Finally somebody else who realizes, why they still using drum kit noises when you can use sound effects. They all still use normal drum kit samples though at beat timing. That's because they're all like sheep.

Stuff with my first album that I made in the past isn't EDM. I'm currently looking into changing genres and seeing if I can make a dubstep track over the winter.

With previous material, I've tested out substituting drum kit components with sound effects.. It's tricky because in typical normal real drum kit, or what they use for EDM with drum machine samples, you'll have a various combination of various frequencies going on at the same time. This is why they like still using it. It's pleasant to the ear. Low for kick drum, alternating with the mid-range for snare, while repeating intermittent high frequencies with high hats are going on. Pepper in some high frequency, longer crashes and lower tom drum rolls. It's like a "nice mix" of changing, various frequencies occurring simultaneously.

Now if you want to substitute those drum kit components with sound effects, probably a good idea to use similar frequencies when substituting whatever kit component. So for kick drum, it'll have to be something in the low range. Because if you try to use something else that's low for snare, things get mixed up with where you brain thinks they should go. You don't get that proper sense of rhythm timing. It would be like if you'd try to switch the normal kick with the snare. Now you go, something's "off" with the timing.

You could use something like a gun shot instead of a snare. Not sure if it'd work using a lightning thunder crash for a kick. Smashing glass for a cymbal. For a tom drum roll, you could have the same samples that is increasingly lower pitch shifted to give that downward cascading feel of how the normal tom drums gradually go down in pitch compared to the other.

When you use household noises, you see those guys trying to make music with it. You can get wimpy frequencies which just stink and don't have the same pleasing effect on the ear as the combination of drum kit frequencies. Like you usually want to substitute high hats with something in the high frequency range. If you try to use something that's like a thun or a mid range thwomp or tapping on something.. it just stinks. haha.

Like for one project I wanted to see if I could make "music" using only bird noise tones. I had a hard time with testing them out trying to substitute the kick drum. Bird tones are usually mid range or high frequencies. I had to use some big bird lower tones as kicks and not too many birds have lower tones. For repeating high hat taps, gotta watch it, most bird tone pitches are high frequencies, those can get on your nerves repeating something that's too high pitched. You might want to use something lower. The thing with high pitch is you can't go off dB loudness. You have to really lower the volume or it'll be irritating to the ears.

With this next dubstep project I'm working on, gonna make some racket. In a previous thread, a guy was looking for some noisy sound effects effects. I posted a zip of some of those wav files and playlist contents. I made a couple sf2 instruments. One is to test melody instruments with them, which are in the same key as piano. Those would have 24 notes lower than the original root key, and 24 notes higher. Not all the samples are good for melody notes, so tested those out with a quick bit of some melody notes and some samples don't make the cut. Those mayhem racket samples may not make good melody instruments but they could be good for drums. I made another sf2 file using them all as the original notes where I'll test things out with these substituting the drum kit components. You just have to go through each one at a time. So a 100 samples for this one.. takes a while.

Then you've got trying to substitute the open and closed high hats. Normally those shut each other off. If you're using noises, you probably want to record each of them independently. Well, how's it going to immediately stop the other noise. This is the "exclusive class" where you can't have the high hat closed and open occurring at the same time. I figured out how to be able to record them as separate tracks. I have a mute silence wav file as a note, in the same "exclusive class" number. When I'm recording them as separate tracks I'll just move the other one to the silence note.

I've tested out a few things with trying to substitute drums.. one was a racket track with mayhem noises. One was using NES super mario noises. That was a bitch. I'm there, ok let's get to the bottom of this as what would be good substituting the drum kit components. Best way was to do all possible combinations. So let's say you've got a sample, now you have to have it going with each of the drum kit components. Kick, snare, high hats closed, high hats open, the ride cymbal, then ride middle area. Tom 1, 2, 3. Whatever crashes, maybe 3 there. So a good dozen drum kit components. Now it's a "problem" as you increase samples. It's like an exponential amount that'll be multiplied by 12. I didn't have that many Super Mario samples but it's like, oh oh.. to be able to just listen to what the combinations are, I wound up with like 500 fucking drum tracks. Now that's a "problem". But I had to get to the bottom of it. And you want them going on at the same time too. Now that's even more of a problem. haha. But, you go at it one at a time.

Also a huge part in any of this drum substitution concept, is you don't want to irritate the listener with the same stupid sound effect the whole time. Think of that bird track. Gets fucking annoying, right. Normal drums you don't notice it as much with the same kick or snare sample the whole time. Well, with a different sound effect trying to replace it.. it gets fucking irritating real quick. So you might want to change it up and not only use the same damn sample the whole track.

It's also a problem if you're using LONG samples. Like think a thunder boom. Why traditional drum kit samples are effective is because they don't have a long duration. It goes by fast and when the other one gets triggered, the other is usually tapering off. Noises too don't always play immediately. Could take a little bit before the thing gets rolling. Now that messes up your timing as the kick and snare interchange. If you use a thunder noise as a kick, it'll take a micro second before it gets going. Then takes a while to taper off. Well, if you've got a fast tempo with that interchanging with your snare.. it might just not work. haha. The "attack" of how fast something plays, is really important because that is like the tempo.

You just have to test things out and see how it goes with substitution. May seem like it'll be "nifty" but when you're testing it out on it's own, it might still seem like it'll be good. But when you add in a snare.. now the interchanging of them, you go, oh.. something's "off" here with them being in sync.

Now it goes back to those guys who try to make beats with household noises. It can suck. And normal drums combinations at least "work" together.