Drum Samples: Developing Your Own

Anybody with a computer (both desktop and laptop styles) can these days develop their own drum samples. While it may take some amateurs a lot of time to come to grips with the technology and settings, the workflow is quite adaptive after a few weeks and you can be making your own signature sounds. You can start today if you have an audio editor.

Tools for the task can be found online, but if you are into audio then you may already have some of the programs installed. If you have some drum samples to start with, that is the best way to go at the beginning instead of synthesizing your own sounds. You can grab free audio editors like Audacity, which is a free software program that can be downloaded (just Google it, it will be the first result!) and installed within seconds (it only works on PCs, though). If you are on a Mac, there are some free programs as well. The operations that need to be performed can be as varied as you want them to be, from cropping to equalization and more.

You can also develop your drum samples in programs like Propellerheads' Reason and FL Studio. Simply make the changes you want in the programs using the in-built editors, effects units and reverb before exporting just the channel for that one sound and its associated effects. Then crop it up if you set the length to be the whole song, otherwise export just a single bar or beat if the sound occupies that amount.

When editing drum samples, you obviously need some sources. One place to get some great drums and other sounds is off old records. Simply connect a turntable to your audio interface and start recording the parts of the songs where drum breaks exist (with no other instruments) and then crop to your desire. This is called sampling, and it's actually more popular now than it has ever been, and you can get started today if you have the equipment. You can get great samples out of this process!

If you can look beyond sampling and using pre-chosen drum samples, you can make your own via synthesis. You can synthesize drum samples in many audio solutions in this modern age, or go back a bit further and check out the drum machines and synths of yesteryear. Some people will go as far back as the 70s to look for synthesized drums. On these machines, a lot of parameters are modifiable, so as you tweak and twist, you will be met with very different sounds. You can get a cheap drum synth on eBay, though the older ones can be expensive.

Now that you know how to source the different drum samples, you need to be able to manipulate and alter to your liking. There are plenty of effects to change the sound of a sample, including equalization and compression techniques, so you'll need to experiment. You will come across some methods that go well with your workflow, so just keep an open mind and try any and all recommendations until you can make your own judgment.