38. Programming Great Drum Beats – Use Velocity and Modulation For Dynamics Bear in mind that the force with which real drums are struck is never absolutely consistent. To a certain extent, there will be random variation in the velocity of each hit, but there will also be more predictable variations. In pop and rock drumming, for instance, the first beat of the bar is often emphasised, while reggae rhythms are characterised by a heavier third beat. There are also physical limitations on how hard you can strike a drum: beats played in quick succession will tend to be quiet, since you can’t raise the sticks as high, or get so much travel with the bass drum pedal, between hits. Also, don’t ignore dynamics within the song. In dance music, the drums are often compressed to the point where they are totally even in volume throughout, and any dynamic changes are effected by simply dropping out parts of the rhythm. Real drummers, however, use crescendos and other dynamic effects to add feel to a track; often, for instance, they will build up the volume going into a chorus. For the best overall effect, use a combination of heavily compressed core hits and more dynamic percussion hits and patterns. 39. Actually play your rhythm parts rather than always programming them It’s one thing to have the feel of a pattern in your mind: however, it’s much harder to analyse the slight timing variations that produce that feel. The best way to capture ‘feel’, therefore, is to play the parts into your sequencer, from a keyboard or other controller, in real time. Start with the two most important – usually the kick and snare – in a single pass. Playing the drums well is, like most instruments, difficult and takes some expertise, but it’s not too hard to bash out a basic rhythm with two fingers on MIDI pads or a keyboard, and doing so makes it much easier to capture the elusive ‘feel’ of a real drum part. And of course the beauty of sequencing is that you can correct any mistakes afterwards. If you’re not sure what sort of feel your drum part should have, or you can’t seem to get it right by just recording to a click track, remember that you don’t have to record the drums first. If your song centres around a particular piano or bass riff, for instance, you could try recording that into your sequencer first and add the drums later. Being able to hear the important instrumental parts is very useful for deciding what kind of rhythm will or won’t work. If you do need to edit the patterns you’ve entered, avoid snap to grid or similar functions. It’s all too easy to end up not only correcting mistakes, but also the timing variations that are responsible for the ‘feel’ of the part. Though editing can be used to remedy mistakes or really sloppy timing, there’s little point in painstakingly bashing out your rhythms in real time if you’re then going to quantise away all the variations. If you must quantise, leave a fairly wide margin so that only really late or early beats are corrected. Bear in mind that a lot of real drummers and grooves actually depend on consistent deviations from theoretically accurate timing. Sometimes this is quite obvious, as in the case of heavy syncopation or ‘swing’, which imposes a triplet feel on a four-beat rhythm, but it can be much more subtle. For instance, playing slightly ahead of the beat, particularly on the first and third beats of a four-beat bar, is a common device used to add urgency to a rhythm. In other genres like the blues, by contrast, drummers sometimes deliberately delay the ‘off’ beats to create a laid-back feel.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 18:19:09 +0000
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