In this week’s Audio Plus content, Toby Pitman gives us a very detailed and helpful tutorial on how to program MIDI drums so they sound like they were played by a real drummer.

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Programming real sounding drum tracks is a bit of an art form. Also, you only have to punch the information in once! The drummer jokes have started already! In this tutorial I’m going to share some tips I’ve learnt over the years about programming convincing live drum tracks.

Programming live drums from scratch can be a very rewarding experience but it takes time and a lot of patience if your going to do it properly. I once had a drummer who was pretty good himself ask me who the drummer was on a track I had programmed. I was pretty shocked but replied with the old joke,”Oh yeah, that’s Mac Hine. Great guy too!”. I don’t think he got that Mac Hine spells ‘machine’. Anyway….

The need for real sounding drum tracks is getting popular as more and more musicians and songwriters move towards the DIY approach to recording. Most people who make music for either a hobby or even a living just don’t have the budget to hire an awesome session drummer and big studio to lay down a rhythm track. Instead we turn to loops or sampled kits that can be integrated with our DAW’s in a home or small studio setup. For a time the vast majority of programming work I did was centered around programming live drums.

Now it has to be said that a lot of software drum instruments will ship with premade ‘drag and drop’ MIDI files for quickly putting together scratch (or finished, depending on how fussy/lazy you are) drum tracks. In my experience these are great but you’ll find that you’ll have to tweak those MIDI files as in a lot of cases they’ll be close but not quite be what your after.

So whether your tweaking MIDI files or starting from scratch Here are some tips and techniques I’ve learnt over the last 12 or so years.

Here’s the kind of music you’ll be able to create once you harness the knowledge inside:

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Tools of the Trade
  • Software Options

  • Get something to hit!
  • Create a Good Map
• There’s Nothing Like the Real Thing!
  • Spotting a Fake!

  • Old Skool Tricks!
  • Modern Drummer
• Basic Rules
  • Drummers aren’t Octopuses!

  • Keep it simple!
  • Variation, Variation, Variation!
  • Quantizing!!!!!!
• Basic Sticking Techniques
  • Basic Rudiments

  • Ruffs, Flams and Rolls
• Groove Fundamentals
  • Dynamics

  • Layered vs Linear Grooves
• Hi-hats – Your Nemesis!!!
• Programming Fills
• Learn from Real Drummers!
  • Watch and Learn

  • Transcribe Beats
  • Learn Some Basic Drum Notation
• Conclusion

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