by Mr. Bigglesworth » 21 Jun 2014 03:19
I find it helps to have a lot to chose from. My library consists of close to 50000 samples to give you an idea, but you're not required to have that many (I haven't needed to download any for months haha), if you want some on the cheap, magazines like Computer Music will sometimes bundle a sample cd with an issue, I got pretty expansive kit with a bunch of kicks, snares, hats etc etc from an issue of Computer Music that I use pretty often now.
As for making them sound good, I'll just say that the biggest mistake a lot of people make is not keeping the levels of the samples balanced relative to eachother. In terms of both volume and EQ. For example, your snare drum really isn't gonna need much hapenning below 150 hertz, especially if you're putting it under a kick in a four on the floor beat, you should always roll off everything below 1 kHz on hi hats, crashes, rides etc. You don't listen for the low end of a hat, and it interferes with other low end frequencies, so getting rid of it won't hurt any.
Speaking of levels in terms of volume, this is pretty simple. In half time or 2 step drums, your kick and snare can be hitting around the same volume, and I'd keep hats and the likes at around -5 db as a general rule, in 4 to the floor beats it's a little different, the kick has to shine through, so the snare generally has to be a little quieter (panning it slightly can help it pop out a little more in that case).
I'm on my phone right now, so when I get the chance I'll do something proper with pictures and examples to show you what I mean.
I'm not here anymore, but if you want you can still just call me Mr. BigBagelBoggle!
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