Creating Loop-Based Drum Parts

I'm asked many times how I provide drum parts for my songs.  My songs are often complemented for the realistic drum parts and I'm often asked what tools do I use to create them.  I decided to put this excerpt from my song "The Way Through" to introduce listeners and other musicians doing home recording that desire realistic drums and would like an alternative to a drum machine.

I'm using Sonic Foundry's Acid Pro 4.0®.  This application has a powerful user interface and intuitive loop handling capacity.  It allows easy sequencing of loops using a "paint" tool to draw the loops right where you want them.  You can manipulate the loops in various ways including resize, slide, copy/paste, etc.  It very smartly snaps loop files to beats.  The most powerful feature of this application is its ability to take pre-recorded loops and adjust the temp to fit the project's tempo (within limits).

The loops themselves are wave files recorded by professional session drummers in lengths of two to eight measures long and are edited in such a way that they can be seamlessly repeated ("looped").  They come in collections of similarly themed files with a variety of grooves, fills, breaks, intros and endings.  These loops are recorded devoid of accent hits such as cymbal crashes.  Also included with the collection is an assortment of "single hits".  This typically includes things like cymbal crashes, snare hits, hi-hat hits, kicks, and many others to be used to augment the grooves.

All of these loops are recorded "dry" leaving it to the consumer to mix and process the signals to taste.  I sourced these loops from Beta Monkey Music®

To demonstrate how I use these to construct a life-like drum part, I have provided a series of steps showing how I created the breakdown section of "The Way Through" starting about 3:00 into the song.  I have included samples of the raw loops, screenshots of the sequenced loops and the resulting output.

Step 1:  Basic Groove

Early in the song writing process, I generally have guitar or bass riffs, some sketchy verse and chorus parts and a sense about the drum groove I'm after.  I surf through my loops for a collection that best matches what I hear in my head.  I pick a groove from the collection and "paint" a sequence of them into Acid.  I'll play along with it a number of times refining tempo and the basic arrangement.  I will typically use a number of variations of the groove for different parts of the song such as hi-hat grooves, ride-cymbal grooves and so on.  When I get the arrangement sequenced using these  basic grooves, I render the arrangement to a stereo wave file and import that into my recorder.

Basic Groove File recorded at 90 BPM (beats per minute) 

Result at 100 BPM

 

Step 2: Record Instruments

With a basic drum part arranged, I import this part into a stereo track in my recorder and record scratch tracks of the remaining instruments.  This works well because the groove or "vib" is present in the loops and I can lock into that when playing.  When finished, I do a rough mixdown minus the drums and import this into Acid so I can embellish the drum part with fills, hi-hat accents, and whatever else I think the drum part needs.

 

Step 3: Import Instruments

I import the instrument mixdown in to Acid.  Interestingly, this is as easy as adding loop, just drag and drop it in as a new track.  With this in place, I have the other instruments of the song to feed the drum part.

Result After Adding Instrument Mixdown

 

Step 4:  Add Entry Fill

My first embellishment was to provide a fill leading into this breakdown section of the song.  I browsed through the collection of loops for one that contains a fill that represents what I was after.  I found a loop where the first four beats would fit nicely.  I drop it in, resize the loop exposing on the portion I wish to use and remove the first for beats of the basic groove.

Fill loop at  90 BPM

Result After Intro Fill Added

 

Step 5: Add Exit Fill

To transition into the next phrase of this brief breakdown, I want another fill, one with a tom run.  Another quick surf of the collection revealed  what I needed.  I replaced the last four beats with the following fill.

Fill Loop at 90 BPM

Result After Exit Fill Added

 

Step 6: Add Cymbals

I now need to add cymbal crashed at the appropriate places.  For this, I browse to the "Single Hits" collection and pick cymbal crashes with a sound I like.  In this case, I picked a couple of Zildjian 16" and 18" samples.

Note: In the case of "single hits", the length of the loop controls the ring time.  I like lots of ring.

Result After Adding Cymbal Crashes

Step 7: Add Accent Kicks, Snare and Hi-Hat Hits

This step is arguably the most tricky and requires more understanding of drums as an instrument.  I desired to embellish the basic groove with some accent hits to bulk up the groove and get it to stand out.  I selected four "single hit" loops including a kick, snare, fast open-close hit-hat and a longer ringing open hi-hat then "painted" them in various spots to create a funkier, busier groove.

Result After Hi-Hat, Snare and Kick Embellishments

The Final Drum Track Ready for Mixing

Conclusion:

Being somewhat of a drum feature, this example is more complex then typical example.  In this case I deliberately selected a generic base groove so that I would have a more open canvas to take it where I wanted.  Excellent results can come from simple loop arrangements.  An example of a simpler arrangement is demonstrated in the song "A New Light".

The primary advantage of loop-based drum sequencing is the "human" sound that results.  It has all the similarities of arranging a drum  machine's patterns yet sounds like a real drummer.  This realism is inherent because it is a real drummer and contains all the irregularities, off beat hits and inconsistent hit strength, stick rolls and ghost notes to give the part "life".