Except of course, if you know what you're doing. Anyway I think I'm gonna give it a chance and try mixing the samples you provide. I trust your advice. Thank you for these samples and your work overall 🤘
Recording and mixing live drums is challenging, but I've come a long way since joining the frightbox recording academy I enjoy the whole process now. On that note I should start mixing midi drums more.
I used $17 Pyle Shure 57 knockoffs, one sm81 for overheads. I do have a degree in audio engineering, back in 2003. For the tracks on my TH-cam channel it's just a used 16 channel Mackie into a portastudio Tascam. Just for fun. Just a little experiment.
I am mainly a drummer but I use midi drums for my own music I write, I have practiced mixing real drums from other bands though and definitely found a lot of utility in that to aid in mixing midi drums as well as seeking out new ways to approach things that worked for midi but not for real drums, very fun to dive into and enhances a song dramatically to have good sounding drums of course
Supergood advice Bobby! Coincidentally I am in the process of remixing drums from some old tracks with all the knowledge I've learnt from mixing live drums. The original Superior Drummer 3 tracks sounded good, but they lacked the human element, they also lacked a sense of space, and glue, especially the cymbals. By doing volume automation, keeping the midi hits at around 105 and fluctuate them, adding a verb track and a distortion track (both of which I learned in Heavy Mixing Unlocked) they sound so much better!
THX again for those clarifications Bobby. I use to struggle with mixing MIDI drums. A long time ago I learned to humanize MIDI tracks and to create them based on realistic drum patterns. But I still find It difficult to Carry out a good mix since It's difficult for me to identify at what extent MIDI drums have been processed. Sometimes I manage to get a good mix, more often not. And this irritantes me since I can not figure out the missing part of the equation. THX again for everything Bobby. THX
One of the things we have been doing lately is using superior drummer to take the live drums, map them to MIDI and get that fat, mixed superior drummer sound but with the humanized element. It works pretty well I think!
Bobby. I only do midi drums. I'm limited on my eq and compression other than parallel compress on its in aux track and some low shelfinf between 20 and 50 on kick and toms. I also blend NI studio drummer with some adictive drummer under to add to the sound.
So far I've only mixed live drums once when I first started recording/mixing and it did not go well. Lol Since then I have learned more about mixing live drums and now I have a better grasp on what should be done. Now I just need to start practicing so I'll definitely be looking into downloading some raw tracks to mix.
Great video Bobby. Do you have a past video on the actual programming of drums? Like opening the grid and adding notes. Especially on how to make the grooves sound human and not like a machine. I’ve heard you talk about not everything being at 127 (which I 100% agree with) but outside of that, tricks on not having notes always perfectly on the grid. I recently purchased EZDrummer 3 and they have made some amazing upgrades. I don’t use it for the drum sound but mainly for their new “humanization” feature on their grid editor, which is INSANELY good. Plus, the new Band Mate feature is really cool. Knowing how big of a fan of EZDrummer 2 you are, would love to see your thoughts on EZDrummer.
I'm not a professional, I play guitar and have been using MIDI drums for a long time - SD3, SSD5, GGD, Drumforge, Kontakt stuff, etc. I never worked with live drum tracks but simply because I listened to a lot of music and I rehearsed with a live drummer, I was always picky and it never occurred to me to work with unedited MIDI, especially not with 127 velocities. As a matter of fact, even on the demo videos/tracks belonging to some of the above teams' sound libraries, I scratched my head a few times because it sounds like they are smashing almost every note.
i use superior drummer 3 with expansion death darkness and i turn all compressors, halls etc off and route the single tracks into cubase Mixer and edit them there including subgroups. i think this will get me a little closer to mixing real drums 🤷♀️
Speaking of "Raw" drum sample pack, don't expect them to be actually that "raw" because the engineer in particular will pre-mix depending on the goal of that drum sample pack.
Hmmm... So does it make sense to use your "Quick EQ guide" rules when working with virtual drums? I saw that video and thought I might get a clearer mix by applying more high/low pass filtering on individual drum tracks - I didn't have time to test it yet though, but this advice seems to contradict that.
I mix live drums , but use midi drums in the writing process. But I really hate when someone sends me something that is not humanly possible , and the velocity is pegged at 127.
Same. Back when I didn't have a drummer for my band/project I kinda had to use MIDI drums. Now I just program basic rhythms at the writing stage. What I still often add to the real drums is a trigger/sample layer for the snare, if for example the real recording was too "clean" soundwise. But I will always check with our drummer of course, to see if he digs the results.
1. Do over process your midi drums and you're good to go. 2. Modify the velocities of your drums, all snares at 127 and you're dead. 3.This is not a con. Programming drums that no drummer can play is totally fine if it suits the song and it's cool. Do people say "ohh, man, that song is very realistic or do they say that song is awesome? Well, program whatever your want but it better be amazing, not realistic.
