Drum Patterns

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drgonzoishere
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Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:06 am

Drum Patterns

Post by drgonzoishere » Wed May 20, 2015 11:14 am

Hi!

I'm looking for any sites or books where I can get drum patterns from. I'm learning myself but it would be great to also have references to drum patterns too. Theres a book on amazon but it was released in 1985 and has mixed reviews saying its very dated.

Cheers in advance!

Richie Witch
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Re: Drum Patterns

Post by Richie Witch » Wed May 20, 2015 12:02 pm

I think I know the book you're talking about. I bought a couple drum patterns books on Amazon and they were both very dated. However, it was a great tutorial for learning about drums if (like me) you know nothing at all. But if you already understand the theory behind drum beats and kits, here are a couple other things you can try:

Slice audio to new MIDI track: If you take any drum loop from a sample pack, and set the slices to a sixteenth note, it will break down the pattern to the individual drum hits. Listen to each hit and then consolidate the ones that are the same. For example, slice 1, 5, 9, and 13 might all be kick drums, so move each of those slices to a common line. Do this for each of the different drum sounds, and you'll have the drum pattern for each drum. Of course, this doesn't work very well, if more than one drum is being hit on a given beat, but using your ear, you might be able to figure out which two or three pieces of kit are being hit, and adjust it in your slices.

Rebuild simple beats in MIDI: If you have a hit-specific loop sample, like a hi-hat pattern, just take a close look at the pattern as a waveform, set to a sixteenth note grid, and rebuild it on a MIDI track. The size of the waveform at each hit will tell you which beats need accent, or where you might want to adjust the velocity to get the same feel.

On the track I'm working on now, I found four hi-hat loops I really liked, but the hat sound was different on each of them. What I did was rebuilt those loops in MIDI, then routed all four to my drum machine, where I could tweak the sound of the hat to taste. Now all four loops sound like they're being played on the same kit, but I got the patterns I really wanted.

If you're looking for drum theory, like what a ride cymbal does, or where a snare is normally placed in the beat, or how to build a drum fill, those books are still good, but you wont get much use from the patterns.
"Watching the Sky" ~ A 4-track EP of piano, strings, and Native American flute

Stromkraft
Posts: 7033
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:34 am

Re: Drum Patterns

Post by Stromkraft » Wed May 20, 2015 3:00 pm

drgonzoishere wrote:Hi!

I'm looking for any sites or books where I can get drum patterns from. I'm learning myself but it would be great to also have references to drum patterns too. Theres a book on amazon but it was released in 1985 and has mixed reviews saying its very dated.

Cheers in advance!
There are many drum books, maybe just not patterns books. You just have to look harder and read contents of drum books. The patterns are there. Hard to recommend anything as I'm only interested in a subset of these and actually haven't got one. I got stuck at Jared Falk's "Succesful Drumming" for some real basics (Believe me I needed that).

While taking apart breaks can be learned from, you need to do some groundwork as well so you can place those patterns properly and remake them at will sounding the way you want.
Make some music!

Daniel_S
Posts: 229
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2012 1:24 pm

Re: Drum Patterns

Post by Daniel_S » Wed May 20, 2015 3:14 pm

Richie Witch wrote:I think I know the book you're talking about. I bought a couple drum patterns books on Amazon and they were both very dated. However, it was a great tutorial for learning about drums if (like me) you know nothing at all. But if you already understand the theory behind drum beats and kits, here are a couple other things you can try:

Slice audio to new MIDI track: If you take any drum loop from a sample pack, and set the slices to a sixteenth note, it will break down the pattern to the individual drum hits. Listen to each hit and then consolidate the ones that are the same. For example, slice 1, 5, 9, and 13 might all be kick drums, so move each of those slices to a common line. Do this for each of the different drum sounds, and you'll have the drum pattern for each drum. Of course, this doesn't work very well, if more than one drum is being hit on a given beat, but using your ear, you might be able to figure out which two or three pieces of kit are being hit, and adjust it in your slices.

Rebuild simple beats in MIDI: If you have a hit-specific loop sample, like a hi-hat pattern, just take a close look at the pattern as a waveform, set to a sixteenth note grid, and rebuild it on a MIDI track. The size of the waveform at each hit will tell you which beats need accent, or where you might want to adjust the velocity to get the same feel.

