Believable Beats Part 1

A Drummer’s Guide To Studio Recording

By Garrett Haines Originally published in the August 2008 issue of DRUM!

When people talk about sampling in the context of music production, they can mean different things. In general, sampling refers to taking a portion of one sound recording (the sample) and using it as an element in a new recording. The process we’re concerned with here is recording an instrument at various pitches and volumes in order to reuse it at a later date. Let’s get started.

Why Sample?

There are a variety of reasons why you might want to invest the time into sampling your kit. One reason might be for the sake of the instrument itself. In our example, Dan Dills is sampling a 1964 Slingerland kit that originally belonged to his father, Tony. Not only is this a collectable vintage set, it’s a family heirloom, so Dan wants to protect it from the wear and tear of the road.

Some drummers add samples to their live show, either as part of a dedicated electronic kit, in the form of a trigger, or replayed via computer. Having your drums sampled can also be useful in the studio. Samples can be used to replace bad hits or to augment the studio kit you used. If you write or produce demo songs, you can program your playing in your software’s drum editor, and then have it use your kit for playback. This allows you to make demos without waking the neighbors. Instead of generic drums, your demos will be more believable since they use your personal kit. Another purpose is to generate income: Some people like to sell, trade, or rent samples among their fellow musicians. Finally, you might simply just be adventurous and want to see what this process is all about.

Traditional Sampler Format

A sampler is an electronic device that can play back recordings (or “samples”) of different sounds. In traditional hardware-based samplers, the samples are usually stored in RAM. Since RAM was very expensive when samplers were developed, only portions of an instrument were sampled (say, one key per octave on a piano), and the files were compressed during storage. When the sample is triggered (meaning to invoke playback), the sampler outputs the audio. Consideration is given to variables such as modulation, volume,sustain, and so on. For example, if you command for a piano note to be held for ten seconds, the sampler will decompress the source sample, then loop it over and over to give the impression that the note lasts long enough. If the note requested is not one of the originally sampled notes, the sampler will perform a pitch-shifting process in order to return the proper note. In theory, the pitch-shifting algorithms are transparent. However, many accomplished musicians and audio engineers disagree, suggesting the results sound artificial.

Producers and engineers familiar with this technology tend to classify samplers as either phrase or studio samplers. Phrase samplers are more suitable to drum production. Each key (or velocity pad) is mapped to one drum sample. This allows users to play and program rhythms by hitting the pads of the sampler. The Akai MPC series is one of the most popular types of phrase sampler, being used extensively in rap, electronic, and live production (Fig. 1).

Figure 1

Studio samplers often use piano keyboards to trigger samples — even for drums. The samples are mapped across the notes of the keyboard (a process known as “keymapping”). For example, if we were playing back a sample of a xylophone, each note would be triggered by its corresponding note on the piano keyboard. Obviously, this approach works well with note-based samples.

Both phrase and studio samplers can recognize how hard the user plays a key or strikes a pad. The harder a person plays (known as the velocity of the note), the louder the sample. In simplistic setups, the sampler simply raises the volume, but more advanced units will recall a separately recorded, louder sample. This is crucial for creating believable sounds, especially for drums.

Hardware-based samplers are stable (especially when compared to their computer-based counterparts), have a streamlined user interface, and are portable. They’ve also been around long enough that most manufacturers have had time to work out kinks and bugs with their systems. Popular brands of hardware samplers are made by Akai, Roland, E-MU, Korg. Yamaha.

Computer Samples And Disc Streaming

With lower prices and increased processing power, it was only a matter of time before computers became legitimate competition for hardware samplers. Today, scores of software applications have the ability to sample, play back samples, or sequence samples (the process of mapping out which sample plays, when it plays, and what it sounds like). Popular software sequencers include Propellerhead’s Reason, Cakewalk Sonar, MOTU Digital Performer, Steinberg Cubase, Apple Logic, and Image-Line Software’s FL Studio.

Of particular note is “hypersampling,” a term Propellerhead coined to refer to the process by which each drum is recorded at multiple velocity levels, from multiple angles, using different sets of microphones. While other sequencers can play only one sample, or stack multiple samples on one key, the Reason approach is closer to the real world. For example, when the command for a snare drum hit is received by Reason’s NN-XT Advanced Sampler, not only will the primary (or close mike) sample play, but the sample collected from each mike during the recording session can play back. This is similar to being in a real recording studio with a real drummer. By routing the NN-XT tracks to different mixer channels, you can blend the sound of the samples as if you were actually using all of those microphones.

In recent years, a completely new approach to sample playback has emerged. Instead of using short samples, and then reconstructing them at playback, each note of an instrument is recorded at full length and stored in high resolution. Known as disc streaming, this process plays actual recordings instead of reconstructed, pitch-shifted, or looped fragments of audio. First made popular by Tascam’s GigaStudio application, the advantages of disc streaming include a level of authenticity never before achieved by a sampler. Instruments that were difficult to sample (such as strings and cymbals) are now fully realistic (Fig. 2).

Figure 2. Tascam GigaStudio

Consider the low bass notes of a concert grand piano. Some notes take up to 30 seconds to decay. No loop could begin to reconstruct that type of situation. Of course, this fidelity comes at a price. Disc streaming systems require large amounts of hard drive space. For example, a piano on a hardware sampler might require 300KB of RAM space, while the same piano would take over 2GB of space. It also takes a state-of-the-art system to play complex instruments without glitches. In addition to GigaStudio, Steiberg’s HALion and MOTU’s MachFive are two popular applications that support streaming.

Why the science lesson? It’s important to know what type of sampler will be used to playback your drums. Additionally, it’s important to know where the industry is going in terms of technology and practice. In our example, Dan wants to sample his vintage kit so he can use the audio for years to come. Had he done this project a few years ago, he might have taken only a few, short samples. He would be limited in the variety and quality of his sounds, not to mention how unconvincing his cymbals would have turned out. Now, armed with a little background on sampling options, we’re ready to do a better job with this project.

Capture Software

There are a variety of quality applications available that will let you record, edit, and save your audio. The following is by no means an exhaustive list. As a studio owner, I recommend you use a studio in your area. They will have microphones, preamplifiers, and an acoustic space designed to give you the best quality. However, if you want to try this at home, you’ll need to have a capture program to help you. I found a great title called SAMPLIT by SAFTA CONSULTING, Inc. (http://www.cdxtract.com). With SAMPLIT, you can record your drums and cymbals, edit the file, and convert the sounds to a sampler library. As a bonus, SAMPLIT works on both PC and Mac OS X. All you need is an audio interface, some microphones, and a preamp. These items are beyond the scope of our discussion, but have been covered in these pages in past issues of DRUM!

Continue in Part 2.