Hey guys, it’s Andre.
It’s now my 38th week here at Benztown. The 38th part of my Production Diary, where I share all the things I learned about radio imaging and production.
Today, I’m showing you one of my most favorite instrument plugins – Battery by Native Instruments.
This drum sampler comes with a massive 12 GB sample library, containing different samples from every style like classic orchestral percussion to drum machines, synthesized sounds and many special kits like explosions and factory sounds. Of course you can import any other samples from other libraries.
Battery is separated in two main sections. In the upper part, you see the sample cell matrix, which displays between 16 and 128 sample cells. The usage is pretty easy: Import your kit or single samples and all the samples will be displayed in the sample cell matrix. By clicking single cells or using a MIDI Controller, you activate the samples.
If you’ve found a sample you like, but you’re not fully satisfied, it’s time to take a look at the lower section – the edit pane.
Under “Cell” you can change parameters like key, volume and pan and volume envelope. Pitch envelope is a fun tool to play with. Add cool pitch and scratch effects to you samples with a few clicks.
Under “Setup” you can change the velocity, trigger, articulation, echo, and, and, and… Add tones and melody to your samples by activating “Humanize”
Looking for fat drums or massive hits? Then check out the mapping section. According to the velocity you choose, Battery layers your sound and enables you to create big drums and hits within Battery. You don’t need to play out single drum samples and layer them in your DAW.
Wave is pretty self-explanatory. You can edit the waveform of your samples directly, add fades and cuts.
Loop gives you the possibility to create loops of your samples, so you don’t need to loop them in your DAW.
Here’s a cool tool – modulation. Add LFOs to your kicks to make them extra fat.
The effect section gives you different filters, EQs, compressors, reverb, delay and many more effects. Add some lo-fi effects to your samples or create crazy sci-fi like bit reduction effects with saturation. Tweak around your saturation settings to create some clangy, metallic sound effects.
The previous effects were only for single samples. In the master section, you can add effects to all your samples. Add EQs, filters, compression, delay and reverb to your all samples played with Battery.
The Browser helps you to keep the overview over all your samples. Browse through your libraries, pre-listen and just drag it into the sample cell matrix.
It’s hard to explain the fun of Battery just in words, I guess you have to get your hands on it to get the feeling. It works totally easy and intuitive. Choose your favorite samples, add some effects and just be creative.
The German company Native Instruments created with Battery one of the most powerful drum sampler available (in my opinion ;)). Start Battery, plug in a MIDI controller and just have fun.
Cheers and have a nice weekend.
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[…] tonal changes of samples, I’m using pitch plugins and (since a few weeks) NI’s Battery to create musical work […]