15 Tips to Improve Your Drum Programming – MIDI Drums

Drum programming may be a challenging part of music production for some individuals. Getting the drums to appear realistic as if they were performed by a real drummer, is difficult. But fear not, it is possible to do so with MIDI drums.

Do you feel like your drum tracks don’t compare against others in your genre? Are your drums sounding flat or overly metronomic? Do they feel unoriginal or lacking in ideas?

These are all very common issues that music producers face. In this article, we’re going to go through 15 tips to bring your beats to the next level.

Many of these tips can be worked on straight away so let’s get started now!

At a Glance

• The most effective changes start with the pattern. Study the common beats for your style, shape the timing and accents, then compare your mix with a reference track.
• Use quality drum samples and plugins for the best result and don’t be afraid to carve your sound using EQ.
• Record your beats using MIDI for extra dynamics and accuracy or even try making your drum beats more organic like Jon Hopkins, for example, who creates much of his beats using recordings of his own voice and beatboxing.
• Quantize the hits that pull the beat out of time. If the kick gets buried in the mix, try sidechain compression or bring out more of the kick’s attack.
• Naturally, you can use saturation, compression, and even the automation capabilities of your DAW.
• Lastly, get some feedback from a friend as it’s easy to lose track and sense when working on a particular track for a prolonged period.

1. Record Your Beats Using MIDI

It’s very possible to sequence drum beats on your DAW with a mouse and keyboard, but using MIDI drum pads or electronic drum pads can add a bit of extra life to your beats. Check that the pads send MIDI to your DAW.

Play a few bars over a click. A pad performance captures when you hit each note and how hard you played it, so you can keep the accents that came naturally and fix individual hits in the piano roll.

Check the MIDI output on your electronic drum set. Use USB MIDI if the module supports it, or connect its MIDI Out to an interface with MIDI In. For finger drumming, a USB controller such as the Korg nanoPAD2 gives you velocity-sensitive pads.

Load a drum instrument on a MIDI track, select the module or pad controller as its input, then arm the track and check that every pad triggers the right sound. With an e-kit, test the snare rim and hi-hat pedal as well as the main hits. If an articulation is wrong, start with your module’s mapping preset in the drum instrument, or match the incoming note and any pedal control data manually.

In Live 12, enable Track for the device’s MIDI input, then arm the Drum Rack track with monitoring set to Auto. If every hit feels late as you play, try a smaller audio buffer and bypass effects that add latency while tracking. Raise the buffer a step if the audio starts to crackle.

2. Study the Common Drum Beats for Your Style of Music

The type of music you’re playing often has a signature type of drum sound. This might be something that fans will expect to hear.

For example, house music on a basic level often has a classic kick sound on every beat, a hi-hat sound evenly between all of these (on the ‘and’ of the beat).

Understand the de-facto ‘rules’ for beats of your genre, and then decide if you want to break them or not! Making slight changes to the common beats of your genre can actually still come out with an original sound, so they are not a bad place to start.

I was going to create an infographic explaining different drum patterns, then I spotted this fantastic video. It’s definitely worth watching:

3. Should You Quantize?

Quantization moves notes toward a timing grid. Pick a grid that matches the part you played. An eighth-note grid can shift intentional sixteenth-note pickups onto the wrong beat.

Try tightening a late kick or snare first and leave the hats alone while you listen back. If you want to keep some of the timing from the take, start with a partial quantize amount. In Live 12, open Quantize Settings, choose the subdivision and lower Amount so the selected notes move only partway to the grid.

4. Alter Velocity or Use Swing & Groove Features

Shape the accents in the velocity lane. Try alternating stronger and softer eighth-note hi-hats, and keep snare ghost notes quieter than the backbeat. If your drum instrument uses velocity layers, a softer hit can also trigger a different sample.

Swing delays every other subdivision, while random timing can move hits in either direction. In Live 12’s Groove Pool, try a swing preset with Random and Velocity set to zero, then raise Timing until the hats sit where you want them. Keep kick and snare on a separate clip if you only want the groove on the hats.

The video below shows the Groove Pool in an older version of Live. You can follow the same Timing and Random controls in Live 12. The Ableton Live 12 Suite link opens the full Suite licence. If you already have Live 12 with Drum Rack, you can use it for the exercise.

5. Use Quality Drum Samples and Plugins

Some well-produced, royalty-free drum samples might sound perfect for your track. Perhaps you rather use your time saved to focus on other parts of your track such as the vocals, arrangement, melody, mixing, and mastering.

The use of drum samples and presets is a topic that music producers will probably always remain divided on. It’s totally a matter of preference. If you want to use them, then go ahead. However, make sure to use drum samples that you have a license for, otherwise, you could get in trouble later on. The last thing you want after a successful release is to have to engage in a legal battle or claim against your royalties.

Many great drum plugins are dedicated to helping you carve out a drum sound. If you want a played-kit feel, look for a drum instrument with velocity layers and different hi-hat articulations. If you’re building a kit from one-shots in Live 12, put your open and closed hats in the same Drum Rack choke group so the closed hit cuts off the open sample. Check out our guide to the best drum VSTs for more options.

6. Try Making Your Drums Sound More Organic

Jon Hopkins, a modern-day legend of electronic music, creates much of his beats using recordings of his own voice and beatboxing. This makes his beats sound like almost nobody else and really helps him get away from the more generic sound that sample packs can bring.

