Drum Design Synths

I’m looking for a ‘best’ or a best combination of drum design synths. I
know some of you out there have experienced many or if not all of them
and im wondering which ones you have stuck with!

Thank you!

i highly recommend using samples. there are infinite amounts of samples in the internet, no real need to time-consumingly synthesize your own.

I synthesize probably 80% of my drums, I think it gives a great deal more flexibility and I often automation a bunch of the synthesis parameters on a per step basis. I use reaktor and have built dozens of drum synths using a wide range of synthesis methods. I also use a hardware modular for drum sounds. Probably my favorite though are the elektron boxes, which are all great at making drums. Drum synthesis, analog or digital just sounds so much more alive to me than electronic drum samples. Samples definitely have an important role in electronic music, but I’d rather roll my own than use stock 808 and 909 samples or someone else’s idea as to what idm/glitch drums should sound like. For acoustic percussion and drum kits, samples are obviously a different case.

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Microtonic by Sonic Charge… Elastic Drums and Seekbeats if you have an iOS device.

S’all about layering samples w/ synthesized drums - you get the crispness, snap, and control from the synth’d drums and the texture, presence, and warmth/feel from the sampled drums.

serum works great, especially when you add more effects since there is only so much you can inside the synth itself

Why are you in such a hurry?
Shouldn’t rush production, imo.
Say you just feel like making tunes but are low on ideas, may as well start with a drum synth. Can’t hurt to have your own drum sample kit either.

because when i have ideas to lay down i need a certain amount of sounds to try and get the fundamentals down. the most tunes i finished have been finished in a day, no rush, just making music until i stop.
sure you can synthesize your own and i am clearly not familiar on the current state of drum synths but in my experience they can’t easily/quickly do anything special i could need for ‘drums’

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you have a generic attitude towards drums. Just because they don’t sound like standard electronic drum pack samples, doesn’t mean they can’t be needed for drums. Heck, just tacking on a few drumsynths as layers to other hits can take you a long way.

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ok yh no, you got the wrong one with ‘Just because they don’t sound like standard electronic drum pack samples, doesn’t mean they can’t be needed for drums’

i’m very well aware of that and am not limiting myself by things like that.

i just meant what i already said, it being timeconsuming.

I honesly use samples, but I layer them or I mix them in a separate project. So I use over 3 or 4 snares just to get the perfect snare. For the kicks I if it’s dubstep (or or anyother sub-genre with “step” in it) I use 2 or 3 samples. One for the punch, and the other ones for bass.

im with him, if it takes too long you get bored and the flow disapears, guess some people have the patience, remember hearing BoC used to spend like 2 days getting a hihat right, mental

make drums in sytrus

Yeah, you don’t need a drum synth per se, just a general synth. FM works well, I use Absynth.

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Elastic Drums has evolved into a pretty sick little ecosystem of its own - some could use it for p much everything including bass, synth, and sampler stuff.

The Ableton Set export capability is gonna come in handy (@cyclopian @knobgoblin, looking at you) and in general it’s arguably the most feature-intensive drum anything I’ve ever used. Not bad for $10.

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any samplers that can randomize sets with point N click? ex: slot 1 folder 100 pure kicks, etc

Not quite pnc but you can do something like this in Reaper’s Samplomatic (round robin probability based trigger.)

Tbh just use samples and pitch em and layer em up.

If u are knobgoblin and can synthesise drums well then sure go ahead.

I usually cba

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Agreed. I’ve watched a fair share of tutorials on synthesizing drums, but at the end of the day I feel my time is better spent selecting my favourite samples and just pitching/layering them as needed.

If you had that approach to cooking then i’d hate to eat at your house. :wink:

But to each their own.

Yup! And some people suck at cooking and realise that they have a better time enjoying and appreciating a good chefs hard labour and dedication to his craft. :slight_smile:

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