Important Drum Techniques Part 1

Today I'm diving back into the deep pit that is my Apple Notes library! 📝

I started note taking about 8 years ago as a way to try and make sense of the unbelieveable amount of information there is to learn in music production. 🪐

I'm sure you've all felt the mental strain of jumping from sound designing in a project one minute, to diving down a YouTube rabbit hole of mixing and mastering guides and then onto some random music theory and jazz composition video. 1 hour later you're completely fritzed and initially just wanted to check something to do with the synth you were using. 🤯

Note taking not only helps me better direct my time, but also helps me retain more information when the YouTube vortex eventually pulls me in! 🕳 🐇

To this day i've nearly hit 3000 notes, which I use for everything from planning projects to documenting techniques. 🥋

You could spend a lifetime note taking like this and still never have everything down but it definitly helps. I hope to one day be able to turn all of this into an App. Sort of an encyclopedia for jungle producers! 🤓🌴🚀

Anyways enought of that - a while ago I made a list of my most important drum techniques. I've been through it all and added lots of useful information to hopefully makes sense of it to everyone else.

There will also be a part 2 of this with lots more techniques! Enjoy & have a great weekend all :) 🏖

Important Drum Techniques Part 1

Accents - Emphasising particular notes or hits to make them stand out. (Velocities, Clip Gain, Hit Variations)

Swing, Micro Timing, Offset/Note Delay, Live recording unquantized, Natural Groove  - These are the 5 main things you can do to humanise you drums in terms of their note position. 

• Swing - Swing in the DAW refers to the ‘swinging’ or delaying of the offbeats. This is commonly set to 8th or 16th notes & can be adjusted to vary the amount of swing.

  For example, in a straight 16th-note pattern, each note would be evenly spaced. When you apply swing, the second note of every pair is delayed slightly, creating a bouncy, syncopated rhythm. 

• Micro Timing - Micro timing refers to making tiny, nuanced adjustments to the timing of individual hits in a drum pattern. The notes can be either slightly ahead or behind the beat.

• Offset/Note Delay - Offset refers to shifting the timing of a whole section or individual notes forward or backward in the timeline. This can be applied to entire tracks, layers, or specific notes. 

  A common technique in Hip-Hop is to have the snare slightly pushed forwards and the hi-hats slightly pushed back. 

• Live recording unquantized - Simply recording drum parts in live is a great way to add humanisation without too much effort. 

• Natural Groove - This one is specific to drum breaks but is something I talk a lot about on the channel. You can play longer sections of the breaks to preserve the original groove of the drummer. Check this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmtZ27xUUoA&t=1s 

Shuffle Notes - The shuffle in DnB & Jungle is incredibly important for the groove. This usually consists of a Hi-Hat to Ghost Snare combo. You can also use other types of percussion for a unique flavour here. (Rim shot, Snap Snare)

Ghost Notes - These are softer & often shorter versions of your drum elements which add a lot of groove. They are commonly placed on the offbeats.

Groove Elements - Hi-Hats, Rides, Shakers, Tambourine - These types of percussion often play a steady repetitive groove that supports the other elements. 

World Percussion - Bongos, Congas, Djembe, Tabla etc. - These types of percussion are suited to more complex rhythms but also work great for short embellishments.  

Tuned Percussion - Marimbas, Vibraphones - These work great for melodies & small motifs and often sound more human than synth leads & keys.

Crashes & Cymbals - Use these to add expression to the main downbeats of new sections. 

Waves Crashes, Breathes, Noise Crashes, Phasey Crashes - Use these as an alternative to crash cymbals.

Reverse Crashes, Kicks & Snares - Useful as an expression tool to lead into downbeats but also cool as a drum break FX.

Noise, Vinyl crackle, Mixer Hum - These can be layered on top of drum hits or an entire break to make them sound more human.

Cyclic Modulation on Percussion - This is repetitive type of modulation the cycles every 1,2,4,8 bars etc. It can be made using custom envelopes, LFO’s or even automation. The point though it that it repeats in a similar fashion. (Filter Cutoff, Phasers, Flangers, Reverbs, Delays, Amp, Pan, Pitch, Decay, Attack, etc.)

Rhythmic Delay - 1/8D, 1/4D - Using an automation send on your track to a rhythmic delay like this is an amazing way to spice up a repetitive drum sequence. It also works great on the drum bus!

Rhythmic Gating - This can be done with side-chaining but also tools like ShaperBox 3, Stutter FX.

Using Silence - Silence is such an important element in Drum Programming. Often you don’t want pure digital silence though, just space from too many 16th notes playing one after another. Longer kicks and snares can be used to slow down the pace of the groove. Slightly gating the hits by pulling in the ends can also add a bit of bite to them as the ever so slightly don’t run into each other. 

Drum Rolls - Great from drops & building energy and excitement. Velocity is important here.

Drum Fills - Its easy to go overboard with your fills. Focus mainly on the ends of the 4,8,16 bar sections. Add bigger fills for more important sections. These also want to subtle change throughout the track.