In response to a recent email string discussing the making of drum sounds, I decided to make a bunch of un-effected, un-eq’d, isolated drum files for us to play around with. Here is the challenge:
1. Take these tracks and convert into something more interesting.
2. Report back here with your refurbishments and let us know how you did it.
3. Discuss.
That’s it! This is really open ended, so there’s no need to create anything finished sounding. Little riffs are just as good as a full song.
bass drum
snare drum
floor tom
crash cymbal
ride cymbal
fills
mallets
Ooh .. good idea.. I’ll do some cutting this week.
tempo = 110bpm
So I will go ahead and reprint what I wrote in my email to both of you here. This is in reference to Aryn’s inquiry about techniques in cutting wave forms and more precisely, cutting drum tracks.
“i know greg only uses garageband for his songs at this point. thing is if you have a good sense of rhythmic placement and good at programming solid drumtracks, you can cut and splice up drums pretty seamlessly. i think greg def. has an ear for electronic drums and splicing his own due no doubt to his being a drummer all those years and also listening to so much clicky electronic music like mice parade, tortoise and mum and the others.
one success at my song king hippo (generally a non success for me) was that i was able to take greg’s drums and chop them up at the end without making it sound terrible… i def. have plans to do that stuff again once i employ either of you two for drum duties. you do have to have patience to cut it up and align things the way you want.
have you guys experimented with programming beats in live with their one-hit samples into full patterns you can then loop? one thing i still have yet to use Live for is the vertical format for triggering samples in real time and such…”
I think my one area of expansion with this stuff is a better understanding of percussive syncopation techniques…ie where the bass or snare or hihat would go in a genre or pattern from that genre. I know what sounds right and can usually describe what I’m looking for but harder I think to construct and coordinate beats into something natural and cohesive in a digital environment. Anyway, what do you all think?
All that said, this should be a good experiment in laying out new expansions in editing and producing. I hope to take some of these sounds and use for my upcoming cover song for this month.