How to sound like Clyde Stubblefield (The Funky Drummer)

Hey Neil,

I was wondering if you could recommend any drum midi files (and drums sounds) in the vein of David Holmes on his scores for Oceans 11, 12 & 13.

Like “Ruben’s In”:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/oceans-eleven-music-from-motion/id311571021

or “Kensington Chump”:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/oceans-thirteen-music-from/id255838323

Also, what drums to get that fat soul sound? I use Logic and Reason, but don’t seem to have those great sounding basic acoustic

drums on our favorite funk and soul records.

Any info appreciated.

: >

(Name and website supplied)

Thanks for your email and the links you sent me for David Holme’s tracks – I am sorry for not responding earlier.

You may have already solved this by now, but if not, here are a few quick thoughts based on first impressions:

I reckon Clyde Stubblefield is your man of choice to emulate, James Brown’s original Funky Drummer – his technique certainly!

Logic

I would start with some Ludwig acoustic drum samples

for example, Drumcore Free‘s acoustic sparkle kit.
http://www.sonomawireworks.com/drumcore/downloads/

Or maybe Analogue Drum’s Big Mono (via Bedroom Producer’s blog)
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2010/06/24/free-sample-shootout-2-acoustic-drums-full-kits/

That has some nice drags and articulations which makes it sound funky – I think its only available for Kontakt.

It should work in the trial version though – for 30 minutes or so.

There are some other funky drum samples (i.e. Free Jazz Funk & Vintage Funk) over at BPB also worth a listen to.

Ideally you need some nice snare and hi hat articulations – sloshy hi hats and grace notes on the snare

Analogue Drums have a successor to Big Mono (Redux) for $10 – I haven’t tried it though

Unfortunately they don’t work directly in Reason unless you start creating Kong Kits from scratch or you rewire them.

Start with Drumcore 3 and see if you like it.

Reason

David Holmes has certainly come up with a good overall drum sound.
He often has a foot hi hat or a tambourine or shaker going with the hi hat (as well as other percussion)
He seems to have spread the drums wide out in the mix – wider than usual, certainly not straight down the middle

Width
The Wide mix may be achievable possibly using a technique similar to automatic double tracking
I watched a YouTube video recently how to set this up in Reason for vocals – I think it would work for drums too.

Split the signal with an audio splitter and pan it hard left and right to get a stereo effect

I’d use the “Stockholm Drum Compression” combinator preset (or do some parallel processing along the lines of James Wiltshire) to thicken the sound too!

Reason 7 is here! James Wiltshire (Freemasons) demonstrates parallel processing

– I’d play around with the MClass Stereo Imager from the mastering effects to see if that affects the width to any great extent.

Fatness
The fatness in the mix: David’s drum sound trebly, a bit dirty/fuzzy so I would amp up the Tape (tape effect added, e.g. Scream 4’s “70s lo-fi”) and/or the Rack extension Audiomatic’s tape setting – going for that thicker, slightly fuzzy sound.

Midi

As for midi files, I would need around a bit more for specific pointers but I’d look at some of the FUNK midi loops I got from Cakewalk

by Goldbaby, Groove Monkee (I used his Free Midis on my clip “The Dave Sound”) and The Loop Loft too.

As for the Loop Loft, I found this:

What would it sound like if the legendary funk drummer, Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown) joined a legendary fusion band like Weather Report, and they only performed in dance clubs where the tempo was regulated to 128 bpm? Well, we’re not sure if such a bizarre/awesome union like this would ever occur, but if it did, the drums would probably sound a lot like our latest multitrack release, “Funk Meets Fusion”.

There’s some Soundcloud demos at The Loop Loft – the first two sound like Clyde: There’s a sale on too, so this is $7.50, so it’s currently half price! I’d be tempted to grab these and slice a few to make up a Kong Kit.

If you did decide to order some stuff from The Loop Loft, perhaps you would be kind enough to use my affiliate link – it all helps!

Thanks!

PS Here’s a screenshot from a Reaper Session where I have tried to emulate the sound using Drumcore Free.

Here’s one of my first attempts at getting the Clyde sound or as I have called it “The Dave Sound” using some Groovemonkee Funk midis which I think came with Cakewalk X1.
I used a fair bit of tape saturation, a lot of EQ boost in the high end, Wide stereo and some compression.

I admit, It’s Work In Progress: I haven’t nailed it yet, but I have started to head in the direction of a toppy, gritty and wide stereo sound. I think the snare needs the most work! I think a mixture of saturation and over compression will do it. Here’s a few gadgets I used. I particularly like the old Cakewalk FX2 Tape Sim plugin.

Maybe I’ll switch to Kong – maybe I’ll buy some more loops! I have just scratched the surface. The quest continues!

Additions:
Further research has uncovered the following:

Sampling CDs – Clyde Stubblefield, the Funky Drummer, remastered

This Premier kit from Drumdrops sounds pretty funky to me:

The Loop Loft do a comprehensive range of Funk midi files and loops – for example:

Click Here for some great freebies at The Loop Loft!

Disclosure: If you decide to purchase from The Loop Loft using one of this site’s (affiliate) links, I will receive a commission payment at no extra cost to you. I am a very happy customer of The Loop Loft and own a selection of their midi and audio loop products – I can confidently recommend these products to you as being both of the highest quality and also great value for money.

[sharebox5_no_text] [/sharebox5_no_text]

[features_box_red width=”75%” + border=”2px”]

Five Funky Drummers!

Check out five of the greatest funk drummers of all time here (external link):

http://www.acertaingroove.com/the-5-greatest-funk-drummers-of-all-time-in-my-opinion/

[/features_box_red]