| 1.
Remember the physical limitations to which real drummers are
subject. Obviously, individual drummers have only two arms and
two legs, and are therefore only 'four-note polyphonic' in synth-speak
- but there are also other restrictions on what is physically
possible. Many typical rock and pop rhythms incorporate a steady
eight- or 16-to-the-bar hi-hat or cymbal rhythm. Above a certain
tempo, this will necessarily involve using both hands, usually
playing alternate notes, so it's important to think about which
hand is doing what; you can't hit the hi-hat at the same time
as the snare or crash cymbal, for instance, if you're using
both hands to keep up a steady rhythm on the hi-hat.
2. For the same reason, there
are certain sounds which can't be combined realistically in
the same pattern. You can't switch instantaneously between
brushes and sticks, for instance, or between using a normal
hi-hat and one with a tambourine clipped to the top. Sticks
can be used to produce rimshots, but brushes and beaters can't,
so it would be unusual to mix rimshots and brushed snare.
Nor is it common to combine hi-hat and ride cymbal in the
same pattern - they're usually set up on opposite sides of
a drum kit. You wouldn't usually do loud crashes on the same
cymbal in quick succession, either; if you want successive
crashes, use two different cymbal sounds.
3. Bear in mind that the force
with which drums are struck will not be constant. To a certain
extent, there will be random variation in the velocity of
each hit, but there will also be more predictable variations.
In pop and rock drumming, for instance, the first beat of
the bar is often emphasised, while reggae rhythms are characterised
by a heavier third beat. There are also physical limitations
on how hard you can strike a drum: beats played in quick succession
will tend to be quiet, since you can't raise the sticks as
high, or get so much travel with the bass drum pedal, between
hits.
4. Also, don't ignore dynamics
within the song. In dance music, the drums are often compressed
to the point where they are totally even in volume throughout,
and any dynamic changes are effected by simply dropping out
parts of the rhythm. Real drummers, however, use crescendos
and other dynamic effects to add feel to a track; often, for
instance, they will build up the volume going into a chorus.
5. Use sounds which are appropriate
to the dynamic level of a particular drum sequence. Some percussion
instruments, like crash cymbals, are virtually impossible
to play quietly, while others, like rimshots, bongos and handclaps,
are inevitably relatively quiet. A sequenced full-on drum
assault will thus sound a little false if it is based around
huge, reverberating rimshots or triangles.
6. Use only percussion instruments
which are appropriate to the style of music you're trying
to emulate, and remember that most real drumkits actually
contain a very limited number of drums. Not many rock drummers
would have wind chimes, timbales, tablas or claves in their
standard kit; similarly, if you're aiming for a '60s pop feel,
that 808 snare probably won't be a help. Few drumkits feature
all of the huge range of toms found in many synth drum sets
- it's often best to choose two or three and use only those.
Also, be careful when reproducing drum parts played on brushes:
some synths' so-called 'brush' sets actually replace only
the snare samples with brushed sounds, and don't bother to
provide brushed samples of cymbals or toms.
7. It's one thing to have
the feel of a pattern in your mind: however, it's much harder
to analyse the slight timing variations that produce that
feel. The best way to capture 'feel', therefore, is to play
the parts into your sequencer, from a keyboard or other controller,
in real time. Start with the two most important - usually
the bass drum and snare - in a single pass. Playing the drums
well is, like most instruments, difficult, and requires a
lot of learning. However, it's not hard to use two fingers
to bash out a basic rhythm, and doing so makes it much easier
to capture the elusive 'feel' of a real drum part. And the
beauty of sequencing is that you can correct any mistakes
afterwards.
8. If you're not sure what
sort of feel your drum part should have, or you can't seem
to get it right by just recording to a click track, remember
that you don't have to record the drums first. If your song
centres around a particular piano or bass riff, for instance,
you could try recording that into your sequencer first and
add the drums later. Being able to hear the important instrumental
parts is very useful for deciding what kind of rhythm will
or won't work.
9. If you do need to edit
the patterns you've entered, avoid snap to grid or similar
functions. It's all too easy to end up not only correcting
mistakes, but also the timing variations that are responsible
for the 'feel' of the part.
10.
Though editing can be used to remedy mistakes or really sloppy
timing, there's little point in painstakingly bashing out your
rhythms in real time if you're then going to quantise away all
the variations. If you must quantise, leave a fairly wide margin
so that only really late or early beats are corrected.
11.
Bear in mind that a lot of real drumming styles actually depend
on consistent deviations from theoretically accurate timing.
