Tech House Claps

[Hawk]

Hey everybody! I'm working on my first track, a tech house track, and all my claps sound like shit.
I'm trying to achieve something like this:

https://soundcloud.com/joopjunior/brown-trees-original-mix

I just can't get my claps to sound that...snappy. Also, whats up with the white noise before every second clap? Every time I put some white noise in front of my claps, it also sounds like shit. I'm using Ableton Live 9.

[itroitnyah]

You must be hearing things. I can't hear any white noise before every second clap.

Anyways, it'd be good to create your own claps by taking samples and layering them together to make your own. EQ them, compress them, something. Yeah, a lot of what makes a clap or other drums sound good and snappy is the headroom it has. Just use a limiter (like Fruity Limiter, if you're using FL) and put the ceiling down to the mixing standard, where you generally keep all your songs mixed at, and then push the gain up a bit until the sharp peak is gone and the clap has a lot of headroom. If you aren't using Fruity Limiter, then just set the ceiling and slowly boost the gain until you get to the point where there isn't distortion, but if you went about 1dB higher, there would be distortion. Or something. Then just EQ it, add in some reverb, umm... That's about it. Compression, EQing, and reverbing is generally how I mix my claps.

Wait, I forgot a big one. Sidechain your claps to most every synth as well

[Hawk]

Thanks for your response. I was layering my claps, but didn't use a limiter, I'll try that. Also, wtf? Starting from 0:59 I could swear that there is a swish-sound before every second clap. Isn't that white noise? Or is it a reversed clap? Or am I crazy?

[the4thImpulse]

Also, wtf? Starting from 0:59 I could swear that there is a swish-sound before every second clap. Isn't that white noise? Or is it a reversed clap? Or am I crazy?

There is a reversed open hat sample playing on the 'and' of the third beat. Its very light sounding, so it could be a shaped white noise swish, or a heavily processed hat sample.

[Hawk]

Also, wtf? Starting from 0:59 I could swear that there is a swish-sound before every second clap. Isn't that white noise? Or is it a reversed clap? Or am I crazy?

There is a reversed open hat sample playing on the 'and' of the third beat. Its very light sounding, so it could be a shaped white noise swish, or a heavily processed hat sample.

oh, okay thanks

[froggy]

Could just be the samples you're using, where are you getting them from? You should probably invest in a good collection of drum samples if you haven't already, it's much easier to start with something good and tweak than to start with something meh and process until it's unrecognizable. I wasted a lot of time when I started out trying to work with raw drum machine samples to make my own drums, I wouldn't recommend falling into that trap (not at least until you feel like you know what you're doing).

Check these out (fucking love Sample Magic):
http://www.samplemagic.com/details/120/drum-hits
http://www.samplemagic.com/details/42/tech-house-2
http://www.samplemagic.com/details/145/club-claps

As far as further processing goes, itroitnyah's said a lot already. The only thing I would add to that is that transient shaper plugins are the shit for quickly changing the way drums "feel" (e.g. adding snap). Here's a bunch of free ones:

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2012/01 ... u-plugins/

[Dabrenn]

I wasted a lot of time when I started out trying to work with raw drum machine samples to make my own drums, I wouldn't recommend falling into that trap (not at least until you feel like you know what you're doing).

This is actually one of the best pieces of advice I'd give a newcomer. I made the same mistake because I didn't want to pay for samples and I try to avoid other methods of getting things when I can. I wanted to try to do everything completely on my own, no presets, stock drums, etc. Learned that its honestly better to start the other way around (except about presets, try not to use those if you can)

Don't skimp on samples.

[Hawk]

This is actually one of the best pieces of advice I'd give a newcomer. I made the same mistake because I didn't want to pay for samples and I try to avoid other methods of getting things when I can. I wanted to try to do everything completely on my own, no presets, stock drums, etc. Learned that its honestly better to start the other way around (except about presets, try not to use those if you can)

Don't skimp on samples.

yeah, since I swiched from FL Studio to Live, I'm trying too layer my kicks, snares, etc to make my own drums, I'm just not very good at it . But the advice with the limiter is pretty awesome, I'm also going to try froggy's shapers. Thanks for all your responses