Where to start in Battery 3

SynesthesiaC

Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2008
Hi all.

I've been starting to explore Battery 3 the last few days, and am still not entirely sure what I'm doing. Battery has so many kits, so many drum sounds, and so many various effects I never quite know where to begin.

What kits do people use in battery 3? What are the best drum sounds?

So, I guess I'm just askin, Anyone got any advice for the best ways to start creating heavy DnB beats in Battery 3?
 
You won't get far with the drum and bass kit. I tend to create a different kit for my kick, snare hats etc per project.
I'll have a kick track, I'll open an empty Battery. I'll browse - cell library - kick drums - choose the ones I like at the time (probably one with a fast attack, one with a nice tail, one with a bit of grit.....whatever)
I'll go back and set them all to play on (eg) C1. Then I'll edit each cell so that the volume balance, eq, ADSR envelope etc etc all fit together nicely.
Hey presto. Hit C1 and I've got my custom kick.

Repeat for snare, hihats.... blah blah

Trial and error, read the manual, all that.
 
You won't get far with the drum and bass kit. I tend to create a different kit for my kick, snare hats etc per project.
I'll have a kick track, I'll open an empty Battery. I'll browse - cell library - kick drums - choose the ones I like at the time (probably one with a fast attack, one with a nice tail, one with a bit of grit.....whatever)
I'll go back and set them all to play on (eg) C1. Then I'll edit each cell so that the volume balance, eq, ADSR envelope etc etc all fit together nicely.
Hey presto. Hit C1 and I've got my custom kick.

Repeat for snare, hihats.... blah blah

Trial and error, read the manual, all that.


Thanks for the reply, helped a lot.
 
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I just want a real punchy snare with a kick to it. I've spent ages right clicking on each cell and scrolling through the snares (acoustic processed, acoustic, analog, brush, digital, rim shot and side stick, rolls and bounces) but still cant find any really good ones.

Want them to sound like this one, with some real oomph;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE8CvzjzZoY

I guess I need to buy/download some decent punchy snares to add to battery. Any suggestions?

Thing is I'm more of a tune/melody guy. I write the tune, then put the drums in after. Most do it the other way.
 
In your reply you asked about the ADHSR envelope, but now you've edited that out. Oh well, I had replied anyway......so....

Ok. You're looking at The Battery interface. You have your cell selected. You have the 'cell' tab selected. On the right at the top there is the 'Volume Envelope' section. Turn it on. The envelope will become visible over the wave form of the drum hit, there running across the bottom of the window.

Now A (attack) H (hold) D(decay) S(sustain) R(release)

Attack: the time, in ms, it takes for the sample to go from 0 to full volume.
Hold: the time, in ms, the sample stays at full volume.
Decay: the time, in ms, it takes for the sample to fade to the sustain level.
Sustain: the sustain level.
Release: the time, in ms, the sample keeps sounding after the key/midi note/ trigger is released.

Play around with these settings, watching the envelope move over the waveform, and you will realise that you can do all sorts of magic with your hits.

Cut out the attack and just use the tail

Just use the attack and ignore the body of the hit.

Shorten the whole sound by reducing the sustain and release values. (Be careful, if you cut them too drastically you end up with a click at the end of the sample)

So, when you are layering some samples as I described earlier, your can shape them into one sound by using the attack from one, the body from another, and the ringing tail from another. for example, etc etc.

Sorry for the novel.
Hope it helps.
 
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Alright, you posted again while I was typing.
You can use this method I just tried to describe to make your own snare/kick/anything as punchy/whatever as you like.
Just mix up the samples. take the best of all worlds.

Edit: Actually, reading what you said, there's no reason why you can't layer in a kick there with your snare, just use the envelope to hide it in there for some punch/weight.
 
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In your reply you asked about the ADHSR envelope, but now you've edited that out. Oh well, I had replied anyway......so....

Yeah, I asked the question, but then found it myself in battery, so started to figure it out myself.

