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DRUMS

Reminder: we work on this song I wrote: Life



For this song, I used a virtual drums software called FXpansion BFD 1.5, which is rather old but still sounds good. It uses real drum samples (kicks, snares, toms, cymbals) and sounds realistic. Many settings are available and allow you to change the way your drums will sound (drum head tension, microphone positioning...). Since then, I upgraded to BFD 3, but I was still a BFD 1.5 user when I composed this song.
FXpansion - BFD 1.5
Life uses the following drum elements:
        * Kick drum
        * A rimshot snare drum sound during the quieter parts
        * A normal snare drum hit sound for louder parts
        * A hi-hat and a few crash and ride cymbal hits
I didn't use any splash cymbal or toms in the song.

Routing

The drums are routed as follows:

MIDI AND AUDIO DRUM TRACKS
Life - MIDI drums track
The MIDI track contains the drum score itself. It is linked to the audio tracks of each drum element.
Each one of the audio tracks is routed to the corresponding bus (snare drum track routed to snare drum bus, etc.)
Life - Drums buses
Bus KICK DRUM
 Bus SNARE DRUM
 Bus CYMBALS (hi-hat, crash, splash, ride)
 Bus OVERHEAD
DRUMS bus

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KICK DRUM


This is the sound of the kick drum before processing



"Kick drum" bus

On this bus, I put a parametric equalizer plugin called "TrackPlug" from Wave Arts.

This is the sound I get after applying the TrackPlug plugin


Source: kick drum audio track
Target: Drums bus
Volume: -7.5 dB
Panning: 2% left

Kick drums are usually located at the center of the stereo field. I put it slightly to the left, by 2%, so that it leaves way to the vocals in the center, even though vocals and kick drum frequencies are unlikely to interfere. You will also see that I put the snare drum slightly to the right, by 2%, for the same reason. Kick drum and snare drum are thus slightly separated, although it isn't that obvious when listening to it.
TrackPlug plugin
TrackPlug plugin

To obtain this kick drum sound, I used the following settings:

     - A high-pass filter at 30 Hz (yellow dot): below this value, frequencies become useless. On the one hand, few audio devices are able to reproduce them, they are not very musical and like all low frequencies, they demand a lot of energy to be rendered correctly, and that is to the detriment of other frequencies. So I cut them, and I did not want a song heavily loaded in low frequencies.

     - A 60 Hz band, set at -6 dB and a width of 0.25 octave (red dot). This dip frees some room for the "Saw bass" low synth, for which I boosted this particular frequency by 2 dB (see here). The low tone of the synth is thus more audible, and the kick drum sound is not affected too much.

     - A 500 Hz band, set at -6 dB and a width of 1 octave (blue dot). This dip reinforces the kick drum "boom" and suppresses some unpleasant tones. This also leaves some room for low vocal frequencies.

     - A 6.12 KHz, set at +3 dB and a width of 1 octave (green dot). Raising this frequency adds some "slamming" to the kick sound.

     - A low-pass filter at 11 KHz (turquoise dot): There was no sound beyond this frequency, so I added this filter to cut any parasite sound that would not add anything good to the kick drum sound, and could even conflict with the cymbals in the high frequencies.

     - Compressing part of the plugin: threshold set at 0 dB, ratio of 8:1 and gain set at -3 dB. The attack time is very short with a value of 0.10 ms (that will make the hit less powerful than it originally was) and the release time is set to 75 ms.

     - In the end, the EQ and the compression result in a very dry sound, a bit thinner than the sound before treatment, with a slightly lower volume due to the negative compression gain. I did not want a huge, invasive kick drum sound. Mastering plugins will later bring some thickness to it.
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SNARE DRUM


This is the snare drum sound before processing
First, the rimshot sound, then the normal hit sound



"Snare drum" bus

On this bus, I put a parametric equalizer plugin called "TrackPlug", as well as a limiter plugin called "FinalPlug", both from Wave Arts. The order in which you place the plugins matters. Here, The EQ comes first to shape the sound, then the limiter will boost the equalized signal.

