Uncompressed Drum Samples – the Benefits
Using uncompressed drum samples is really the domain of those who can spot the potential in samples. Rarely do thin ears spot this potential, and this is why over-compressed drum samples are peddled by most drum samples websites, and successfully so, I might add. Compression is basically the process of increasing the volume of the quiet parts of a sound sample so that the distance between the highs and lows (in terms of volume!) is lessened.
When considering drum samples, compression can come into the song at a few different stages of the music production process. The earliest stage is probably the sound selection process. A lot of drum sounds (in fact, the vast majority) have already been compressed beyond recognition, mostly to maximize their volume, rarely ever for other purposes, so we end up dealing with sounds that have little room left for subtle sculpting. It can be hard to find uncompressed samples in most editors.
The second phase at which the compression could meet you is the mixing stage. The way that this would happen in this case is if you, yourself, elected to use compression selected drum samples or other instruments. The main difference here is that instead of being subjected to reckless compression by sound library editors, you are making creative decisions and have no limits. You can choose to keep, remove or outline the subtleties of any samples quite easily.
Just about every song in the top 40 these days has a great drum samples pattern that has effective compression that cuts through the mix, as this is vital for radio-viable songs in this modern age. While compression is often frowned upon by a lot of audiophiles, it has plenty of creative uses, even in electronic music. For instance, using a chained-in effect to achieve a ‘ducking’ sound like in dance music is quite popular.
If you’ve just picked out some drum samples that absolutely love each other and can’t afford to even let one of them go, but have noticed gross over-compression on one or more, there may be some things you can do. You can introduce some feeling and life back into these sounds using audio editors. There are many audio editors available today, including free version from Audacity and others, so download one if you don’t have one yet. One thing you can do sonically to liven up any sample is to couple it with another sample that is untouched and still retains many of its original characteristics. Another process to go through is trying to crop and apply some filters to add some creative noise back into the sound.
A popular compression process that many Rock n Roll and Hip Hop producers are huge advocates of is the NY Compression technique. At its most basic level, it’s simply taking the same sample, one version of which has been compressed to the maximum amount and mixing it with itself. So you have a drum sample that is very punchy and cutting, while it still shows signs of the original variance.
If you want to make rap beats, good on you! It can be easy for some, hard for others. An important step when making rap beats is learning rhythm, so if you have that, you’re one step ahead of the pack.