So, I really liked the old Fader Jocks podcast theme. I remember spending the better part of a day working on it. But, if I’m being honest, when I started digging through my hard drive archives for that Pro Tools session so that I could bounce out a new mix of it… crickets.
I couldn’t find that session folder anywhere.
So, especially because I’ve got the new drum sample pack up here on Patreon, I thought, “What a great time to eat my own dog food.” (A saying that I love but can’t seem to remember where I heard it.)
The kick, snare, and tom samples you hear on this new Fader Jocks theme song are “Kit G” directly from the new “Brian’s Drums – Vol. 1” sample pack.
The only processing I did to those sounds was to add a slight bit of the Eventide T-Verb to them to give them a little more width in the mix (basically a room sound that goes out wider in the stereo image than those samples originally had by themselves)
These drum samples make it incredibly easy to pull together a quick drum track for short little ditties like this one.
(Yes, there are times over the last 25 years where I’ve programmed a drum part with my own samples in 15 minutes instead of walking downstairs, playing the part, and spending another hour mixing drums.)
*Shout-out to Epidemic Sound on this one. Again, in the interest of time, here’s what I often do when I need to pull something like a podcast theme song together really quickly (and no one is paying for me to write a brand new, totally unique cue):
Instead of starting completely from scratch and having to compose & record everything from the ground up, I take on more of a DJ/Remixer workflow. I start searching through moods, feels, and tempos on Epidemic Sound. When I find something I like, I’ll pull the stems down for that and use it as my base.
I usually pull out the melody and drums stems first.
Next, I build a completely new static drum track/loop, usually 2-4 bars, and start to find what part of the remaining stems I want to keep. I’ll often trim this choice down to something even smaller (say 2 or 3 specific sections of bass line, guitar part, or keyboard riff).
Then, I start to look for other things on Epidemic Sound that have a similar feel or that might go along well with what I’ve carved out. If I find something I dig but it’s in the wrong key, I select the best sounding pitch shift plug-in I’ve got for that new part and put it in the correct key for my base.
If I don’t find anything that I dig pretty quickly on Epidemic Sound, then I may swap over to Splice and start leafing through loops that I find over there which might compliment my base. (I think the kids call this “mashing it all up”.)
It’s like having the most expansive and unique record collection of music in the world that no one else has heard from which I can pull samples, sounds, and new ideas.
If I find an instrumental loop I like that isn’t exactly what I need it to be, I can either edit it to be the exact part I want to hear or, especially with keyboard parts, I may grab a sound in Kontakt, V Collection, or some other soft synth library I have here and play in a replacement part that is to my liking.
Once I have the music dialed in and arranged correctly for my cue, I’ll go back and work on a more nuanced and complete drum part that helps move the arrangement along and widen the dynamic range of the tune.
Sometimes this can take an hour or, like with this new Fader Jocks theme song, I might invest four hours of my time to complete this new piece of music.
In the end, I come up with a Mash Up, Remix, or completely new piece of music that is perfect for that podcast, digital ad, or other short form content project.
If you want a free trial of Epidemic Sound and/or Splice, click any of the links in this post and try either/both services ABSOLUTELY FREE!!