GetGood Drums The Invasion: Making Modern Metal Drums Sound Real

We’ve all heard it. That nagging complaint about modern metal drums. They sound fake. They feel like a drum machine. They’re just sterile, plastic-sounding hits floating in digital space. This is especially obvious in programmed blast beats that sound more like a machine gun than a powerhouse drummer.

But then you hear a modern metal record where the drums are absolutely massive, punchy, and feel undeniably real. You can close your eyes and picture a drummer destroying the kit. Here’s the thing: odds are, that huge, “real” sounding kit is still loaded with samples. So, if both the shitty-sounding drums and the killer-sounding drums use samples, what’s the difference?

It’s not that you’re using samples from a library like GetGood Drums The Invasion; it’s how you’re using them. These libraries are just tools. It’s up to you to make them sound like a monster behind the kit, not a robot in the kitchen.

Let’s dive into how to use GGD The Invasion to get that huge, human sound and avoid the common pitfalls that make programmed drums sound fake.

What is GetGood Drums The Invasion?

Before we get into the techniques, let’s quickly cover what we’re working with. The Invasion is a beast of a drum library for the Kontakt Player, created by Adam "Nolly" Getgood (Periphery, Animals As Leaders). It’s meticulously sampled and designed from the ground up for modern, aggressive metal and rock.

You get a full kit with multiple snares, punchy kicks, and crisp cymbals, all captured with incredible detail. It comes packed with multi-velocity layers, round robins (so you don’t get the same sample twice in a row), and a killer built-in mixer with processing tools. It’s a go-to for a reason, but just loading the default patch and programming on the grid won’t cut it.

The Real Problem: Escaping the "Too Perfect" Trap

The number one reason programmed drums sound fake is that they’re too perfect. Human drummers, even the best ones, are beautifully imperfect. Every hit has a slight variation in timing, velocity (how hard it’s hit), and where the stick lands on the drumhead. Our brains latch onto these subtle changes.

When you program a blast beat with every single snare hit at max velocity (127) and perfectly snapped to the grid, your brain quickly checks out. It’s like scratching an itch—it feels good at first, but after a few seconds of the exact same motion, you go numb to it. The same thing happens with repetitive, robotic MIDI drums.

A static, single-shot sample, programmed perfectly, sounds terrible. GGD The Invasion gives you all the tools you need to avoid this.

How To Make GGD The Invasion Sound Human

Getting a realistic performance is about mimicking the nuances of a real drummer. It comes down to programming, editing, and using the plugin’s features to your advantage.

Step 1: Program with Velocity in Mind

This is non-negotiable. Velocity is not just a volume knob. In a deeply-sampled library like The Invasion, different velocity values trigger entirely different audio samples. A snare hit at velocity 95 is a completely separate recording from one at 127. The softer hit will have less crack and a different tonal character, just like a real drum.

• Vary Your Backbeats: Don't have every snare on 2 and 4 at the exact same velocity. Try varying them between 120 and 127. It’s a subtle change that adds life.
• Think Like a Drummer on Blasts and Fills: A drummer physically cannot hit the snare as hard during a 280 BPM blast beat as they can on a slow, pounding groove. When programming fast sections, pull the velocities down. This is one of the biggest secrets to making fast parts sound authentic and less like a typewriter. You might program a main backbeat at 125, but the blast beat snares might live around 105-115.
• Use Ghost Notes: Program in some very low-velocity snare notes (think 20-40) between the main hits to simulate the light "chatter" a real drummer creates. This fills out the groove and makes it feel much more fluid.

Step 2: Smart Quantization (Not Robotization)

Everyone wants tight drums, but 100% quantization is a vibe-killer. Instead of snapping every single note perfectly to the grid line, use your DAW’s quantize strength or percentage feature.

For example, setting your quantize strength to 90% will move the notes most of the way to the grid but leave a tiny bit of the original human variation. It tightens the performance without sterilizing it. This is the perfect middle ground between sloppy and robotic.

To do this effectively, you have to know what the groove is supposed to be. Understanding the rhythmic intent of a part, like identifying a "bomb blast," allows you to make informed editing choices that serve the song, rather than just blindly hitting "Quantize."

Step 3: Use The Invasion's Built-in Mixer

Before you start loading up dozens of third-party plugins, explore the powerful mixer right inside GGD The Invasion. It’s simple, effective, and designed to get you a great sound quickly.

Bleed is Your Friend

One thing that makes a drum kit sound real is the bleed—the sound of the snare rattling in the kick mic or the cymbals bleeding into the tom mics. The Invasion gives you full control over this with its Overhead and Room mic channels. Don’t be afraid to turn them up. Blending in these channels will help glue the individual kit pieces together, making them sound like they’re all in the same space.

Onboard Parallel Compression

The Invasion includes a "P Comp" fader on the master channel. This is a built-in parallel compressor, a classic trick for adding punch and fatness without sacrificing dynamics. Send your kick, snare, and toms to this bus, crush them to hell, and then blend that compressed signal back in underneath your main drum mix. It adds weight and aggression in a way that’s hard to achieve with just a single compressor.

For a deeper understanding of how pros use these techniques, check out our hub on metal compression secrets.

Beyond the Plugin: Blending for Reinforcement

Sometimes, the best use of samples is not to replace live drums, but to reinforce them. Imagine you have a great live drum recording, but the snare gets a little weak and lost during the fast blast beats. This is a perfect scenario for The Invasion.

Using a plugin like Slate Trigger 2 or your DAW’s built-in drum replacement tools, you can place a GGD snare sample directly underneath the real snare hits. You blend the sample in just enough to add consistency, punch, and cut during those sections where the live performance lacks power. This gives you the best of both worlds: the raw energy and realism of the live drummer, plus the surgical power and perfect tone of the sample.

Bringing It All Together

Programming and processing realistic drums is a critical skill, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. The real magic happens when you make those drums sit perfectly in a dense mix with crushing guitars, a thick bass, and aggressive vocals.

These techniques are your starting point. But imagine seeing how producers like Nolly Getgood himself, Will Putney, or Dave Otero actually build a monstrous drum sound and fit it into a full production. They navigate the delicate balance of EQing drums so they don’t fight roaring guitars, applying bus compression to glue everything together, and using automation to make every section hit with maximum impact.

At Nail The Mix, you can watch these world-class instructors mix real songs from bands like Gojira, Lamb of God, and Architects from scratch. You get the raw multitracks to practice on yourself and see exactly how the pros get it done.

If you’re ready to see how these concepts apply in a real-world context, explore the full catalog of Nail The Mix sessions and take your drum mixing to the next level.