# Non-drummer looking for drum beats and fills to use in recordings.



## jbnuk (Feb 19, 2020)

Hi,

I want to record some random riffs and potentially come up with some short songs, but the problem is I have no experience with drums (like really zero). Therefore was wondering if there could be some recorded drum beats and fills I could just copy / paste in my DAW tracks and "build" some sequences...some type of free or even paid library. Does something like this exist? Or maybe some software to be my drummer...?

I think otherwise the only option would be learning drums and then programming through samples in my DAW.

My goal (thinking of drums and rhythm) is around prog-rock/metal, hard rock, classic metal - nothing too modern (more 70's, 80's and 90's tones). I am using Reaper and the idea is to use the drum beats to inspire me and build something on top of them.


Thanks!


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## TedEH (Feb 19, 2020)

I think a lot of drum libraries come with loops you can just drop in. My old copy of SD2 has something like this. Alternatively, just play to a click and don't worry too much about drum fills until later. It's equally valid to create the fills to match the guitar as it would be to write the guitar parts to match the fills.

Or, you could build up your own library of drum bits -> Just watch some drum playthroughs and program some short loops that match anything that strikes you as cool sounding.


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## jbnuk (Feb 19, 2020)

TedEH said:


> I think a lot of drum libraries come with loops you can just drop in. My old copy of SD2 has something like this. Alternatively, just play to a click and don't worry too much about drum fills until later. It's equally valid to create the fills to match the guitar as it would be to write the guitar parts to match the fills.
> 
> Or, you could build up your own library of drum bits -> Just watch some drum playthroughs and program some short loops that match anything that strikes you as cool sounding.



Thanks for the advice! By libraries you mean things like ODDGROOVES (can't post the link as I am new to the forum)? I tried playing just to a click but it doesn't feel as inspiring if you know what I mean.


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## jbnuk (Feb 19, 2020)

I think now I got it...I could use some VST library like MT-PowerDrumKit and it will come with the loops so it is easy to build blocks? Will try that


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## TedEH (Feb 19, 2020)

I wasn't familiar with oddgrooves, but it looks like the right kind of thing. If you need a drum plugin anyway, I imagine most of them will come with some kind of loop library.


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## Ordacleaphobia (Feb 19, 2020)

EZDrummer 2 had something like this, pre-canned patterns that you could drag and drop into your project. I'd definitely scope out the Toontrack stuff.
If you had riffs already, I'd say you could send them to me and I could try throwing something together for you, since I'm a drummer who just pretends to play guitar. 

There's also loads of guys on YouTube that just do drum loops, I'm pretty sure most of them sell them too.


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## jbnuk (Feb 20, 2020)

Thanks @Ordacleaphobia and @TedEH!
I installed MT-PowerDrumKit VST (free) and it has patterns I can drag and drop etc. Works fine and sounds good. Also can drag and drop the midi files from Oddgrooves in my track (the midi files are the patterns, organized in folders, so almost the same thing as with the VST).

@Ordacleaphobia as soon as I can come up with some decent riffs I will ping you! Thanks again!


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## jbnuk (Feb 21, 2020)

Here is how it sounds: http://www.mediafire.com/file/ux3tvtveom51qb8/test-drums.mpeg/file

I think given how easy this was to set up and my total lack of drum skills, I couldn't ask for better sound


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## Iron1 (Feb 21, 2020)

I've been using Beta Monkey drum loops for years.

Click here for song sample from my SoundCloud library - Wretched Man

Here's another with a more dynamic mix of drum beats

You can drag & drop real loops (actual drummers' pre-recorded loops), enhance them, or create your own from scratch.


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## jbnuk (Feb 21, 2020)

Iron1 said:


> I've been using Beta Monkey drum loops for years.
> 
> Click here for song sample from my SoundCloud library - Wretched Man
> 
> ...



Sounds great! I am starting now with recording actually, I hope I can achieve similar level of awesome sounding mix some day 
Thanks for sharing the Beta Monkey - I will definitely check it out!


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## Nicki (Feb 24, 2020)

You're on your way, which is good. I've stopped using canned patterns because I found that they can't suit the guitar riffs I've written so I've started programming my own midi drum tracks. My general starting point is the kick drum. I add in hits where I think they should be and it just turns into a whole track with nothing but a kick. Then I start adding in other elements. The one rule I keep in mind when programming drums is that a drummer only has two arms and two legs. If what I'm programming can't be played by a real drummer, the pattern doesn't stay in the song.


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## jbnuk (Feb 24, 2020)

Thanks for the advice @Nicki; probably I will learn more if I start with a simple approach as starting with kick and then building on top of that. I noticed that the canned patters really don't "fit" with the riffs...they don't bring the feel I was expecting. That's why a real drummer is so important and maybe why I should learn a bit more about drums to build something a bit nicer  But to be honest my riffs and stuff are just rubbish at this point so I will focus on having at least some good ones before I replace the canned patters. Still my focus is the guitar haha


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## Nicki (Feb 24, 2020)

jbnuk said:


> Thanks for the advice @Nicki; probably I will learn more if I start with a simple approach as starting with kick and then building on top of that. I noticed that the canned patters really don't "fit" with the riffs...they don't bring the feel I was expecting. That's why a real drummer is so important and maybe why I should learn a bit more about drums to build something a bit nicer  But to be honest my riffs and stuff are just rubbish at this point so I will focus on having at least some good ones before I replace the canned patters. Still my focus is the guitar haha


Sometimes even just making a kick drum line and building a guitar riff on top of that can inspire some pretty creative riffs. You could also try that approach.


