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Any person with a personal computer can develop and make their own drum samples for various purposes. It is still not such an easy process and the learning curve can be quite steep, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to make your own unique, signature drum samples with ease and precision like a professional.

Any person with a personal computer can develop and make their own drum samples for various purposes. It is still not such an easy process and the learning curve can be quite steep, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to make your own unique, signature drum samples with ease and precision like a professional.

Tools for the task can be found online, but if you are into audio then you may already have some of the programs installed. If you have some drum samples to start with, that is the best way to go at the beginning instead of synthesizing your own sounds. You can grab free audio editors like Audacity, which is a free software program that can be downloaded (just Google it, it will be the first result!) and installed within seconds (it only works on PCs, though). If you are on a Mac, there are some free programs as well. The operations that need to be performed can be as varied as you want them to be, from cropping to equalization and more.

If your workflow is centered on programs like Sonar and Propellerheads' Reason, you can certainly use these environments to prepare and edit samples. What you will want to do is export the channel of the drum sample into a wave sound file (not MP3 or any lossy formats) and then crop the file to your preferred lengths. Make sure that when exporting the sound, you also un-mute the effects and delay processors if applicable.

When editing drum samples, you obviously need some sources. One place to get some great drums and other sounds is off old records. Simply connect a turntable to your audio interface and start recording the parts of the songs where drum breaks exist (with no other instruments) and then crop to your desire. This is called sampling, and it's actually more popular now than it has ever been, and you can get started today if you have the equipment. You can get great samples out of this process!

Synthesizing drum samples is another option for the budding music sample connoisseur. The machines with this capability also date back many decades, including old Roland and Korg drum groove boxes with synthesizer functionality. Usually, a number of parameters are there to be modified by the user, and the traditional sound offered by that particular box usually remains with any changes, generating a nice mix between the structure of that sound and the special characteristics assigned to it.

We now know how to find drum samples, what sort of equipment goes into modifying them and sourcing them, but how do we alter them? Well, you can start with effects like compression and EQ; these are techniques that have been around for decades and still work wonders today. If you can experiment with the different styles, you'll definitely be better for it, as you'll have your own opinion on the technology and processes and will be able to help others.