Editing Drums

Humanizing Drums

Programmed drums can sometimes sound a bit stiff or "too perfect". Here are some techniques to help humanize them.

Tempo

Drummers often have a tendency to push the tempo a little bit when it comes to parts with more energy. Even further, you can slow the tempo maybe just a few bpm here or there when there's a tough part.

Velocity

Instead of playing all the drums at the same velocity, they can be varied based upon several parameters.

Make one "hand" weaker than the other
Make fills or quick runs gradually decrease in velocity
Make the downbeat a little stronger than the other hits

Limiting the Programming

A real drummer can't play 5 or 6 drums at the same time with a different time signature and/or tempo every measure while playing 32nd notes. Try to limit the programming to something realistic, although it can still be technically demanding for a real drummer.

Randomizing

Most DAWs feature the ability to randomize the velocity and timing of MIDI information. A touch of this can sound good, but you still have to realign the important hits, so the playing doesn't seem simply sloppy. You can select the ones you want to randomize, adding more randomization in some places than others. With good multi-sampled drumming software, velocity affects way more than volume, which is particularly evident on cymbals, snare, and bass drums.

Reverb

A bit of reverb adds an in-the-room feel. A lot of reverb can fill the mix with a simple groove better than some crazy technical madness with no reverb.

Software Assistance

There are dedicated drumming VSTi's that will automatically vary the samples based on consecutive hits and such to help make them less stiff.