Programming Drums (machines, loops)

[Grandturk]

I guess I'm looking for theory on how to create drum rhythms.

OK - I'm not a drummer, and I know very little about drumming.

I've had a drum machine for like 10 years, and I use it for messing around. I program it very basically:

- hi-hat clicking off 1/4 notes or 1/8 notes
- kick on the 1 & 3
- snare on the 2 & 4
- sometimes kick on the 1 & "and"

Pretty basic stuff. The drum machine I have doesn't make it easy to do triplet anything.

Anybody got some general "rules" for drumming - maybe some lessons or something?

[Jacksons Shred]

I don't think there are general "rules". I think you're just looking for beat templates so to say. I'm not the greatest with creating beats but what I use to do is just find a easy ass 80's beat and try to create it to get a feel for stuff. Or sometimes I would slightly follow guitar patterns with beats.

I guess the best thing to do would be ask a drummer.

[Endrik]

I don't know if you can adjust the level of each note, without it you can never make it sound good.

Basically what you want to do is the program in the human-like imperfection which makes the drumming sound good to our ears while dead on perfection sounds fake and robotic. We all love great accurate drummers but no one plays "perfectly".

First thing would be the hi-hats. A person hits the hi hat more heavily when the other hand hits the snare at the same time.
So change the hi-hate volume level so that the level on the snare hits would be more louder and the others would be quieter. And don't make the level numbers the same.. make them vary a little bit.
For example for the most basic 4/4 beat where every hit is on 4ths. Kick on 1, snare on 2, kick on 3, snare on 4. When the hi-hat hits would be 4ths then the volume for example would go like this. 1 vol 50, 2 vol 75, 3 vol 53, 4 vol 72.
Or if the hats would be on double time, on 8ths, then they would go 1 vol 70, 2 vol 50, 3 vol 76, 4 vol 49, 5 vol 73, 6 vol 52, 7 vol 75, 8 vol 54. The kick would be during the 1 and 5 and snare 3 and 7. Just adjust the volume so it sounds believable.

If you use fills and stuff. for example there's a fill of 3 notes. on a snare and two toms.
Then the levels would go something like this. 1.vol 80. 2 vol 54. 3.vol 72.

When the beat is steady, the kick and the snare are usually pretty stable, vary the level just a little bit, more on the snare.
But if there's like double beat or triplets, quadruplets etc. on the same drum item then vary the levels in a similar way like during the fills. Remember the first hit during a fill is usually the strongest. And during the ghost notes, bring the level more down but still have some variation in the volume levels.

As far as programming the specific beats, grooves, fills, solos etc. then you just have to listen to a lot of drummers and apply that to the machine. Just try try try. It takes practice.

[Rsmacker]

I guess the best thing to do would be ask a drummer.

The difference between a drum machine and a drummer is that you only have to punch the instructions once into a drum machine.

I suggest you do drum rolls and cymbal crashes at the same time, just like on Slayer's "Show No Mercy"

[Grandturk]

The difference between a drum machine and a drummer is that you only have to punch the instructions once into a drum machine.

... but you have to keep punching the drummer?

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

[VitaminG]

there are plenty of instructional resources for drummers out there. Books with patterns, grooves & fills. Loads of free tutorials online too. You could get some of those & refer to them while you're programming for more authentic sounding drums

[markD]

endrik has good advice. i used to spend HOURS programming drum machine patterns and loops. eventually i just learned to play the drums. that was hard at first too, but now, i often use both...a basic loop programmed on a machine, then i use an electric drum kit to build around the loop. it has been great for my recent explorations into goth/techno/club metal - think industrial metal meets the goth night...

anyway, as far as suggestions...to give more variety to your patterns, especially programmed fills, see if you have a parameter that allows you to change the "note count" within the pattern. i use an OLD korg DDD-1, and there are zillions of little hidden parameters that allow me to change note counts, time signatures, polyphony, etc., ALL within one pattern. so i can put my HH doing rolled 32nd notes, while the bass drum is doing an eighth note galloping flam, repeated for one measure , then cut that measure into another pattern that is 16 bars of a snare drum playing a straight 1/4 beat. it's awesome. just play around with it and realize that programming a drum machine requires a good understanding of time signatures, math and creativity. they are VERY flexable tools limited only by their options and your creativity.

i used to just sit and "record" loops in my drum machine JUST to see what it could do and what i could come up with. i never worried about sounding like a real drummer at first. once i got into the understanding of how the the machine and math all worked together, it was easy to program more realistic beats.

hope this helps.

[Endrik]

Ok, I uploaded some little files to show how I do it sometimes.

I saw Will Calhoun play some cool jungle beats and I instantly had ideas how to use them. I had my little digital camera and made some videos of Will's playing.
This is one of the ideas I really wanted to work with:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bxdhyr

So as soon as I got home, I checked the video and I had an idea in my head to make it a little different but basically the same style.

So I quickly ran Garageband in my MacBook, which is not really an advanced software for programming but having being an electronic music DJ it's easy for me to program with pretty much anything.

So I programmed my variation of the beat. Garageband has different styles of drumkits for sampling/programming. I took the jazz kit, which is rather bland and dry sounding but I knew I can work with it and eventually get some cool stuff by heavily processing it. Here's the beat.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/iboxn3

But notice, it sounds robotic and lame.

So I added the human-like dynamics, varied the hi-hat and ride velocity, snare ghost notes etc.
And then I ended up with cool sounding beat which has "feel" in it.
And I made four tracks of the same programmed beat.
On the clip from 0:00 to 0:25 is the original beat, just dry jazz kit.
From 0:25 to 0:50 I did the most basic drum processing, I added some compression and reverb.
From 0:50 to 1:15 I processed the dry jazz kit with compressor, through bass amp simulator and with phaser.
From 1:15 to 1:40 I processed the dry jazz kit with compressor, distortion, flanger and cut a lot of low frequencies with visual EQ.
From 1:40 to 2:05 is the final version. It has all the previous 4 tracks running together.
From 2:05 to 2:30 has the final version of the beat + a synth bass line which I programmed. So it's a "rhythm section" of a drum'n'bass tune to which I could jam over with alone and basically the idea which I presented to my drummer and bass player in a project where the drummer has to play crazy break beats at fast tempos and the bassists plays with all kinds of weird effects.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yt32e4