Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

Thanks for the interest... I play almost all my parts but drums. I 
usually start by jamming at the piano, sometimes bass, tweak sounds 
or guitar... other times I find some sample (melodic or rhythmic) 
that starts me up... I have all this parts I've sampled from my 
playing or ideas in my head to layer after the foundation is already 
layered. Oddly enough without drums is hard for me to get an 
arrangement going... Drums for me is something I feel not something I 
really hear when I play with a real drummer/percussionist. So its 
been rather wierd for me the process of learning of how to program 
drums. Even more so when you consider that I come from playing 
reggae, afrocarribean and jazz rhythms which aren't something a drum 
machine (or midi progeamming with sampled hits) can really emulate... 
I don't mind the sounds not being realistic, is the vibe what I miss. 
Though I acknowledge there's people like amon tobin who trully gets 
that organic vibe going, but the guy has been blessed with a really 
uncommon gift!  Not something everybody can do.... I've been sampling 
jazz and reggae breaks chopping them up, then playing (real time) the 
chopped parts up and then resampling and chopping that... which is 
pretty cool though it takes way much more time than I have available 
to make music at the moment. 

I just read this kid koala interview and I think that my way of 
making music is kinda close to the way he works... Layering one thing 
at a time live. Though I'm not a old school head, dj, vynil freak and 
I play most my parts. :)  I've been thinking if getting a dj cd 
player (or two) and just laying down the drum tracks like that to 
make the drum parts more organic... You know once I get few self-
rearranged drum loops I can jam the drum track and go from there.... 
then again I've never tried djing so I'm not really sure if that is 
going help me out or not... Also I've read that cheap dj cd player's 
scratching effect sound like shite, I might not need scratching... 
I've been also thinking of buying a drumset but then I'd have to 
build soundproofed room... In any case I think that having a source 
of loops I don't have to filter intruments out would be a huge time 
saver for me.... These all is one of the things I like the most about 
music today, you can find your own way of going about making it!

Any advice on what drumloop cd to get, other alternatives, or ways of 
working are greatly appreciated....












--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, mark sottilaro <zerocrossing2001@y...> 
wrote:
> --- sincultura13 <sincultura13@y...> wrote:
>  You said that the presets on
> > the rom drum are 
> > good to go, so if I could find some good groove
> > templates it'd be for 
> > me just as good as getting Stylus...
> > 
> > What do you think?
> 
> I guess I have to ask what part of the music will be
> yours if you're using sample loops and groove
> templates?  Isn't that part of the fun, making it up? 
> I like working with loops to a point... but the
> ability to hear a beat in my head and then be able to
> MAKE IT instead of searching for something "like it"
> is really powerful.  Then again, if  your main
> instrument is not the computer it can be good to focus
> on that.  Is sound collage what you're going for?
> 
> Mark