Make PHAT, loud beats in Ableton Live drum racks pt 1

[ChrisMystek]

dude this songs really fucking good.. i feel like all music producers/dj's that come out canada know something we dont lol excision,datsik,downlink,deadm­au5, ect. lol

[jevinshollywood]

@ChrisMystek thirs alot of good drugs in canada-+

[mission8music]

@DJVespers Hey man did this become Bubbles in the Jungle?

[JesseSoma]

Hey folks, just wanted to make the point that "volume" and "punch" really aren't the same thing. Punchiness has more to do with the contrast between loud sounds and quiet sounds, rather than every sound simply being loud. It's actually very easy to over-use compression, and squash the life out of your sounds. There are some great videos on the "loudness wars" out there if you have the inclination to learn more.

[MarcioYTchannel]

great stuff man :D

[lucadepu]

hey vespers, great tutorial and everything, but i have a question : do you properly mix your drums as you go or do you mix them down after your done making the backbone of the track? because one fo the thing that gets me the most confused is the "mix as i go" i tend to overdo things, and also i tend to waste hourse on getting things to sound right and then anyway having to change them or eq them later

[MrColeknows]

Dayuummm, wish you could be my mentor for my senior project. How long have you been using ableton may i ask? You sound very experienced from hearing the sounds.

[DJVespers]

@WestBeatz96 Screenflow 2.0 for Mac ;)

[DJVespers]

@SkeletonBeatz Indeed ;)

[AndreGrahamNZ]

dude...ive watched a lot of stuff on ableton and this is the best ive come across. Straight to the point...everything you need. Awesome dude.

[DJVespers]

@AndreGrahamNZ Cheers!

[TranceForTheFuture]

Vespers = positive energy. Too shame I dont see you that often in MacProVideo tuts. Your Drum Rack tutorial was impressive!

[DJVespers]

@TranceForTheFuture Glad you liked the vids. All the best.

[ZiptiesNHandgrenades]

Real real clean. Sounds a bit like Glitch Mob. But with a really nice and clean dubbish twist.

[DJVespers]

@ZiptiesNHandgrenades Sweet. I really like Glitch Mob.

[brendanleong]

how do you get ableton into the view you have going from the beginning?

[DJVespers]

@brendanleong Not sure what you mean. I'm just in Arrangement view in Live. Press the Tab key if you can't see it like that.

[JoshKoen]

YEAH BABY! Great work!

[Cardfold11]

that sounds absolutly awesome

[RokerBorut]

SICK BEAT DUDE!

[clastomania]

stupido+

[Supersonicboom7]

a fair comment comming from a FL user, most tutorials for Ableton live sound pro and awesome where as on FL there alot more newbie and amateur sounding stuff :D Keep up the good stuff!

[TheSarcone]

It is very cool of Vespers to share his own work to provide a comprehensive look at the creation process. This quality of insight of hard to come by. I personally have nowhere near the time or money i'd like to commit to ableton, and this type of resource is invaluable to me. Thank you Vespers.

[DJVespers]

@TheSarcone You're very welcome. Thanks for the comment.

[ThynkTV]

This is a great tutorial man, diggin the music too! Ever listen to OPIUO?

Much love

~summit

[DJVespers]

@ThynkTV For sure! Opiuo is a good friend. Just filmed some footage of his last show in Van. Check out the vid!

[PeresD]

Great stuff Vespers,thanks much for the tuts !

[eldiagrama]

sweet music

[xjustxforxkicksx]

I came in here thinking I would be making beats for dubstep, after hearing your song I think I want to learn how to make glitch hop!

[DJVespers]

@xjustxforxkicksx Glad you enjoyed it. This tune is out now on Pop + Lock Records.

[SuperTechnox]

big fan. really enjoy the newsletter as well. it is always full of useful stuff-really liked the simple info abour hiding browsers and the shortcuts last month

[DJVespers]

@SuperTechnox Respect!

[deadhenderson]

garbage in. garbage out. amen. this is required viewing for any producer of any genre on any DAW. thx.

[djbeatkid]

big ups vespers! thanks for all your positive energy

[DJVespers]

@djbeatkid You're very welcome.  Thanks for watching!

[djkierant]

thanx loads m8 this has helped me open my eyes to parts in production i was unsure about!! really help thanx again!!!!!!!!!

[DJVespers]

@djkierant Cheers!

[Sofunny102]

you talk to much

[DJVespers]

@Sofunny102 Hey mate, I'll invite your comments on this channel to be constructive and in the spirit of learning about music. Namaste.