On the track I'm working on now, I found four hi-hat loops I really liked, but the hat sound was different on each of them. What I did was rebuilt those loops in MIDI, then routed all four to my drum machine, where I could tweak the sound of the hat to taste. Now all four loops sound like they're being played on the same kit, but I got the patterns I really wanted.

If you're looking for drum theory, like what a ride cymbal does, or where a snare is normally placed in the beat, or how to build a drum fill, those books are still good, but you wont get much use from the patterns.
Excellent advice there.

Richie Witch
Posts: 1018
Joined: Mon Feb 10, 2014 10:10 pm
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Re: Drum Patterns

Post by Richie Witch » Wed May 20, 2015 4:34 pm

Daniel_S wrote:Excellent advice there.
Thanks! 8)
"Watching the Sky" ~ A 4-track EP of piano, strings, and Native American flute

Asymmetricalmusic
Posts: 337
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2013 5:52 am

Re: Drum Patterns

Post by Asymmetricalmusic » Wed May 20, 2015 4:48 pm

Drummers always got drum mag's sitting around

I always thought about doing some of the lessons in the back in MIDI

drgonzoishere
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:06 am

Re: Drum Patterns

Post by drgonzoishere » Thu May 21, 2015 11:25 am

Richie Witch wrote:I think I know the book you're talking about. I bought a couple drum patterns books on Amazon and they were both very dated. However, it was a great tutorial for learning about drums if (like me) you know nothing at all. But if you already understand the theory behind drum beats and kits, here are a couple other things you can try:

Slice audio to new MIDI track: If you take any drum loop from a sample pack, and set the slices to a sixteenth note, it will break down the pattern to the individual drum hits. Listen to each hit and then consolidate the ones that are the same. For example, slice 1, 5, 9, and 13 might all be kick drums, so move each of those slices to a common line. Do this for each of the different drum sounds, and you'll have the drum pattern for each drum. Of course, this doesn't work very well, if more than one drum is being hit on a given beat, but using your ear, you might be able to figure out which two or three pieces of kit are being hit, and adjust it in your slices.

Rebuild simple beats in MIDI: If you have a hit-specific loop sample, like a hi-hat pattern, just take a close look at the pattern as a waveform, set to a sixteenth note grid, and rebuild it on a MIDI track. The size of the waveform at each hit will tell you which beats need accent, or where you might want to adjust the velocity to get the same feel.

On the track I'm working on now, I found four hi-hat loops I really liked, but the hat sound was different on each of them. What I did was rebuilt those loops in MIDI, then routed all four to my drum machine, where I could tweak the sound of the hat to taste. Now all four loops sound like they're being played on the same kit, but I got the patterns I really wanted.

If you're looking for drum theory, like what a ride cymbal does, or where a snare is normally placed in the beat, or how to build a drum fill, those books are still good, but you wont get much use from the patterns.
Great stuff, yeah I've never played but have a basic understanding of where certain elements go i.e the bass drum and snares, its the hi-hat rhythms and fills id like to learn more about. I suppose its like learning most things, listen to a track I like then try and recreate it to see how its structured and played, and use elements from that.

Cheers1

dave dove
Posts: 101
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 5:25 pm
Location: Mid-Wales

Re: Drum Patterns

Post by dave dove » Thu May 21, 2015 5:38 pm

pends what you trying to do
if you want to simulate 'real' drummer then fine
or get one of those instruments designed for that
but if you want to develop a unique signature
in whatever music maybe look at alternatives:
step sequencers
polyrhythmic/euclidean sequencers
arpeggiators and scaling MIDI tools
slicers
banking up slicers and synths into drum racks
driven by melodic patterns.... usw

pends what you want to do....

have fun

jbodango
Posts: 521
Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 11:25 pm

Re: Drum Patterns

Post by jbodango » Thu May 21, 2015 5:47 pm

You're searching for the wrong thing....

just transcribe patterns from drumset books:

for starters:

http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Funk-Stu ... _14_text_y
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Breed-Dev ... B4RNY99DRW

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