This is the sound after processing with the TrackPlug and FinalPlug plugins
First the rimshot sound, then the hit sound


Source: snare drum audio track
Target: Drums bus
Volume : 0 dB
Panning: 2% right

The snare drum is usually located in the center of the stereo field. I put it slightly to the right, by 2%, so that it leaves room for the vocals. I also deported the kick drum 2% to the left. Thus, kick drum and snare drum are separated a bit, while remaining mostly centered.
TrackPlug plugin
TrackPlug plugin

These are the settings I used with the TrackPlug plugin on the snare drum:

     - A brickwall at 175 Hz in order to cut all frequencies below this value. This makes sure that no snare drum frequency will interfere with the low synths, the bass or the kick drum. It's a bit redundant because I also us high-pass filter as described below, but let's call it a double security measure.

     - A high-pass filter at 2500 Hz (green dot): lower frequencies start declining at 2500 Hz and decrease more and more below this value.

     - A "notch" 880 Hz band. This type of band completely suppresses the sound in the target frequency. I used this on a width of only 0.1 octave because it was generating an unpleasant sound. Maybe because of the drum sample used? Anyway, suppressing this precise frequency solved the problem without affecting my snare drum sound.

     - A 1.97 KHz, set at +6 dB and a width of 0.8 octave (orange dot). This adds a little smack to the snare drum sample I chose.

     - A 3.88 KHz, set at -6 dB and a width of 0.8 octave (blue dot). Decreasing this frequency does make the snare drum sound somewhat thinner if you listen to it soloed, but it makes the sound more dry and prevents from encroaching upon guitar or vocals frequency ranges. Once drowned in the mix, decreasing this frequency isn't really audible.

     - A 7.3 KHz band, set at +6 dB and a width of 0.8 octave (red dot). Boosting this frequency boosts the brightness and clarity of the snare drum, and helps standing out in the mix.

     - Another brickwall at 15 KHz to suppress all very high useless frequencies.

     - The compressor part of the plugin has a threshold set at -6 dB, a ratio of 8:1 and an important gain, around +15 dB. The attack is set to a fast 1 ms and a slow decrease of 250 ms.

     - Like the kick drum, the EQ and the compression make the snare drum sound very dry, somewhat high-pitched, and it stands out easily in the mix. The Mastering stage will boost a bit further.
FinalPlug plugin
FinalPlug plugin

These are the settings used with the plugin FinalPlug for the snare drum:

Final Plug is a commercial plugin, you will find free limiters here, as well as a compressor (that can also be used as a limiter with the appropriate settings).
A limiter will boost the sound by defining a bottom volume from which the sound will be raised up to the maximum ceiling value

     - Threshold set at -3 dB. This is a rather small compression amount, just enough to boost the sound a bit, without having to edit the bus volume itself.

     - Ceiling: set at 0.1 dB. The plugin will limit the bus volume just before reaching the maximum.


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CYMBALS

The buses of the hi-hat, the crash and the ride cymbal are all routed to the "cymbals" bus.
This is the sound of the cymbals before processing

Hi-hat


Crash


Ride


"Cymbals" bus

Each of the buses for the hi-hat, the crash cymbal and the ride cymbal include an EQ plugin, the Trackplug plugin from Wave Arts, and the Cymbals bus includes a limiter plugin, the FinalPlug from Wave Arts. So the 3 cymbals are EQed on their respective bus, before their signal is sent to the main Cymbals bus.

Source: audio tracks from the Hi-hat, the Crash cymbal and the Ride cymbal
Target: the buses of the Hi-hat, the Crash and Ride Cymbal are routed to the Cymbals bus, which in turn is routed to the Drums bus
Volume: 0 dB (Hi-hat, Crash and Ride buses), -3 dB (Cymbals bus)
Panning: 35% right (Hi-hat), 25% right (Crash), 35% left (Ride), 0% (Cymbals bus)

The stereo placement of the cymbals isn't always the same as the one I chose. You could enlarge the stereo panning by putting the Hi-hat more to the right (90 or 100% for instance), and the ride on the opposite side. Or you could on the contrary narrow the stereo panning by putting the elements closer to the center. You may also invert the panning by placing the Hi-hat on the left and the ride on the right. The audience in a concert sees the Hi-hat on their right side, whereas it is located on the left from the drummer's point of view. Also the elements are located all around the drummer from his point of view, but from the audience's point of view, the sound of the whole drumkit seems to be coming from one point in space. So depending on which point of view you wish to refer to, you may pan the element in very different positions.
Plugin TrackPlug Charley
Hi-hat TrackPlug plugin

