The Weight of Idleness (Metal track)

[Tenaba]

Yes, the drums are programmed; I use hydrogen drum machine for that. I use samples from TheMetalKickDrum, Open Source Drumkit, and SM Megareaper.

Thank you, i will check those out for my industrial stuff!

You're welcome, I'll post some links for your convenience.
TMKD: http://themetalkickdrum.com/
SMMR: https://smmdrums.wordpress.com/for-reaper/
OSDK: https://github.com/crabacus/the-open-source-drumkit

Though I haven't used it yet, it seems TMKD has another free drumkit released, named "Vortex".

[hm11]

Ill check those links out as well.

[oscillator]

You're welcome, I'll post some links for your convenience.
TMKD: http://themetalkickdrum.com/
SMMR: https://smmdrums.wordpress.com/for-reaper/
OSDK: https://github.com/crabacus/the-open-source-drumkit

Though I haven't used it yet, it seems TMKD has another free drumkit released, named "Vortex".

That is very kind of you, thanks!

[modusjonens]

Excellent tones and clean mixdown!

[pdechery]

Hi crownbird,

I'd listen to this and Conflict too. Sounds like modern metal to me, very dark, technical and sometimes brutal. I liked the compositions and the arrangements, it must have took quite a time to put this together.

I've read you used some external drum kits with Hydrogen. I'd like to know how you've achieved that.

One thing I've noticed is the hihat sometimes could use some velocity to humanize the sound a little.

[Tenaba]

Excellent tones and clean mixdown!

Thank you for listening! Glad you like the tones.

Hi crownbird,

I'd listen to this and Conflict too. Sounds like modern metal to me, very dark, technical and sometimes brutal. I liked the compositions and the arrangements, it must have took quite a time to put this together.

I've read you used some external drum kits with Hydrogen. I'd like to know how you've achieved that.

One thing I've noticed is the hihat sometimes could use some velocity to humanize the sound a little.

Thanks, I'll try and listen for the hi-hat next time I make another metal track.

As for drums, I just make a custom kit in Hydrogen, using the samples I linked in my previous post. Hydrogen's own interface can be a bit slow if you want to add a lot of samples, so it may be easier to work with a text editor and file manager. Here's what I did.
1. Create a new Hydrogen drumkit by selecting Drumkits > New.
2. Add all the instruments, name them, but don't add any samples yet.
3. Save your drumkit with Drumkits > Save as
4. Your empty drumkit is now in ~/.hydrogen/drumkits/$kitname. Move all the samples you need to use in this folder.
5. Open up drumkit.xml with a text editor. For each instrument, notice the <instrumentComponent> tag. Within each of these tags, add a layer tag of this form:

Code: Select all

    <layer>
     <filename>filename of sample with extension</filename>
     <min>minimum velocity from 0-1</min>
     <max>maximum velocity from 0-1</max>
     <gain>1</gain>
     <pitch>0</pitch>
    </layer>

You will have to manually change the filenames and velocity through text-editing. The minimum velocity is the lowest velocity from 0-1 that this particular sample will be triggered, and the maximum velocity is the max. Entering the velocities through text-editing can be pretty time-consuming. But if you want to use Hydrogen's GUI, you select the "Layer" tab from the instrument, and drag the velocity bar of each sample. Not sure which would be quicker.

I didn't use all the samples from huger packs like SMMR (which had more than 1000 samples for the hi-hat IIRC). Just batch-rename the samples you do want to keep to make things easier.

It's honestly quite a pain IMO if you need to change out samples, takes a bit of time at first too. I mostly made this kit because I liked the samples (especially anything by The Metal Kickdrum), and also wanted to be absolutely sure about the licensing of all the samples, so I used ones I found myself.

[pdechery]

It's honestly quite a pain IMO if you need to change out samples, takes a bit of time at first too. I mostly made this kit because I liked the samples (especially anything by The Metal Kickdrum), and also wanted to be absolutely sure about the licensing of all the samples, so I used ones I found myself.

Fantastic, I'll definitely will try it, even if it takes a little time to set up. Thanks a lot for the instructions

The hihtat issue I mentioned came in the part of the song when there's nothing but it and the riff, so it become very proeminent.

[Tenaba]

It's honestly quite a pain IMO if you need to change out samples, takes a bit of time at first too. I mostly made this kit because I liked the samples (especially anything by The Metal Kickdrum), and also wanted to be absolutely sure about the licensing of all the samples, so I used ones I found myself.

Fantastic, I'll definitely will try it, even if it takes a little time to set up. Thanks a lot for the instructions

The hihtat issue I mentioned came in the part of the song when there's nothing but it and the riff, so it become very proeminent.

No problem! And yeah, I can see the hi-hat being kind of monotonous by the solo section, since you can hear many of them consecutively. The velocity actually is varied (I like to use a "pattern" for velocity to mimic the groove that a human would have), but in this case, it would be nice to have different samples that correspond to hitting the hi-hat in a different place. So I'm thinking perhaps I might have to look at slightly detuning different hits. Thanks for letting me know.

[jdfight]

That was great! Your production quality is very nice - every track is clean and clear and the playing is great.

[Tenaba]

That was great! Your production quality is very nice - every track is clean and clear and the playing is great.

Thank you! I'm still working on getting better tones, so it's good to hear you liked the production.