Uncompressed Drum Samples – the Benefits

Using uncompressed drum samples can be very unappealing to new music producers and beat makers, but anybody who has a real love for audio and an unbridled admiration of music and sounds that are true to their source will venture into the compression-less world sooner or later. Compression is basically the process of increasing the volume of the quiet parts of a song, piece of music or drum sound. It has been around since at least the 60s, possibly earlier.

When considering drum samples, compression can come into the song at a few different stages of the music production process. The earliest stage is probably the sound selection process. A lot of drum sounds (in fact, the vast majority) have already been compressed beyond recognition, mostly to maximize their volume, rarely ever for other purposes, so we end up dealing with sounds that have little room left for subtle sculpting. It can be hard to find uncompressed samples in most editors.

The second stage at which compressed drum samples could greet you is the mixing stage. This is where you would, for instance, apply a compressor yourself over the snare and kick drum samples, to give an example. The difference between this stage and the previous is that you are making the creative decisions here, and not being subjected to the careless maximizing compression of the sound compiler.

Just about every song at the top of the charts today has very compressed drum samples that really cut through any mix. The loudness war is indeed a big drive for this. While compression removes a lot of the dynamics of drum samples and other instruments, it has its creative uses, and certain techniques like ducking compression can produce bass and drum interplay known in dance music as ‘pumping.’

If any of the sounds you pick are necessary but overly compressed nonetheless, there are ways of adding some color back onto the canvas, and one of the first steps you could look at is editing the actual wav sample. You should be able to see the spike at the start of the sample if it does not encompass all of it. Then lower the volume of that section but allow it to blend in. What you may want to do is mix this with a similar, uncompressed sample and set the latter to about 30% mix. This will give the sample some extra crispness, and while some of the same frequencies will be boosted, the overall effect will be much more natural.

A popular compression process that many Rock n Roll and Hip Hop producers are huge advocates of is the NY Compression technique. At its most basic level, it’s simply taking the same sample, one version of which has been compressed to the maximum amount and mixing it with itself. So you have a drum sample that is very punchy and cutting, while it still shows signs of the original variance.

If you want to make rap beats, good on you! It can be easy for some, hard for others. An important step when making rap beats is learning rhythm, so if you have that, you’re one step ahead of the pack.