Drum Samples: Uncompressed or Not?

Using uncompressed drum samples is really the domain of those who can spot the potential in samples. Rarely do thin ears spot this potential, and this is why over-compressed drum samples are peddled by most drum samples websites, and successfully so, I might add. Compression is basically the process of increasing the volume of the quiet parts of a sound sample so that the distance between the highs and lows (in terms of volume!) is lessened.

Compression on drum samples can come into your workflow at two stages. The first is the drum sample selection process. This is where you’ll find the samples that were appropriately compressed by the library manufacturer, and hopefully not overly compressed. If you’re finding that a lot of your samples are ‘banging’ and very loud before even coming into your song, you’re probably dealing with samples that have had all the life sucked out of them already.

The second phase at which the compression could meet you is the mixing stage. The way that this would happen in this case is if you, yourself, elected to use compression selected drum samples or other instruments. The main difference here is that instead of being subjected to reckless compression by sound library editors, you are making creative decisions and have no limits. You can choose to keep, remove or outline the subtleties of any samples quite easily.

Nearly every song that plays on the pop radio stations has a great drum pattern, with all drum samples cutting through the mix. This is very important as a lot of car radios still have speakers that aren’t so great at getting all the frequencies across, so a good mix is essential. While over-compression has had a lot of ‘stick’ in the audiophile community, creative uses are not scarce. You just need to look to dance music and analyze the ‘ducking effecting to see how popular some creative compression can become in a genre.

If you have decided on a set of sounds but notice that the compression level is just too high, there is some hope. You certainly don’t have to ditch these samples to look for some drum samples that are a bit more dry; adding color back onto the sample’s canvas is not that hard once you get the creative hang of it. One of the methods that is a bit more common is to mix a dry sample with this over-compressed sample, and you can do this with just about any audio editor out there today, even free ones like Audacity which is very easy to download and use. The second way is to edit the actual wave sample by yourself and make cropping and filtering decision to add some spice back to this drum for your own use.

One of the popular compression techniques used in urban and rock music these days is called the New York Compression process. How can you replicate it? Grab a sample, and copy it. Now, one of the copies should be compressed beyond recognition, as sharp as it can be, while the other sample is left alone. Combine the two, and you’ll have a great, punchy sample that still retains some characteristics.

If you’re after some great-sounding hip hop drum samples or simply want to know how to make hip hop beats, just remember that you shouldn’t settle for second best!