Writing beats on audio tracks or drum sampler plugins?

alpanaytekin

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Istanbul / Turkey
I've been writing beats on Native Instruments' drum sampler Battery 3. But now I feel like it changes the colour of the samples so I decided to write the main hits on audio tracks. Arranging hits with MIDI was much easier so thats why I was too lazy to work on audio tracks. Does the majority of producers use audio tracks to write beats?
 
I prefer to use audio for beats because time stretching and editing is so easy in ableton also I've seen a lot of master classes and I haven't seen one where the producer uses midi for beats
 
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I've been writing beats on Native Instruments' drum sampler Battery 3. But now I feel like it changes the colour of the samples so I decided to write the main hits on audio tracks. Arranging hits with MIDI was much easier so thats why I was too lazy to work on audio tracks. Does the majority of producers use audio tracks to write beats?
It's a toss up because there are pros and cons with each. I use audio tracks until I'm satisfied with the drum kit I've created (using real samples) and then I'll drop the samples into Battery 3 or EXS24. That way I not only have the flexibility of humanizing the hits via velocity and MIDI variables, but I can quickly make pitch adjustments to tune my drums. Furthermore, I have the freedom of dropping in a new sample if I'm no longer satisfied with a particular hit, preventing me from having to re-sequence a replaced sound.

To each his/her own. Do whatever compliments your personal workflow the best.
I prefer to use audio for beats because time stretching and editing is so easy in ableton also I've seen a lot of master classes and I haven't seen one where the producer uses midi for beats

With all due respect, this is not a fair statement as most often the track depicted in the Masterclass videos has been nearly laid out in full well in advance, so we truly don't know if they've worked entirely in audio samples or merely rendered their MIDI regions to audio unless they've explicitly stated it.

To add, off the top of my head both the Loadstar and DC Breaks' videos both show them using MIDI for programming drums, specifically so they can adequately tune their snare and kick to match the key of the song.

Again, make your decision based on what works best with your workflow. Some prefer to see the audio bits so they visually see the blocks representing their hits while others prefer the flexibility of MIDI/Samplers.

Cheers.
 
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I like sequencers for the ability of droppin in a new sample for a kick or snare to see if it fits better later on in a tune.. cant use audio in Reason 5 so I dont know the advantages or if its any easier to do this using that method. I certainly miss plugins when it comes to shaping or beefing up one shots.. tho I think some of the effects that can be applied with the Kong drum designer make up for it, overdrive and transient shaping seem to be popular methods for processing drums and the cool thing is you can use these on samples and sequence them using Redrum with a bit of wiring/routing
 
use drum machine plugins for real sounding cymbals and sometimes hats. but audio for mostly everything else. check out camo and krooked computer music
 
ive been working with audio for almost a year but i have recently changed to midi. i sill use audio for shuffles etc. it could be in my head but my drums in midi just sound a lot cleaner. but when making slow tunes i will always use midi to have full control of the groove quantizing.
 
audio for me... i feel trying build a drum kit or load up a sampler does not go with with MY OWN PERSONAL WORKFLOW....plus i love seeing every single drum hit with can some times end in the 1000s :) a nice feeling
 
I prefer the visual look of a waveform over piano roll, dunno why. Haha, I like the look of audio, that's stupid.
 
Guess I'm part of the minority here then. I load up a drum rack within ableton, and add my audio drum samples to that, from which I then write out the beat in midi format! So much easier for me to get all the snares, hats and kicks etc into one section where I can quickly lay down a beat.
 
I prefer the visual look of a waveform over piano roll, dunno why. Haha, I like the look of audio, that's stupid.

Same here, I used to use midi for drums but switched to audio recently. Much prefer being able to see the waveforms of the drum hits rather than little lines of midi data.
 
Guess I'm part of the minority here then. I load up a drum rack within ableton, and add my audio drum samples to that, from which I then write out the beat in midi format! So much easier for me to get all the snares, hats and kicks etc into one section where I can quickly lay down a beat.

You & me both! :)
 
I can see why people use EXS24 for drums to tune them but slapping on a simple pitch shifter does exactly the same thing, uses less CPU imo. Plus then once its tuned you can bounce out at with it the right tuning.

To be honest iv learnt that to increase workflow there is no point in spending shit loads of times making drums sound right from the start, get the basic beat laid down and then get the tunes rolling - After that go back and change the samples and tuning if necessary.

I used to spend hours on a drum loop, not get anywhere with the tune and then all that time is wasted. If you start writing a decent bass line then and happy with the groove, go back and tighten up those drums (slightly off topic but could be useful for someone) ;)
 
Guess I'm part of the minority here then. I load up a drum rack within ableton, and add my audio drum samples to that, from which I then write out the beat in midi format! So much easier for me to get all the snares, hats and kicks etc into one section where I can quickly lay down a beat.

Totally with on this one. I find there's so much control if you have all the midi notes in one clip. It's audio that you're triggering regardless and you can mess with the sample from within the rack.
 
you can still tune drums in ultrabeat... i think most people just arent arsed about learning ultrabeat so they just jump into a sampler. ultrabeat has 4 envelopes for each sound while the exs24 has one for the whole kit if u are using one instance.
 
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