Dirty Drums

Getting drum sounds can sometimes be a whole day of trial and error. It isn’t always easy to get the sound you have in your head out into your DAW. That is where effects come in. While applying effects to drums has been around for quite a long time, it always fascinates me what a little “color” can do to an otherwise adequate drum sound.

 Take, for instance, this idea I started on Christmas 2008 and finally finished last week. The drum sounds I used were nice but they needed a little extra flavor. Although applying some reverb gave them a little space, the drums were crying out for something more. I remembered that I had bough this great Reason Refill called Filter Research. It took me about an hour of trying various patches but I found the texture that would enhance the drums and add an overall balance to the track. Specifically, the Cutoff and Resonance knobs on this patch proved crucial in generating the tone for the drums. Medium low Cutoff and Medium Resonance settings provided the drums with a slight metallic bite that fit well with the rest of the track.

 Here is the clean version and here is the dirty version.