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Let’s Create a Drum Beat! (Part 1/6) - MilkyTracker and Chiptune Tutorial #09
🕑 Added 2019-11-25 15:00:03 +0000 UTCThis is the first tutorial of six on creating a drum beat in MilkyTracker. I mean LITERALLY make a drum beat from scratch… every sound.
The purpose of these tutorials is to help MilkyTracker users get more familiar with the sample editor. The sample editor can be a scary, intimidating place, even for intermediate users. After these tutorials, you’ll have a better idea of how you can use the sample editor to create sounds, manipulate sounds, be creative, and do it quickly!
Part 1/6 is dedicated to the snare drum. The full video is about 31mins long. Below are the time stamps, observations, resources, workflow ideas.
- Intro 0:00
- Anatomy of a snare drum in Ableton 0:45
- Converting samples to milliseconds 4:07
- Setting relative note to F-6 4:30
- Making Snare #1 5:24
- Using 10 Band EQ 7:15
- Adding volume fades 10:14
- Adding a noise/clap layer 11:40
- Making Snare #2 14:12
- Creating a “Mirror Sample” 15:30
- Adding a noise/clap layer 17:27
- Fine tuning volume fades 19:06
- Making Snare #3 20:40
- Drawing a waveform 21:18
- Using longer samples for pitch dips 21:44
- Creating a “Mirror Sample” 25:30
- Adding a noise/clap layer 26:36
- Using noise samples to create space 28:20
I highly recommend Mr. Bill’s tutorial on the breakdown of snare drums and making them electronically in Ableton
It’s helpful to think of a snare as being in 2 or 3 parts
- 1. Donk (body/tone)
- 2. Clap
- 3. Noise
Snare drum observations:
- A waveform that starts with a harsher sound and morphs into a sine wave.
- Each waveform cycle is 3-5ms long (this is the pitch)
- Occasional gradual widening of the waveform over time, creating a pitch dip
- The sample decays in volume over time
- Samples may contain some distortion
- The clap is mostly noise, with various levels of decay (usually longer than the donk)
- A third layer of noise can be used in stereo to create space.
Samples <--> milliseconds calculations (assuming samples/playback is 44.1kHz)
- x samples / 44100 * 1000 = y milliseconds
- y milliseconds / 1000 * 44100 = x samples
Workflow ideas:
- Creating/Drawing a sample of sine/square waves about 150ms (about 6500 samples)
- Using 10 Band EQ harshen the sample (around 1K and 500Hz)
- Adding volume fades using the sample editor
- Adding volume fades using an envelope in the instrument editor
- Doubling the length of the donk, create a new blank noise layer
- Using “Undo” and “Redo Filter” to play and make subtle adjustments
- Mix-Pasteing noise later into the donk layer
- Using Smooth (Tri.) effect in the sample editor to make the sound less harsh
- Playing with a “mirror sample” for mix-pasting into the original sample
- Using multiple, longer samples for pitch dips
- Creating stereo space using a noise sample/layer
