TTS-1 Drums any advice on making them sound better?

Well  how would you want to make them sound ?? What needs to be different ??  Session drummer 3 not available ?? Drop zone can do velocity triggered multisampled layers for you if you get into the .SFZ   thing ( not the worst since it can be edited with a simple text file )

TTS-1 drums   are fixed as far as the samples are concerned , all you can do is process them with effects .

I agree..... the best way to make TTS drums sound better is to use something else. I look at TTS as a very useful synth that lets beginners get started making music easily and at a low cost..... it's a very nice synth in that respect, but when it comes to quality, there is better.... for a price.

Having said that...... EQ and compression of the TTS audio (bounced track) can help.... to a degree.

I recommend looking at one of the 3rd party vendors for drums..... NI's Battery, Session Drummer, Jamstix, and others. Depends on your needs and budget.

In MC5 ($40 boxed version) there is a drummer with sampled drums that sounds pretty good....... not sure of it's name, but I have turned it on a few times and it has a pretty good sounding normal  kit.

Jamstix, obviously, has a number of kits and even creates entire drum tracks for you... very sweet... highly recommended by me. The styles and drummers personalities make this a great product.

Battery... also has a huge number of sampled drums, kits, world drums, and percussion sounds...... however, you have to create the tracks or supply a midi track.... also recommended for it's variety of high quality sounds.

 BTW: Battery (as well as several other drum programs) works as a plug in to Jamstix, to allow you the use of ALL of the Battery kits using Jamstix as the brain.

Bobby,
I understand what you're saying about not being able to get another VST right now, but didn't you get Session Drummer and/or Dimension LE with your version of SONAR?

You are never limited to only TTS by financial reasons. There is really good freeware available that has much better drums out of the box. Check out mydrumsetrocks for natural sounding drums and Dr Fusion II for electronic kits. Also the DSK drumz series has some really nice electric as well as acoustic kits.

With that said, it's far from impossible to make TTS sound good but it takes a whole lot more tweaking.

There are probably a great many users out there who cannot afford to "use something else", and telling them that's the only solution is not helpful.

It's really a matter of making the best creative use of what you've got, no matter what those tools are. And most of us fail at that. How many of us can claim to really know and exploit all the capabilities of all of our tools? How many Kontakt users are making their own libraries and writing their own scripts, as opposed to constantly jumping on the latest group buy to add to their canned collection?

For those forced to use the TTS-1 as their primary drum machine, it is indeed possible, with a little effort, to get surprisingly good results. The sonic palette may be somewhat limited, but Picasso made some pretty cool and enduring stuff after apparently running out of every color except blue.

First TTS-1 tip: use all four outputs. As noted previously, the sounds themselves cannot be altered much within the synth. That means beefing them up has to happen in the audio track. The same effects that help the kick won't do anything for cymbals, so you need to route kick, snare, toms and cymbals to four different outputs.

This is not made easy in the TTS-1, because unlike the fancy drum samplers the TTS-1 does not give you the ability to route individual instruments. Instead, routing is based on MIDI channels. You tell it to send MIDI channel 10 to output #1, MIDI channel 11 to output #2, and so on.

This means each drum has to have its own MIDI channel. There is more than one way to accomplish this, including editing channel assignments (via the Interpolate feature) or drum maps. Perhaps the easiest approach is to split the drum track into four MIDI tracks and route them all to the same TTS-1 instance but on different MIDI channels.

Once you have kick, snare, toms and cymbals coming out on 4 separate audio channels, you can start putting effects to good use. EQ, compression, reverb, delay, gates and transient shapers may be applied to each drum independently. All are tools that are either bundled with SONAR or can be had for free (e.g. Dominion for waveshaping).

Clever use of compression can give your snare more crack, your kick more thump. Gated reverb and/or subtle delay can make the TTS-1 snare sound surprisingly fat. Add a little boost at 200Hz, gate a thick 'verb and you can get a pretty decent 80's sound. Heavily compress the rides for a 60's wash of cymbals.

