Originally Posted By: tommyad
+1, I also loved the bridge. Everything here is of pro quality. The writing , the vocals, the arrangement, and the mix couldn't be better. Please explain a little more about building the drum track. There is much to be learned here. The level of these productions couldn't be higher. Much enjoyed. Tom



Before I do anything else... I'll attempt to answer Tom's request for more on how I built the drums for this song.

Normally, I use the BIAB drums as they are generated - typically EQing them to accentuate what I want - which is typically a dominate snappy snare. Most modern Country and Pop songs depend on a dominate snare and I will often suggest to people that they bump up their drums a little. (We guitar players often focus on the guitars a bit too much)

For this song, I want a particular pattern throughout the song - which was, basically... kick-snare-kick-snare-kick-snare-kick-kick-snare with a few variations here and there. For this song I did not need or want the typical hi-hat. I'm not clever enough to "program" realistic drum fills... so where I want them, I used the generated BIAB RealDrums track.

Another important thing - the RealDrum track is used to know where to place the samples that I use - so that they land where a REAL drummer would - with the human nuances...


I add 2 tracks for kick - one for the constant (beat 1 and 3) and another for what will be the second kick of the kick-kick (the "and" of 3-and).
I add one track for just snare. (beat 2 and 4)

It looks like this:



track 1 - kick 1
track 2 - kick 2
track 3 - snare
track 4 - RealDrum track.

The snare sample and the kick samples need to line up with the RealDrums hits (for realistic timing). Here is a sample when first dropped in - misaligned...



I then walk my way through the entire track and line them up...




I then add in the fills from the RealDrums tracks:



Also... I draw a volume envelope over the snare and kick track so that the velocity of the hits varies randomly - so they don't all sound exactly alike... it is a fairly quick draw in Studio One - I would imagine other DAWs have the same functionality... the variance is fairly small...You could probably get away without doing this particular step...

And now I have complete control over the snare and the kick. I can really jack 'em up...I can add as much reverb to either as I need..

If you think of something I may have forgotten to mention, let me know...



150+ Songs produced using BIAB RealTracks
And 50 more...
and some more...