Designing cinematic drums part 3

Chandler
Here is the 3rd part of my series. In this one I focus on layering a randomization. Hopefully this will be useful to some of you out there.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALHZHHPAdI0

Thanks for sharing this series. Really awesome/helpful. Great stuff.

Thanks Chandler.  Interesting too how you got the random aspect to the patches involved such as the hold time before the attack segments in envelopes etc..
 
A couple of points of my own though and mainly through doing this quite a lot myself.  Manipulating the individual midi tracks only takes it a little further in my opinion and adds even more realism.  Such as copying the same midi part to say 6 tracks but going in and editing the notes in all of those copies. Timing and velocity.  By only using delays in your synth sound start times etc you are not making use of the sounds that can come before the beat rather than all on or later than the beat.  The beat is wider.
 
Changing individual velocities on the same note on all 4 copies also goes a long way towards making things sound more human.
 
For those who may have sampler options don’t be afraid to add in some real tom samples to the mix.  My Emulator for example allows you to gently modulate pitch with velocity so you can make each hit very slightly different too.  Get the filter opening and closing slightly to velocity too.  Adding in some sampled toms and low octave ones at that can add some amazing realism.  And nothing still beats a few live floor tom overdubs if you can also manage it.  The more tracks you do as well by the way makes it all way more spectacular as well.  eg 12 or 20 tracks of toms.  More tracks as well to pan from hard L to hard R.
 
I also prefer to not apply any reverbs to any individual sounds.  I get a better clearer reverb sound by sending only the whole drum mix into the reverb chamber at the end.  You also need to spend time on the overall drum reverb too.  It really has to match the drum sounds timewise and tone wise too.
 
But this video series has been excellent in terms of really getting into making the sounds with a synthesiser and they really bring home the idea of how much control you really do have over that drum hit.  Most synthesisers are excellent at making drum sounds.
 
 

Yeah thanks again for your videos.  I really enjoyed them.  They really got me back to using synths and getting right in deep and fiddling parameters to make killer tom sounds and you can.
 
Next time I have to do a cinematic tom groove I will still be doing live overdubs and things but I will definitely get into making some great synth patches to mix in with the rest.  I think they will tend to take it away from the total live sound that I usually get and just steer the sound in a slightly different direction.  A better one for sure.