Don't overlook the tone controls in the TTS-1. These can be automated or initialized via MIDI events at the top of your event list. (The trick is to insert a CC 27 event with a value of 127 to enable the tone controls.)

Of course, as noted previously, the programming is more important than the tonal palette. With the TTS-1, it's even more important to pay attention to the sequencing. You don't have the advantage of a sampler that automatically switches up samples for you like the high-end drum samplers do, so you have to vary your velocities to make the hits sound less mechanical. Use techniques such as ghost hits and delays (want a fat tom hit? hit 2 at once, but with a very short delay between them). Avoid quantizing the snare drum, and consider programming it in real time via a keyboard or pressure pads for greater believability, even if the rest of your drum track is hand-planted via the PRV.

Drums can be layered for more variation. Want a big, deep 80's sound on your snare? Double it with a tom-tom and mix it low under the snare. Want a monster kick? Layer it with the floor tom for boom, a snare sidestick for click. And don't forget the tambourine, woodblock, cowbell and congas (try putting some reverb on them).

The TTS-1 offers two rides and two ride bells. Mix them up for variation. Take a sequence of ride hits - ting, ting, ting - and move them around in the PRV so that some hit the bell, some hit the other ride cymbal. It's OK to alternate between the two rides, it somewhat simulates a drummer getting different tones as he hits the ride in different places. Drummers sometimes hit the bell randomly, sometimes for emphasis. Simulate that, too.

Also note that you are not limited to a single instance of the TTS-1. You could clone one or more of your drum tracks and route it to a second instance of the synth (use linked clips, so that moving a hit in one track also moves the hit in the clone track). The second instance could then play a different kit, giving you even more tonal possibilities by either layering or alternating between the two.

If you really want to get fancy, consider gating sinewaves off the drums to add subsonic reinforcement. How about a gated chorus? And don't forget automation. Try automating a reverb send off the cymbals so that it's only added when the rides are in, well, ride mode. (Don't forget the predelay setting on the reverb, to keep the initial "ting" clear.)

Imagination can go a long way to stretch the usefulness of even the most primitive tools.

bitflipper


There are probably a great many users out there who cannot afford to "use something else", and telling them that's the only solution is not helpful.

It's really a matter of making the best creative use of what you've got, no matter what those tools are. And most of us fail at that. How many of us can claim to really know and exploit all the capabilities of all of our tools? How many Kontakt users are making their own libraries and writing their own scripts, as opposed to constantly jumping on the latest group buy to add to their canned collection?

For those forced to use the TTS-1 as their primary drum machine, it is indeed possible, with a little effort, to get surprisingly good results. The sonic palette may be somewhat limited, but Picasso made some pretty cool and enduring stuff after apparently running out of every color except blue.

First TTS-1 tip: use all four outputs. As noted previously, the sounds themselves cannot be altered much within the synth. That means beefing them up has to happen in the audio track. The same effects that help the kick won't do anything for cymbals, so you need to route kick, snare, toms and cymbals to four different outputs.

This is not made easy in the TTS-1, because unlike the fancy drum samplers the TTS-1 does not give you the ability to route individual instruments. Instead, routing is based on MIDI channels. You tell it to send MIDI channel 10 to output #1, MIDI channel 11 to output #2, and so on.

This means each drum has to have its own MIDI channel. There is more than one way to accomplish this, including editing channel assignments (via the Interpolate feature) or drum maps. Perhaps the easiest approach is to split the drum track into four MIDI tracks and route them all to the same TTS-1 instance but on different MIDI channels.

Once you have kick, snare, toms and cymbals coming out on 4 separate audio channels, you can start putting effects to good use. EQ, compression, reverb, delay, gates and transient shapers may be applied to each drum independently. All are tools that are either bundled with SONAR or can be had for free (e.g. Dominion for waveshaping).

Clever use of compression can give your snare more crack, your kick more thump. Gated reverb and/or subtle delay can make the TTS-1 snare sound surprisingly fat. Add a little boost at 200Hz, gate a thick 'verb and you can get a pretty decent 80's sound. Heavily compress the rides for a 60's wash of cymbals.

