I want to know how you guys layout you're drums in ableton so that you can process them, because I have seen it done so many different ways, like just using a drum rack is fine and all (that's how I used to do it) and I have seen people use strictly vst's like Battery 3 which is way over my head btw, because I can't figure out the voicing and creating choke groups for (things like the kick and the snare) only, and having like rides and other percussion not overlap all over the place.

I also know that burial used just his eyes and lined up every little sound up by feel and didn't use a grid/sequencer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmUIoEVz ... 541h3medEo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qae1GBcr ... A5I0TfO6b8

I also have noticed on these youtube videos of PANTyRAiD's upcoming album and Josh's own solo music that Josh Mayer (a.k.a Ooah) has each individual sound in it's own channel, including the drums. (which I believe are the little clips you see at the top of both projects) I have never done it that way before...

so I want to know how you guys approach drum programming? and do you guys have any idea how Josh programs his drums because I know he likes to reverse and glitch up his drums BY HAND so does this mean he programs all of his sounds in arrangement view?

what are your thoughts?

I put my all of my kicks in one drum rack on one track, all of my snares/rims/toms in another drum rack on its own track, and hi hats and riders in a third drum rack on a third track. Then I send all of my drums to one drum bus so I can effect all of them at once if I want to. as far as glitch out drums. I generally have a few bounced down reversed drum sounds in each of the kits that i'm using so I go straight to them while I jam out on the MPD. Afterwards I can go through and bounce the individual drum stems down and chop/stretch/reverse/glitch to my hearts content.

i typically layout all of my drums in a drum rack. i just think off all the perc as one cohesive unit and having them scattered like that kinda throws me off. actually, i do seperate my hats because its easier to arrange that way. i typically dont use many glitch plugins on my drums though, but i do like to fuck around in sampler and use midi to get dirty with things. occasionally i will resample some effects from buffeater, rolodecks, etc after the drums are mixed down.

i prefer drum racks to battery for basic drum programming as it is better integrated with ableton. however, for multi sample percussion kits with veolcity layers (middle easter perc, jazz drums, etc), battery pwns up.

as far as how josh does his edits, i don't know for sure. but i have read somewhere that they love getting down with effectrix. i would imagine this is done in the arrangement view and resampled/sliced to taste. you can hear ableton warping algorithms all over a lot of that stuff, leading me to think they resample a lot.

I started out doing all my things in one drum rack and putting processing chains on individual cells. These days I like to lay out each element in its own channel directly in arrangement view. I do this because it let's me see my arrangement more easily since I am a very visual person, especially when it comes to how my rhythm is laid out.

For glitch however, I like to load samples into drum racks and do things like set the loop on a hat sound super short so it becomes a tone rather then a hit. I also like to modulate things like pitch, pan and filters here. I then bounce this to audio once I have a glitchy rhythm I like and then chop up, glitch more with ctl+c and ctl+v and change timbre and granularity with different warp settings.

P.s. one awesome free tool for glitchy perc is buffer override from destroyfx.

Battery 3 in Logic as a multi-intrument.
Kicks, snares/claps, hats, etc, all get individual outs to busses for processing.
Drums are then all bussed together again and usually sent out to hardware processing.
For glitching I will do a variety of things depending on what I am after. Some glitched versions of my kick and snare for example are bounced down and put into battery. I can also draw automation for each layer as well as the whole kit while still in midi. Then once bounced to audio I can also cut, copy, paste my edits. Add more plugin automation; rinse, repeat.

BTW, choke grouping and all the things you say are over your head in Battery are really very simple. The manual is quite clear, and there are tutorials all over the web if that is the route you want to go. Just pick a program and learn it. They all do pretty much the same thing whether is racks in Ableton, or software drum programs.

I usually use one drum rack to program a few loops that I'm happy with, then duplicate out multiple copies and separate em into sections that I want to add effects to/glitch out individually

this topic is very close to what i wanted to ask you guys,
When do you know it's time to bounce midi to audio for glitch edits (ctrl+c ctrl+v reverse etc.) - this goes for drums synths and others. It sucks when you make glitchy synth and you realize - fuck i need more lows/whatever...

Make a 2-4 bar loop with each drum(Kick, Snare, Perc, Clap) on a separate channel. Next, I adjust velocity, or end points, maybe duplicate the track to warp the particular hit, automate the reverb or delay send amount, reverse a snare or kick here or there get the groove down..
After that, duplicate the loop once, edit the hits in the second, and repeat the process one more time..


My process for hats is a little different.. I just have an impulse or a drum rack with mulitple hats that work together. I'll tap out the rhythm that I want, then move the MIDI hits around the grid to make a cohesive interesting ride pattern..

That's the point where I start to build the rest of the elements of the track, and then I'll do minor edits, drop hits and just try to keep the groove while making it sparse as possible..

I bounce down any time i feel like it, risk free.

always duplicate before you freeze and flatten, because then if you need more lows, you can go back to the original track and alter it and then, using the file manager, replace the audio track you already chopped up with the new one, and all of the edits will stay in place.

HollyCow! File manager can do it?! My Preys were heard! Thanks!

holy shit bleepbloop. PRO TIP. did not know this.

glad to help. nice to actually be able to contribute something really helpful.

i assume you can't consolidate with this method? do you just cmd+e the clips?

I haven't tried consolidating and using this method. does consolidation change the name of the file? that is the only reason it wouldnt work. as far as command e goes. I'm on a pc, and i donno what that does.

Yeah Cmd+J (Consolidate) Definitely Changes The Name of The Sample.

Well I Quess You Can Do A Glitch Edit And then Freeze It. Becouse Full Clips Eats CPU if you dont Consolidate Them.