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Drum VIs And Drum Loops

I thought I would start this thread on what folks are using for their drum tracks. This conversation sprouted on a unrelated thread so I will move those comments to here.

Back in the day (early 1980s) there were a series of vinyl albums out called “Drum Drops” from Ed Greene, a great studio drummer here in L.A. These albums were designed for songwriters who couldn’t afford to hire a drummer. I had just opened my studio and so to attract clients I would copy a selected groove to 2 track tape and then edit the tape to fit the song. I would then transfer the 2 track to my multi-track and we would overdub to the 2 track drum mix. Then came the Oberheim system (pre-midi) and the DMX drum machine, DSX sequencer and OB-8. I really loved programming the DMX as I’m a frustrated drummer but fast forward to today and I would never go back to that. Today’s loops, both midi and sampled, are just so much more “real” and satisfying!

32 thoughts on “Drum VIs And Drum Loops”

  1. I’ve been using SD2 for a couple years. Love it. Just bought Stylus RMX. Totally different animal though. A completely different concept in percussion for me. I feel like I’m on an adventure with this new toy. So inspiring. I’ve yet to create my own fills on it as they show in the tutorials.

      • Ah yes memories. Vinyl, cutting tape and most of all backing up that Oberheim system data to cassettes. My first lesson on backing up data. Worked all day on a song, had all the programming completed on the DMX and DSX when it all crashed. Didn’t take the time to backup. Been a believer ever since!

        • Yes, tape backups. I recall that the dolby encoding/decoding interfered with the data somehow, so you would have to use a particular model cassette recorder to work right.

          After selling the ensoniq mirage (late 80s) I gave composing a rest until last year. With todays tools, everything seems so much easier. Amazing.

  2. Since I am using Logic Pro 9, I use Apple Loops for any World Music and Latin tracks to get authentic percussion loops, and for other styles as well .For most other things I use EZ Drummer, and some of the sets that come with Logic which I will play in real time on the keyboard via MIDI.

    Drums on Demand also has some great loops.

    • Right now it’s about 50/50. For hip hop and funk I use loops (Stylus RMX and third party loops for Stylus).

      For rock, pop etc., I use midi files (BFD). I really like to control individual drums and cymbals in the mix. I like being able to swap out different instruments, and being able to ad or side-chain compression and other FX. I like being able to control the balance between the close, overhead and room mics. You can do that to a degree with loops in Stylus, but it’s really time consuming, and still doesn’t sound as good.

      Sometimes I use both. I’ll use BFD for the kit and Stylus for percussion loops. The cool thing about Stylus is that you can import and apply other grooves to the loops.

      For world tracks, there are some OK loops in Motu’s Ethno. Stylus is also good for world loops. You can also export the midi loops in Stylus to use with other sound sources like East West’s RA and Silk.

      If I’m programming my own drum tracks, I’ll use kits from BFD and/or Stylus with Sampleholics Acoustic Kits and percussion from RA, Silk, SD2, and Ethno.

      Cinematic tracks are another ball of wax.

      Cheers,

      Michael

      PS. If you really want to get crazy, I’ve been able to take live tracks that were recorded 25 years ago, convert them to REX files with Recycle, slice them up and import them into Stlyus, then change the grove completely and ad new drums with Stylus loops!

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