Tips for working with ride cymbals

[Ian]

Hi, I’m using SD with the Avatar and Music City libraries.

Recently I’ve been struggling with some ride-heavy patterns. The issue I’m getting is that my ride sounds always seem to be a bit, er, thin and short with little body, not the sort of thing that is driving the track along. I’ve tried adding an extra “ride only” mic by way of one the otherwise unused room mics, and tinkering with hit velocities, eq, compression etc but don’t seem to be getting anything useful – it’s either just more of that “ting ting ting” or it degenerates an indistinct wash.

I’s appreciate any tips or other ideas, either processing based, or comments about the rides (and cymbals in general) across the various packs..

Thanks

SD 3 | TD4 KX | Cubase Pro 10.0.40 | Win7

Topic

[John]

Try playing the Edge articulation more instead of Bell or Bow, perhaps?

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Ian]

Thanks John,
Yes, I use all 3 articulations – I’ve also sometimes tried using the Edge and Bow together on the same hits, editing their relative velocities to make different blends…. Just wondering how other folk do it. There’s so many options within SD even with just the 2 libraries I have so far. A lot to learn, but it’s all good!

SD 3 | TD4 KX | Cubase Pro 10.0.40 | Win7

[onewayout_1]

I usually go to tap to find and take a section of the part I’m working on and have the search engine find something better than what i have…I’ll solo the ride in the mix section so I can hear the pattern better…I do this with hihat and Ride…I’m NOT a drummer and some the patterns I come up with are driving the beat but are basically like a drum machine NO MATTER what I do with the articulation or velocity….

jeff

[Ian]

Thanks Jeff, not much of a drummer here either!

Maybe I should look into EZD as SD doesn’t have Tap to Find. Yet 😉

A couple of things I find helps me a lot as a very unskilled drummer is firstly to watch people who can actually play and how they move around the Cymbal, and secondly to use reference tracks all the time – I use them a lot while mixing and now I find I’m using them not just for sonics but also for parts- Same thing with Hihats.

I’m pretty happy with my programmed hihats nowadays – having lots of articulations helps, and it it was one of the first areas of programming drum parts with SD that I went into in depth.

SD 3 | TD4 KX | Cubase Pro 10.0.40 | Win7

[onewayout_1]

Cheers, good tip! I will take that more to heart….. Thanks Ian

[Author]

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