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

Hi,
Does anyone know of a good book that shows you how to program 
realistic drum patterns?

Realistic as in a real drummer? Or realistic as in classic break-beats?

There are many tips and tricks to making something feel like a real drummer, I
believe that Electronic Musician has run several articles on it and probably
Keyboard magazine, if you check their websites they might have the old articles
online. I would ask the list and one of the sampler lists, I bet there are some
grand masters out there.

Here are some basic rules for "Realistic" drums:
1) play with the timing slightly for each hit.  If you play four hits on a snare
drum, I sincerely doubt you can make it happen with the precision of a computer,
and it will sound dead.  You can easily fix this by adding a little swing or
shuffle to your piece (I'll get into that in a second) or better yet adding a
little swing then adding a little randomness.  In a typical sequencer like Sonar
or Cubase you can just quantize the notes with a swing feel, and then go in and
tweak notes individually or in the case of Sonar use it's scripting language to
do the work for you adding random timing changes.  Most packages also allow you
to extract timing from a sample with a groove you like and then quantize your
patterns with it.  It will move your notes to closely match the groove of the
sample.

2) Modify the volumes of hits.  Each hit in a real drum line will be slightly
louder or softer.  You should try to make patterns longer so that you don't
notice the repeating volume changes, as that will definitely show signs of it
being fake.  8 bars or longer is usually fine.  Also make sure to use dynamics
for quieter sections, if the music is supposed to be more dramatic a real
drummer will be really quiet then really loud. Don't forget to bring the overall
volumes down for the drums for key sections.

3) Play with the filters or EQ of hits.  This is especially noticeable with
hihats and snares.  A heavy hit will be fully bright but a light hit will be
much duller sounding.  You will want to tweak the filtering for each note, once
again keeping the bars longer to keep from being noticeable.

4) Think of how a real drummer would play it.  A real drummer can only (usually)
hit a maximum of four things at the same time.  You obviously can't be playing
the snare, closed hi-hat lines and tom lines at the same time, especially while
hitting the crash.  A kick and closing hi-hat or opening hi-hat while hitting a
snare and crash at the same time yes.  Running a complex hi-hat line with a
complex snare line is very unlikely.  Make sure the hits aren't overlapping each
other too much or it will sound machine-like.

5) Get multiple drum samples and EQ them.  Sometimes a drum can be played
radically differently and create a radically different sound.  Snares can be hit
on the edge, rim, or in the dead center and each has it's own tone.  EQing
different samples to keep the same overall feel will allow you to use variations
in your playing.

6) Use reverb lightly to set your location.  A real drum kit sampled will
usually have a certain amount of room feel in it, and it will be reflected in
all aspects of your samples.  Putting a light reverb on it sets the space for
the drums and makes the entire kit sound like it's part of the same kit.  Some
things will be more noticeable with reverb, so you may want multiple reverb
sends, more for the snare and hihats than say the low tom or kick.

7) Use samples with natural decay.  Most crash sample out there are ludicrous,
they cut off way to short and adding reverb may help disguise it but when it
comes right down to it it won't sound right.  Same thing with a ride or
practically any cymbal.

8) make a lot of variations and change-ups.  Adding the occasional fill helps
but switching hihat rhythms or keeping the loop length long enough will make it
more organic sounding as well, sometimes adding a drum hook in the normal line
will make you want the hook more adding that little bit of anticipation.

9) Use ghost hits for your snares.  Ghost hits are those hits that bounce on a
snare when it's played that are very quiet but add a fuller sound overall.
Usually they'll be at 16ths or 32nds and sound like a light delay.  Duplicate a
snare track, strip out any hits you don't want ghosted and put a delay on the
new track with the filtering cutting off a lot of the higher frequencies in the
repeating lines.  This allows you to quickly add the feel of light rolls.  Go
through the original track and remove duplicates.  Changing the velocities of
some notes to below 64 will make a ghost hit as well, adding a certain
variation.

10)  Take a sample of live drums, EQ out the kick and low tom then play this
over your drum lines.  This will add a live drum sound without clobbering your
original feel.  Make sure you add this to the ambient reverb to make it sound in
place with the rest of the kit.

Woohoo!  Those are all the ones I can think of, I'm sure everyone has their own
tricks and are willing to share...  Hope that helped!

Andre

Wow dude that is a grat list of advice! 
I don't know how much i could add off the top of my head. 

   I am the owner of a group called IBGEEK it is listed in the 
bookmarks section of this group.  It is all about making programs 
for emu gear, but this is a topic I would be more than happy to try 
and offer my skills on.  I have been playing drums for about 15 
years now and I have spent most of that time playing break beats as 
well as jazz.  

So if anyone has any questions or wants to trade good leed keyboard 
parts for drum parts I would me more than intrested.

Peace ya all.

Mike G.


