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In Topic: Ambient/Electronic Drums?
27 April 2012 - 10:14 PM
Welcome to the world of home studio production, where one is expected to be the composer, arranger, performer, recording engineer, mixing engineer etc... 
The way I see it, there's 2 essential parts:
- pattern composition/sequencing
- sound design
And you're kinda gonna need the former to have a canvas the tweak for the latter.
How's your timing? How's your music theory?
From the second clip you posted...
1.............2.............3.............4.............
Are you hearing 4 metronome counts per bar or measure?
Are you hearing the kick drum land on the 1st count of each bar or measure?
Are you hearing a reasonably consistent snare hit on beats 2 and 4?
Are you hearing a brighter, stronger snare hit on beat number 3?
With me so far?
Ok, now let's count the same bar length a little differently, by including the off beats using the sound "AND" between the beats, like this:
1....AND....2....AND....3....AND....4....AND....
(Count it out aloud to get a feel for it).
So to finish off this little drum pattern, we can add the syncopated kicks. These are the lighter, not-so-deep kick drums that fall each side of the brighter, stronger snare on count 3, and shown 'here':
1....AND....2....HERE....3....HERE....4....AND....
To be precise, if you listen closely, you'll hear the new kick actually falls straight after the Snare (ie. between counts 3 and 4), and this kick has been placed into the blank space right after the snare on count 3 (and before the 'AND'), so positioned more like this:
1....AND....2....HERE....3HERE........4....AND....
Still making sense here? I can appreciate it's a bit hard to translate some written blurb on a forum to what's coming out of the speakers. It'd be better if I could snap my fingers for you in time with the music, and signal when each hit is sounding. And there's also a couple of other 'ghost' (lighter) snare hits, with a bit of a 'chicka chicka' sound that lead into each snare hit. And the sounds themselves appear stretched, reverbed, overdriven etc, for effect, but let's just continue concentrating on the pattern itself.
The final part of composing it all together is how to place the hits in your sequencer. How are you doing drums now in FL Studio?
- Along the sequencer timeline grid? If so, changing the bar division into 16th notes should cover it.
- Using a 1 to 16 steps in a drum machine-style plug-in? If so, you need to consider the four counts to the bar described above falling on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13....
...ok I can see this is probably a bit confusing to the uninitiated. Let me know where you're at, and we can work from there.
The way I see it, there's 2 essential parts:
- pattern composition/sequencing
- sound design
And you're kinda gonna need the former to have a canvas the tweak for the latter.
How's your timing? How's your music theory?
From the second clip you posted...
1.............2.............3.............4.............
Are you hearing 4 metronome counts per bar or measure?
Are you hearing the kick drum land on the 1st count of each bar or measure?
Are you hearing a reasonably consistent snare hit on beats 2 and 4?
Are you hearing a brighter, stronger snare hit on beat number 3?
With me so far?
Ok, now let's count the same bar length a little differently, by including the off beats using the sound "AND" between the beats, like this:
1....AND....2....AND....3....AND....4....AND....
(Count it out aloud to get a feel for it).
So to finish off this little drum pattern, we can add the syncopated kicks. These are the lighter, not-so-deep kick drums that fall each side of the brighter, stronger snare on count 3, and shown 'here':
1....AND....2....HERE....3....HERE....4....AND....
To be precise, if you listen closely, you'll hear the new kick actually falls straight after the Snare (ie. between counts 3 and 4), and this kick has been placed into the blank space right after the snare on count 3 (and before the 'AND'), so positioned more like this:
1....AND....2....HERE....3HERE........4....AND....
Still making sense here? I can appreciate it's a bit hard to translate some written blurb on a forum to what's coming out of the speakers. It'd be better if I could snap my fingers for you in time with the music, and signal when each hit is sounding. And there's also a couple of other 'ghost' (lighter) snare hits, with a bit of a 'chicka chicka' sound that lead into each snare hit. And the sounds themselves appear stretched, reverbed, overdriven etc, for effect, but let's just continue concentrating on the pattern itself.
The final part of composing it all together is how to place the hits in your sequencer. How are you doing drums now in FL Studio?
- Along the sequencer timeline grid? If so, changing the bar division into 16th notes should cover it.
- Using a 1 to 16 steps in a drum machine-style plug-in? If so, you need to consider the four counts to the bar described above falling on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13....
...ok I can see this is probably a bit confusing to the uninitiated. Let me know where you're at, and we can work from there.
