Boss DR-202 "Simmons" Toms in Synthwave

Published on Apr 16, 2018 tiergrinder

"Here is a small quick demo that I made using a DR-202 for the electronic tom sounds for a synthwave track.

This is a response to a question that I got on my Enter The Fury video, where I was asked does the DR-202 really do the toms?
On that track the 202 does the sequencing for the intro synth line, but I replied that DR-202 is capable for nice "Simmons" tom sounds too and promised to make a quick demo.

I programmed the same tom patterns in the DR-202's internal sequencer and tuned the preset toms to match the tuning that I have on my "go to" Simmons samples. I wanted DR-202 to do all the drums so I programmed simple kick, snare, hihat and ride patterns to drive the track. Nothing too spectacular because the toms were the main point.

I recorded DR-202 dry without any external FX or EQ. When I recorded the drums, only instrument that was playing was the 202. I counted the bars and made the simple variations and break for the "track". Other parts were later added around this dry drum track.
For that reason the break is bit odd because I left the snare un muted and it pounds away through the break :D
That is also the reason why the drum sound volumes are bit all over the place.

Normally I would multitrack record every part on their own track, but here I just recorded all the drums from main outs as a mono mix to keep things honest, so there is no going back for level adjusting.

Sorry that I got carried away with the flanger, but you know.. It's so easy to end up over tweaking and forget what you were actually doing :D"