any drum programming experts out there?

glasvegas · Post by **glasvegas** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:10 pm

i'm working on a track which currently uses a loop i found as it's main rhythm and, out of personal pride, i've decided to try recreate the pattern using battery.

the problem is i can't for the life of me get it sounding anything like this loop.
i'm using the 70's funk kit in battery.

should i just give up and accept the fact that im gonna have to use the original of what?

here is the loop:

http://senduit.com/196463

i can get the kick and snare pretty much spot on its just those darn hihats. if you listen pretty closely its actually quite a complex pattern velocity and pitch wise.

if anyone can replicate it please let me know how!

Rogue Scrunt · Post by **Rogue Scrunt** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:26 pm

what I might do is filter the lows out of the loop, so that you just here a ghost of the hats.

then, let that play while you program your own hi hats with it.
this way you retain some of the original loop feel.

good luck

what I would really do, is just use the loop, and program the kick snare part for breakdowns

glasvegas · Post by **glasvegas** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:41 pm

Rogue Scrunt wrote:what I might do is filter the lows out of the loop, so that you just here a ghost of the hats.

then, let that play while you program your own hi hats with it.
this way you retain some of the original loop feel.

good luck

what I would really do, is just use the loop, and program the kick snare part for breakdowns

yeah that's an idea. i'm now fucking about with it in ReCycle and loading it into GURU drum machine but not really sure what I'm doing...
man there's so many ways to do stuff!

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:00 pm

actually that beat isn't too hard !
use a filter, I'd go for a bandpass to focus on the hat.

slow the loop right down in live and play the original a quarter bar at a time and just focus on that quarter as you pop some hits in to match up. I do this in arrangement because I find it easier to stop/start in there.

if it is still hard, try resampling the bandpass output to a wave and then you will see the hi-hat hits quite clearly. In fact you could probably just use slice-to-midi to get the groove off this as it's pretty simple.

Mr Man · Post by **Mr Man** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:11 pm

try looping a 1/4 bar and pull the tempo down if its too fast... i cant listen to the loop right now so i dont know.

you can assigne the loop to crossfader channel A, and battery to channel B - this way you can fade between or blend while compairing likes

greg0ryk · Post by **greg0ryk** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:42 pm

Where do you find loops like that? Most of the loops in ableton are more techno based. I like that feel you have, is it straight from a record?

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:52 pm

google:

"all the breaks"

glasvegas · Post by **glasvegas** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:52 am

ok the story so far:

pretty much no problem getting the kick and snare sounding good;

here's the original (sped up a bit) http://senduit.com/f10346

and here's my programmed kick and snare http://senduit.com/310a15

but i can't get the bloody hi-hat!

i can pretty much figure out the rhythm but struggle to get the clip to sound non-mechanical and more like a real drummer. i'm trying different velocities which are changing the pitch slightly but just cant get it right. maybe my hi hat sample isnt suitable, i dont know

if anyone fancies a challenge feel free to program the beat and tell me exactly how you did it!

in response to the "where did i get the sample from question" it's from a sample pack called jazzy electro loops or something to that effect

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:19 pm

Do you have your kit in an impulse or drumrack you can share? If not just the samples will work as well.

TroyP · Post by **TroyP** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:54 pm

I may be wrong, but I think the HH part is pretty straightforward. I believe it sounds more complicated than it is because of the interplay with the kick rhythm.

Try a 2 bar HH pattern, straight 16th note rhythm, with accents on the 1 and the 3, and an open HH on every other "ah" of the 4th beat (4, ee, and, ah). See if that works.

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:21 pm

TroyP wrote:I may be wrong, but I think the HH part is pretty straightforward. I believe it sounds more complicated than it is because of the interplay with the kick rhythm.

Try a 2 bar HH pattern, straight 16th note rhythm, with accents on the 1 and the 3, and an open HH on every other "ah" of the 4th beat (4, ee, and, ah). See if that works.

That is what I about came up with but shifted some of the hats to loosen it up a bit since S/he was asking for a natural feel but, I wanted to try it with his/her samples.

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:22 pm

You can see exactly where everything hits if you look at the wave form.

glasvegas · Post by **glasvegas** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:19 pm

cheers for the respones, will upload samples and make a more detailed post tonight

Electronathan · Post by **Electronathan** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:32 pm

That HH is all about accents. experiment with velocities and put emphasis on the down beats and shape the OHH to bleed a bit on beat 1 of each bar
(I was listening outdoors on laptop speakers however...)

Also, for experimentation purposes; create a separate MIDI track and clip routed back into the battery track just for your HH notes. Another step to isolate yourself into that HH groove.
Check it out.

bodom76 · Post by **bodom76** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:44 pm

Angstrom wrote:
if it is still hard, try resampling the bandpass output to a wave and then you will see the hi-hat hits quite clearly. In fact you could probably just use slice-to-midi to get the groove off this as it's pretty simple.

I love slice to MIDI, but I wanted to ask about what you just said. Say I have a drum break that I REXed, imported and sliced to MIDI. I then group the different kicks together to 1 channel and snares to another.

If I wanted to get a 909 for example under the kick that is perfectly in phase, how would I do this? In Cubase I just take the groove of the break and align hits to that grid.