How to make a drum kit (and why you should be doing it)
Sometimes you just need some dirt
Hey guys, Chris here (AKA Dated).
As you may have seen, I’ve recently put out a new drum kit with some dark, lofi samples. If you’re into that kind of thing, you can check it out on the left.
I’m not here to talk about that, though. I want to talk about how I make my drum kits, why I do it, and why you should probably be doing it as well.
I’ll start with the why: it’s easy, and it is another way to make some passive revenue over time. As a producer, you have to look at many different ways to make money, not just relying on streaming revenue (which is pretty inconsistent at best). The best way to make a little extra is to look at the things you’ve already made and utilize them.
As far as the how goes, well, you’ve already done it. In a way, at least. See, all it really takes to make a drum kit is to have made a bunch of tracks, and to generally mess with your drums while you’re making tracks. I don’t know about you, but when I make a track, I rarely just drop in a drum sample and do nothing with it. Most times, I’ll stretch them, layer them, add all sorts of effects, pitch-shift them, and so on. By the time you start with some generic drum sound and you make it yours, you’ve probably created something that will be a new flavor for people looking for new sounds to work with.
Whenever you finish a tape, just go through your project files, isolate your drums, and bounce those WAV files out. Give them some spicy names, maybe make some loops to put in there too, find some FX you were messing with, and just compile as much original stuff as you can. Boom, there’s a drum kit.
I don’t want to make this sound like some cheap way to make easy money either. There is serious demand amongst producers for this sort of thing, and the fact is that most people just aren’t thinking about making drum kits as much as they think about making music. If every producer I look up to put out a kit, I’d buy all of them, because I’m always trying to figure out how I can make something that sounds like something else that inspires me. People may want that from you, too.
For anyone who wants to see an example of how I put my kits together, there is also a free drum kit that I put out a while ago in the link on the left. If you like what you hear, consider picking up the new kit as well, as every little bit helps me keep doing what I do.
Hopefully this helps get some of you motivated to see what cool samples you’ve already made, and do something with them!
Have a drum kit you want to share, or a question to ask? Be sure to drop a comment below!