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| lasombra's Groove Control (Drum Beats and Programming) |
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Percussion. You know you want it. Your arrangement needs a badass groove,
but you don't know where to start. It's a problem that plagues many pieces
and many composers. Sure, you could just throw in a simple boom tsh cah
tsh beat and let that do, but, in all seriousness, the right or wrong groove
can make or break a song. The aim of this tutorial is to outline not only
the building of grooves for different genres of music, but also to show
how they can be sequenced to achieve a greater amount of realism through
audio samples and pictures. I will be using reason 2 for this tutorial,
but you can apply this to any sequencer(logic, cakewalk, etc.). In the examples
I will be doing here, I am using the drums from Spectrasonic's Burning
Grooves. It's a solid product that is a good purchase, however I would
more strongly recommend Interactive
Drum Kits. This guide is usable with any library or set of sounds, however.
Alright, you've got a groovin bass line and are roaring to start beatkwakking! Hold your horses, though, first we need to assign samples. I am not going to go into the specifics of loading up samples to be used, as it varies between programs. So, let's assume we're going for a rock styled beat to add to the groovey bassline that is used in crono cross' Gaia's Navel(a simple, upbeat 4/4 song). For this we'll use hihats(opened and closed), a punchy bassdrum, some crash cymbals, toms, and some snare samples. Wait, why would one need more than one snare sample, you ask? In a beat, a snare will be hit in a variety of manners that change the entire sound of the hit. Hitting softly provides less attack but more audible snare buzz. This applies to any drum or cymbal. Keep in mind that the layout of the samples is only a suggestion. Velocity can be used to substitute softer hits, but there is an audible difference in the sound. Funky RockEnough kwakking. Load up your samples. Make sure they work together. For a rock beat, we want as close to acoustic samples as possible. To start with, we're going to form a simple beat, and then make it more elaborate.
This is the sequenced beat. Here's is how I have the samples ordered: 1: Kick Drum 2: lightest snare 3: medium snare 4: hardest snare 5: right rack tom 6: floor tom 7: tight hihat hit 1 8: tight hihat hit 2 9: open hihat hit 10: loose hihat hit The beat here is written double time. Hence, a part which might usually be counted as 4 bars is here sequenced in 8. Before I stop kwakking, I'll define some vocabulary for 'counting beats'. We're working in 4/4, which means, 4 beat per measure / quarter note is a beat. The beats are layed out as one, two, three, and four. However, there are notes longer and shorter than quarter notes; most importantly to us, the shorter ones. Eighth beats fall halfway between quarter beats, and are the "and's" of the beat. Beyond that are sixteenth beats, that fall halfway between eighth beats. The sixteenth before the eighth is called "e", and the sixteenth directly after the eighth is called "a". A measure full of sixteenth notes would be read, "one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a". You get the picture. Here's how the beat breaks down. The kick drum hits on beat one, the 'and' of beat 2, and, moving onto the next measure, on beat 2. It carries on in this pattern throughout the beat. The medium snare hits on beat 4 in measure one, and then on beat 3 in measure 2, with this same pattern until the last measure, where we add the hard snare hit on the and of beat 3, directly following the medium snare hit. This emphasizes the bass lick that occurs with the same rhythm. Hihats have a 4 measure pattern. The hihat hits on the beat throughout the pattern, with varying velocity. The change in the pattern is one of sample usage. In this pattern, I alternate between the two tight hihats to keep the beat and use the loose hihat as an accent. Of course, there's more to the beat than just the placement of hits. That's right, boys and girls, it's that dull pink colored area at the bottom of the picture; velocity. Velocity is KEY to making a beat more realistic. I cannot emphasize enough how importan this is. On to Velocity 101! Our beat, while simple, still requires much variation in velocity. There are a lot of variations in this beat. It may be hard to tell right away what exactly is going on down there, but fear not! Each note reflects the velocity in its color. The paler the note and bar color, the lower the velocity. Knowing this, we can see that the hihats are at a low velocity, excepting accents. Also, the bassdrum kicks on the and of 2 and the subsequent beat 2 are accented, while the beat one kick is not. This adds a different feel to the rhythm. I myself prefer funkier beats, and a lot of those emphasize the offbeats(of course there are the exceptions). Another thing to notice is that the snare hit stays around the same velocity level until the last measure, where the medium hit is much lighter. This makes the next, louder hit seem even louder than it actually is. There is a basic saying in percussion, "to make your loud notes louder, make your soft notes softer". It's all about relative volume. Okay, so now you've got the basic idea behind the beat, but it's still pretty boring. The easiest way to make a beat less boring is to throw in fills and intricacies. We haven't used our toms yet, so let's use them. 
As you can see with beat b, not only are there tom fills added, but the hihats are much more varied and intricate. While it would take way too long and most likely end up being way too confusing to count out a rhythm of this complexity for all parts, I'll highlight the important changes. First off, the toms. While it may seem like a subtle change, well, it is! Subtlety is the key to a 'professional' sounding rhythm. I chose very simple tom additions to allow for a more varied hihat section. It's important to note that the velocity of the toms at the end fill is not at the standard hard hit velocity, but rather a tad bit lower. The second hit is also slightly lower in velocity than the first. This occurs because of the physics of drumming: The off-hand is usually quieter, and a double is almost always quieter. The hihats switched from a straight beat to one with many sixteenths and simulated grace note doubles. For the record, a grace note is a note that is a very very quiet and subtle note, usually achieved by loosening the grip on the stick and allowing it to fall on the drum or cymbal, or by a very short-travelled kick on a bassdrum. As such, the grace doubles added are very very quiet or low velocity hits, and, as before, the second hit is lower in velocity than the first. Another thing you will notice is how certain strong beats(1,2,3,4) are not hit. Doing so adds a bit of funk that is very useful in creating certain moods when used appropriately. One of the things you might also notice is how even hihat hits close in velocity are not at quite the same velocity. Minor differences in velocity help create an ambiance of realism. One of the hihat samples I am using here is a partially opened hihat. This creates a mushier sound which is usefull for a certain style of accents, as used here. 