Don't overlook the tone controls in the TTS-1. These can be automated or initialized via MIDI events at the top of your event list. (The trick is to insert a CC 27 event with a value of 127 to enable the tone controls.)

Of course, as noted previously, the programming is more important than the tonal palette. With the TTS-1, it's even more important to pay attention to the sequencing. You don't have the advantage of a sampler that automatically switches up samples for you like the high-end drum samplers do, so you have to vary your velocities to make the hits sound less mechanical. Use techniques such as ghost hits and delays (want a fat tom hit? hit 2 at once, but with a very short delay between them). Avoid quantizing the snare drum, and consider programming it in real time via a keyboard or pressure pads for greater believability, even if the rest of your drum track is hand-planted via the PRV.

Drums can be layered for more variation. Want a big, deep 80's sound on your snare? Double it with a tom-tom and mix it low under the snare. Want a monster kick? Layer it with the floor tom for boom, a snare sidestick for click. And don't forget the tambourine, woodblock, cowbell and congas (try putting some reverb on them).

The TTS-1 offers two rides and two ride bells. Mix them up for variation. Take a sequence of ride hits - ting, ting, ting - and move them around in the PRV so that some hit the bell, some hit the other ride cymbal. It's OK to alternate between the two rides, it somewhat simulates a drummer getting different tones as he hits the ride in different places. Drummers sometimes hit the bell randomly, sometimes for emphasis. Simulate that, too.

Also note that you are not limited to a single instance of the TTS-1. You could clone one or more of your drum tracks and route it to a second instance of the synth (use linked clips, so that moving a hit in one track also moves the hit in the clone track). The second instance could then play a different kit, giving you even more tonal possibilities by either layering or alternating between the two.

If you really want to get fancy, consider gating sinewaves off the drums to add subsonic reinforcement. How about a gated chorus? And don't forget automation. Try automating a reverb send off the cymbals so that it's only added when the rides are in, well, ride mode. (Don't forget the predelay setting on the reverb, to keep the initial "ting" clear.)

Imagination can go a long way to stretch the usefulness of even the most primitive tools.