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## jbnuk (Feb 26, 2020)

Hey @Ordacleaphobia just wanted to check if you fancy putting some drums on a riff I recorded: https://www.mediafire.com/file/yrl8u9v1ya804yw/riff-1.wav/file

It is exactly at 125 bpm. Not a problem if you are busy or have better things to do (probably) - but if you would like to contribute I would really appreciate it. I will try to build more parts on top of this idea moving forward...

Of course everyone else is invited to help me with drums haha

Thanks!


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## jbnuk (Feb 26, 2020)

Slightly better take: https://www.mediafire.com/file/iv9dnty7mkqgf0e/riff-1-take2_.wav/file


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## Iron1 (Feb 27, 2020)

jbnuk said:


> Slightly better take: https://www.mediafire.com/file/iv9dnty7mkqgf0e/riff-1-take2_.wav/file



You should get a Soundcloud account so people don't have to trust that they aren't downloading a virus trying to hear what you're working on.


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## jbnuk (Feb 27, 2020)

Iron1 said:


> You should get a Soundcloud account so people don't have to trust that they aren't downloading a virus trying to hear what you're working on.


 I actually have one...but I saw people sharing through media fire in this forum and thought was like the "standard" - here is the soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/jeronimobn/riff-1-take2


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## MoJoToJo (Mar 8, 2021)

Not sure who this drummer is but he kicks ar*e..
Would love to hear his covers just drums only & minus the BT.
Maybe he could help you out if you contacted him/her. Hard to tell with the mask but probably a him. But best to be politically correct. https://www.youtube.com/c/DeltaEmpire/videos


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## Solodini (Mar 11, 2021)

Nicki said:


> Sometimes even just making a kick drum line and building a guitar riff on top of that can inspire some pretty creative riffs. You could also try that approach.



This.


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## Drew (Mar 16, 2021)

Nicki said:


> You're on your way, which is good. I've stopped using canned patterns because I found that they can't suit the guitar riffs I've written so I've started programming my own midi drum tracks. My general starting point is the kick drum. I add in hits where I think they should be and it just turns into a whole track with nothing but a kick. Then I start adding in other elements. The one rule I keep in mind when programming drums is that a drummer only has two arms and two legs. If what I'm programming can't be played by a real drummer, the pattern doesn't stay in the song.


This is all prettyy good advice. Our proicesses are a little different, I usually throw together a drum beat complete with kick, snare, and some sort of ?(usually) hihat groove, and then go through and program it in earnest after I've sketched out an arrangement, but with some practice (especially with paying attention to note velocity) you can do really convincing work creating drum grooves from the ground up using your mouse and a piano roll.


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## Solodini (Apr 1, 2021)

Seconded advice on focusing on velocities. Gotta be realistic with them: strong on 1 and 3 (5, 7) , a bit weaker on 2 and 4 (6, 8), and progressively weaker on off beats. Do it by hand for some natural variation. You can copy the beat and modify the velocities slightly, even just by grabbing and dragging around a bit in the same general area of velocity. You can also turn off the grid and slightly move hits around to humanise the timing a little.


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## Drew (Apr 1, 2021)

Solodini said:


> Seconded advice on focusing on velocities. Gotta be realistic with them: strong on 1 and 3 (5, 7) , a bit weaker on 2 and 4 (6, 8), and progressively weaker on off beats. Do it by hand for some natural variation. You can copy the beat and modify the velocities slightly, even just by grabbing and dragging around a bit in the same general area of velocity. You can also turn off the grid and slightly move hits around to humanise the timing a little.


Also, if yu've ever had the chance to get behind a drumkit, spending some time thinking about how hard a drummer realistically COULD play a series of beats, and about things like dominant vs non dominant hands, is kind of helpful too.

Big +1 for turning off snap to grid while working on fills. I still program them on the grid, and work on velocities on the grid, but I've been experimenting with as a last step turning off snap to grid and manually humanizing fills, things like crash hits (they never hit all at the same time, if you're doing two), and then adding ghost note snare or hi-hat hits freehand, and it really does seem to help.


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## CovertSovietBear (Jul 8, 2021)

Nicki said:


> If what I'm programming can't be played by a real drummer, the pattern doesn't stay in the song.


"Rings of Saturn has entered the chat"


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## bostjan (Jul 8, 2021)




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## Jeremy Keiper (Sep 15, 2021)

Yeah I’m going to get EZdrummer 2 and I have Drum Session on iOS that’s pretty good for iPhone and iPad.


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## Lopp (Sep 27, 2021)

+1 to all the votes for EZDrummer/Superior Drummer.



jbnuk said:


> Thanks for the advice @Nicki; probably I will learn more if I start with a simple approach as starting with kick and then building on top of that. I noticed that the canned patters really don't "fit" with the riffs...they don't bring the feel I was expecting. That's why a real drummer is so important and maybe why I should learn a bit more about drums to build something a bit nicer  But to be honest my riffs and stuff are just rubbish at this point so I will focus on having at least some good ones before I replace the canned patters. Still my focus is the guitar haha



The biggest thing I like about EZDrummer is how not only can you tweak their patterns to change drum hits, but also how it will search for the most relevant patterns in their library based on a basic pattern you provide. For example, if you know you want your kick and snare in certain spots, EZDrummer will search either your local library or the whole store to find the most relevant patterns. That way you are not stuck to pre-recorded loops that might not perfectly match your riffs.


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