Members wheresgrant3 Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 It seems I have a knack for writing melodies, counter harmonies and programming textures... but my greatest weakness are percussion tracks. I just can't seem to get the hang of trying to create percussion tracks within my originals. The only time I've come close to including percussion in the music I've created was to reprogram arrpeggio patterns with different drum kits using ny Triton and Karma software. The result was interesting but I still had no idea what I was doing. At this point I would prefer not to create tracks from scratch. It's incredibly time consuming for me and I think my talents are much better matched on the canvas rather than trying to "make the paint". I'm considering Stylus RMS from Spectrasonics as a starting point. I've never even used Acid... but from what I understand Stylus is similar in the type of "Preset loops" it contains and some create controls to work with. What I really want are World/ Middle Eastern/exotic style beats with a hip hop flavor. Since I tend to lean toward soundtrack stuff, I'd like to use patterns that compliment ambient style music as much as possible. Anyone have any ideas where to start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members protues9 Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 Well you should probabaly write the drums and bass first, then the melody and then the ambient stuff. that order usually works for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CAPPS Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 if you ask me you should almost always write your own drum patterns, but i'm stubborn so don't listen to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rpieket Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 If percussion is not your stongest side, then leave it out. There is no law or commandment that says that you must have percussion. Consider it. -Ron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Purity_Control Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 Drum programming is seriously my weakest point, what I've found indispensible is using Sibelius - scoring software does make it very easy to experiment with a few clicks rather than having to continually resequence things, and I find it helps to be able to see the pattern of hits on screen, and it makes it much easier to syncopate with other parts of the track when you can see it all at once. Personally I prefer to do the composition first, then the percussion and basslines come in later, though really this is about whatever works for you. Alnertaively, consider leaving it out as rpieket suggests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members warped Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 Originally posted by rpieket If percussion is not your stongest side, then leave it out. There is no law or commandment that says that you must have percussion.Consider it.-Ron. Great advice! There ae no rules!!! But if you want to learn how to program drums, try this.. Find some loops that you like and try to duplicate them. You can step record the parts or sequencer them in real time. Try to visulize where the sound is in the bar (grid).. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but it works for me... do one sound at a time. Once you've done that you can change the sounds around and experiment a little bit more... I know you weren't asking for programing advice, but I thought I would bring this up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tucktronix Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 Rpieket has a good point. Percussion is also my weakness as well, which is why you don't hear a lot of percussion in my tracks. If you want to experiment more with percussion, my suggestion would be to try just adding some repeated patterns, here and there; maybe a loop or two, just enough to spice up the groove. The one thing that I've learned about adding percussion is that, indeed, less is better. There is a tendency to overdo it to the point where the mix can sound too cluttered and distracting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members elsongs Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 Back in the'90s I was one of the first producers to mix electronica with certain Asian ethnic rhythms. I would recommend for ethnic percussion and instruments you use loops or manipulate live recordings. Using something like a Proteus World or something like that would end up sounding cheesy. For the main drums, if you're doing hip-hop just program your own drums. Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scubyfan Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 Check out Stylus. I saw a video demo of it a while ago and it really impressed me. I believe Enigma used it on the last album, at least that's my guess based on the familiar drum sounds. I use Fruity Loops, so as I became more familiar with each of the components of percussion and how they are arranged, I was able to create my own. I had some help from hello HC KSSers, and as a result, I do all my drums now. You should consider taking that route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sizzlemeister Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 Drum programming is just a matter of reproducing what you hear in your head or feel in your body when you are working on a piece. IMHO, if you can't work out the drum part, even on a basic level, then you are missing an incredibly large and important part of the music lexicon and your music suffers greatly. Relying on loops for your drums is plain ol' sucky as far as I'm concerned. There's nothing wrong with a loop here or there if you are into that, but it's a shortcut that compromises your music and creativity. Learn to program drums. Like anything new, expect to take small steps, and eventually the small steps will make one large leap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aeon Posted February 8, 2005 Members Share Posted February 8, 2005 just to expand on the excellent advice warped1 gave: if you have a loop-slicing app like ReCycle or any of the others that came after it, it can be a great learning tool in terms of programming your own rhythms...why? simply because you can load in a loop (or a few bars worth) and after you slice it, you can note where the slice lines are falling relative to the grid lines...and this will show you how certain beats or instruments either push ahead or lag behind others, as well as showing the placement of strong hits vs. weaker ghost notes...as well as the basic structure itself. and you never have to actually use the loop...just use what you learn from studying them, and perhaps from time to time, extract a MIDI file based on the loop. I have often said I suck at programming drums, and perhaps I do...but in truth, it is really more that I want good results fast, and rhythm is not something that comes "easy"...like anything else that matters, it takes real work and real focus and real dedication to the craft. cheers, aeon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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