Making Drums Dirtier

[digitalboy2020]

I've got a good loop that i've programed using fairly 'realistic' drum sounds. It just sounds a little clean and sterile. Anyone got any techniques they'd like to share for 'dirtying' the sound up a little bit?

[phunkdust]

there are a couple of nice granualisers and dirtifiers out there

try a little overdrive/distortion
mda RePsycho! can do some cool pitch warping - tweak to get a lofi effect
BJ LoFi (Bit remover)

screw around with compression with very low attack and decay times

[Tax Invoice]

I almost always run drums through either overdrive or distortion plug-ins. These can be used very subtly to good effect.

[Tax Invoice]

Also give 'em a bit of a tweak with a comb-filter!

[Xelpmok]

apart from whats been mentioned already (mmm overdrive)

*lower the sampling frequency and/or bit rate
*izotope vinyl plugin, for that rare groove sound :)

[Xelpmok]

and if you wanna get your drums realy really dirty, whip out your old drum kit and piss on it.

[digitalboy2020]

:lol:


Cheers for the suggestions. I'll be trying them when i get home. Keep 'em coming though if you've got more.

I think we need to get more of these type of 'Production Tips n Tricks' kind of threads going in here so if anyone has any others - post em.

[polarbear]

just use the same tricks that the old boys do;

a little soft limiting to simulate tape distortion;
overdrive your console inputs to simulate mic distortion.
low bit rate (8bit, 15kHz) to simulate 80's samplers.

or....just sample them off vinyl.

[phunkdust]

hrm i should write a drum loop LowFi-Izer just for this purpose :P

[polarbear]

> http://www.digidesign.com/digizine/mixing/

[driload]

when we record guitars in the studio we run a channel from the DI BOX of course but almost always mic up the cabinet too, depending on the client and their style of music

ive used similar effects on mic'ing up a drum kit, routing the mix out to a guitar amp/speaker combo and mic'ing that up


you can do similar at home. mix your drum loops down and play them out through some dirty old speakers, some ancient amp, play it LOUD and let the amp push for its headroom, even better if you have a practice amp for guitar


believe it or not but a lot of the HUGE distorted guitar riffs youve heard in rock music the last decade or two have been recorded through TINY tiny practice amps and mic'd up with something as simple as an SM57... yes a 57


also, take aleaf from Boards Of Canada's book and record down to a variety of tape mediums, play though a bunch of old and shithouse tape machines and saturate (ie, play very loud) the return mix.


also i tend to favour the Magneto plugin on some drum tracks, but its very easy to overuse this plugin and over-compress/add hiss to a dynamic drum sound


as someone mentioned try lowering bitrate as well.... get that SP12000 sampler sound by going down to 12 bit


my best advice is dont always rely on plug-ins. a mic and a speaker can be your friend. also.... back in my DNB days a lot of us were mixing down to stereo VCR tapes to get some tape saturation (better then cassette but of course less then 2")

ps, cakewalk's Ampsim isnt too bad either, but its no POD

[phunkdust]

Hrm, I should try that VCR trick. Thanx driload!

[meandarkdirty]

Put it on tape and then take it back to digital. It works.

[driload]

Originally posted by meandarkdirty
Put it on tape and then take it back to digital. It works.


where did you get your avatar from man?

i see the same one on the music player forums.... any connection?

[Phibbler]

Quadrafuzz.
BitCrusher.
Magneto.

Three words that maketh the filth drum.

But if you dont have these vst plug ins....

Crap speakers, and a good mic, vcr recording, cassete tape recording, dictaphone ,( if you are really keen)
high pass filter boxes with resonace set high and cut off v. low( for the big beat sound )
Stomp boxes (especially the compresser/sustainer one by boss, Sheer magnificnce.)

Any out board fx can be used in very subtle amounts to create dirt sounds reverbs too. a Short short doubling verb gives it ounces of large sound but will need taming afterwards.

[kaossproject]

Think Dirty.......?

[EnglishBob]

cut the sample rate by a half or three quarters...