[LAU] Drum sounds with Hydrogen

[Q]

Roberto Suarez Soto wrote:
>    Hi,
> 
>     I've been using the drumkits from Hydrogen's page for a while, and 
> though they're quite good, I don't still get the sound I'd like from 
> them. In particular, I've been trying to get a good trip hop or hip hop 
> sound with them, but I really don't know how. My experiments with 
> several drumkits and equalization have been a failure; and that's an 
> euphemism :-)
> 
>     So I invoke thee, guardian angels of LAU: are there any general tips 
> on how to get a good trip-hop/hip-hop drum sound?
> 
>     Please, take into account that my knowledge of equalization and all 
> things sound is pretty limited. Every time I read you speaking casually 
> of "low pass filters" and similar artifacts, my head spins.
> 
>     Thanks in advance,
> 
> -- 
> 	Roberto Suarez Soto

Hi Roberto

Regarding hip-hop, I wouldn't have a clue. As for trip-hop I only have 
every-so-slightly more than no clue ;-)

 From my tiny dalliance with the genre (okay, one band!), I'd say that 
it's all in the processing and that that is possibly best left to 
whatever software you're using to record Hydrogen's output, as 
Hydrogen's effects slots are fairly limited.

I think Julien hit the nail on the head when he mentioned lo-fi and 
particularly the Vynil effect. I believe generally many of the beats are 
sampled, so adding a crackling record sound will help with that 
illusion, as will low-passing and other filters and EQ to dull the sound 
a bit.

I know Portishead went to the extreme of making tracks and having them 
cut on vinyl so they could sample themselves (and not have to pay 
royalties in the process no doubt!), even to the extent of scratching 
their own name into the track Mysterons (which I always thought was a 
tremendously cool thing to do). Perhaps try slowing down the drums (like 
a record on the wrong speed) to get a different sound.

I'd think maybe a lot of compression as well, to give a really squashed, 
lo-fi, less "real" sound. Of course, lo-fi drum machines could be 
another approach -- I recall "It Could Be Sweet" from Dummy uses some 
sort of drum machine and Adrian Utley loves old, quirky gear like that.

There are some really good videos/interviews of him on SonicState.tv: 
http://tv.sonicstate.com/play.php?vid=189. There are also some cool 
videos on there of Will Gregory from Goldfrapp as well -- both very 
interesting if you're into old gear and synths. I think Utley likes to 
run things through the filters of his various analogue synths as well to 
get weird effects, so perhaps look beyond lowpass filters and EQ to 
resonant filters as well, and go wild with the controls :-)

That's about all I can suggest really. I'm sure others, with way more 
experience, will be along soon.

Hope this helps

Q