My drums are boring and repetitive, need some help.

[Dabrenn]

Ok DAW war coming, but have you tried Ableton? Building drum loops and adding variation to the drums is so easy compared to FL Studio IMO.

I love ableton compared to FL. I'm very inexperienced in both of them, but I really don't like FL from what I've used of it. I'm sticking with Ableton for sure.

[Pickslide1992]

I'll echo the sentiments of making a basic beat and adding variations (Like changing the hi-hats to the bell/ride cymbal in some passages, like the chorus) or looking for some basic fills (A nice few tom hits works wonders).

One trick I learned is do not be afraid to use the same or similar beat to another song you enjoy and building upon that. For example, I love the beat in You Belong to the City by Glenn Frey. It's a simple beat, just two kick and snare hits per measure, but it has a distinct hi-hat rhythm that makes it stand out.

[Legion]

Ok DAW war coming, but have you tried Ableton? Building drum loops and adding variation to the drums is so easy compared to FL Studio IMO.

I love ableton compared to FL. I'm very inexperienced in both of them, but I really don't like FL from what I've used of it. I'm sticking with Ableton for sure.

This thread makes me feel like I'm missing out on so much. ;_; (FL user here) Honestly, I'm tempted to switch DAW's from all the talk about Ableton.

[Freewave]

ha ha i too am getting an ableton boner now and up to now i haven't wanted to switch DAW's at all.

[Pickslide1992]

I'm an FL Studio man myself, but I'd love to give the other DAWs a shot to see if they're better, but for right now, I love FL Studio. It's easy to use and you can get damn near any sample/synth you want in it. And I use a keyboard and mouse for pete's sake.

Also, has the OP tried using some effects to his drums? I personally like a bit of reverb for a bigger sound.

[Kromium]

Well its more about "mastering the DAW" and not the DAW itself. All DAW's should have the capabilities to produce amazing music. Renard uses OpenMPT yet he produces amazing music. Its all about the knowledge of the DAW.

[the4thImpulse]

Well its more about "mastering the DAW" and not the DAW itself. All DAW's should have the capabilities to produce amazing music. Renard uses OpenMPT yet he produces amazing music. Its all about the knowledge of the DAW.

This is very true but I need to say a huge part about the perfect DAW is personal workflow. I know some people hat ableton because its too diffrent for them (where as i makes perfect sense to me) and they love logic (which I don't understand all to much). Finding a DAW that works with you and learning solely that DAW instead of wondering about the other DAWs.

[Dabrenn]

Well its more about "mastering the DAW" and not the DAW itself. All DAW's should have the capabilities to produce amazing music. Renard uses OpenMPT yet he produces amazing music. Its all about the knowledge of the DAW.

Definitely true. All the well-known DAW's are capable of producing almost anything, it's all about the knowledge of how to use it, although some do other things easier than others.

One thing I noticed (in my extreme lack of experience) is that Ableton allowed you to mess with effects and put together scenes SO much faster, more efficiently, and (imo) much more easily

With just a few hours in Ableton I was able to achieve much more "professional" and bigger sound than I could come close to in FL. Obviously That's because of my lack of knowledge about FL, but I just love everything about Ableton except one thing, and that's the Midi note editor, I liked FL's Piano roll much more.

If you look at my soundcloud, everything except RD2 and Rough Draft 1 was made in FL and I feel that they sound much weaker, granted the Beats are all something I made for fun for a rap battle thing I did with a friend and "Basic House" was something made in 15 minutes in a moving vehicle as my first thing ever made in FL, and "first attempt" was also something I threw together and is totally not complete or good at all. All that to say, My first song (RD2) in ableton (My first real song ever honestly) is light years away in terms of quality In my opinion.

If you haven't tried Ableton, I would encourage you to try it out. I was hooked on it almost instantly.

[Kryptage]

Start to appreciate loops a bit more. What I mean by that is this: When you think of writing for instruments, you tend to write it all out as a full part. A big mistake entering into electronic, is thinking that loops are the thing, and that you compose in loops. While this is a piece of electronic, don't think that you aren't composing parts, because you still are.

So when you write your drum parts don't write in loops, think of how the drums can compliment that section that you are writing for measure by measure.

[Versilaryan]

^ What he said

A HUGE part of drums that a lot of people overlook is how the drums accent the music. If there's a rhythm that you want to highlight, have that rhythm playing somewhere in the drums, even if you have to split it between different drums. If you listen to a lot of rock, and especially jazz, you'll notice that.

[SoaringFlight]

Its all about the knowledge of the DAW.

This. In the end it comes down to the producer's preference and his skills. You can make excellent, professional sounding tracks in every major DAW, including FL Studio (i love this thing), provided you know what you are doing.