In today's world of electronic music production, creativity is a keyword to stand out.
Everywhere you see tutorials on “How to make drums like X artist” or “How to sound like X in 5 minutes”.
I think these tutorials are great for beginner-level producers. BUT. And this is a big but!
Showing new producers how to just copy the House drum loop of another artist will not teach them to be creative and find their own distinct sound.
A signature sound that will help them stand out in the vast ocean of new releases every day on streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and so on.
My goal is to inspire both new producers and existing producers and help them get more creative when producing electronic house music.
And that is exactly what we will dive into in this blog post:
Discovering creative ways to process your House drums - and make them stand out!
This was a long introduction - but I hope you are ready. Let’s go!
1 Getting LoFi with sample bit reduction
I am a big sucker for warm LoFi-sounding house drums. Not a big surprise that some of my most listened-to songs on Spotify are from LoFi House artists such as DJ Seinfeld, Baltra, Folamour.
They all, to some extent, use downsampling on their drum loops. What it does is that you reduce the sample bitrate which removes the higher frequencies of your sample.
Bit crushing is also used for emulating the drum samples being played back at a low-quality sample rate and bit depth.
This is a great way to add warmth and crunch to your drums. It also gives your drums that 90s House-inspired vibe as most of the drum sounds came from old drum machines which were made famous for this LoFi sound.
You can use plugins like:
How to get the LoFi drum sound:
Pull up any of the mentioned plugins above (or use your own plugin that can degrade the sample)
Select a lower kHz level.
Play around with a level around 12-18 kHz and you will start to hear a “degrading” or “digitalized” sound to your drums.
Now it's all up to you to find the sweet spot of how much bit reduction you want to add.
2 Add a delay with a tiny delay time
A little bit of sparkle in the stereo field hasn't hurt anybody. Well, I’m a sucker for adding crazy stereo effects to my House drum sounds.
Processing-wise, I like to slap a delay plugin on the hihats and set the delay time to almost as short as possible. In some delay plugins, playing with the feedback as well can add some almost metallic-like sounding effects.
This effect can be used throughout the entire house track or just be applied in some sections with automation clips.
Spending time twisting the knobs can make your drums grab a bunch of awesome textures. Don’t hold yourself back here.
This is a fun playground of sonic possibilities. Yay!
3 Use a Soft Clipper to add Punch
Okay, this one is cool.
By applying clipping to your drums, you “clip off” peaks in the audio file - you could say.
A soft clipper is a type of audio processing tool that is often used to add punch and definition to drums in a mix. This is because a soft clipper operates by gently limiting the dynamic range of the audio signal, rather than severely clipping it as a hard clipper does.
When applied to drums, a soft clipper can help to bring out the attack and punch of each drum hit, making them sound more prominent and defined in the mix. This is especially useful for drum sounds that are too dynamic or boomy, as the soft clipper can help to tame those frequencies and bring them into a more controlled range.
In addition to adding punch, a soft clipper can also help to add clarity and definition to drums by reducing the amount of audio distortion that occurs when the drum hits are too loud. This is because a soft clipper gently rounds off the peaks of the audio signal, rather than cutting them off completely as a hard clipper does. This results in a more transparent and natural-sounding drum sound, rather than one that is overly distorted or harsh.
If you go a bit extreme with the settings you can get a “squared-off” waveform that gives some character to your house drums. Just be careful that you don’t overdo it!
Overall, a soft clipper can be a very useful tool for adding punch and definition to drums in a mix and is often used by audio engineers and music producers to achieve a tighter and more controlled drum sound.
I love to use the Fruity Soft Clipper in FL Studio.
However, I like to try out different soft clipper plugins in the future.
Here is a list of plugins I want to try:
I think each of the soft clipper plugins will add a different vibe to my house drums.
4 Use auto-panning on hihats to add movement
This next one made a difference to my house drums!
*Drum roll*
Adding an auto-panner to my hihats!
As most of us, bedroom house producers rely on one-shot samples and might not own expensive analogue drum machines and modular gear to add natural movement and variation to our drums, we need to do something else.
And something can be done in the “digital realm” to add movement and excitement to your house drums. The auto-panner is your go-to tool!
An auto-panner is a type of audio effect that adds movement and depth to a sound by automatically panning it back and forth across the stereo field. This can be especially effective when applied to high-frequency sounds like hi-hats in house music.
The auto-panner typically has a few adjustable parameters, such as the panning rate, depth, and waveform shape. You can adjust these parameters to achieve the desired amount of movement and modulation in the hi-hats.
For example, you might set the panning rate to a moderate tempo to match the beat of the track, and the depth to a moderate amount to give the hi-hats a subtle, sweeping motion.
You might also experiment with different waveform shapes, such as a sine wave or a triangle wave, to achieve different timbral effects.
Overall, an auto-panner can be a useful tool for adding motion and depth to house hi-hats, and can help to create a more dynamic and immersive listening experience. In my opinion, it makes your House hihats sound organic.
By experimenting with different parameters and settings, you can find the perfect balance of movement and modulation to suit your specific track and artistic vision. I like to turn off the beat-syncing, so the panning rate is “running free” and doing more unexpected changes to the hihats.
You have to try this for yourself!
I use the Pan module in the Shaperbox plugin from CableGuys.
It’s pretty neat!
Watch my video tutorial on House hihats:
5 Automate the pitch for an unreal sounding drum fill
Pitched drums? Why not?
Fiddling with the pitch knob can make your house drums sound a bit more alive.
I use pitching a lot for my House drum fills. It adds so much character and vibe.
In FL Studio I create an automation clip on the pitch of the drums.
Try to start with -12 oct and then automate it to +12 oct at the end of the drum fill. It can generate some wicked results.
Draw a different automation shape to create unexpected pitch changes for the House drum fill.
TIP: If you add a bit of Reverb and delay, the changes from the pitch will make the House drum fills sound insane. Trust me!
Sum up:
These are just some of the techniques I use for creative house drum processing.
Try out some of them and see if they fit your own house drums.
I hope you got inspired! 😀
Looking for cool LoFI drum samples?
Check out my sample pack LÄMMERFYRs LoFi Garage Drums 👈