Settings for the TrackPlug plugin on the Hi-hat bus:

This is the sound obtained after processing with the TrackPlug plugin ("hi-hat", "Crash" and "Ride" buses) and the FinalPlug plugin ("Cymbals" bus)

Hi-hat

     - A high-pass filter at 750 Hz (red dot): the lower frequencies are useless with a Hi-hat, as it's merely producing a high-pitched sound, like all cymbals.

     - a band at 10.9 KHz, with a volume of +6 dB and a width of 0.5 octave (green dot). After scanning the frequencies, I found this one was the best choice for the Hi-hat in my opinion.

     - The compressor part of the plugin is set with a threshold at -6 dB, an 8:1 ratio and a gain level of 6 dB. The attack is very short with 2 ms and the release value is 100 ms.

Plugin TrackPlug Crash
Crash TrackPlug plugin

These are the settings of the TrackPlug plugin on the Crash bus:

This is the sound obtained after processing with the TrackPlug plugin ("Hi-hat", "Crash" and "Ride" buses) and the FinalPlug plugin ("Cymbals" bus)

Crash

     - A high-pass filter at 700 Hz (red dot): the lower frequencies are useless with a Crash cymbal, as it's merely producing a high-pitched sound, like all cymbals.

     - a band at 9,87 KHz, with a volume of +3 dB and a width of 1 octave (orange dot). After scanning the frequencies, I found this one was the best choice for the Crash cymbal in my opinion.

     - The compressor part of the plugin is set with a threshold at -12 dB, a 4:1 ratio and a gain level of 3 dB. The attack is very short with 2 ms and the release value is 100 ms.

Plugin TrackPlug Ride
Ride TrackPlug plugin

These are the settings of the TrackPlug plugin on the Ride bus:

Voici le son obtenu après l'ajout du plugin TrackPlug (bus "Charley", "Crash" et "Ride") et du plugin FinalPlug (bus "Cymbales")

Ride

     - A high-pass filter at 700 Hz (red dot): the lower frequencies are useless with a Ride cymbal, as it's merely producing a high-pitched sound, like all cymbals.

     - a band at 1,49 KHz, with a volume of -2 dB and a width of 2 octaves (orange dot). I found that this frequency was conflicting with other instruments, like guitars and vocals, so I dimmed it by 2 dB, not so much that it would negatively alter the sound of the Ride cymbal.

     - a band at 13,7 KHz, with a volume of +6 dB and a width of 0.5 octave (green dot). After scanning the frequencies, I found this one was the best choice for the Ride cymbal in my opinion.

     - The compressor part of the plugin is set with a threshold at -6 dB, an 8:1 ratio and a gain of 6 dB. The attack is very short with 2 ms and the release value is 100 ms.

Plugin FinalPlug
FinalPlug plugin

These are the settings of the FinalPlug plugin on the Cymbals bus:

     - The threshold is set on -21 dB, a low value because the cymbals' volume, especially the Hi-hat's is rather low, so I need to go get them low enough for the limiter to be effective.

     - The ceiling is set on -18 dB, 3 dB above the threshold. This is a weak compression, just enough to boost the sound a bit. In order to prevent the cymbals to sound too loud, the ceiling is set on a low value

     - The overall sound of the cymbals will be boosted further by the plugins from the Drums bus and the Master bus. The limiter triggering at -18 dB is therefore not an issue, even thought it may sound weak.
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OVERHEADS

The overheads are usually a pair of microphones placed above a drumkit to record the whole instrument, and particularly the cymbals. As we are using a virtual drum plugin, we are not using real microphones, but BFD can simulate overheads.

