you should be aware of all the technical aspects and techniques and methods the end result can be achieved.
Knowing the history of drum samples - from their sampled nature in the 70s and 80s and even today, to their electronic synthesis over the same timeline - will help you a lot in really being a master of the subject. Live and synthesized drum samples are out there, and hybrids also exist. The latter seems to be dominating songs as of late.
When trying to layer drums of any type, you should watch the volume and clipping meters. Samples will often contain many common frequencies, and by layering these you run the risk of clipping or distorting the sound. So keep an eye out and maybe adjust volume before the actual mixing process. Be proactive about combating the issue.
The starting phase of drum samples is known as the sound's attack. You can try to remember `attack' as the characteristic the sample needs to have to cut through a whole range of sounds, like strings and pianos just to be head by the listener.
Coming up next is the middle of the sound, the meaty part of it. A lot of people call this the sustain. The sound lives and breathes here, and this phase is important beyond all else if the attack was not very pronounced. If there is no attack and no sustain, there is really no sound. The listener will simply not hear it through everything else!
The end of the drum samples is up after the sustain. So we've gone from start to middle and now to end. The only thing to really worry about here is that your sound does not clip as it stops. A lot of truncations can cause this sound due to sudden cuts in volume. To fix a clip, use the filter that would have come with your audio editor or fix it yourself by fading out the last few milliseconds. The end of a drum sample is not that important and is mostly determined by the sustain of said sample, so don't worry about it too much and focus on the earlier stages.
When it comes down to the actual techniques that producers and mixers use to layer drum samples, there is a lot of confusion out there! Believe me, I've checked hundreds of forums and blogs and some of the information is astoundingly silly. Some people will tell you to simply mash two samples together without any pre-thought. Others say to grab one sample with a good attack, one with a good release and then mix them up to make one super drum sample. Does this work? It could, but it's better to simply combine one's attack and one's release so that frequencies don't clash.
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