However, you don’t need to go as far as Jon Hopkins. If you don’t want to record your own, you should still consider processing your beats in a way that makes them sound unique for your own track. We have some great tips on how to do this up ahead, so keep on reading!

Check out this tutorial by Julian Earle. It’s worth checking out his channel because he churns out top-quality tutorials on a very frequent basis:

7. Bring out the Top-end of Your Kick

The low end of your kick gives it the required umph, but the often overlooked high-end portion is a part that really makes it come out in the mix.

Make sure you represent both the low-end and high-end of your kick. You can mix two different samples together and separate the frequencies using EQ.

This will bring out the kick drum more and give it a fuller sound in order to stand out and guide the rhythm of the song.

8. Tune Your Drums!

Your drums have a tone, and this can be particularly noticeable in some kick samples. Where possible, try to match the key of your drums to the key of the song.

Most DAWs have a stock tuner plugin that can automatically detect this. Then you can either tune the drum samples you are using or search for drum samples in the required key.

Nevertheless, tuning is an important part that can make a huge difference. An out-of-tune instrument or track is unpleasant, to say the least.

9. Use Sidechain Compression

Consider using sidechain compression on your other tracks to duck down the sound when the kick is being played. This helps to bring out the kick sound for much more punch.

Check out this great tutorial from the immensely useful Point Blank Music School:

10. Reference Against Other Tracks

During the mixing process, you should compare your drum track against other well-produced tracks in the same genre.

When focusing on the mixing process, you might hone in and start second-guessing certain decisions. For example, you might feel like the hi-hat is too loud, but it might actually be much lower in volume against commercial releases.

Particularly for beginners, it’s very difficult to mix music without a reference track. Early on in my career, referencing against other tracks helped me notice that my hi-hats were always lacking in the hi-end, my snare didn’t have enough punch, and my kick was not coming through well in the mix.

Mixing against commercial releases might make us feel a bit inferior at the start, but you must set the bar high if you want to be a great producer.

Your drums will likely not be listened to in isolation within the track. Try to take a step back and mix your drums within the context of the overall song.

It’s also worth throwing a general mastering chain on your track to try to get an idea of what the song will sound like when the volume is brought up to commercial levels (Can be referred to as a pseudo-master.

Though your song will sound much better when you put more time into mastering, or preferably, after sending it to a great mastering engineer).

Heavy use of limiters can take away some of the transients out of your big hits, so your drums might not have as much punch. Take this into account during the mixing process and be careful when mastering.

11. Use Compression

Compression can make your drums sound much more punchy, and help mix them together. Though, it’s easy to over-compress drum tracks (which might not be the sound you’re going for). Compress your tracks to the point that you can hear it, then dial it back a bit!

Think about compressing and processing your beats as individual drum tracks. You can get a lot more out of your drum beats by processing each of the tracks differently.

For example, in this Rudimental deconstruction, this producer heavily compresses his drum tracks on an individual basis and then blends them all together using a glue compressor. Another great tutorial from Point Blank:

12. Use Saturation

Saturation is a great tool that’s often overlooked. It can make your track sound a lot less digital while adding a ton of punch.

It’s very easy to go overboard on saturation. It’s a matter of preference, but as it goes for most effects, I recommend bringing it up to the point that it’s noticeable and then dialing it back a bit.

Start with your DAW’s stock saturator if it has one. On a drum bus in Live 12, raise Saturator’s Drive until you hear the change, then trim Output so you can compare it with the bypassed sound at a similar level. Softube Saturation Knob is a free option for compatible Windows and Mac hosts. It installs through Softube Central and requires Softube and iLok accounts. Check out our article on the best saturation and distortion plugins for more choices.

13. Carve Your Sound Using EQ

Don’t be afraid to carve your sound using EQ. Perhaps you only need the mid and high-end of your hi-hats. In this case, duck out the low end. If you are using multiple samples together for the same purpose then don’t be afraid to separate these sounds using EQ. This can help to reduce phasing issues.

Every music producer should be well-versed in the use of EQs. We’re not going to go into it in detail here, but if you need to learn how to use them then look for some tutorials on YouTube.

14. Automation is Your Friend

Use the automation capabilities of your DAW to bring your beats to life. Automate the sound of your cutoff filter, reverb, delay effects, volume, and much more! Automating these processes can bring a whole new dimension to your sound.

Check out this drums automation tutorial below to learn more!

15. Get Some Feedback From a Friend

It’s easy to lose perspective after working on a track for a long period of time. When your track is at a decent standard, think about sending it to a fellow music producer or a friend with a good ear for music.

Consider not mentioning the drum track at all, and check if they pay attention to it positively or negatively.

Don’t take feedback to heart. It can be a vulnerable experience to send your tracks out. Though it’s better to fix issues early on than regret it after release!

Summary

Drum programming is an art form in itself. It takes great skill, knowledge, and talent to create a unique-sounding drum track that brings your song to life.

It’s difficult to convey the techniques of how to program drums on paper. I would suggest you download samples or invest some time into learning how to produce music first before attempting to mimic these techniques!

So, that concludes the 15 tips to improve your drum programming. It’s worth spending some time figuring out what really works for your style of music.