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Lesson 11 from: Advanced Drum Production

Eyal Levi

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Lesson Info

11. Pop Quiz

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

Class Introduction

21:53
2

The Tone Pie and Process Overview

13:35
3

Getting the Lay of the Land and Q&A

32:58
4

Assemble Your Gear

14:34
5

Drum Tuning Part 1

33:56
6

Drum Tuning Part 2

39:49
7

Fine Tuning Tones Part 1

35:29
8

Fine Tuning Tones Part 2

54:24
9

General Guidelines of Tracking Drums

32:27
10

Tracking with Sean Reinert

32:50
11

Pop Quiz

17:57
12

Basics of Superior Drummer

30:00
13

EZDrummer vs Superior Drummer

25:32
14

Constructing a Metal Drum Kit Part 1

41:09
15

Constructing a Metal Drum Kit Part 2

26:14
16

Constructing a Rock Drum Kit

38:03
17

Grooves and Programming

14:33
18

General Q&A

18:31
19

Prepping Virtual Drums for the Mix

37:16
20

Superior Review with Q&A

22:01
21

Intro to Mixing and Drum Clean Up

33:13
22

Interview with John Douglass

25:00
23

Intro to Drum Editing

21:32
24

Manual Editing Approach

15:30
25

Editing with Beat Detective

16:46
26

Editing with Elastic Audio

29:16
27

Sample Layering

20:14
28

Replacements

23:13
29

Gain Staging and Bussing

15:45
30

Mixing Essentials

32:06
31

Compression and Parallel Compression

13:22
32

Reverb and Automation

28:18
33

Mixing Tips and Tricks

26:53

Day 2

Day 3

34

Bonus: EZDrummer - Introduction

17:38
35

Bonus: EZDrummer - Intro to EZDrummer

14:47
36

Bonus: EZDrummer - EZDrummer Foundations

29:30
37

Bonus: EZDrummer - How a Drummer Plays

19:51
38

Bonus: EZDrummer - Part Writing Part 1

32:54
39

Bonus: EZDrummer - Part Writing Part 2

29:35
40

Bonus: EZDrummer - Part Writing Q&A

10:21
41

Bonus: EZDrummer - Intro to Grooves

13:48
42

Bonus: EZDrummer - Writing from Scratch

26:49
43

Bonus: EZDrummer - Intro to Fills

20:51
44

Bonus: EZDrummer - Writing Fills

27:20
45

Bonus: EZDrummer - Mixing in Your DAW

14:13
46

Bonus: EZDrummer - Bussing and EQ

25:36
47

Bonus: EZDrummer - Compression and Reverb

18:26
48

Bonus: EZDrummer - Conclusion with Q&A

12:30
49

Bonus Video: Editing

1:07:00
50

Bonus Video: Toms and Cymbals

29:02
51

Bonus Video: Snare Midi

32:26
52

Bonus Video: Kick Midi

20:35

Lesson Info

Pop Quiz

from me talking about superior drummer today and going to start by basically asking you guys a question. And ah, question is, which of these tracks has virtual drums on it in which one is real drums? These aren't final mixes or anything. This is just some stuff in progress, which is going to make it easier for you guys to tell the difference. So let me know which ones. Really? Which ones? Virtual. All right, enough of that one. Check this one rial or virtual and last example Riel or virtual. And, uh, and you guys could let me know. All right? No, for that. So, uh, any thoughts you want to go first? Which of those was virtual, which was, um, I I think that the 2nd 1 was virtual and the other two were riel. But I could be completely wrong because that will sound really good. But you my vote is that the first is really second to a virtual. And what about the 1st 1 sounded real to you? Ah, the varied, I guess. Tones and, um accentuation of the snare and some of the the hits. Ah, kind of. T...

