How Many Drum Sounds Are Enough?
A limited set of drum sounds vs. an unlimited set; each approach has its advantages, but one approach is key to developing your own sound.
The number of drum sounds that a beatmaker (producer) should have is debatable. There are some who believe that you can never have enough drum sounds. On the other hand, there are those who believe that you should have simply a core set of drum sounds. So what is the right amount of drum sounds? Truth is, that’s up to each individual beatmaker (producer). But when deciding upon how many drum sounds to carry, either a core (limited) set or an unlimited set, there are a number of things you should consider.
To begin with, you must recognize how the sound of drums areperceived and valued in the first place. In beatmaking, as well as in traditional drumming, the value of drums is predicated more upon tonal possibilities rather than simply quantitative possibilities. That is to say, it’s not the sheer number of available drum sounds that are really important, it’s the various kinds of tones (unique sounds) that drum sounds can be made to produce.
Traditional drummers can employ several different techniques to produce different tones. For example, they can tighten or loosen the skin heads on their drums, and they can also modify their playing style to manipulate the velocity, attack, and sustain of a drum strike. Each technique has the potential to render a unique tone. Likewise, through effects processors, EQs, plug-ins, and the like, beatmakers can also modify their drum sounds. And just as with traditional drummers, beatmakers in their playing/programming can also manipulate the velocity, attack, and sustain of the drum sounds that they deploy.
Traditional drummers often do more with less. Celebrated drummers like John “Jabo” Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, Bernard Perry, John Bonham, and Neil Peart did not have an arsenal of snare sounds, yet they were able to carve out very distinct sound signatures. This is because the style, approach, and modification that a particular drummer uses is paramount to their ability to tap the various tonal possibilities of a given drum sound. Because beatmaking is a form of electronic music production, there will inevitably be a larger selection of drum sounds to chose from. However, this does not change the fundamental value of drum sounds. The tonal possibilities of drum sounds still outweighs the sheer number of drum sounds.
But those who advocate for having an unlimited set of drum sounds have their arguments as well. Some maintain that an unlimited amount of drum sounds leads to a better drum sound library, which in turn makes for more creativity. But if the purpose of a drum sound library is for amassing both a set of standard and customized drum sounds so that one can create and develop their own unique sound, then an infinite number of drum sounds actually undermines this purpose and contradicts the creation of one’s own unique sound. After all, a unique overall drum style and sound requires familiarity; and familiarity depends upon a beatmaker’s ability to repeatedly use a core set of drums in new (creative) ways. All great drummers have their own style and sound. There are some beatmakers who purport to use entirely new drum sounds every time that they make a new beat. So it would seem that an unlimited amount of drum sounds presents a beatmaker with an unlimited amount of options.
But here’s the question that begs asking. Is such an approach actually practical or even worth it in the long run? An infinite number of drum sounds doesn’t necessarily translate into a higher level of quality. For instance, let’s say you have a set of 500 separate snares. If you were to critically survey each snare, how many of those snares would actually sound distinct and unique? In fact, how many times would a certain tone be replicated? Furthermore, how many of these snares would actually be usable? What I’m getting at is that out of a given set of 500 snares, it’s not at all unreasonable for you to expect to find many that are quite similar. Finally, there’s also the management and real-time use issue of deferring to an unlimited set of drum sounds. Scrolling through thousands of drums sounds just takes something away from the creative process. For one thing, it’s time consuming; but more importantly, it disrupts your workflow, which in turn hampers the creative process.
Core Drum Sounds and Unique Style
A core (limited) set of drum sounds tends to breed a sort of familiarity and personal style and sound, whereas an unlimited set of drum sounds breeds an over-reliance on variety for variety’s sake. It also breeds as a degree of uncertainty and indecision, which typically leads to bad choices.
At one point in time, I probably had more than 5,000 drum sounds. I had nearly all of the MIDI Mark drum kits, the Kid Nepro drum kits, Sample Kings drum kits, various drum sound CDs, the E-Mu SP 1200 full drum sound library, the Akai S950 full drum sound library, and sampled drum sounds from over 14 volumes of the Ultimate Breakbeat Records series! I even had drum sound libraries that were comprised of sounds that I recorded and had mixed at recording studios. So at one point in time, I had a huge drum-sound library.
Then I reconsidered what I was doing and what I wanted to do. Ultimately, I simply wanted to make dope beats. But paying too much attention to building up an infinite drum-sound library was actually distracting me from my ultimate goal. Once I made this revelation, I vigorously started purging my drum sound library. I tossed out every drum sound that I wasn’t using. After that, I did another purge; this time I tossed out all drum sounds that I considered to be just okay. I went on to do more purges, separating the great drum sounds from the good drum sounds, followed by a separation of the best drum sounds from the great ones. When all was said and done, I was left with only those drum sounds that I thought were dope and those sounds that worked best within the style and sound of beats that I wanted to create.
I understand that some beatmakers (producers) thrive on having an unlimited set of options at their disposal. Some beatmakers (producers) simply like the notion of having unlimited choices. But what often happens in these cases is that you force-feed beats, i.e. you use new drum sounds simply because you have them, not because of their distinct tonal value or unique character or because they actually work well within their style of beats you’re making. For many beatmakers (producers) like myself, it’s not about spending unnecessary time searching for an arbitrary perfect snare. It’s about locating a snare from your library that you know well and making that snare sound fit with the theme of the beat at hand. As I’ve already discussed, drum sounds can really be divided into four main categories, with additional sub-categories. For instance, you have heavy kicks and standard kicks. Then there are standard snares and “irregular” snares. Next, there are hi-hats, closed-hats, and open-hats. And after that there are cymbals: rides and crashes and the like.
Finally, there are the secondary percussion sounds: tambourines, rims, bells, timpani, and the like. Of all of the aforementioned kinds of drum sounds, I carry about three to five drum sounds of each variety. And if and when I find that I can’t make any of those sounds work with a new beat that I’m making, then that means that the new beat is wack, simple and plain. Here’s the bottom line for me: I know my personal drum sound library very well. In fact, I know my drum sounds far better than I know my gear, and almost as well as my favorite records. But when I had 5,000 drum sounds, there was no way that I could realistically ever know all of those sounds. Therefore, I prefer the feeling of knowing that my drum kit, if you will, is set and ready to go whenever I have a new idea.
For a more in-depth discussion of the art of sampling, read my book The Art of Sampling: The Sampling Tradition of Hip Hop/Rap Music and Copyright Law, 3rd Edition.
