I am a bit overwhelmed by the gigabytes of samples on my harddrive… Also have plenty of drum vsts, but where to find proper retro electro drums? Was it a 808 usually? I doubt that, something other… Is there a vst doing a fine job here?
I might also mention an upcoming VST/AU plugin called Emergent Drums, which uses GAN synthesis to read an enormous set of samples (online), to re-synthesize and create an entirely new percussive sound.
Honestly, there are so many ways to generate percussion, and even though you are specifying retro-electro (which really could be just about any sort of electronic drum ran through any set of effects from the past/future), you may want to try these out.
Electro is a very general term, and retro means old, but there’s no date specified to what you ‘feel/think’ is old. No artists listed, no examples. I can say this with confidence, as I’ve been listening to electronic music since the very early 80s, born in '79. Help us help you I’d love to point you in a direction you feel is the right one!
Thanks, those links look very interesting. Though I am looking for a “classic” electro drum sound, not so much experiental stuff. Could be just my lack of imagination, wouldn’t know how to create proper electro drums with those links…
Ah! Two drum machines come to mind - a TR-606, and the DR-55. Mainly because they’ve got a slightly ‘harder’ sound. Or the TR-505.
Even though you might not want to synthesize drums on your own, I can go as far as to say the Drumspillage plugin would do wonders for a variety of electro sounds. It’s also very easy to do. I really love their bass/snare/hihat sounds, and they can get very aggressive or have a sort of ‘tak’, deeper sound. Really pushes through a mix. Make a beat, using Drumspillage, and cut out the drum sounds you want, or use it as a plugin.
Yes, of course. You might also want to check this.
You could try TR-808 if you’re willing to subscribe to the Roland cloud. Otherwise check your 808 samples. If you don’t have proper ones have a look at Goldbaby or Samples From Mars.
Yes, there are Elektro tracks with a different drum sound than TR-808, but 808 is dominating.
My favorite Elektro artists are Plant43, E.R.P., MetaComplex and Anthony Rother, but I also like for example Sound Synthesis, Datawave, Nullptr, Module 3F, Commuter, Komarken Electronics, Morphology and more. And of course I gotta name Deemphasis, one of the best Acid Electro artists and he’s also using Renoise.
My favorite Elektro labels are Central Processing Unit, Plant43 Recordings and Ukonx Recordings.
The label Central Processing Unit (aka CPU Records) already has more than 100 EP of electro (in the original purist oldschool term of electro). https://cpurecords.net/
Yes, coincidentally I just have listened to it a few days ago. But unfortunately I can’t think of the name. I will let you know if I stumble over it again. I don’t listen to this kind of Electro that often.
Bedroom Producer Blog released free 606, 808 and 909 sample packs - think they’re called BPB Cassette. You get clean samples and then folders with various real cassette warmth versions also. I use them a lot.
For some real life analog feel I set a random LFO to pitch and velocity macros set to very low amplitude so that each hit feels very slightly different - as though they’re being generated on demand by a VCO.