POP/R&B/Dance/Urban Drum Samples How To

[musicgreator]

I've ben searching for a while now. I'm not really satisfied by commercial libraries yet. I'm looking for drums samples you hear in modern pop productions a la Kesha, Lady Gaga, Taio Cruz, Usher, Katy Perry, Timbaland, David Guetta and so on. Are there some secret sources where major producers get their sounds? I always ended up making my own sounds.

So can you please give me good tips on processing drums, creating samples, wich tools to use, comp eq, sound sources, layering.... again i'm looking for the best sound!

[nst7]

They might also be making their own sounds. But also, they might be combining and layering different existing samples, or putting them through extreme processing. Have you tried all that as well?

[s34nsm411]

try vengeance essential house

[djanthonyw]

They're all using EDM samples from yesteryear.

[Graal]

EDM?

What you hear on the radio might be different from what went out of the producer's DAW.
They get altered in the mix and master.

Cheers!

[djanthonyw]

Originally Posted by Graal

EDM?

Yes, it's all taken from Electronic Dance Music.

[coyotekells]

Originally Posted by djanthonyw

Yes, it's all taken from Electronic Dance Music.

Yes, and as your said, yesteryear.. sometimes often yesterdecade lol.

I remember electronic music was something to laugh at by those who liked radio pop or rap music. Now, things that were even consider homo by the ravers are the sounds of all the top trends lol at the gated trance synths and drums sounds.. cheese chord progression. And Eminem and Lil' Wayne's new hit collaboration is a remix of that "What is love, baby don't hurt me" song .. man

For balance of the conversion, I've always been a fan of hip hop as well as EDM.. so watching this all happen is very entertaining for me..and pathetic.

[coyotekells]

Originally Posted by Graal

EDM?

What you hear on the radio might be different from what went out of the producer's DAW.
They get altered in the mix and master.

Cheers!

Not in context no.. That's why these guys are go to producers. They stuff sounds ready to go the way it is.. the cake is baked. Mixers just set the table and put it on a plate.. and mastering engineer comes through with icing and candles. Not to downplay, it's a serious job.. and only the nicest table clothe is used. But the cake remains in most cases.

In fact, some people who are good with their sound (Danja) have opted to start giving mixers the stems to their drums (so they just get a blend of snare, instead of the 5 snare tracks that layer to make one sound) because mixers were changing the sound too much during the mix, when Danja already had it how it wanted it.

[djanthonyw]

Originally Posted by coyotekells

Yes, and as your said, yesteryear.. sometimes often yesterdecade lol.

I remember electronic music was something to laugh at by those who liked radio pop or rap music. Now, things that were even consider homo by the ravers are the sounds of all the top trends lol at the gated trance synths and drums sounds.. cheese chord progression. And Eminem and Lil' Wayne's new hit collaboration is a remix of that "What is love, baby don't hurt me" song .. man

For balance of the conversion, I've always been a fan of hip hop as well as EDM.. so watching this all happen is very entertaining for me..and pathetic.

Exactly. I find it quite amusing. I have a weekly top 40 gig in Boston and years ago if I played all of the shit they want to hear today, I'd get certain people come up to me saying "Can you play something else, besides "Techno". Now they want to hear it because it's fed to them. I hate the stupid sheeple.

I'm also getting hip hop producers that know me, asking where they can get "drums like Guetta".

[living sounds]

Yes, they basically took all that was bad in european dance music and put it into mainstream US pop (and hip hop).

My hope is that there will be a backlash - eventually. It's bound to happen at some point.

[waxx]

Get a machinedrum or the Roland TR909 because that were the popularest drum machines in cheap european dance music (called Eurotrance). And that is where the pop of today get it's sound of.

Also the Roland JP8000 synth was used often to make drum sounds, just like the first generation Access virus and Nord lead synth's were when they came out...

Like said, these producers didn't use preset sounds, they made their own with drumcomputers and synths. If you want to sound like them, you probally will have to do the same.

Old dance bands where producer now probally look at for sounds are like 2 Unlimited, 2 Fabiola, Milk Inc, Ian van Dahl, Lasgo, ... Most of it was produced in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany and is considered here as white trash music, certainly in that time... It's rather funny that those sounds now come back in the US pop... Nowadays it's still very popular and some artists (like Milc Inc) sell out concert halls of 12000ppl several times in a row and play on the infamous 'Rock Werchter festival' as headliner (next to Metallica) in 2009. Search maybe also for DJ Reggi, the producer of Milc Inc because there is a docu soap made about him wich shows the whole cultus and a lot of techniques they use.

It's certainly not my cup of tea, but in Belgium, you can't ignore its existance anymore...

And to cut the hope of some (and mine), there are more of those trashy dance styles here in europe. Gabber House, acid tekno (like they write it here) and Jump are maybe the next where they got take a look to rip sounds...

[andy0568]

To the OP I know exactly what you're talking about--I've been searching for the same thing. Dr Luke and Benny Blanco's drums sounds so similar I wonder if they just share a library. I wish there was a "Steven Slate Drums" for the pop-hip hop world. I bought Urban Fire Drums but they don't really fit the bill for the type of music mentioned in this thread.

