Collect as many '80s-sounding drum sounds that you can find, as well as some that sound like machinery. You can find a number of '80s drum-sound sample packs online, which will contain drum hits such as those from the Roland TR 707, TR 808 and TR 909. These can all be used for their punchy kicks and snares. You can also sample drum sounds from '80s music by opening the track in Ableton Live, right-clicking on the clip of audio once it is loaded onto an audio track and selecting "Slice to New MIDI Track." This will chop the audio piece into sections, based on either notes or its "Warp" settings. If using another sequencer program such as Cubase, Reaper or FL Studio, load a sampler VST such as Guru or Battery onto a MIDI track and select each of the samples you've acquired from the "File" menu.
Add Drum Rack by going to the left of Ableton's screen, under "Devices," and selecting it from the drop-down menu. Drag each of the individual sample clips you want to use into a MIDI channel with the "Drum Rack" added to it. Either hold down the mouse on the sliced sample you want to use and drag it to the desired slot in Drum Rack, or navigate to the left-hand side of Ableton's screen and click-and-drag them from your sample folder to the slots.
Add either Omniforce VST or Dirthead VST to the desired drums that you want to distort by clicking on the small arrow at the top of the Drum Rack track (in Ableton Live) to expand the instruments various channels, clicking on the channel you want effected then dragging the effect VST onto it. Add the effects VSTs in other sequencers by selecting them from the MIDI track's menu to add them alternatively. Drum Rack allows you to add effects to the entire section of drum samples, or to them individually. This is necessary for adding effects such as distortion to only some of the higher-range sounds, as not to disrupt the punch of the low-end drum samples.
Add Microtonic VST to another MIDI track by dragging it from your VST folder if you want to add an element of synthetic drums to your sampled drums mix. There are a number of pre-programmed drum sounds for you to choose from, as well as an internal distortion effect knob for each of the drum-sound channels within the VST. For added effect, drag another instance of the Dirthead, or Omniforce, to the track to get an even grittier sound.
Apply a gated reverb effect to the click drum sounds in your kit. You can either use the native effects within your sequencer program for this or whichever VSTs you choose. Add a reverb onto the desired drums, then add a gate VST after it. Reduce the "Hold" and "Release" of the gate, so that the tail of the reverb will be cut off, allowing the snare to remain punchy. This can also be done with the click kick sounds if desired.
Add a parallel compression effect to your drums in the return channel within your sequencer, whether it be Ableton, Cubase or Reaper. Set the compressor's ratio to 4.1 or higher and the threshold to somewhere around the middle, depending on taste. Set the "Send" levels to roughly 50 percent and add an EQ effect with the midrange frequencies cut out as well. Now that the sound of your drum kit has been programmed accordingly, you will be able to sequence your drum beats to the preferred industrial style of your song as you desire.