This is the sound of the overheads before processing



"Overhead" bus

On this bus, I added a parametric equalizer plugin called "TrackPlug" from Wave Arts, as well a limiter plugin called "FinalPlug", from the same company.
This is the sound obtained after using TrackPlug


Source: overheads audio track
Target: Drums bus
Volume: -9 dB
Panning: center

With a real drumkit recording, the overheads sound comes as a support for the other microphones and adds a touch of ambiant sound. As they are placed above the drumkit, they record not only the drum sounds themselves, but also the reverberation of the room, unlike the other microphones that are placed close to the kick drum, the snare drum, etc.
Such room reverberation is indeed simulated within our drums plugin. But as I'm adding a reverb plugin on the main Drums bus at the end of the chain in order to finalize the drums sound, I thus set the Overhead bus volume relatively low (-9 dB), so that it doesn't stand out too much. I removed a lot of lows, the overhead sound will merely bring some brightness to the drums sound.
Plugin TrackPlug
TrackPlug plugin

For the overheads, I set the EQ from TrackPlug like this:

     - A parametric band at 150 Hz, with a width of 3 octaves to get an impact in all low frequencies up to the low mediums, dipped a lot down to -15 dB.

     - I haven't completely removed the low frequencies but I lowered them quite a lot. Just listen how different the raw sound and the EQed sound are. As a consequence: the kick and snare drums sound very thin through the overheads, whereas the hi-hat is much more present.

     - No compression was used on this bus.
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DRUMS BUS

On this bus, the drums sound is complete (before mastering). I add a limiter with soft settings and a reverb effect. Therefore, it sounds more spacious and more pleasant to hear.

This is the sound of the kick drum with the effects of the Drums bus


*    *    *    *    *

This is the sound of the snare drum with the effects of the Drums bus
First the rimshot sound, then the normal hit sound


*    *    *    *    *

This is the sound of the cymbals with the effects of the Drums bus
Hi-hat


Crash cymbal


Ride cymbal


This is the sound of the overheads with the effects of the Drums bus



Source: Kick drum, snare drum, cymbals and Overhead buses
Target: Master bus
Volume : -4 dB
Panning: center

FinalPlug plugin
FinalPlug plugin

These are the settings used with the FinalPlug plugin on the Drums bus:

Final Plug is a commercial plugin, you will find free limiter plugins here, as well as a compressor plugin (that can be used as a limiter with the appropriate settings).
A limiter allows to boost the sound by setting a threshold level from which the sound will be raised up to a defined ceiling value.

     - Threshold is set on -2 dB. This is a small compression, just enough to boost the sound up to the level I wanted to reach, without having to modifiy the bus volume itself.

     - Ceiling is set on -0.1 dB.



Plugin Wizooverb
Wizooverb plugin

No need to go into the settings details, all reverb plugins offer different options. I'll simply define the general characteristics:

Wizooverb is a commercial plugin, but it is no longer sold, which is a pity because it's excellent. You will find free reverb plugins here. You can find a lot of alternatives on the Internet, with various levels of quality.

     - I chose a studio reverb. The Wet sound (the reverberated sound) is on 27%, so 73% comes from the Dry sound (original unaffected sound).

     - The reverb duration is 1.2 second.

     - There isn't any pre-delay (0 ms). Pre-delay is the time after which reverbs is triggered, after the sound has started playing. In the present case, the reverb starts immediately. The longer the pre-delay, the larger the venue seems to be (depending also on other factors such the Dry/Wet ratio, the room size parameter (if applicable), the reverb duration...). The shorter the pre-delay, the less you will hear the attack of the instrument, as it gets slightly drowned in the reverb. Here, the attack of a drum sound is the impact sound of the stick on the drum element. With a 30 or 40 ms pre-delay, the drum sounds would have been more percussive, as the reverb sound would trigger after the impact sound. I did this choice to smoothe the drums a bit.

Fréquences de la batterie
Drums frequencies

Red - Kick drum
Blue - Snare drum
White - Hi-hat
Orange - Crash
Yellow - Ride
Green - Overheads

Of course, many of these frequencies seem to override in the highs, but these are cymbals and they don't play all at the same time.
Mixing in practice : Preparing the session | Bass | Drums | Rhythm guitars | Solo guitars | Keyboards | Vocals | Mastering
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MESSAGES

(leave a message)

Messages page # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35



lgwn
le 08/05/2012 à 18h42

Merci pour tout, super boulot.



