rhythm

Shanannigan

I produce music with DAW software and i often end up frustrated when it comes to programming drums as i can't always get my head around making a good beat.. I'm trying to branch out from using prerecorded "in the box" drum loops and improve my abilities in creating my own beats..
at the core of the problem though i think, is not having a comprehensive grasp on rhythm elements involved in a drum beat.. that's not to say i don't have rhythm, it's just not metronomic. I'm fine when its a straight 4/4 beat, but i get muddled when going into 6/8 and waltz time among other time sigs... i can play these easy enough when it comes to guitar and other instruments, but when it comes down to the programming of a drum beat, i get frustrated, i guess with the maths of the whole thing, when it comes to working out how many steps i need to create an interesting beat, and whether i should be working in 8ths 16ths or 32nds etc... up to now I've dabbled somewhat and with some success, but i feel this is an area that i need to work on.. I just don't know where to start... so my question is, can you recommend some tracks to study for their rhythmic elements and maybe some tips on the best approach to improving my skills in drum programming.. all help will be much appreciated.
Cheers

Malice

Moved to Music Production.

I can't recommend any tracks to study but what I do when having to lay down a beat to a rhythmically-complex track is to create bars of closed hihats to use as a grid. I then go through the riff bar by bar putting the drum beat together.

krd

What you might do is look at the videos for Drumagog on Youtube.

You can set up tables and chairs to and stuff to work as drums.

Pencilling in drums is a pain for many reasons. It's difficult to get them to sound right, as really drummers do all kinds of things in and around the beat.

nyarlothothep

I find drum programming tedious and boring too, however the results at the end can be great. What I normally do is slow the tempo of the song right down, so if its 110 I'll play it at 60. I use a keyboard with drum sounds assigned to the keys and play something I think will fit, then quantize it at around 70%. Then I speed it up to the original tempo. The reason for this is that its easier to play it in time at a slower pace and quantize it without getting unexpected results.

When starting off I listened to a lot of drum tracks on songs I thought had the same rhythmic style as my own compositions, I would listen to a variety of these songs and combine drum patterns from all of them to compose my own drum tracks, in particular with respect to fills. After a while you can kind of suss out the best drum patterns for particular songs but I would still reference fills as some of them can have some interesting combinations of toms and snares which wouldn't occur to me as a non drummer. But usually the first thing to go down is the drum beat and its the only part of the recording process that I want get done quickest. Basically my advice is to study your source material closely. So if you want a compose a 6/8 drum track, find some songs in 6/8 and listen to what they do and apply it to your own music.

Hendrixfan

Would do no harm to study this guy http://youtu.be/puEVs4g6qykhe's got a beat called the Purdie shuffle. In the beat you'll find most of key fudamentals to most 2/4 3/4 4/4 beats. As he says in other videos, its important to know where your 1 is, after that their is no real limits.

When I make up beats on DR 880 I find playing the hats in real time, no quantizing etc gives a real kind of feel, I might speed the tempo up or down in small parts and even do a few fills in real time like above. Trouble with programming is its to perfect, needs a bit of human error to make it real.

krd

Hendrixfan wrote: »

Trouble with programming is its to perfect, needs a bit of human error to make it real.

What I've played around with in Ableton, is switching off the grid and just played with moving hits slightly off the beat. You can hear when it sounds good and when it sounds off.

Your DR 880 - learn it inside out - look for kinks - I know it's BOSS but it's made by Roland. Roland always put kinks and little flaws and things in the machines. There's usually a way of making them drift a little.


Dancers can always find the one. Music notation was built around the needs of dancers. 3/4, 4/4, is all related to dance. A "pure" form of music wouldn't really need to break the staff into portions fit for dance.

Malice

Hendrixfan wrote: »

Trouble with programming is its to perfect, needs a bit of human error to make it real.

You might need to find a better VST in that case . For example Toontrack's Superior Drummer has a "humanizing" option and a lot of different hits at multiple volume levels which can produce quite natural-sounding results.

Shanannigan

thanks all, you've given me plenty to think about.. lookin forward to gettin properly into it... that Purdie shuffle is great stuff.. thanks a mill