>Step by step

2. Adding more drums

1

Our project is already starting to sound dark, moody, and very, very goth. However, as much as we love the sound of our rusty old rhythm machine, it could use reinforcement. With that in mind, let’s add an instance of Xils Lab STiX CM. Go to the Load Kit drop-down and find the Rock Mainstream LtZ kit in the RockPop category. 2

This particular kit has an excellent oldschool handclap sample in the Perc 2 slot. Add this clap sound to every other backbeat. It’s probably easiest to simply play them in live and use your DAW’s quantise function to knock the notes into place. In Tracktion’s Waveform Free, select the notes in the piano roll and use the Quantize function in the lower panel. 3

The dull thud of a kick drum is needed, so let’s drop in another, more powerful sound. We’ll turn to Beat Machine CM, and the preset called Dopematic. This kick has plenty of snap and boom, but isn’t lacking definition. We’ll lay in hard-hitting downbeats with additional hits on the second beat of every bar. Our beat is now layered and interesting, but not too busy.