Triggered Drums vs. Programmed Drums

[Matt Till]

Is there a difference? Because when I hear drums that are called Programmed, they often sound fake, but triggered drums often sound realish, but can sound fake if they want. Example: King Crimson - Power to Believe. I know a lot of work goes into phrasing the drums to sound like a drummer plays them, but yeah.

Another example is Prong's "Beg to Differ," I heard the drummer programmed the drums, but at some points they sound fake, but sometimes they sound real. Example, the title track. During the "To fall in line" prechorus part, the cymbol work is very realistic, but the intro has some fake sounding drums.

[msquared]

The main difference is that unless a serious amount of work goes into it, programmed drums are totally robotic sounding. There is no "breathing" involved. The sound only really suits the certain group of musical idioms which have made that a sonic trademark.

With triggered drums, there is at least a feeling to it that isn't so sterile and accurate. Matt Chamberlain has done this really well on the stuff he's played for Tori Amos and Fiona Apple.

As a drummer, I think it's a lot easier and the results (for any music) are a lot better if the drums are triggered rather than sequenced, but I guess I'm biased.

[Marcus Willett]

In my home studio, I always use sampled loops that can be sliced up for individual hits if needed. Isolated hits usually sound fake because there is little sympathetic vibration. Check out the drums on my sig line...all sampled loops.