But your reply was much better than anything I learnt by myself, cheers :)
 
I just want a real punchy snare with a kick to it. I've spent ages right clicking on each cell and scrolling through the snares (acoustic processed, acoustic, analog, brush, digital, rim shot and side stick, rolls and bounces) but still cant find any really good ones.

Want them to sound like this one, with some real oomph;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE8CvzjzZoY

I guess I need to buy/download some decent punchy snares to add to battery. Any suggestions?

Thing is I'm more of a tune/melody guy. I write the tune, then put the drums in after. Most do it the other way.


carefully layer a kick behind your chosen snare.
 
I like using Battery to come up with cheeky percussion hooks and melodies that my un melodic brain would usually struggle to come up with. The old - fire up as many little half second synth shots seems to work for me.

Other than that I think you cant beat Kontakt
 
I like using Battery to come up with cheeky percussion hooks and melodies that my un melodic brain would usually struggle to come up with. The old - fire up as many little half second synth shots seems to work for me.

Other than that I think you cant beat Kontakt

Me'sa have Kontakt 3 too. :)

Never used it yet. Haven't worked out half the synths I got with Komplete 5 yet. But I will get round to it, for sure.
 
Gave Battery 3 a go for a long time. Just ended up pulling my hair out. One word of advice.... Ditch Battery and get Guru..
Guru is everything battery is and better IMO and it is so much easier to use!
 
Thanks for all the advice peeps, slowly getting there.

One more question: Is there any way to get a kit loaded with all the snare drums? Or a kit with all the kick drums? I find it takes a lot of time to right click on each cell, go into the sub menu's for each type, and scroll through the hundreds of drum sounds untill I find one. Would be much easier if I could just filter all the snares for example into one big kit and click and sample each of them and pick out which ones I like.
 
I don't think so straight out of the box. But here's a thing to try if you haven't already.
Open a blank kit, open the browser tab (down to the right) open cell library,snares,acoustic(whichever)
Now if you click on one of the samples it 'should' preview (This is one area that is a bit glitchy for me in Battery)
But then if you like the sound you double click and it will insert in the highlighted cell in the matrix. Click the next cell to highlight it, repeat until you fill the kit and then save it as eg: (snares1)
 
Thanks for all the advice peeps, slowly getting there.

One more question: Is there any way to get a kit loaded with all the snare drums? Or a kit with all the kick drums? I find it takes a lot of time to right click on each cell, go into the sub menu's for each type, and scroll through the hundreds of drum sounds untill I find one. Would be much easier if I could just filter all the snares for example into one big kit and click and sample each of them and pick out which ones I like.

Not sure if this will help but I reckon get your sample directories in order first (if you haven't already). Download....erm I mean BUY some pre made kits? There's an awesome pendulum kit out there somewhere that I used to use a while back. Also can you not just click and drak samples from your software sub menu into the instument banks?
 
Not sure if this will help but I reckon get your sample directories in order first (if you haven't already). Download....erm I mean BUY some pre made kits? There's an awesome pendulum kit out there somewhere that I used to use a while back. Also can you not just click and drak samples from your software sub menu into the instument banks?

Ok so i've pretty much given up on battery 3's library. Theres loads of drums for sure, but most are mediocre, and it would take days to find the few good sounding ones and put them into a kit to use.


<Do loop>

Find cell > right click > find kit list > decide > expand > decide type of sample > expand > scroll to sample > select > play cell > decide.

<if>
Like sound of sample

<then>
Keep sample

<else>
Delete sample

</end if>

</Loop until insane>


o_O

What sample library would people recommend I buy? I'm not looking for a huge library (already have one) rather one with really good quality samples in.
 
vengeance house vol 2 is pretty decent...
but as long u have a relatively good kick, you can add minor tweaks to make it fit nicely in ur track.

its gonna be hard to find a kick, snare etc that is a perfect match for your track, otherwise it would be easy to make a track.. you might as well just do a jigsaw.

its all about tweaking.
 
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