[gaserg]

hey man you sound like that guy Torley :D

[sloana9191]

where can i get free samples

[DJVespers]

@sloana9191 Google!  No seriously ;)

[djjonig]

Hey man, great vids. Im quite new to Ableton and wanting to lay kickdrums that Freemasons use in a lot of their songs (You know that really low kick which hits hard but doesnt seem to overpower the song itself). Any idea how to achieve this? Is it all about mastering the complete song or within the actual kick track itself? I use compression EQ etc but just cant seem to hit it quite right!!!! Maybe im not using the correct kick sample in the first place?? Great work man, keep it up ;-)

[DJVespers]

@djjonig Hey mate. Thanks for the question. I'd say you're right, it's all about having the right samples in the first place. No amount of compression and limiting and effects will make up for that. Try swapping out the samples. Also, never try to exactly mimic another producer's percussion. That is a recipe for frustration. Trust me...I've tried ;)

[sinetwo]

@djjonig Seems you want to look at sidechaining.

[DallasGreen123]

users of the vengeance packs will recognize alot of samples there ;) but in the end its all about you make out of them and you did a good job!

[DJVespers]

@DallasGreen123 Yeah, most dance music producers rape the V samples ;) Some of my other faves are Goldbaby, Xfer and Nine Volt Audio stuff. Cheers!

[FinalFragment]

Just finished the hole part of that PHAT beat ;)

Gave me a lot of new knowlage and ideas ! Please never ever stop making you videos, so far I have learned a lot and I really apreciate it. Many others do as well, it is very important what you do. Thank you.

One quick question though, what do you mean by layering the samples together?

Do you just put them in the same drum rack and trigger them at the same time?

Again; keep up you awesome tutorials! I love it!

[DJVespers]

@FinalFragment Thanks for the comment. Glad you're getting some value out of them. I promise to never stop making videos as long as you rockstars keep watching them ;)

By layering, yes, I mean stacking them up in drum racks and triggering them at the same time. If you wanna make it even easier make "multis" - basically drum racks inside of drum racks, then you only need 1 midi note to trigger multiple layers. Cheers!

[DK13Audio]

Nice videos man, loving the vibe.learning quite a bit. What are you using to make your intro/outro vids? they are pretty sick !

[DJVespers]

@DK13Audio Hey mate. Thanks for getting in touch! The intro/outro vid is actually a .mov I picked up off of iStock Photo from a professional animator. My skills are limited to audio ;) I wish I could make vid like that. Cheers!

[frozenzeus]

what is this tune you play? have u released this yet....its absolutely fantastic - very unique

[DJVespers]

@frozenzeus The tune is coming out in a few months on Pop + Lock Records. It's called Bubbles in the Jungle. You can hear the complete version on my Soundcloud page now. soundcloud = /vespers

[bssb1979]

cool. A quick question, is the drum rack's signal level is softer by default compared to Impulse? I notice drum rack's +6db is in par with Impulse's 0db. I prefer Impulse for my drums just because of this. Because Impulse sounds louder. Would be nice to know how to achieve a peak level in drum rack.

[DJVespers]

@bssb1979 Good question. I output volume doesn't matter to me at all. I like to leave my levels pretty low in the mixer to give myself lots of headroom to work with on my master buss. If you want things to be louder, just turn your monitors up, don't max out the channel. Later, in your mixing, if you need to boost levels you can easily do it with a utility/gain plugin or a compressor with the makeup gain turned up. Impulse is really limited compared to drum racks, so I'd suggest using them.

[bssb1979]

@DJVespers Thank you! Now i know. I guess I'll never have to worry about drum rack's level again since your drums are totally banging using it.

[bssb1979]

@DJVespers Thanks mate. Further question. Do you have an suggested average db level for each drum channels (Kick, Snare, other percussive elements) and also the master bus respectively?

[DJVespers]

@bssb1979 Yep, it sure it. Although, peak level means less than nothing. Louder is not better, especially when you can mix it all down with headroom then limit in your master to make it all loud. All that matters is that you get your RELATIVE mix level right (bass vs drums vs VOX etc). Use a utility / gain plugin to boost level if you need. Drum racks OWN. Cheers!

[antmacaluso]

@bssb1979

Impulse has a default velocity setting of 70% and level setting of 0db. Drumrack is a series of Simplers. By default, the level is set to -12db with 0% velocity. If you set the Simpler's levels and velocity to match Impulses (or visa versa), the Drumrack/Simpler will actually play at a higher level than the Impulse.

[Jagerbizzle]

Dope track! Really dig it.

[deep2one]

Impressive beat at the end!

[DJVespers]

@deep2one If you mean the outro music, that one's Woofer Kandy, an original of mine that's upcoming on my album. Cheers!

[drat250]

I like where this is heading!