Malandain
le 24/04/2012 à 14h37

Bonjour,

J'ai un dr4d akai qui enregistre en 16 bits (44/48khz).
Je relie numériquement mon dr4d à ma carte son (spdif) qui est reliée a mon ordi en usb. Ma D.A.W. est Mixbus qui enregistre en 32/24/16 bits.
Pour un bon enregistrement, faut-il mieux mettre tout en 16 bits ? (dr4d + carte son + D.A.W.)
Peut-on enregistrer le 16 bits du dr4d en 24 bits carte son + D.A.W. ?
Ou 16 bits du dr4d vers 16 bits carte son et 24 bits Mixbus ?
J'ai l'impression que tout en 16 bits, c'est mieux.

Merci d'éclairer ma lanterne.

A. Malandain

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

<em>Bonjour,

Bienvenue sur mon site !

Puisque le dr4d enregistre en 16 bits, il semble logique de penser que tu ne gagneras a priori pas en qualité en réglant carte son et séquenceur sur 24 bits.

C'est vrai si tu te contentes de "transférer" les sons enregistrés avec le dr4d vers ton séquenceur sans les traiter ensuite.

En revanche, si tu fais du mix depuis Mixbus, en utilisant des effets, là il vaut mieux être en 24 bits, car les calculs effectués par le logiciel seront plus précis.

Il est très probable que la différence sera imperceptible, et travailler en 16 bits de bout en bout ne va pas dégrader le son obtenu.

Je ne pense pas que beaucoup de gens soient capables d'entendre la différence entre un traitement effectué en 16 bits et le même traitement effectué en 24 bits.

Néanmoins, la différence existe au niveau de la précision des calculs, et l'accumulation des effets sur différentes piste peut entraîner en 16 bits un risque (très faible) d'avoir quelques petites approximations qui vont se traduire par une légère dégradation du son. Encore une fois, c'est théorique, ça peut arriver, mais ça ne sera pas forcément quelque chose qui va s'entendre.

Donc si tu es pointilleux, je te conseille de régler ta carte son et ta D.A.W. sur 24 bits.

Grebz</em>



Franck
le 02/04/2012 à 03h34

Bonjour Grebz,

J'ai vu que tu utilisais Sonar X1 Producer.
J'aimerais bien si tu veux que tu me donnes quelques truc pour ce logiciel car sur Internet, il n'y a que des vidéos anglo et je ne les comprend pas toutes.

Merci d'avance.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

<em>Bonjour,

Pour ceux que ça intéresse, j'ai fait ce petit guide rapide pour savoir comment intégrer et utiliser un VSTi (synthé virtuel) dans Sonar X1. Ce ne sont que les bases, mais ça pourra servir à ceux qui sont perdus.

Télécharger "<a href="/Downloads/tutorial_homestudio/Synthés virtuels dans Sonar X1.pdf">Synthés virtuels dans Sonar X1</a>" (Fichier PDF de 1,20 Mo)

Grebz</em>



Molten
le 13/03/2012 à 01h27

Merci mon ami : Excellent !!!



Alain6465
le 08/03/2012 à 00h54

Merci pour ton site qui est très utile pour un novice comme moi dans la MAO, même si je fais de la musique depuis longtemps.

J'ai l'intention de revendre mon matériel hardware et d'acheter un séquenceur en soft. Je penche pour Sonar car j'aime bien l'interface graphique de studio instrument, mais je ne sais quelle version choisir, Sonar Studio ou Producer ou X1 etc.

De plus, je n'ai pas vu la VS-100 de Cakewalk dans tes choix de carte son, qu'en penses-tu ? Serait-ce un bon choix, car elle a été conçue pour être utilisée avec Sonar je crois.

Merci pour ta réponse et pour tes conseils très pédagogiques !

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

<em>Bonjour,

Merci de ta visite sur mon site.

Pour l'interface V-Studio 100, je ne l'ai pas listée car je ne l'ai jamais utilisée et j'ai simplement référencé quelques marques connues, mais ce n'est pas du tout un choix exhaustif. Je suis un simple passionné de musique, pas un professionnel du test, et je ne me permets de parler en détail que du matériel et des logiciels que je connais !

