Patreon Peeks 15: Stable Descent Drums (Patreon)

Hello! This week, I wanted to cover something from a song of mine, rather than a video. It's an older song of mine with an energy and tone outside my usual compositions, called Stable Descent. You can listen to it here, but be warned it's a fair bit louder than other stuff I've written: https://scruffymusic.bandcamp.com/track/stable-descent

I wanted to talk specifically about the drums I used, since they're doing a lot of heavy lifting in this song. The drum patches are just default drum kits that come bundled with Logic (called "Vintage Breaks"), but there's still a lot of potential there. I made two tracks of the same kit, and I put them each through different effects to increase their character and bite. I have some samples attached.

The first sample is the first drum track, I called it "Mayday Drums 1" ("Mayday" was the working title for the song). It's put through both a simulated amp and clip distortion, so be warned that it's pretty loud. But it's bold that way. In this sample, you can hear it playing a measure of 7/8 with a rhythm that structures the song.

The second sample, "Mayday Drums 2," is the second drum track, which is put through a different amp, a  multiband compressor, and sometimes a flanger. This one covers is further out to the side of the stereo image, and it covers the lows of the drum kit while the first track dominates the highs. You can also hear that, while the 7/8 rhythm is pretty much sustained, some details are different. And that's the fun part of two drum tracks: you can make it sound like two different takes that still line up! That way there are little details that sparkle here and there, giving the overall rhythm more intrigue.

The final sample attached, "Mayday Drums Mixdown," is a demonstration of the two tracks working together (again, brace yourself, it's a bit loud). You can hear a certain distance in the second drum track, and clear distortion in the first. You'll also hear a metric modulation midway through this sample. It starts in the usual 7/8 with the 2nd track, and then changes to 4/4 with the 1st track, but without changing the pulse. So it's 4/4, but sounding like it's divided in seven. And then the 2nd track comes back in to shift back to 7/8.

As I said, these drums are working hard in this song, and having two tracks that fade in and out allows their character—and even their meter!—to shift and flash different colors without introducing anything too disparate. And I gotta say, amped drums, that's a powerful sound.