Anybody with a computer (both desktop and laptop styles) can these days develop their own drum samples. While it may take some amateurs a lot of time to come to grips with the technology and settings, the workflow is quite adaptive after a few weeks and you can be making your own signature sounds. You can start today if you have an audio editor.
Tools for the task can be found online, but if you are into audio then you may already have some of the programs installed. If you have some drum samples to start with, that is the best way to go at the beginning instead of synthesizing your own sounds. You can grab free audio editors like Audacity, which is a free software program that can be downloaded (just Google it, it will be the first result!) and installed within seconds (it only works on PCs, though). If you are on a Mac, there are some free programs as well. The operations that need to be performed can be as varied as you want them to be, from cropping to equalization and more.
If you are more comfortable in programs like Reason, FL Studio and Sonar, you can do what you want to the audio and then simply export the wav sound. So if you’ve applied some good effects and want the drum sample as it stands right now, simply export that channel by itself. Chances are, you will probably have some silence at the end of the sample unless your program is smart enough to cut it out. In any case, you will be able to crop this in an audio editor easily.
When editing drum samples, you obviously need some sources. One place to get some great drums and other sounds is off old records. Simply connect a turntable to your audio interface and start recording the parts of the songs where drum breaks exist (with no other instruments) and then crop to your desire. This is called sampling, and it’s actually more popular now than it has ever been, and you can get started today if you have the equipment. You can get great samples out of this process!
Synthesizing drum samples is another option for the budding music sample connoisseur. The machines with this capability also date back many decades, including old Roland and Korg drum groove boxes with synthesizer functionality. Usually, a number of parameters are there to be modified by the user, and the traditional sound offered by that particular box usually remains with any changes, generating a nice mix between the structure of that sound and the special characteristics assigned to it.
Now that you know how to source the different drum samples, you need to be able to manipulate and alter to your liking. There are plenty of effects to change the sound of a sample, including equalization and compression techniques, so you’ll need to experiment. You will come across some methods that go well with your workflow, so just keep an open mind and try any and all recommendations until you can make your own judgment.
Did you come to find out how to make your own beats? Well, nearly everybody tells themselves “I want to make my own beats“, but not many take up the challenge. Get started today!