[djanthonyw]

Originally Posted by andy0568

I bought Urban Fire Drums but they don't really fit the bill for the type of music mentioned in this thread.

That's because they're not 'urban' drums. They're just using sounds from EDM 5-10 years ago as usual.

[pan]

Originally Posted by living sounds

Yes, they basically took all that was bad in european dance music and put it into mainstream US pop (and hip hop)

so true...

[andy0568]

Originally Posted by s34nsm411

try vengeance essential house

are these actual individual hit samples or just loops?

[djanthonyw]

They're both.

[musicgreator]

Originally Posted by andy0568

To the OP I know exactly what you're talking about--I've been searching for the same thing. Dr Luke and Benny Blanco's drums sounds so similar I wonder if they just share a library. I wish there was a "Steven Slate Drums" for the pop-hip hop world. I bought Urban Fire Drums but they don't really fit the bill for the type of music mentioned in this thread.

I agree.

[musicgreator]

Originally Posted by djanthonyw

That's because they're not 'urban' drums. They're just using sounds from EDM 5-10 years ago as usual.

Do you mean they sampled from existing records?

[andy0568]

I picked up the vengeance essential house set from the suggestion in this thread--instant Dr. Luke/Max Martin modern pop/European dance sound. thanks for the suggestion

[coyotekells]

Originally Posted by musicgreator

Do you mean they sampled from existing records?

It means they come from "the genre" .. doesn't matter where they come from twisting other sounds to fit. He's just saying, none of these sounds are new.. they're all jacked (figuratively or literally) from music that is anywhere from 5 - 15 years old.

[djanthonyw]

Well, actually what I'm saying is that a lot of these urban / pop people didn't like what they called "Techno" years ago and now they all want to sound like what they called "Techno".

/pissing monkey

[Porter]

if you really want sounds like they have on top 40, just go through those tracks and sample those sounds. combine 2 of them and you get all the impact and "current-ness" that you're missing in your mixes but you've created a new soundwave that can never be prosecuted for "unlicensed samples." Not that anyone would prosecute you, because that's what they are all doing anyway. I've often combined these samples with regular license free samples from the libraries and sometimes combine up to 6 or more things to make 1 snare or kick sound. Another thing I used to do is each week download the billboard top 20 songs and go through and get all the 'sounds' i could from these tracks. Especially kicks, snares, but sometimes you can get other cool stuff. After a while you build up quite a library and you can access the specific eminem or britney or kesha snare you want. Then tweek to taste.

in short, if you want a max martin or dr. luke snare or kick, find a clean one in the waveform, and sample it. It couldn't be easier with all our digital audio editors.
Porter

[Michael Khan]

I remember I used to always sample from Top 40 stuff. But I think if you practice and make your drums sound as good as Timbaland's, then it's possible to make any drum pattern you want quickly... since he's like the King of Drums and all...

[mattg082]

I've hear some of the doctor luke stuff/benny stuff have been using addictive drums. Wouldn't doubt it! Very nice stuff. There are tons of packs out there you can load into battery or kontakt. A lot of people say slate drums(never tried them) all the time. I think addictive drums is a good bet. I use AD and match it up with ultrabeat in logic and then edit add some swing as needed mostly 16ths on the high hats. Love the built in verb and fx in AD. Most of the AD stuff you can do in the program as far as getting the sound with compression and eq which makes things a lot simpler when you are just starting a mix up. I know with me I like to do a little mixing with my pop/electronic stuff as I'm going because it determines the song really...side chaining a bass can make a huge difference with where things might go in the composition of the song and choice of lead synth. I sometimes use 3 snares and multiple kicks layered for low end, thump, click ect.

To me modern pop seems to be taking from the electronic scene and mixing realistic ITB drums sounds with it in layers. A lot of good samples out there too for synths.

For most modern pop... sylenth 1 is a good one, goldbaby samples, juno 106, juno 60, addictive drummer. With the right skill and mixing those tools should get you pretty far. If you don't have access to those synths goldbaby has juno synths as well. TI-Virus seems to be used a good bit too in places. Go look over in the Electronic musician thread and there is a lot of info. A lot of those synths you hear are very doubled and the Vengeance packs are the bomb for pre processed out the box stuff...love the Bass pack!

[zekethegr8]

The only thing professionals have on a lot of people is the fact that they can get their sounds mixed down by engineers,on top of that once an artist records,the entire song is professionally mixed.Best thing to do is learn how to make your own drums sound right with eq,distortion,compression etc.Spend a lot of time tweaking your sounds, that works for me zekethegr8.com

[nznexus]

im sure many of them process the usual samples they have with alot of FX

[Mr. Shore]

I don't get it when some people bitch about modern pop borrowing sounds from euro dance or whatever. Well, a dance kick is a dance kick, what else you expect - a jazz kick maybe, and if it's good why you care where it comes from. Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" used some kick sound from quality euro pop/dance music circa 2001 and it does sound fantastic. So what's your problem? I guess you're mixing personal music taste with technical terms which is not the way to go...