--- In xl7@y..., "Andre Lewis" <andrel@s...> wrote:
> Realistic as in a real drummer? Or realistic as in classic break-
beats?
> 
> There are many tips and tricks to making something feel like a 
real drummer, I
> believe that Electronic Musician has run several articles on it 
and probably
> Keyboard magazine, if you check their websites they might have the 
old articles
> online. I would ask the list and one of the sampler lists, I bet 
there are some
> grand masters out there.
> 
> Here are some basic rules for "Realistic" drums:
> 1) play with the timing slightly for each hit.  If you play four 
hits on a snare
> drum, I sincerely doubt you can make it happen with the precision 
of a computer,
> and it will sound dead.  You can easily fix this by adding a 
little swing or
> shuffle to your piece (I'll get into that in a second) or better 
yet adding a
> little swing then adding a little randomness.  In a typical 
sequencer like Sonar
> or Cubase you can just quantize the notes with a swing feel, and 
then go in and
> tweak notes individually or in the case of Sonar use it's 
scripting language to
> do the work for you adding random timing changes.  Most packages 
also allow you
> to extract timing from a sample with a groove you like and then 
quantize your
> patterns with it.  It will move your notes to closely match the 
groove of the
> sample.
> 
> 2) Modify the volumes of hits.  Each hit in a real drum line will 
be slightly
> louder or softer.  You should try to make patterns longer so that 
you don't
> notice the repeating volume changes, as that will definitely show 
signs of it
> being fake.  8 bars or longer is usually fine.  Also make sure to 
use dynamics
> for quieter sections, if the music is supposed to be more dramatic 
a real
> drummer will be really quiet then really loud. Don't forget to 
bring the overall
> volumes down for the drums for key sections.
> 
> 3) Play with the filters or EQ of hits.  This is especially 
noticeable with
> hihats and snares.  A heavy hit will be fully bright but a light 
hit will be
> much duller sounding.  You will want to tweak the filtering for 
each note, once
> again keeping the bars longer to keep from being noticeable.
> 
> 4) Think of how a real drummer would play it.  A real drummer can 
only (usually)
> hit a maximum of four things at the same time.  You obviously 
can't be playing
> the snare, closed hi-hat lines and tom lines at the same time, 
especially while
> hitting the crash.  A kick and closing hi-hat or opening hi-hat 
while hitting a
> snare and crash at the same time yes.  Running a complex hi-hat 
line with a
> complex snare line is very unlikely.  Make sure the hits aren't 
overlapping each
> other too much or it will sound machine-like.
> 
> 5) Get multiple drum samples and EQ them.  Sometimes a drum can be 
played
> radically differently and create a radically different sound.  
Snares can be hit
> on the edge, rim, or in the dead center and each has it's own 
tone.  EQing
> different samples to keep the same overall feel will allow you to 
use variations
> in your playing.
> 
> 6) Use reverb lightly to set your location.  A real drum kit 
sampled will
> usually have a certain amount of room feel in it, and it will be 
reflected in
> all aspects of your samples.  Putting a light reverb on it sets 
the space for
> the drums and makes the entire kit sound like it's part of the 
same kit.  Some
> things will be more noticeable with reverb, so you may want 
multiple reverb
> sends, more for the snare and hihats than say the low tom or kick.
> 
> 7) Use samples with natural decay.  Most crash sample out there 
are ludicrous,
> they cut off way to short and adding reverb may help disguise it 
but when it
> comes right down to it it won't sound right.  Same thing with a 
ride or
> practically any cymbal.
> 
> 8) make a lot of variations and change-ups.  Adding the occasional 
fill helps
> but switching hihat rhythms or keeping the loop length long enough 
will make it
> more organic sounding as well, sometimes adding a drum hook in the 
normal line
> will make you want the hook more adding that little bit of 
anticipation.
> 
> 9) Use ghost hits for your snares.  Ghost hits are those hits that 
bounce on a
> snare when it's played that are very quiet but add a fuller sound 
overall.
> Usually they'll be at 16ths or 32nds and sound like a light 
delay.  Duplicate a
> snare track, strip out any hits you don't want ghosted and put a 
delay on the
> new track with the filtering cutting off a lot of the higher 
frequencies in the
> repeating lines.  This allows you to quickly add the feel of light 
rolls.  Go
> through the original track and remove duplicates.  Changing the 
velocities of
> some notes to below 64 will make a ghost hit as well, adding a 
certain
> variation.
> 
> 10)  Take a sample of live drums, EQ out the kick and low tom then 
play this
> over your drum lines.  This will add a live drum sound without 
clobbering your
> original feel.  Make sure you add this to the ambient reverb to 
make it sound in
> place with the rest of the kit.
> 
> Woohoo!  Those are all the ones I can think of, I'm sure everyone 
has their own

> tricks and are willing to share...  Hope that helped!
> 
> Andre

Along the same lines as rEalm, there's a bunch of things you can do in 
your drum presets to "humanize" them.

Andre Lewis wrote:

>2) Modify the volumes of hits.
>
Add cords:
[KeyRand1 -> AmpVol     5%] &
[KeyRand1 -> FiltFreq  15%] &
[KeyRand1 -> FinePitch 30%]
to simulate this randomness.  Since KeyRand1 is calculated once at 
keydown time, it will be the same random value for each press of the 
key.  The above cords do the following: when the random value is high, 
the note will be a little louder, a little brighter, and a little higher 
in pitch.  When that random value is low, the opposite happens.  Play 
with these amounts to dial in just the right amount of humanness 
(humanity?).

>9) Use ghost hits for your snares.  Ghost hits are those hits that bounce on a
>snare when it's played that are very quiet but add a fuller sound overall.
>Usually they'll be at 16ths or 32nds and sound like a light delay.
>
Also try this:  duplicate the layer of your snare into another layer and 
set its sound delay to be 1/32 or 1/16.  Without doing anything else, 
you'll now have a slapback hit exactly as loud as the original for every 
note played.

Then go turn down the volume to something reasonable for the delayed 
layer (like maybe -30dB) and lower the filter cutoff some.  Now, you 
have a quiet slapback for every note.

Finally, back to the patchcords page and set up the following cord:
[KeyRand2 -> AmpVol -100%]

After all that, you'll have a ghost hit that happens every so often.


All of this of course is preset design, as opposed to musicality, but it 
does attempt to somewhat model the interaction of a person with a 
physical drumset.  Happy programming!

-Aaron

you guys are rad!

--- In xl7@y..., "tommy_trance" <tommy_trance@y...> wrote:

> Hi,
> Does anyone know of a good book that shows you how to program 
> realistic drum patterns?