J'ai été voir divers avis d'utilisateurs de la VS-100 et ils sont globalement très positifs, tant en ce qui concerne la qualité des pré-amplis que de l'aspect pratique des différents boutons présents sur l'interface, qui donnent un accès direct à de nombreuses fonctions du séquenceur utilisé. Effectivement, la carte a été conçue par Roland, qui est aussi l'éditeur de Sonar, et donc Sonar reconnaît immédiatement la VS-100 et attribue directement les bonnes fonctions aux bonnes touches de l'interface. Mais la VS-100 fonctionne aussi très bien avec les autres séquenceurs, avec lesquels il est tout à fait possible de configurer les boutons pour leur attribuer les fonctions voulues. Conclusion : même si je ne l'ai jamais utilisée moi-même, cette interface me semble être un bon choix.

Pour le choix d'un séquenceur maintenant... En tant qu'utilisateur de Sonar depuis plusieurs années, je vais évidemment te dire que c'est un très bon choix. L'interface me convient, je le trouve assez intuitif à utiliser et largement assez riche et puissant pour moi. Point important : Sonar est livré avec beaucoup de plugins (VST, VSTi) et outils qui permettent de travailler sans avoir impérativement besoin d'acheter des outils complémentaires. Mais restons objectif, les Cubase et autres Reaper ou Presonus Studio One sont aussi d'excellents logiciels. Je crois que c'est surtout une question de feeling, de coup de cœur... et de prix ! Tous les séquenceurs sérieux permettent de parvenir plus ou moins aux mêmes résultats, chacun avec sa méthode et son organisation.

Dans la gamme Sonar, le dernier en date est Sonar X1, qui existe en 3 versions : Essential, Studio et Producer.
La différence se trouve dans le nombre d'outils livrés avec le logiciel.

<strong>Essential</strong> est la version la moins complète et la moins chère. Elle est disponible uniquement en version 32 bits et est limitée à 64 pistes audio (ce qui suffit à la plupart des gens, moi y compris). Elle ne propose que les fonctions de base (pas de synthés, batterie logicielle, outils de compression évolués, etc.). Environ 90 euros.

<strong>Studio</strong> est disponible en versions 32 ou 64 bits, n'a pas de limitation du nombre de pistes, et possède des outils complémentaires (divers VST, VSTi, V-Vocal pour corriger les problèmes de justesse des voix ou instruments, Audio Snap pour caler des enregistrements sur le tempo). Environ 180 euros.

Enfin, <strong>Producer</strong> est la version la plus complète et la plus chère bien sûr. Elle contient en plus différents outils d'excellente qualité comme le ProChannel (compresseur, EQ, saturation), Session Drummer 3, un logiciel de batterie plutôt bien foutu, les VSTi Dimension Pro (très bon synthé, très complet) et TruePianos (version allégée d'un piano virtuel de très bonne qualité à mon goût). Environ 390 euros.

À sa sortie fin 2010, X1 n'était pas super stable et plantait un peu trop souvent à mon goût. Du coup, en attendant les correctifs, je continuais à utiliser la version précédente, mais c'est très frustrant et décevant de payer pour un logiciel qui ne marche pas aussi bien que ce que vous attendez. Mais heureusement, les correctifs ont rapidement amélioré la situation et la version de X1 actuellement en vente est nickel.

J'ai encore quelques plantages de temps à autres, mais j'ai pu constater que c'était toujours à cause de certains VST que j'ai ajoutés. La faute donc aux programmeurs de ces VST qui perturbent Sonar dans certaines conditions (pas toujours très claires à déterminer, d'ailleurs). Ça n'arrive d'ailleurs qu'avec des VST gratuits. Je n'ai jamais eu de plantages à cause de VST du commerce. Normal, puisque les conditions de tests ne sont pas les mêmes... Entre un bidouilleur passionné qui développe son VST dans son coin et une société qui peut tester sur tous les séquenceurs du marché, il y a une différence. N'empêche que beaucoup de VST gratuits sont non seulement utiles, mais aussi performants que certains logiciels du commerce.

Grebz</em>

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