Drum Beat Construction - Part 1

Hello and welcome to the Sound On Sound recording and mixing podcast channel. I am Eddie Bazil. In this two part podcast I'm going to explore the world of beat construction and share with you some techniques I use to help me construct a beat. Advancements in technology have affected every area of our lives and with our industry the evolutionary effect has been profound. With this in mind, let's dip our toes into yesteryear and look at some notable bits of tech that helped shape our approach to creating drum beats. It all began in the 1930s with the introduction of the Rhythmicon, invented and developed by Leon Theremin and Henry Cowell. This is regarded as the first ever drum machine. Only three were built, but that didn't deter some very clever people experimenting with rhythm based technologies. The first commercial drum machine, made in 1959, was the Wurlitzer Sideman. This was a very popular product, boasting a strong 10 year commercial run. The 60s saw a variety of different drum machine technologies appearing on the horizon, but it was the 70s that saw the first ever budget drum machine appearing. The Compurhythm made by EKO. This was hailed as the first programmable drum machine. Its push button matrix, arranged in a grid layout, gave rise to the familiar drum machine beatbox designs we've grown accustomed to. Jumping past a few more clever designs, we come to 1978 with Roland releasing the CR78. This was the first microprocessor based programmable rhythm machine. A machine that is still highly sought after. And in 1979 a simpler version with only four sounds, the Boss DR55, was released. This allowed a wider audience to have access to programmable drum machines. In 1980, we saw the release of the iconic Roland TR 808, one of the earliest programmable analog drum machines, and now regarded as both iconic, and the classic. In the same year, we were gifted the Linn LM 1 drum computer, the first drum machine to use digital samples, and in 1982, the mighty Linn drum, a budget version of the LM 1, was gifted to us mortals. In this explosion of clever tech decade, a flurry of genre creating tech saw other companies jump on the drum machine bandwagon. Oberheim released the DMX, Yamaha came out with the RX 11, EMU dropped the Drumulator on us, and Sequential Circuits wooed us with the DrumTracks, a beast that boasted advanced editing functions that put the competition to shame. And if that wasn't enough, in 1983 Roland hit us with the TR 909. The first MIDI drum machine, another iconic classic. As an aside and something that will surprise you, both the Roland 808 and 909 were commercial failures at the time. Hard to fathom when you consider what their standings are today. In 1987, God intervened and prompted Emu to release the SP1200, a 12 bit phrase sampler beat deity. And so, Grit was born. But God wasn't done yet. In 1988, in a vision, he commanded the creator of the Linn drum, Roger Linn, to join forces with Akai, and this marriage led to the birth of the MPC60 sampler, Pad Triggered Beast, another icon. In a two year period, we experienced drum sampler rapture. By the end of the 80s and entering into the 90s, we started to see more and more budget, streamlined beatboxes appearing on the market. The Alesis SR 16 and Roland R8 being popular examples. As MIDI tightened its stranglehold on the industry, we experienced the emergence of drum modules and trigger based systems. The Alesis D4 and Roland TD8 being frontrunners. In the cheesecloth era, if you wanted a drum beat for your song, you had to hire in actual drummers. This was both costly and restrictive. With the advent of the drum machine and then samplers, it was now possible for anyone to create and produce a beat. However, one thing that did not change was the requirements for a good beat. So what defines a good beat? Well, there is a term we use quite extensively when describing the overall drive element of a track. The knot, knot. If you can nod to the rhythm of a song, then the beat works. Bounce is a term we use to express the timing of the beat creator. For example, Timberland bounces differently to Dr. Dre. And this is reflected in how they construct and produce their drum beats. The building blocks in creating a beat with a groove starts with timing. Let me start with some simple techniques I use to spice up strict and syncopated drum beats into something almost tolerable. In the first example, I'm going to program a drum beat using the drum or grid editor in Cubase. All digital audio workstations have a piano roll. key or drum editor and if they don't then you can use the default sequencer and either play or draw in the beats midi notes first the dry version and now the processed version and finally with the synth line timing reigns supreme even with a weak and syncopated drum beat like this one moving the drum elements ever so slightly early or late can invoke new timing textures. With this example, I've selected a quantized value of 16 and manually drawn in the drum notes. This breaks each bar into 16 subdivisions. If you think of one bar in a four by four time signature consisting of four beats or measures, then a quantized value of 16 means that each beat measure is then divided into four smaller subdivisions. This allows for error correcting notes to a 16th subdivision placement. In the dry example, I drew in the snare in the traditional beat 2 and 4 positions, also known as the