I've had an experience of mixing real drums. I ended up with completely replacing snare, kick and toms with samples xD Client was happy. Also a quick question. What do you think about timing humanization on midi? It kinda goes against modern production, but i think it can sound groovy on feels and can give some separation for kick and snare on fast parts.
i think you just have to "humanize" the timing so it doesn't sound too perfect when you hit with two hands and a kick in unison (considering you're going to flam manually anyway).
@@alrecks619 Yup. On a real performance, every multi-hit moment is a flam between the struck pieces of the kit no matter how hard you try to play it perfect. Humanization is essential to making MIDI drums sound right. Just a few percent of variation is all that's needed.
5:55 A real vocalist screaming or singing? 🤔 New challenge: Use an automated reader app, melodyne and automation to create a realistic virtual singer. Has anyone ever tried this before?
But if I wanna mix real drums I gotta deal with drummers 😂 Just kidding drummers I respect the ability and I watch some drum stuff too even though I don't play them, guitar only
I (and the rest of the world) disagree with the 3rd reason. People listens to awesome music, not realistic music. No singer can do what a vocoder does but man, some people love it and you've got plenty of songs with that super fake human voice that no one can replicate without a vocoder.
►► PRACTICE MIXING RAW DRUMS by Downloading your free Drum Multitracks:
frightboxrecordingacademy.com/real-drum-multitracks
I use Superior Drummer and I have to say it is so easy to use. But I have bought expansion packs with “mixed drums” and I can never get my final mix to sound good. I’d love to see you mix a song with these pre mixed kits.
I use MIDI drums only because I have no access to a studio, nor do I really have other musicians to work with and I actually prefer working on my own. Also I live in a rather small flat and I have to be careful not to disturb the neighbours too much.
With that being said - MIDI drums and Amp Sims are an absolute blessing for me because they enable me to do what I love most on this earth within my few little square meters that I have here.
I was fully aware of your points 2. and 3., beeing conscious about the dynamics as well as the possibility of what is actually played. The drums have been my first real instrument as a teenager so I have at least a little experience. Furthermore the new EZ Drummer Software already comes with pre-recorded grooves from real drummers. Most of the time I use these and just edit them, shift around the accents etc. to make them sound as realistic as possible.
What I do tend to fuck up and where I am absolutely guilty is the EQing and the Compression though. I feel like an idiot because I did not really think about it before you told us... Of course these drums are already processed, it's kinda obvious. I just was oblivious to that fact and like you said... I tried to treat them like I saw in multiple tutorials that actually dealt with raw drums.
Now that I watched a lot of your videos I feel like it's actually still better to leave them alone completely and not use EQ or compression at all rather than overdoing it.
Except of course, if you know what you're doing.
Anyway I think I'm gonna give it a chance and try mixing the samples you provide. I trust your advice.
Thank you for these samples and your work overall 🤘
The background is refreshing haha
Frightbox Bro going in hard on Bedroom producers. 100% on point.
That just sounds bad… “bedroom” producers? Get that bed out of your studio!
@@dougleydorite I’ve learned the art of the Bed Couch
Recording and mixing live drums is challenging, but I've come a long way since joining the frightbox recording academy I enjoy the whole process now. On that note I should start mixing midi drums more.
I used $17 Pyle Shure 57 knockoffs, one sm81 for overheads. I do have a degree in audio engineering, back in 2003. For the tracks on my TH-cam channel it's just a used 16 channel Mackie into a portastudio Tascam. Just for fun. Just a little experiment.
I am mainly a drummer but I use midi drums for my own music I write, I have practiced mixing real drums from other bands though and definitely found a lot of utility in that to aid in mixing midi drums as well as seeking out new ways to approach things that worked for midi but not for real drums, very fun to dive into and enhances a song dramatically to have good sounding drums of course
Supergood advice Bobby! Coincidentally I am in the process of remixing drums from some old tracks with all the knowledge I've learnt from mixing live drums. The original Superior Drummer 3 tracks sounded good, but they lacked the human element, they also lacked a sense of space, and glue, especially the cymbals. By doing volume automation, keeping the midi hits at around 105 and fluctuate them, adding a verb track and a distortion track (both of which I learned in Heavy Mixing Unlocked) they sound so much better!
So happy to hear that, Roy!
THX again for those clarifications Bobby. I use to struggle with mixing MIDI drums. A long time ago I learned to humanize MIDI tracks and to create them based on realistic drum patterns. But I still find It difficult to Carry out a good mix since It's difficult for me to identify at what extent MIDI drums have been processed.
Sometimes I manage to get a good mix, more often not. And this irritantes me since I can not figure out the missing part of the equation.
THX again for everything Bobby.
THX
Usually less is more with midi drums. They're pretty much mixed out of the box.
