About Rubaddrum ...
Before playing drums and instruments live, I used a lot of drum software and plugins to compose my riddims.
So I searched the web for a lot of unique samples and tried mixing them through my DAW.
In the past, I was really happy with the result, but there was always something missing when I compared it to real acoustic sound.
So 7 years ago, I decided to learn to play the drums, to tune my skins to place microphones and in the room as well.
This is when the idea starts to emerge and I decide to create a plugin with my personal battery & myself!
I am very happy to present Rubaddrum V1, my first experience as a Sound Designer.
The particularity of this Drum plugin is the special "mapping" of the keyboard. I tried to use a new ergonomics to give the possibility of playing live direct midi (it is not a general midi)
You can play a lot of groove live, I call it "Fingers Drumming". I put special joints in Snare, Hihat and Timbale. This means that you already have a part of Rolls and Fills, so with 2 fingers you can easily take a snare break! You will find out by trying it!
ECHO CHAMBER ROOM
Rubaddrum will allow you to take drum programming to another level, especially for Reggae Dub songs ... even for Disco / Soul :)
It gives that raw muffled sound, especially used at the time of the early 80's. Generally I add the effects after (EQ, Sat, Reverb etc)
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The piece is very muffled with very little resonance, the goal being to have a maximum of raw sound and very little of the sound of the piece. A punchy sound.
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Kicks, snares, toms are really cushioned with a towel, duct tape and more ...
We record a main drum in this version of the Rubaddrum software, 2 bass drums and 2 different snares 1 hi-hat, 1 set of Toms ( mic inside the shell ) and 2 Timbales for differents sound/
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The first snare drum is really aggressive "mid", the second has a more "disco" side (its very dry "cardbox") ... but controlled with more bottom of snare wire
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For the bass drum, the first is a Pearl 22 "and the second is a 24", Both are unported (no reso head) and fully muffled. The Toms too! You will love them!
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A solid texture can then make the difference! Apply Echo chamber reverb , EQ, Saturation, Band Compression to polish your sound ...
When recording, I just added just a PRE-EQ on the recording/sampling, no compression etc ... the goal is to leave room for your sensitivity / Signature!
In the upside map of plugins you can tweak Echochamber potentiometer.
This room isn t an algorythme reverb but a true space.
To be clear , it's an small vintage theater room, full of wood .I choose that sound to print the kit over themuffled sound , it can give more breath for certains songs
SNARES / KICKS SELECTION
LAYERING THE "REAL"
Layer Snare Panel
You can choose the best sound for your songs
KICK 1 is a Pearl 22X12 bass drum , i remove the reso head to give full attack and minimum sustain
KICK 2 is a custom Kick drum 24X14 , it can give little more smack attack and have a solid bottom end.
Snare 1 is a Pearl Free floater Copper Shell 14X6.5 and Die cast Hoop ( More open / agressive ) Med / low tuning
Snare 2 is a Ludwig Supraphonics 14X5 from 1972
VOLUME knob add a 707 snare from a TR-707. Especially know for disco sound.
This sample have a big "thud " on low frequency and a good snap. When you layer with another acoustic snare , it can help to the sound. you are looking for. Try it !
BOTTOM Knob is a multisample created with a Speaker over a real snare and it capture just the bottom snare wire with a technique used in Disco 70's era ( Thanks Mr Tarsia ! )
The goal is to capture JUST the wire sound. Crisp and Clear
You can layer up if you think the snare deserve a good definition in high registry
REVERB Knob add a room layer ( Theater vintage room ) to the 707 sound t
Layer Kick Panel
VOLUME knob add a warm and satured layer kick sound, it can kive a solid bass drum sound ( tweak with KICK1 or KICK2 sound )
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ATTACK knob add a "clic " sound to the main bass drum , when you need a big and sharp attack for the kick. It can help to give clarity and punch in your final mix. Give it a try !
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MIDI PANIC keep the midi information intact. If you send a "wrong " midi file into daw and your software begin to slow down , sound strange ... Maybe use this function can " purge " the midi and solve problems
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Bleed and Room
BLEED menu is totally optional
Use it if you want to add a little "realism" to your drum sound
When you record a real drum in a studio , each mic pick up the sound of other kit. A lot of engineer hate that ! Because sometime it create phase problems or so ...
So we decide to propose this function but I tweak it to avoid this problem , so that it becomes an improvement
Try it and use it if you think is necessary into production
ROOM will give another impact of layering to add realism to the drum programmation. With multi output option in the plugin ,try to use Bleed and Room as separated channel , tweak with an EQ , Compression , Saturation . It can give a super parallele layering to the existing closed mic...
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MULTI OUTPUT
By default, the software engine uses 1 stereo output
But when you start the mix, the goal is to use the multitrack drums to process each drum shell! This allows everyone to offer a different signature.
YOU NEED TO LEARN how to enable multiple output in your DAW
Cockos Reaper for example indicates if you want to use 1 stereo or 16 stereo .... but in Cubase you have to right click on the plugin and choose the multi-out routing configuration. I advise you to look on the Web "How to make VST multi output for ...."
When your setup is correct in DAW, simply choose one of the 16 available stereo tracks and mix it up!
Save the template once and for all
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VELOCITY SCALE & TUNE