backbeat. But when I moved the snare earlier, which we drummers call pushing the snare, I changed the quantize value or grid subdivision to 32s. This allowed me to move notes to 32 individual note placements, as opposed to just 16. By moving the snare back a single 32 subdivision, the beat comes across as having both urgency and more rhythmic feel, as opposed to a rigid 16th note placement sequence. And what is weird is that it perceptively sounds as if the snare is playing later I have contrasted this by adding in a synth line played to a rigid 16th quantize, but because the snare timing has changed, the overall snippet impression is that the whole piece nods. In example 2, I'm administrating dynamic changes to a hi hat pattern to afford a lazy laid back feel to a strict 4x4 kick and snare drum beat. I am again manually drawing in midi notes into Cubase's grid editor and triggering the drum sounds using Native Instruments machine. First the snare and kick strict beat. And now with the hi hat swing pattern. And now with the kick and snare. And now with a bass for reference. The dynamics of a note can be described as an envelope, i. e. shape, triggered by a velocity curve. i. e. how hard a note is struck. Every note has an attack, decay, sustain and release. This is most commonly known as the ADSR and we can shape sounds using a simple ADSR envelope. Velocity indicates how hard a key is struck when a note is played. With this particular example, I've altered the velocity values of the struck hi hat notes. This has the effect of instigating both volume changes. and velocity expression that is programmed into the sound. The hi hat pattern undulates in both volume and hardness softness. I have also altered note lengths ever so slightly by throwing the hi hat midi part into 32 quantized subdivisions and extending and shortening the notes to taste within these subdivisions. The perception is that the hi hat pattern has swing, but to be honest, it's the differing note lengths coupled with the altered velocity values that account for slight timing variances from note to note. If one note is short, then the following note sounds as if it is played later, simply because the distance between the end of one note and the start of another is longer. The perception is that timing values have been altered and not the dynamics. The kick and snare pattern on its own sounds quite syncopated and rigid, but with the addition of the reworked hi hat pattern, the beat nods a tad. In example three, I'm going to pull and push the backbeat to afford slight timing variances to a beat that comes across as late or laid back or urgent or anticipated. First the straight drum beat and now with the backbeat pulled and the backbeat pushed. When talking about drum rhythms, the backbeat refers to what is emphasized on the second and fourth beats in a four by four time signature. In almost all cases, the drummer plays the backbeat on the snare, clap or stick. But in modern music, anything that hits the two and four can be deemed to be the backbeat. In this example, I've altered the timing of the snare by using Cubase's grid editor set to one millisecond timing subdivisions. And to do this effectively and accurately, I don't bother with using the mouse to move the notes. Instead, I use Cubase's nudge feature, which allows me to nudge notes by the set subdivision value. If I nudge the snare to play later, we call this pulling the backbeat. And if the snare is moved back, we then we call it pushing the backbeat. If the backbeat is pulled, then the beat sounds more laid back and lazy. If pushed, then it has a sense of urgency and impetus. In example 4, I'm going to display how swing and altering the dynamics of the drum elements can have a pronounced impact on the feel of a beat. First, the strict on time drum beat and the strict hi-hats, now with swing and velocity changes. Swing, also known as groove or shuffle, can be achieved in any DAW by using the swing setting within the quantize menu options. Swing is a term we use to emphasize the offbeat in a drum beat, giving the beat a bouncy laid back feel. It is achieved by delaying every other note in quantized subdivisions. However, You can do this manually if you prefer not to use the swing feature in your DAW by highlighting every other note in the quantized subdivisions and moving them by small increments. I prefer to set the editor grid to seconds instead of beats and measures and selecting one millisecond as the nudge value. By adopting the nudge tool in Cubase, I can move every other note by one millisecond increments and audition until I've achieved the right level of swing. Additionally, I've randomly adjusted the velocity values of each hi hat note. These changes in dynamic behavior add more realism to the beat and the accenting of certain shifted notes further highlights the swing aspect. To finish off, I've added a nice sequence from Xfer Serum VSTi. In part two of this podcast series, I'm going to explore more advanced techniques in creating beats and groove textures. That's it for now. Thanks for listening. This has been Eddie Bazil, signing off. Thank you for listening, and be sure to check out the show notes page for this episode, where you'll find further information, along with web links and details of all the other episodes. And just before you go, let me point you to the soundonsound.com/podcasts website page, where you can explore what's playing on our other channels.