House drums?

[Legion]

I've been wanting to break out of the brostep shell I'm in right now, and making house seems like the way to go as I listen to more and more Archie and a few other house artists. Problem is, drums aren't my thing. So I guess I was wondering how to make a good house drum loop in the style of Archie (I'm not even sure what kind of house he makes, TBH. I'm not really initiated in the whole genre). Thanks in advance for any help. ^_^

[the4thImpulse]

Have you tried youtube? I typed in "House drum tutorial" and got plenty of results in varying DAWs.

The kick and clap are easy and they should be very easy to emulate after listening to house, its the hi hat and other percussion elements that gives it the house sound. I hear a lot of reversed hits in the example song, some sounds will sound better reversed so always be sure to check each one both ways.

[colortwelve]

The mau5 on house kicks.

[jackupthoseapples]

for future reference, this is progressive house. i'm sure what i can tell you about the typical house drum pattern (four-on-the-floor, snare on every second beat, hi-hats everywhere inbetween) you already know. you have to come up with your own loops. syncopate syncopate syncopate. however, i can help you with some of the technical aspects. some.
you should have one kick drum that sounds punchy (that is, one with a high attack), and a deeper kick drum that has a long release (you may substitute this with a sub bass VSTi). then, cut the low frequencies from the punchy kick and the high frequencies from the deep kick. tweak to your liking; personally i'd set the lowpass at 300-400Hz and the high pass at 500-600Hz.
oh and uh compression
set the threshold to -20 to -25 db and a ratio of 16:1. attack and release should be short.
i don't exactly know how to layer snares, but you should cut everything from 100Hz and below and boost 150 - 300Hz.
good luck i guess?
-EDIT- an easy way to get that sharp, full bodied sound for snares is to layer them with a clap.

[Artimeus]

I highly recommend you check out Vengeance Essential House Vol. 1 and 2, if you are comfortable with layering loops and samples Sim Gretina-style. And as mentioned above, it's always good to try out a few tutorials when you have the time.

[jackupthoseapples]

I highly recommend you check out Vengeance Essential House Vol. 1 and 2

this.

so yeah go ahead, avoid all the annoying EQing and layering and just download loops

[Artimeus]

I highly recommend you check out Vengeance Essential House Vol. 1 and 2

this.

so yeah go ahead, avoid all the annoying EQing and layering and just download loops

Hehe, I take shortcuts where I can. XD

[Legion]

I highly recommend you check out Vengeance Essential House Vol. 1 and 2

this.

so yeah go ahead, avoid all the annoying EQing and layering and just download loops

Exactly what I want to avoid doing, haha. I like to be as original as possible.

[soup2504]

I highly recommend you check out Vengeance Essential House Vol. 1 and 2

this.

so yeah go ahead, avoid all the annoying EQing and layering and just download loops

Or just put your own drumloop over a vengeance loop? If I ever use pre-made drumloops, I ALWAYS layer my own with them. It's not hard, and it sounds much better than the drumloops by themselves.

As for house beats in general, look up some tutorials and listen to a lot of House.

The base of almost every house beat is a 4 to the floor kick pattern. From there you can add a snare hitting on every other kick (Kick Kickandsnaretogether Kick Kickandsnaretogether) and then you could add a hi-hat Right in between each kick. Most house beats use those 3 things together with a whole lot of other things put around the basic patterns to make it sound like yes. It's really not that challenging, at all.

[jackupthoseapples]

Oh yeah don't forget shakers, toms, congas, or some other percussion can make your drum loop more interesting. Unoriginal drum loops can get very boring.

So yeah Artimeus, I'm not saying using Vengeance is wrong; if you're pouring forth creative content and you need to get ideas out fast, using drum loops is fine (and tbh nobody cares as long as it sounds good.) It's just important to know how to use samples to the best of your ability.

You were saying you want to do prog house in the style of Archie? Let's break that drum loop down: http://pastebin.com/wKzfAnZU
Here's a "map" of the 2-Bar drum loop I quickly put together. The notes below describe the key elements of house drums.
Godspeed!

[Captain Ironhelm]

my silly advise:
listen to a lot of house, like Archie, Swedish House Mafia, deadmau5, etc. to get a feel for what it sounds like. Then seriously try beatboxing a catchy loop, then write it out in your DAW. The trick is to mess around adding and removing sounds while you form a loop until you hit gold.

[Habanc]

Less than technical advice here-
I say match the loop for the song.

If the house song is going to be slow or calm, perhaps a kick, accenting clap and a subtle hi-hat would do fine. But if it has energy, or some other feel, adjust the instruments/loop accordingly. I know you're looking into Progressive House, but for the sake of examples, one could be a long reverse snare leading into a snare+kick combo where your synth note ends in an electro house song (To give it that jerky, stop-start feel some Electro House songs have).

[Foxtrot89]

Oh yeah don't forget shakers, toms, congas, or some other percussion can make your drum loop more interesting. Unoriginal drum loops can get very boring.

So yeah Artimeus, I'm not saying using Vengeance is wrong; if you're pouring forth creative content and you need to get ideas out fast, using drum loops is fine (and tbh nobody cares as long as it sounds good.) It's just important to know how to use samples to the best of your ability.

You were saying you want to do prog house in the style of Archie? Let's break that drum loop down: http://pastebin.com/wKzfAnZU
Here's a "map" of the 2-Bar drum loop I quickly put together. The notes below describe the key elements of house drums.
Godspeed!

Last I checked, Vengeance Essential house 1 and 2 is almost all one shot samples. There are a few drum loops, most of which are hi-hat and conga lines, but they also contain all of the one shot samples you need to create loops.

Vengeance sample sets are far from being loops, let alone wrong. The construction kits are pretty lame, but they have some nice solo kicks in there, too.

[Legion]

Just read through this thread again. Thanks a ton for all the advice, guys. Dis gun be good.