Sometimes this is quite obvious, as in the case of heavy syncopation
or 'swing', which imposes a triplet feel on a four-beat rhythm,
but it can be much more subtle. For instance, playing slightly
ahead of the beat, particularly on the first and third beats
of a four-beat bar, is a common device used to add urgency
to a rhythm, and is characteristic of much disco, pop and
country drumming. In other genres like the blues, by contrast,
drummers sometimes deliberately delay the 'off' beats to create
a laid-back feel.
12.
Don't simply record a one- or two-bar sequence and then repeat
it throughout the entire song. Even if you want to have the
same drum pattern all the way through, record it several times
and mix the different versions up. Each version you record
will have slightly different dynamics and timing variations,
and the variety will help to reproduce the looser feel of
a real drum track and implement some of the dynamic changes
I've already mentioned.
13.
Keep it simple. With today's sequencers and multitimbral sound
sources, it's easy to over-egg the rhythmical pudding, either
by adding improbable numbers of virtual tambourine, shaker
and triangle players, or by programming intricate rhythms
and fills where most real drummers would exercise self-restraint
(or lack of ambition!).
14.
Listen to drumming on records to pick up the sort of patterns
and fills that get used in a particular musical style. Careful
listening can make you realise that your assumed ideas about
a particular style of drumming are actually quite wide of
the mark. For instance, it's very easy to get into the habit
of automatically plonking a heavy kick drum on the first beat
of every bar - but there are a number of styles, notably reggae
and jazz, in which the bass drum is often not played at all
on the first beat.
15.
Learn to read drum notation (if you already read music, it's
dead easy - see box opposite) and look at transcriptions in
drumming magazines and books; the more you know about playing
the drums, the more accurately you'll be able to program realistic
drum patterns.
16.
Synth and drum machine sounds are usually made using samples
of each instrument in isolation. Recording a real drumkit
is a different matter, however; overhead or room mics are
always used (usually in conjunction with close mics on individual
drums) to pick up not only cymbals and toms, but the sound
of the whole kit, along with a certain amount of room ambience.
Programmed drum parts in their raw state can sound sterile
and disjointed by comparison, because they lack this element.
You can avoid this to a certain extent by taking care with
panning - don't pan anything too hard left or right, and keep
the bass drum in the centre of the field. You can also experiment
with putting a room reverb on the drums to make them sound
more coherent.
17.
Beware, however, that synth programmers have a tendency to
swathe every drum sound in a blanket of reverb. This may sound
impressive when you're trying the instrument out in a music
shop, but again, doesn't always represent the pinnacle of
realism. Massive reverb does suit some styles of drumming
(Def Leppard anyone?) but by no means all - and where it is
used to excess on real drums, its effect is often to make
them sound more artificial. Experiment with different depths
and styles of reverb until you find something that sounds
right.
18.
Standard drum kit sound sets, particularly those conforming
to the General MIDI drum map, suffer certain persistent problems.
Perhaps the most obvious of these is the use of only three
different hi-hat sounds - open, closed and pedal - when real
drumming makes use of a continuous range of sounds from quiet
to soft, from tight closed to open. A common device for creating
effective build-ups into loud sections, for instance, is to
open the hi-hat gradually over a bar or two, moving from a
tight 'tsk' to a looser, splashy sound - which progression
can't really be reproduced using only single open and closed
sounds. There are also noticeable sonic differences between
a hi-hat struck with the tip of the stick and with the shaft;
real drummers do both, often alternately. Getting hold of
a more comprehensive set of hi-hat samples, then, is an effective
way to improve the authenticity of your sequenced drumming.
You could even consider miking up and playing a real hi-hat
over your sequenced kick and snare pattern.
19.
Another problem with many sampled sound sets is that they
do not reflect the ways in which the sound of real percussion
instruments varies depending on the force with which they're
struck. Giving a hi-hat or a cymbal a heavy bash produces
a sound which is not only louder than a gentle tap, but quite
different in timbre; the same is true of snares and other
drums. If your sound set merely responds to velocity by making
the sounds louder or quieter, you need to be careful how you
use them (for instance, avoid trying to reproduce quiet cymbal
washes if you only have samples of loud crashes).
20.
Don't be afraid of changes in tempo. Real drummers speed up
and slow down - sometimes deliberately, sometimes not - and
these tempo changes can help to give a track a more organic
sound. Some tempo changes are very obvious, such as rallentando
(slowing down towards the end of a song) and segues between
slow and fast sections of a song. Others, however, are more
subtle: it's quite common for drummers to speed up slightly
going into a chorus, for instance. Some classic recordings
even feature a gradual increase in tempo over entire sections
or, in extremes, over the entire song - a well-known recent
example is Pulp's 'Common People'. It may take a little extra
sequencing to implement tempo changes in mid-song, but the
results can be very effective.
Published
in SOS October 1999. |
