Improving the beats, expanding your dimensions about making

[f1rstsense]

Hey guys!

I'd like to ask you what would you advice on improving ones beat paterns? Recently i've been focusing on different aspects of making music to improve each (like doing sound design, beat making days) but I'm looking for a good book to read about beat making so i can train even while I'm not at home (i could practice on my smartphones sequencer for example). I love mathematics so I'd prefer something going about it from that perspective. At the moment I'm making my beats without any specific knowledge only based on hearing and if it sounds ok, but they only sound 'ok' and not 'woah nice'. The bad thing about practicing without any specific knowledge is that I can't really change the way i go about it and I need expand my dimensions.

All the bests,
Alex

[SunkLo]

Read up about swing and syncopation. Rhythm is basically just a fractal backbeat. Once you learn how push/pull accents different subdivisions to pre-empt or postpone a pulse you can use that as a creative tool to control the flow of the rhythm. That expansion and contraction is like increasing/decreasing momentum, like your ear's going up or downhill. It's similar to architecture in that you have patterns going on at different scales that play off one another. You probably wouldn't choose a wacky shape for a whole building as opposed to something simple and stable, but you could use that pattern at a smaller scale to add spice and draw your eye along through the piece.

You can try to visualize your actual patterns and samples, for instance a kick drum is like a pillar, a cymbal crash is like a silk curtain draped overhead or a glass skylight, hats would be like decorative extrusions in the crown molding or hanging chandeliers. You can use smaller ornamental parts to support your main elements and pull your ear towards or away from them. Really it applies to any art as it's a pretty universal abstraction. Push/pull, call/response, expansion/compression, inward/outward, masculine/feminine, etc. You just gotta tap that continuum and use it as your playground. Easier said than done of course.

I'd also look up some drumming tutorials online. Learn how a real drummer plays. Go for as much diversity in styles as you can find. Velocity and going off-grid will give you very realistic drum parts. Ideally you'd have drum pads to play parts in by hand, but you can still have that human touch if you program things properly. You might benefit from downloading some groove midi files and looking at where the hits are relative to the grid and which hits are offset more than others. (back the architecture analogy, you wouldn't try to slant a pillar because it's supposed to be a stable anchor for the structure, but you can get away with slanting some ornamental flourish)

[Crimsonghost]

So i was reading another thread where someone asked how to get drums like Feed Me, and a quick youtube search lead me to this http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... drums&sm=3

Kinda interesting that there would be a lot of live drum covers of Feed Me tracks. But i think this might be close to what youre looking for. Theres a lot of interesting things to be learned from watching live drums being played.

Another thing that helped me was learning other peoples songs. I mostly listen to metal, so learning how to recreate those songs with ezdrummer helped a ton. Theres lots of tabs out there for pretty much anything. Id suggest finding a band that you like and trying to recreate the drum part. Youll be surprised at how many little flourishes and whatnot are under the surface.

[nowaysj]

CG is kind of talking about it, but let me make it more explicit. Find 10 drum beats that you think are whoa nice. Load the first into your daw, match the tempo, and look at the beat relative to the grid. Now break the beat down, you can actually slice it if it helps, but look where each element hits, if there is any deviation from the grid, and then draw on what SL said, everything is a fractal, so there are small parts of the 1,2 and large parts of the 1,2. Look to see the way the beat maker crafted the small details, and the way they lead to the larger details. Sorry in the middle of something, would like to make that more clear.

But do that for all 10 beats -> there is like beats 101 for you. I suggest that your learning should be more active, rather than passively reading a book. Find what you like, find what makes it work. That wisdom is then yours. With that said, I still don't understand the amen break, and probably never will, so feel free to ask if you can't figure out what is REALLY making a beat work. There are smarter people than me that can help you dive in there, and find the magic. Oh yeah, you like math. Not magic, the deviation, then shall we say?

[SunkLo]

John Bonham beats are a good place to start. He's a drummer's drummer so there's lots of lessons online.



Good example of a half-time beat that could easily be transmuted into a dubstep context.

[+] Spoiler

Yes, John Bonham posthumously invented dubstep.

[mr echo]

First of all, I thought I'd point out that it really depends on what you want your drum patterns to be. For example, in IDM/Breakbeat stuff I'd argue that usually, focus is all on the drums. However, a lot of hip-hop/rap/dubstep etc tend to focus on other things and so the drum patterns are basically a backbone to the track rather than being at the forefront.

Before I go on, this is not case for everything. Different people of course do different things in their music.

I'll just give you some ideas relating to more IDM/Breakbeat stuff as this is where I have some actual tips for you.

1. Use nice sounding hits. I don't mean that as finding the best sample pack. For lots of stuff you will get better, more relevant sounds by chopping the hits out of old tunes.
Basically though, if you want you drum tracks to sound "woah!" then start by using pleasant sounding hits.

2. FX and automation. I not going to explain the basic principles of EQ, compression, reverb etc - there is loads of that around. But, a good way of bringing some life to your drum patterns is to first sequence it, then make like 5 track for each hit, each track having varied effects. For example, slightly different EQ curves, distortion, exciters, panning etc etc. This will really help it to sound more intricate and often helps me visualise a drummer playing a kit. Try to keep these variations slight though, use it more as a tool for making the pattern less predictable while actually keeping coherent at the same time.



3. I personally find it easier to sequence drum hits as standard audio on the sequencer rather than using a drum sequencer using midi notes. For me, ultimately you will have far more control over your drums this way. There isn't really anything you can do in NI's Battery that you can't do with audio and some simple processors.

4. Again, I'm only going to give you tips on what I feel confident in. So if you want some IDM/breakbeat/dnb type drums then experiment! Reverse, glitch, shorten, pan, effect each sound at different variations throughout the tune.

I like what Sunklo said. It's a very good analogy. A good way to achieve the push/pull, up/down effect is to occasionally open up a low pass filter on a drum roll.

But, yeah, experiment.

Hope this helps.