Humanize Your Drums: Four Videos to Help You Swing

Hearing a great drummer – such as the late Clyde Stubblefield in the video above – lock into and ride a groove is truly one of the joys of music. However, taking that inspiration and translating it into a programmed rhythm in your DAW can be a lot of hard work. With everything placed perfectly on a grid, replicating the human feel of a drummer, with all its expressive nuances and micro-variations, can be a strenuous task. But digging a little deeper, there are actually plenty of tricks within Live that can help you impart some life into your drum tracks – check out the tutorials below to see how.

First up, Slynk shows the possibilities of swing by delving into the theory behind triplets, quintuplets and septuplets. Learn how to move MIDI notes across the grid to make wonky Dilla-esque rhythms with ease.

Aussie-based producer Swindail provides some alternative solutions for introducing that human feel. By utilizing simple features within Live, Swindail takes his music off the grid and into uncharted groovy territory.

Now that your drums are sufficiently swung and grooving, Liveschool trainer Josh Panakera-Molony shows some techniques for adding variation to your drum sounds. Using multiple instances of the Max for Live LFO device, Josh is able to mimic some of the nuances of drums played by a living, breathing human.

Lastly, what good is your drum track without natural-sounding fills? Slynk steps up again with an effective approach for organic drum fills using a Drum Rack, Impulse and MIDI effects.

Check out Slynk and Liveschool’s channels for more Live tutorials.