I want big fat beats.......

hey guys. ok i'm on a g4 mac running pro tools le. some of the stuff i use is ....reason, rebirth, recycle.....i also have an e-mu orbit 3. what do i need to make my tracks fat, huge.... pro sounding? i just want to get my mixes sounding a bit more on the pro side.... when i use my orbit3... i'm doing everything midi..... and it just seems everything is sounding weak...... dang....i was looking into getting this unit by Aphex. it's the 204 Aural Exciter......what do you guys think? any help would be great....(and might stop me from wanting to give up on dance music)

well i do like loops..... but lets face it..... when you mak you own beats..... and if you make them good..... then you get credit for it.....i'm into making my own drums . i'm trying to get my midi drum patterns in pro tools to sound fat as hell.... big sounding.... do i need to get some plug ins? what about the exciter i was talking about? the 204 aural exciter? would that work as a problem solver?

I use an MPC 2000 and I have over 5000- drum hits. My suggestion; build up you library of hits and experiment with EQ's and efx. Dance-Megadrums is a great CD. It has hits from almost every drum machine ever made. I dont have an aural exciter, but i'm sure it cant hurt.

i have heard of the Dance-Megadrums cd. so is this cd like a bunch of single one shots? like kicks and snares? hi hats? i would like to be using the drum sounds that came with my orbit3. i mean there are a ton of them in that module.....all i want to do is make them sound bigger......fatter..

i would suggest using what cha got ta get what cha want by blending a few different say,kicks; together,on top each other in sequencer of redrum,for each drum,yet at different levels,lengths,then importing as audio to their own leveled tracks in 001.from there you could add different compressions and things to,possibly,big up your sound.although i play and prefer trap kit,and like redrum more as a click source, i found blending the drums made them sound much fuller,phatter,and capable of sounding somewhat authentic enough to deserve their own stereo channel and plugins.if you have available audio tracks this might help.

What you're hearing as "big" and "phat" sounds are typically those which have gone through a few processes, most notably compression, EQ, limiting, etc. These are things done at mixdown and mastering stages to get a sound or mix seeming "finished" and "huge" (which is what you're looking for)... If you've got four grand to burn, you can get a pair of Emprirical Labs Distressors, which I wouldn't suggest (unless you truly do have four thousand dollars to blow, in which case you should simply buy the Distressors for me)... you can get decent sounds using just the plugins that come with PTLE (compressor, EQ, limiter, gate, etc.). Search google.com for stuff like "compression tutorial" or "limiter basics" or "how to use eq," or "mastering basics" etc. and you'll find a wealth of resources to spice up and thicken your thin-sounding samples and loops.

bassmac recently suggested this great link: READ! You can learn a lot there. Really interesting.

Yes... Compression, Eq., limiter, sometimes even a reverb or weird stuff like GRM Tools can definitely help. And, as stated above, don't hesitate to use "layers"=> I often double or triple my drums; sometimes only some elements of the drums (Kick or snare or Hihat) and some other times I do it with the whole drums pattern (2 or 3 different well chosen and mixed drums "layers" can create that fat-killing sound you're looking for).

ok but what about the aphex 204 aural exciter? it says it gives you "richer highs, deeper lows, and clarity all around"..... does anyone have this unit? p.s. thanks again for all of your info. great forum.