There are probably a great many users out there who cannot afford to "use something else", and telling them that's the only solution is not helpful. It's really a matter of making the best creative use of what you've got, no matter what those tools are. And most of us fail at that. How many of us can claim to really know and exploit all the capabilities of all of our tools? How many Kontakt users are making their own libraries and writing their own scripts, as opposed to constantly jumping on the latest group buy to add to their canned collection? For those forced to use the TTS-1 as their primary drum machine, it is indeed possible, with a little effort, to get surprisingly good results. The sonic palette may be somewhat limited, but Picasso made some pretty cool and enduring stuff after apparently running out of every color except blue. First TTS-1 tip: use all four outputs. As noted previously, the sounds themselves cannot be altered much within the synth. That means beefing them up has to happen in the audio track. The same effects that help the kick won't do anything for cymbals, so you need to route kick, snare, toms and cymbals to four different outputs. This is not made easy in the TTS-1, because unlike the fancy drum samplers the TTS-1 does not give you the ability to route individual instruments. Instead, routing is based on MIDI channels. You tell it to send MIDI channel 10 to output #1, MIDI channel 11 to output #2, and so on. This means each drum has to have its own MIDI channel. There is more than one way to accomplish this, including editing channel assignments (via the Interpolate feature) or drum maps. Perhaps the easiest approach is to split the drum track into four MIDI tracks and route them all to the same TTS-1 instance but on different MIDI channels. Once you have kick, snare, toms and cymbals coming out on 4 separate audio channels, you can start putting effects to good use. EQ, compression, reverb, delay, gates and transient shapers may be applied to each drum independently. All are tools that are either bundled with SONAR or can be had for free (e.g. Dominion for waveshaping). Clever use of compression can give your snare more crack, your kick more thump. Gated reverb and/or subtle delay can make the TTS-1 snare sound surprisingly fat. Add a little boost at 200Hz, gate a thick 'verb and you can get a pretty decent 80's sound. Heavily compress the rides for a 60's wash of cymbals. Don't overlook the tone controls in the TTS-1. These can be automated or initialized via MIDI events at the top of your event list. (The trick is to insert a CC 27 event with a value of 127 to enable the tone controls.) Of course, as noted previously, the programming is more important than the tonal palette. With the TTS-1, it's even more important to pay attention to the sequencing. You don't have the advantage of a sampler that automatically switches up samples for you like the high-end drum samplers do, so you have to vary your velocities to make the hits sound less mechanical. Use techniques such as ghost hits and delays (want a fat tom hit? hit 2 at once, but with a very short delay between them). Avoid quantizing the snare drum, and consider programming it in real time via a keyboard or pressure pads for greater believability, even if the rest of your drum track is hand-planted via the PRV. Drums can be layered for more variation. Want a big, deep 80's sound on your snare? Double it with a tom-tom and mix it low under the snare. Want a monster kick? Layer it with the floor tom for boom, a snare sidestick for click. And don't forget the tambourine, woodblock, cowbell and congas (try putting some reverb on them). The TTS-1 offers two rides and two ride bells. Mix them up for variation. Take a sequence of ride hits - ting, ting, ting - and move them around in the PRV so that some hit the bell, some hit the other ride cymbal. It's OK to alternate between the two rides, it somewhat simulates a drummer getting different tones as he hits the ride in different places. Drummers sometimes hit the bell randomly, sometimes for emphasis. Simulate that, too. Also note that you are not limited to a single instance of the TTS-1. You could clone one or more of your drum tracks and route it to a second instance of the synth (use linked clips, so that moving a hit in one track also moves the hit in the clone track). The second instance could then play a different kit, giving you even more tonal possibilities by either layering or alternating between the two. If you really want to get fancy, consider gating sinewaves off the drums to add subsonic reinforcement. How about a gated chorus? And don't forget automation. Try automating a reverb send off the cymbals so that it's only added when the rides are in, well, ride mode. (Don't forget the predelay setting on the reverb, to keep the initial "ting" clear.) Imagination can go a long way to stretch the usefulness of even the most primitive tools.

  Very well said Bit. I'll give this a food for thought.

    Think of ideas
    Get excited in doing so
    Try things
    See what the outcome is

   Sometimes what is considered a limit can be the best asset in developing
a persons ability to do something.  
    


   

Yes, that was very creative, Bit! It reminds me of what I used to have to do to get the 12-bit drum samples on my Roland TR-626 to sound realistic. They only had four velocity levels per drum and about a dozen sounds, total. It took a lot of tweaking of the drum part in Cakewalk to make the drums (in general) sound better.

That said, I'd still like to know if Freeze 1st (the OP) has Dimension LE or Session Drummer 2. I don't know which version of SONAR he has, and unfortunately, Cakewalk's SONAR comparison chart is useless for determining this. I doubt it's even accurate.

And gang, correct me if I'm wrong please, but wouldn't the free Dimension LE or Session Drummer 2 be better than TTS-1 (if he has them, and I can't seem to find out whether or not he does)? They'll load standard sample files, they're more flexible as far as effects and outputs, and the OP would be up and running in a matter of minutes with a good drum part. And he'd still be able to take advantage of Bit's excellent tips.

At any rate, once you apply Bit's suggestions, do yourself a favor and take advantage of some of the great free effects--and drum VSTs as Legion suggested--on KVR. You can then find 1,000 (yes, one thousand) free drum sounds here.

Why would you get MC5 to get your drums better? If that's the only reason for you to upgrade then save your money (I guess there are other good reasons as well though) and get some good free drum VST's, the excellent free Shortcircuit sampler and the samples Planetearth linked to (I have them from an old CM mag and they are really good).

Then just use compression, eq and maybe saturation and/or transient shaping to get the sound you want.

It should get you a long way without having to open your wallet.