Moby’s approach

Sample reinforcement (or even complete replacement) has became the stample of modern drum production. Surprisingly enough, this practice is not bounded to stricly “electronic” or “sample-based” music. Even for “rock” records, some studios skip the drumkit recording entirely and just program all the drums instead. The more “extreme” drum parts get, the more likely the production will embrace some kind of sample reinforcment, with justification for that being the hightest requirements for timing and hitting consistnecy dictated by the genre.

And it did not happen overnight. The moment first digital drum machine, specifically, Linn LM-1 Drum Computer hit the market in 1980 at stunning launch price of $4,995, there were already producers, who did not want all the fuss with miking up a real drum kit. So, they just asked the drummer of the band to program-in their parts into Linn. Later, as the MIDI standard became more and more established among studio equipment manufactures, many of them contemplatingly offering a new kind of “no humans needed” approach to music recording.

Working with drums samples certainly has a number of technical advantages with the mass-produced music context. This term alone could invoke the sense of repulsion among the readers, so I’d better stick with something more neutral, like mass-produced audio-media (MPAM), for example. So, having the drums programmed perfectly aligned, means that we have no need to do any pocketing”. Which means basically, manually moving aroud the bits of digitallized recorded performances, until they would ideally match the grid, introduced by the song’s tempo map. Pocketing itself is considered “ethically questionable” by many producers and music enthusiasts in general. However, having everything on the grid makes further editing and cueing much easier. Why would we need that much editing? Why not just comp a bunch of takes that are good enough? Well, for variaous reasons, which analysis is way beyond my expertise, putting that muchtime and effort into rehearsals and recording is just not commercially viable anymore. We talking about MPAM after all. Besides those “ethically questinable” practices serving as crutch for the next tone+deaf celebrity, there are just down to earch practical aspects of everyday audio editing. Need a shorter track version for advertising? We got you. Need a longer (strip) club version of the same track. We got you.

Wikipedia, also, states, that drum machines developed out of a need to create drum beats when a drum kit was not available. Increasingly, drum machines and drum programming are used by major record labels to undercut the costly expense of studio drummers.

Drums samples over live drum recording or on their own, give music producers a lot of flexibility, You now can process each piece in literal isolation, reducing impact of mic bleed. You have a lot more options dealing with inconsistent hits from real drummer that way. Nobody is now forced to make decsions about drum sound once and for all, choice of drum-piece, microphones and preamps. Downside of that? Sampled drums sound kinda dull, especially if they are over processed, unless you’re a true genius at sampling and programming them, of course (yes, Mr. Patrick, Iäm looking at you).

But aaaanyway… The other day I was watching Moby’s vlog (I can’t believe I’m typing it, but that’s world we live in). So, there our modest electronic music producer was breaking down hit process for one of his track. And he showed something, that I’ve later labeled “sample replacement backwards”. Why backwards? Because he programmed the electronic drums first, and then overdubbed them with the real drums! That way the programmed drum loop gained depth, variety and micro-shuffles. So, instead of sucking out the life from the real drum recording, we can also try to add life to programmed drums. This could be complemented with how Steve Albini described his feelings towards the drum machines. In his words, drums machines could be treated as “found objects” or “kitsch objects” repurposed for making music. There are ways of you using them, that you just can never get out of the human drumming, but they are never meant to be a replacement a band’s rythm section in his process.