hat's what I was listening for? I guess so. Okay, I I thought they all sounded pretty good. Um, but I You have to guess I would agree with him, that the 1st 1 was riel and the other two were virtual. All right. We can skip you. I actually would prefer to skip. Yeah, well, I think they also Good. Thank you. Let me tell you about a few of the key features of tune tracks. Period Drummer. Yeah. I actually think all of them were virtual, I think. Very unusual. We had to. I put three. They're ah, they're all virtual. So tricked some of you, but not some of the other ones. What about an Internet? What were people saying? There were so many different varieties. There was, like a few people who thought the 1st 1 was really second virtual a couple who flopped, and then a few that I guess that all three were virtual as well. Yep. So what you thought, Bill, I thought they also Good. Thank you. All right, well, point is, some of you guys were tricked. Some of you guys who have worked with virtual drums know what to listen for. But point is that a lot of people can't even tell the difference. And in my opinion, you shouldn't really be able to tell the difference. Unless if you're working on this stuff the naked era of you've done your job, Teoh. I guess to the untrained listener, there is no difference. At the end of the day, it really is the same thing. And, uh, so we're gonna be talking about I'm talking about virtual drums. Basics of superior drummer. Uh, I'm gonna create two different kits, one that's more for metal one that's more for rock. Kind of like these examples that I showed you guys, I'm gonna get into grooves and programming, not in full detail like it did in the easy drummer class. You guys want to go into detail on programming, check out the easy drummer class and we're gonna prep for mixing day. Three of this whole thing is about mixing. So the reason we have Superior Drummer Ah, whole day devoted to spear drummers because chances are that if you're making records, you're gonna make records of superior drummer. You're not only gonna be making records with live drummers, So how do you prep these tracks or mixing. Not just how do you write with them are produced with them. So we're going to get into that Also one and where to use Superior Drummer and I go around the room. Where would you use it? Got any ideas? Um, well, I've never used or open the program, so I'm not exactly sure what is capable of doing, but I'm assuming. Yeah, that's what I'm here, right? Yeah. Um, but I suppose you can use it to replace sounds, Um, if you're tracking a live kit, um, need to get rid of poor bass sound. Perhaps you can do that with it. Okay. And I see you in a way number just sex completely. You can get rid of them. Um, yes. We talked about that yesterday. That having the talk and making the choice to go virtual. Yeah. Sometimes you don't want Teoh record the rial drummer for whatever reason. And, uh, as you can tell from these tracks, most people will not be able to tell the difference. Uh, about you. When would you use it? If ever. Ah, I guess when we want to suggest using it, what one would I suggest using it I mean, if you don't have a space or a drum kit or a drum set, you know it, but you want the drum sound. Uh, that's that's what I would suggest for me if I was going to use it. I would do it because I could get creative, do like 16 different kick drums or something, and, um, I would I'm guessing I would probably use it mainly, since I'm recording myself. If I have to have the talk with myself and kicked myself out, then that could replace myself with Superior Drummer. Um, no, I would probably, I'm guessing, use it mainly to enhance the sound of what I've already recorded. Well, since you're a drummer, I'll tell you that I know plenty of drummers and really big bands who write all their parts out in Superior and then have even elected toe have superior be the what's on the record instead of them just because it sounds better than them or because it's just une easier process. For whatever reason, there's actually more things that you can do in superior than you can do in real life. There's some options that I can show you guys later that you just can't do with live drums. It was just physically impossible to do. And so there are some drummers in some really big bands who have made the decision to go the superior out with their tracks. And so it's not even about having the talk. Sometimes it's an artistic choice all the way. Um, what about you? Uh, and I guess for myself, I would just use it because I simply don't have the room or the space to do actual drums. Um, I live in an apartment, so I just That's just not possible eso during this period, everything would just be a cool thing to do just because I could still, you know, make it sound really big and professional whatever, like without having Ashley used to real drums and stuff just because of, like, a sip, something as simple as a living situation. Well, I actually I can relate to that. I have a really nice drum room and all that, but I don't always have a really awesome drummer there, and I'm writing music all the time, so I don't have some guy on hand that I could just say play this play that for this change, this change that do whatever I want. I don't like the way it sounds. Let's set everything up all over again. Swap this out. You know, doing that in real life takes a long time, whereas in superior, it takes minutes or less, depending on how well you know the program. So there's Ah, there's an efficiency to it that you can't get with live drums. And actually, recently I've started to do something where on records I will pre pro in superior no matter what, it doesn't matter. They have a live drummer or not, or we're going to record drums or not always start in superior and do scratch tracks to that, and then possibly even record the guitar so that now, if I was recording a band like cynic, that one happened. But, um, let's just say that for bands that are gonna