Ableton Forum

For polyrhythms, check out a drummer called Gavin Harrison; he's awesome at that stuff. Really musical, to.

Look at odd-grouping, too. Odd-numbered subdivisions often sound excellent (Eg. 1 quarter note = quintuplets or septuplets rather than 16s or 8s) when used in the right place.

See the talking heads for awesome usage of polyrythm

king crimson & tool
also, to keep 4/4 while "doing awesome" , try taking 8 bars or so, count all the eighth notes, and divide them up into odd groupings (7-9-5-5-6-7-9-5-5-6=4bars). this is alot of fun. these are not true polyrhythms, but polymeters, a form of polyrhythms and add a lot of the same feel (less hypnotic). polyrhythms are evenly dividing a "longer" rhythm inside a "smaller" while they each share beat 1.

2 against 3 polyrhythm
3-beat rhythm 1 . 2 . 3 . 1
2-beat rhythm 1 . . 2 . . 1


5 against 4 polymeter
these lock up eventually (multiply the 2 meters used to find) 5x4=20 measures
always feel free to reset one to lock up with the other when u like

5-beat rhythm 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 1
4-beat rhythm 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 1

im no pro, but i know my tribal, primal shit. enjoy

btw, +1 for the bands mentioned b4.

so like the snare goes on the 2 and the 4, right?

if u want...im sure u know what the deal is. it depends on what your making/going for. that's what meshuggah does, with odd 16th note shifts (polymeters) on the gtrs.

yaya, you guys r fn nuts. good info here, also weird internet humor/mockery. i think it's more funny that this has to be woven into almost every post on here.

Tone Deft wrote:(I'm not a pro and shouldn't be posting here, but it's OK for the snare to be on the 2 and 4? maybe a thread for n00bs?)

It totally depends on the key of the track, and if you mix through a compressor from the start. If you weren't such a noob you'd know that.

I'm sorry.

/sits in corner on the floor.

may I continue to read your thread?

I too recommend listing to Meshuggah....

It will take some time to "get it" but they are an amazing band
once you understand what it is they're focusing on.

The reason why they're a good example for electronic musicians
is that they play in 4/4 but with patterns that take odd numbers
of bars to come around, or in some cases are just random.

Also they write their songs in MIDI sequencers so the foundation
for the tunes is something that worked on computer originally.

This series of videos goes through some of their riffs and how
they work against/with the 4/4 meter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR7qSHp2-lo

-Ben

make sure that you add some side chain and a saw bass as well, oh! and pitchbends on the overtones as it summons a sub-latency, thus creating a new polyrhythm every time just read for now deft, you'll learn one day.