Drum Break Processing (Patreon Exclusive)
Added 2025-07-04 16:00:24 +0000 UTC
After the blog post last week, I thought I would be a cool idea to show how I process breaks from start to finish. 🥷
This is essentially the template I use to take all breaks from their original tempo up to DnB speeds.
It involves:
- Pitching the break up/down into the Akai for crunch via sample rate reduction.
- Subtle clipping also by driving the 'rec level' in the Akai.
- Mono the break. Sometimes you need to pick the best side (L or R or Mix)
- Slice the break at all the hits and make a groove template.
- Test out the break quantised vs unquantised.
- Try different tunings of the break.
- Ping-pong loops can help extend the hits subtly.
- Pull in decay on ADSR to see if the break sounds better snappier.
- Resequence the break into useful dnb/jungle patterns at 168BPM.
- Transient Shaping (Pull back sustain to make the break more snappy)
- Parallel Compression (Energy/Punch)
- EQ (Brightness/Boost Bass/Remove Mud/Remove Resonances)
- Filters (Resonance Low Pass Filter Trick)
- Clipping a few db if necessary.
- Picking the best breaks out of the whole process.
I might potentially make this video avaliable on YouTube in a couple of weeks times as I think it might help me promote the 1994 breaks pack a bit. Let me know your thoughts on this. 🙏
Cheers everyone,
George ✌️