However, sometimes you want a heavier beat. As seen here, the hihat goes back to a time-keeping role, while the bass and snare drums both take a much more active role in this rhythm. Doubles and grace doubles are used often to keep the pace quick, especially in the bassdrum part. Toms here are used for color. You could also use a cymbal in its place for a different color. You might notice the mouse cursor under the bassdrum part. If you look close, you'll see that the placement of the notes is not even! This was done to add a feeling of realistic playing. One of the tools a drummer uses is loose playing. That is, even though most of this is right on the beat, the quicker stuff is a little early and drawn out. Only very very extremely slightly so! Drummers also play behind the beat and ahead of the beat, which mostly affects the downbeats(either slightly before or slightly after). This use of loose playing helps eliminate the harsh sound of a quantized beat, and certainly is most effective when applied over an entire drum track. Alright, so we've gone of a general bit of moderately fast paced beats. Next we'll move onto a different style of grooves in a slower tempo: Latin! Latin
We're using a slightly different setup here to utilize snare cross hits, usually misnamed as rim shots and a standard set of two rack toms and one floor tom. I've placed my own latin beat behind virt's "nomad's camp," at 98 bpm. The rhythm, while sounding complex, is built of mostly simple parts that are written in syncopation. Syncopation is the emphasis of an off beat or a weak beat, such as the 'and' of two. As you may see, the bass drum part follows a pattern of "one two a three four a", a very simple rhythm. The snare clicks never hit on the beat, giving it a samba feel. Hihats are used mostly to fill in the 'empty spaces' of the beat. For reference, the open hihat is at the bottom of the layout. Once again, toms are used for color, adding a syncopated hit here and there. The most important thing to note about this rhythm is how it interacts with the syncopations of the rest of the rhythm section, i.e. the bass and guitar. When writing a beat, it is crucial that the drums interact appropriately with the rest of the rhythm section, be it through unison hits, as done at the end of this beat, or through syncopation between different instruments. 
Next, we have a nanigo styled rhythm, an afro-cuban style. Usually the culprit of 6/8 meter, here it is represented in triplets. Triplets are, quite simply, three notes jammed in the space where two would have been. That is to say, an eighth note triplet would occur in the space of two eighth notes. 6/8 meter and triplets in a 4/4 meter produce a very similar feel. Triplets are counted: One la li Two la li Three la li Four la li | One la li And la li Two la li And la li Three la li And la li Four la li And la li(as sixteenths). The bassdrum pattern in this rhythm is the same as before with the exception of using triplets instead of sixteenths. However, the fill at the end is still in sixteenth unison. Snare clicks are in unison with the guitar chords to strengthen them. Again, the high tom is used for incidental color and as a fill. The real flavor to this rhythm comes from the busy triplet hihats. The pattern the hats follow are as such, in sixteenth triplets: One la and li two li la three la and li four li la. The combination of the triplets over the straighter guitar, bass, and snare clicks really make this an active and engaging rhythm, using syncopation not only in the standard strong beats in the stringed rhythm section and snare clicks, but also between the emphasized rhythms of the stringed rhythm section and the hihats! 
OMG WTF BBQ! Toms are not only for the use of color! Here we see the toms are the main factor in moving the beat. The setup has changed slightly to accommodate this, with the addtion of a third rackmounted tom and a slight tempo change to 105 bpm. The hihat part is simulating the act of using the foot to close the hihat on the beat(excepting the opened hits at the end). Drummers often do this when the hands are busy elsewhere to fill out the sound. The toms in the rhythm are following a pretty basic sixteenth pattern. One thing to note is how the bass drum fits in smoothly between the toms on the roll down at the end. Often, the floor tom will fill in spaces between bass drum hits to fake quick doubling. Once again, even with the very independant drum rhythm, the big fill at the end is still in unison. Odd Time
Of course, songs are not always in 4/4! Commonly they will be found in 6/8, such as the kakkara desert theme in Secret of Mana, at a bpm of 82. The strong beats of 6/8 are always 1 and 4. Again, to keep the beat interesting, syncopation is used, putting emphasis often on 2 and the and of 4. The snare here has changed from a standard snare to a shorter piccolo snare, for a tighter, higher pitched sound. We have also introduced a new element, the CYMBAL! Several cymbals are used in this setup, and required another redrum, so they are not in the picture. However, I have position the mouse cursor to roughly where it becomes important to note their position. At marker 8, you can see a big fast fill! This one is mostly 32nd notes, and follows a very passo doble influenced rhythm. The snare doubles and then the bassdrum and cymbal hit in unison, wash, rinse, repeat, then roll down the toms. There are three distinctly different cymbals used here, the china, the crash, and the splash. Splash cymbals are smaller and higher pitched, and very good for quiet emphasis. Crash cymbals are the meaty, standard cymbal. China cymbals are usually larger and have a more rumbly deep sound. While there is no 'musical' backing to this, it is valuable to listen to how the cymbals can be used for more than crash(!) emphasis. When used extensively and properly, cymbals can have as much life and tonality as toms can. Also note, this is 3/4, which has a largely different feel than 6/8. The snare is used intensively to move this beat along after the intro.
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