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As a beginner producer, I am having trouble making drums for my records. I usually go to YouTube to learn how to create drum beats, but when I came across Big Beat, there was no detailed tutorial for the drum part since most of the tutorials used samples, and I do not like samples. For Big Beat, I use Ableton Live and I'm inspired by Fluke, Crystal Method, and Prodigy. My question concerns a drum pattern made with Ableton's in-built drum machine, and how I can make it sound dreamy and wide.

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    What are trying to accomplish? The big beat sound *is* sampled loops, so doing it from scratch would still involve samples. – ojs Mar 11 '22 at 10:36
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    Please edit to tell more about what kind of work you're doing—I guess it would help to know what the tutorials you've been watching tell you to do. Are you looking for musical guidance about the actual rhythms and feel? For technical recording details like micing and processing? For guidance in musical postprocessing concerns like quantization or aligning loops? – Andy Bonner Mar 11 '22 at 13:05
  • I think it's a fair question. A lot of people don't realize that the famous recordings they like were (often) really made by sampling old vinyls etc. The most straight-forward way to get the same results is to use the same method: sample from records. For some genres the method almost defines the genre - you sample and chop the Amen break, etc. and that's how you get a chopped-drum-loops sound. If you don't chop, it doesn't sound like that genre. (In _some_ imaginary genre, not necessarily talking about big beat) But I can understand wanting to really recreate everything from scratch. – piiperi Reinstate Monica Mar 11 '22 at 16:56
  • Are you talking about synthesizing the individual drum sounds, perhaps by physical modelling? Or just the creation of the loop/pattern? Or just what? – Karl Knechtel Mar 11 '22 at 22:23
  • @KarlKnechtel I meant creating drum patterns or loops Yes – About 2 Start a Fire Mar 12 '22 at 08:01

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According to the Wikipedia page about Big Beat, the drum beats in Big Beat are "heavy loops from 1960s and 1970s funk, soul, jazz, and rock songs." So if you want to make such drum loops without sampling existing records or using existing loop libraries, you'll have to learn how to create drum tracks that sound like they're coming from 1960s and 1970s funk, soul, jazz, and rock songs.

To emulate drum (or other) tracks from a certain period, find out how records were historically recorded and produced during the period of interest, and try to recreate the same sounds. I suppose recording an actual drummer playing actual drums in a proper room, with proper mics etc. is not an option, and you want to do something "in the box". You could use drum libraries which have the kinds of drum sounds you want, and use mixing techniques like what was used in the target era. Maybe use emulations of "vintage" compressors, tape recorders, mixing consoles etc., but IMO the most important thing is to know the original production techniques, not to have the right plugin. I haven't looked, but there may be tutorials on how to replicate 60s and 70s drum sounds. It's very much possible to do - I've heard quite convincing make-believe recreations of old recordings. But there's a learning curve.

piiperi Reinstate Monica
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    Perhaps study the output of [Propellerheads](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propellerheads) as part of the big beat movement, who quite famously made their own drum loops in the studio rather than sample them from others. Their 2 biggest tunes were 'History Repeating' & 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' [both with heavy James Bond connotations] Their drums don't have that true 60's vibe, but they still fit within big beat. – Tetsujin Mar 11 '22 at 17:36
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    @Tetsujin Completely unrelated random comment, but I'm waiting to subscribe to your upcoming Youtube channel where you tell stories about working for Yamaha, the 80s and 90s, synths and MIDI etc.! – piiperi Reinstate Monica Mar 12 '22 at 00:12
  • Whilst I fully appreciate the sentiment, I don't think I would ever make a presenter. My only recent YouTube activity was the skit Eminem video I put up earlier this year [which I think I linked in chat]. I doubt I'll ever get round to making that type of 'documentary' content. Sorry ;)) – Tetsujin Mar 12 '22 at 08:44