> Step by step

4. Turning toms into bass

1

We’re ignoring our own advice here, but we aren’t trying to get our toms to fit anything particularly musical – just our saucepan riff from earlier. We mute the vocal and sub-layer group and load Live’s version of the king of synthetic tom devices: the Classic 909 Drum Rack, based on samples of the seminal Roland TR-909 drum machine.

2

We play in a very fast rhythm on the low tom, giving the track a rolling vibe. Miraculously, the tuning is pretty much spot-on for our purposes, so we move on and play in one note each on the high and the mid toms. The high tom requires significant tuning, so we do that next. The mid tom doesn’t play with any other parts, so we can leave it at its default tuning.

3

It’s important to tame the more troublesome frequencies of any highly harmonic element like electronic toms, so we remove everything below 60Hz, leaving space for our vocal subs. A little gain nudge at that 60Hz mark gives a touch of extra fatness, and we roll some of the top end off to around 12kHz so that the toms don’t sound too shiny – for a brighter, more ‘pop’ sound, don’t bother.

4

Finally, we add a limiter and a little gain, ensuring that the toms have the weight we need to really push things forward. Now it’s just a matter of getting the right placement within the track. The key to getting toms to work well in a busy mix is to make sure they don’t play alongside anything they might clash with, so we reserve ours for when our vox and sub riff isn’t playing. (Audio: Tom riff, Full loop)