Electronic/Programmed Drums

When all else fails in regards to percussion, my last line of defense consists of software instruments. Until I had an acoustic drum kit of my own with enough preamps and microphones to record it to my liking, I used programmed “acoustic” drums for most of my songs.

There are a few problems with this approach.

First, despite the variety of presets to choose from, using pre-recorded drum samples limits a bedroom producer’s tonal options. When I record my acoustic kit, I have to make all sorts of choices that determine the end result, from the tuning of the drums to the preamps to the microphone placement. Programmed drums come as they are. Second, although the bedroom producer has some control over their velocity (a fancy way of saying “how hard the drum is hit”), programmed drums tend to have a smaller dynamic range than real acoustic drums, which makes them sound overly compressed, relative to the rest of the mix, particularly if there are few or no other software instruments in the mix. Third, and most importantly, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to get programmed drums to sound like a real performance, even if they’re quantized. In fact, quantization can, and let me be clear that it doesn’t always, but it can make programmed drums sound worse, by making them stiff and awkward.

I’ve been able to get pretty dang close to “real” on many a song, but at the end of the day, there are certain drumming techniques and styles that simply cannot be reproduced via samples, and a seasoned ear (especially a drummer’s) will usually notice the difference.

Now that I’ve trashed electronic drums, let me redeem them. Although I now only use programmed “acoustic” drums as a placeholder when writing music, I’ve found plenty of use for drum machine emulators in songs that call for an electronic beat, whether it be for the entirety of the song or simply one small section or sections of it.

This is most often the case with hip-hop and ambient, but electronic drums can find their way into pop music and even rock, on occasion.

The most efficient way I've found to record electronic drums is with a MIDI controller connected directly to my computer, though in one unique situation, I actually positioned a microphone above the built-in speaker of an old electric organ that featured its own drum machine. A good bedroom producer will do whatever it takes to get the right sounds into the DAW!