Tips for Making Realistic Drum Tracks in FL Studio 7

One of the premier sequencing programs on the market, FL Studio 7 (aways back it used to be called Fruity Loops) features a fast and intuitive interface and a host of great samples to build hip hop, rock, techno, and house beats quickly.

If you're looking to get a realistic drum sound, though, you may have found that many of the tracks you've made in the past sound a bit lifeless. Here are some tips on making your FL Studio 7 songs sound like a live drummer is on the track.

But a MIDI controller. It's nearly impossible to get extremely realistic drums by placing the notes in the piano roll with your mouse; if you've got a MIDI controller keyboard that's velocity sensitive, you can tap the parts of the drums you can hear in your mind without becoming frustrated or confused. This is a must if you're serious about a real drum sound.

Use the FLC Drum Kit. This is the most realistic drum kit that comes with the program (though if you've got a little bit of change I'd recommend buying a few of the ones you can find online from FL Studio's website), with different samples for different hit intensities. In other words, if you've got a MIDI controller and you barely hit the bass drum key, it'll be a different sound than when you slam on it. The dynamics really make your drum tracks sound realistic, since you're not just messing with the volume levels on the same sample.

Use the "Quantize" tool. In the piano roll after recording a drum track through your MIDI keyboard, hit "Alt-Q" to bring up the Quantize tool (don't use Quick Quantize, it doesn't work as well). You can use this tool to move beats to the nearest logical place, making your haphazard (or heavily lagged-out) drum track snap into focus. If your sense of timing is as bad as mine, you might still have to manually move some beats around, but the quantize tool will at least do most of your job for you.