One of the things we have been doing lately is using superior drummer to take the live drums, map them to MIDI and get that fat, mixed superior drummer sound but with the humanized element. It works pretty well I think!
Bobby. I only do midi drums. I'm limited on my eq and compression other than parallel compress on its in aux track and some low shelfinf between 20 and 50 on kick and toms. I also blend NI studio drummer with some adictive drummer under to add to the sound.
So far I've only mixed live drums once when I first started recording/mixing and it did not go well. Lol Since then I have learned more about mixing live drums and now I have a better grasp on what should be done. Now I just need to start practicing so I'll definitely be looking into downloading some raw tracks to mix.
Great video Bobby. Do you have a past video on the actual programming of drums? Like opening the grid and adding notes. Especially on how to make the grooves sound human and not like a machine. I’ve heard you talk about not everything being at 127 (which I 100% agree with) but outside of that, tricks on not having notes always perfectly on the grid.
I recently purchased EZDrummer 3 and they have made some amazing upgrades. I don’t use it for the drum sound but mainly for their new “humanization” feature on their grid editor, which is INSANELY good. Plus, the new Band Mate feature is really cool. Knowing how big of a fan of EZDrummer 2 you are, would love to see your thoughts on EZDrummer.
Youre a godsend
I'm not a professional, I play guitar and have been using MIDI drums for a long time - SD3, SSD5, GGD, Drumforge, Kontakt stuff, etc. I never worked with live drum tracks but simply because I listened to a lot of music and I rehearsed with a live drummer, I was always picky and it never occurred to me to work with unedited MIDI, especially not with 127 velocities. As a matter of fact, even on the demo videos/tracks belonging to some of the above teams' sound libraries, I scratched my head a few times because it sounds like they are smashing almost every note.
i use superior drummer 3 with expansion death darkness and i turn all compressors, halls etc off and route the single tracks into cubase Mixer and edit them there including subgroups. i think this will get me a little closer to mixing real drums 🤷♀️
Is this track "Bringing Pastries to a Domino" by King Kelly? Looking it up on the band's Bandcamp lol.
Speaking of "Raw" drum sample pack, don't expect them to be actually that "raw" because the engineer in particular will pre-mix depending on the goal of that drum sample pack.
Hello There
Hmmm... So does it make sense to use your "Quick EQ guide" rules when working with virtual drums? I saw that video and thought I might get a clearer mix by applying more high/low pass filtering on individual drum tracks - I didn't have time to test it yet though, but this advice seems to contradict that.
►► Practice Mixing RAW Drums by Downloading your free Drum Multitracks:
frightboxrecordingacademy.com/real-drum-multitracks
I mix live drums , but use midi drums in the writing process. But I really hate when someone sends me something that is not humanly possible , and the velocity is pegged at 127.
Same.
Back when I didn't have a drummer for my band/project I kinda had to use MIDI drums. Now I just program basic rhythms at the writing stage.
What I still often add to the real drums is a trigger/sample layer for the snare, if for example the real recording was too "clean" soundwise. But I will always check with our drummer of course, to see if he digs the results.
1. Do over process your midi drums and you're good to go.
2. Modify the velocities of your drums, all snares at 127 and you're dead.
3.This is not a con. Programming drums that no drummer can play is totally fine if it suits the song and it's cool. Do people say "ohh, man, that song is very realistic or do they say that song is awesome? Well, program whatever your want but it better be amazing, not realistic.
Get SD3, turn on all bleed, mix.
I've had an experience of mixing real drums. I ended up with completely replacing snare, kick and toms with samples xD Client was happy. Also a quick question. What do you think about timing humanization on midi? It kinda goes against modern production, but i think it can sound groovy on feels and can give some separation for kick and snare on fast parts.
I'm a fan of adding human dynamics, but adding timing humanization usually just sounds sloppy in my experience.
i think you just have to "humanize" the timing so it doesn't sound too perfect when you hit with two hands and a kick in unison (considering you're going to flam manually anyway).
@@alrecks619 Yup. On a real performance, every multi-hit moment is a flam between the struck pieces of the kit no matter how hard you try to play it perfect. Humanization is essential to making MIDI drums sound right. Just a few percent of variation is all that's needed.
5:55 A real vocalist screaming or singing? 🤔 New challenge: Use an automated reader app, melodyne and automation to create a realistic virtual singer. Has anyone ever tried this before?
Don’t say this crap… soon you won’t be able to tell real vocals from generated AI midi vocals
But if I wanna mix real drums I gotta deal with drummers 😂
Just kidding drummers I respect the ability and I watch some drum stuff too even though I don't play them, guitar only
I (and the rest of the world) disagree with the 3rd reason. People listens to awesome music, not realistic music. No singer can do what a vocoder does but man, some people love it and you've got plenty of songs with that super fake human voice that no one can replicate without a vocoder.