Sequencing Drums With "feel" Options

[slowintrepid]

Ok folks I've been producing alot of music on my computer that isn't electronica at all.

thus my drums now feel very very ridgid
I need to get more feel and consistency when sequencing drums..

I either use battery into cubase, or I just use reason

and no matterr what my drums don't sound good (rhymically)

I've tried playing that parts on my keyboard and nothing.

I've tried using the pen tool nothing....

and I've tried different quantitisation methods (like swing and what not)


but still nothing can someone shed some light on this for me

[kolo]

Funny how you would never read this kind of posting if the instrument were piano or guitar rather than drums. People take it for granted that it takes practice and time to learn an instrument like those, but drums, oh that's just hitting stuff, anyone can do that. NOT! I've played the drums for over 20 years and making a drum track with a natural feel and groove is not simple. If it doesn't work, the track won't. Drum n bass or other more mechanical styles may be easier to program, but I feel your pain when it comes to a natural, human feeling drum track.
I find that messing with midi editing or cutting and pasting little bits or audio or midi is always harder than just playing a beat via human hands.
Matching drums to the feel of lots of other tracks is hard, so start with a basic guide track done to a click (keyboard chords or guitar and possibly a scratch vocal track) so you know where the changes are. then do drums and later add the rest to match the feel of the drums. It's really hard to go the other way and have it sound like it all belongs together
Here is what I do: I just find a simple beat that has the right feel. Hi hat and snare and bass or just bass and snare. A part of what will be the finished beat. Play it through to the end on my midi keyboard, triggering samples or a module. Trying to just play 4 bars and layer doesn't give you enough time to settle into a groove. So play your partial beat for a longer while. Then find a few measures that really lock in. I usually do it this way and cut and paste those. You have a track with consistant groove now.
OR If you really lock in play right through and then set up auto punch in to fix a misplaced hit, but roll a few bars back to give you a chance to catch the groove before the punch in. You can always move individual drums to different tracks and tweak the timing, making a track lag or rush later on if you want to. But I find that if you want it to sound natural, you need to record it more that way.

Don't discount using loops. There are lots of natural sounding loops with great natural feel and they usually come with fills that match the groove. Also you can buy or find midi tracks you can get and piece together with fills and variations... or god forbid, find a partner in crime who has more experience doing drum tracks and collaborate!