be to the click and a lot of stuff sink to a lot of other stuff, like bass drums to guitars to base, um, or, you know, some popular style of music heavy music. We will do it and superior first. I know I'm not the only guy who does this pre pro possibly even do all the real tracts of guitar and vocals and bass to superior? And then finally, at the end, after you made all the changes, then record the real drums? Possibly, if you need to, you might not even need to. Might sound great at that point. And you're good to go. But, uh, anyways, just saying that I can definitely relate to your situation about you. I bet you would never use it. From what? From what I learned about you? Yes. Um, so it is unlikely that I would ever be using it, except in the circumstance in which I could not, or this guy who drums in my van who had not played those parts. So if I wanted to play in a crazy tech like an Internet tech death project or whatever, we just neither of us could play those drums. I wouldn't even want to be in a band like that anyway, so I have another thing share. Add to this that I guess we probably should have included, which is, um you know, I know a lot of really good drummers and I could afford to go to a studio and record them for my music. But I don't want to, Not because their greatest just I I don't want to. I I would rather make my milling music myself in my bedroom and have control everything because I think it's fun. Yeah, and Teoh, That kind of goes with what I was saying also about drummers who choose to go the superior route even if they're fully capable of doing it themselves. Sometimes you just want that you want that sound or you want that workflow sometimes that where flow is just desirable over what you guys experienced yesterday, which takes a long, long time and ah, definite you. So from what you guys saw, uh, you have, there's, in my opinion, there's almost no point in doing what we went through yesterday unless it's gonna be awesome. It really is a huge hassle. Teoh do it if it's gonna be mediocre when you could do this and it's gonna be great and you know it's gonna be great, no matter what so big picture of it is, you shouldn't really think of this as a sampler. You shouldn't think of Superior is a drum machine. Er anything like that you should think of it is a multi track drum production because what you can do in it is far, man. I don't want to use the word. It's far superior to like Thio Thio. Just your regular drum machine. Um, these air actual drums played back, and you can you can mess with them in ways that you couldn't mess with them in real life, and you could do all the same things. Uh, the amount of room channels and drum swapping options articulations just so many different things you can do. Uh, it is a full production tool. And, ah, I'd say it's a virtual equivalent of everything we did yesterday, plus some. And I think I think the ways that it's superior to a new acoustic drum set is in the post processing capabilities. There's some things that you like. I'm repeating myself, but there's just some things you cannot do in real life. And that's the last time I'm gonna say that until actually show you guys how to do it. Some people think it sounds fake. Uh, I say it's pilot error. I think if superior sounds fake than you're doing something wrong. Now, you guys who are production people spotted it. Good job. But I guarantee you that most other people would have, like you saw if three out of five people didn't catch that they were all like that. Then I and you guys were here for a production class. Meaning you're interested in production. Then what about the rest of the population that really couldn't care less about production and just want to enjoy music? I guarantee you that it's gonna be a way smaller number than that. Unless if you do a bad job within, it just sounds like a toy. Um, but that is 100% user error. If it sounds fake, your you sound fake. Basically, Um, well, it's just it's all about the details. Um, you guys saw there's a 1,000,000 details when you're recording acoustic drums. Like we said yesterday, its accumulation of subtleties, the same thing applies in superior. You can't just load it up and think that you're good to go. That's that's easy, Drummer, actually, uh, with superior, you have to put in the work. You have to get to know the program, and you have to take on a production mindset. Just like yesterday when we're dealing with different types of heads, different types of shells, different types of symbols, Mike placements, the whole bit. That took more time than we had for. You need to put that same kind of thought into your superior drum set. How everything is routed. Uh oh. The different. Ah, other different layers. There's just so much stuff you have to pay attention to.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Day One Presentation.pdf
Day Three Presentation.pdf
Day Two Presentation.pdf
Johns QuicKeys Shortcuts.qkmx
Sample Input List.docx

Ratings and Reviews

El Bulbo Studio
 

This class will give you confidence when tracking drums. Eyal's interaction with the drummer will help you communicate better with the artist to get the best performance and tone. The added bonus on drum replacement is very valuable and will improve your mixes.

a Creativelive Student
 

My drum sound has improved by 150% and counting. I'm grateful that Eyal would share this information with us. Not every technique is for every situation, but they all work. It's up to you to have the vision and to use the right tools for the job. Thank you guys!!

Michael Nolasco
 

To the guy that said buyer beware: this is an advanced production class, it's not meant for beginners who are learning to mic up a kit. I'm a beginner, but i'm using superior drummer, so this class was perfect for me to learn how to process drums post recording. I refer to it constantly. The editing videos are also prime information.

Student Work

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