General Music Chat

Ok... I'm going to have to check out the drum machine from the link that was posted in GA's thread. This tapping stuff out on a midi keyboard is for the birds. *shakes fist at garageband, keyboard, and wounded laptop*

Anyway, half dead in the water due to a half-functional lappy, but have a listen and let me know if the lone 'time-keeping' kick/snare track sounds dumb all by itself.
Or whateva.

I have the whole song, but just trying to post the 'gist of it' until it gets recorded live with the surviving band members.

Hey Zip,

I like the mix...Nice fat gtr..BUT,,,...(Ya knew it was comin.. ) You have this tune going at a speed is caught between straight 16's and slighted bounced (dotted) 16s'..I ve done alot of session drumming and the over all "feel" of your drum track is TOO straight and stiff for you sycopated riffing..Ive had to changed my feel many times to gel better with other instruments but never changed the meter.Your rushing the meter in a few places but Its almost natural to do so..If the drums (hi hat) was alittle more sycopated (bounced) with the SD playin alittle more on TOP of the beat,it would have been much less noticable...You made the SD sound like it was draggin...I know Im being critical BUT, its better to have a good drum track have the right feel to make everything come together as its added rather than blaming another instrument for what the drummer actually caused in the 1st place, not to sound quite right...Hard to re-track drums *without midi"..Yeah , I do it the old analog way and match the 4 clicks to link it up by EAR...

John

I'd like to hear a little more offbeat bass going on, but the simple beat is not as much of a problem as the timing is. You need to quantize the beats, so they are uniform. And on the bridge, or break, where the music cuts way down, you may want to funk up the bass drum more. Sounds like you tried to a little in to it. Maybe do the bass more like..

"1" "and 3 and" "1" "and 3 and"

Or something along those lines. And try doubling the snare with a floor tom, to thicken up the snare hits for that part.

Good head-banging music bro!

Yes... this is all very frustrating.
I'm thinking I need a programmable drum machine where I can add the drum stuff piece by piece, and quantize it. Maybe start over.
I don't think I can do much now (that I know of) besides slide some of the digital trackage around to bring stuff back in time.
LoL, or ship off the guitar track to you KIDD and have you have you take a whack at it.

Craig I was meaning to funk it up more where the music cuts down, but i didnt get very far.

I have been playing with a drummer and he's been doing all types of different stuff. My feeble attempts are just because I think it needs something more than a click track for demo purposes.

I'll fight with it after work tomorrow.
...Con-sarn it.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions guys.

My feeble attempts are just because I think it needs something more than a click track for demo purposes.

Bro, it's much better than a click track. LOL

If you don't have a way to quantize the beat, what about hitting a perfect rhythm for a single measure or so, and looping it? You know, multiplying the track as many measures as you need.

Sony Acid has a free version, which you can play with, and accomplish this, with plenty of drum samples to get you started. The free version may or may not let you export, but if you can't export, you may still be able to record what is coming out of the computer speakers through the speaker out.

But hold on, you said midi keyboard? What stops you from finding drum midi files and loading them into your keyboard?

Or you can find songs with the kind of beat you are looking for, in midi format, and put it in a midi-editor and just get the drums track out of it.

Dagblasted Boys

I doesnt know WHY yall bees not wantin to get a old CHEAP keyboard sequencer...Heck for 100-300 bucks you could have a sequencer that will quanitize,LET YOU play the drums track by track with any feel you want,do your drum fills/cymbal crashes in song mode, have it be touch sensitive, MIDI, playback your drum tracks at any speed..ANNNND have many other synth sounds fully editable at for finger tips without layin a finger on a dadblame PUTER .. AT 16bit no less...Actually on most stuff I DONT quanitize cause I want it to breathe...Yeah, my drums dont sound synth ...Beats micing a real kit which yall KNOW is a pain ...BUT, if ya want me to play on the tune ZIP, put a copy on your page without drums...Ill record it into cool edit via WAVE input...THEN put drums to it, mix it , EQ etc maybe compress /limit /expand the mixdown, THEN put it up on my page..You can listen to it ,critque it, like? dislike? etc.

I gotta go to KY this week and work on a dagblasted farm (times er gettin tough out there boys.. ).So ,I would be able to do it till SUN...BUT, Ill check the board while Im gone..

John

BUT, if ya want me to play on the tune ZIP, put a copy on your page without drums...

You should record the drums for him first, cause you probably play to a click for recording? And that allows him to be in time for adding any other tracks he may want. Not to mention that a better drum track to play to, may inspire him even more.

Craig, whats stopping me is that I know next to nothing about midi (still), so it's a struggle.
It's fairly easy for me to pick a drum loop and just make something up to the loop, but making the music and then trying to add the drums sucks.
As far as I can tell there is no way to quantize with what Im using, but I'll have to dig around some more to be sure.
I should be able to do the 'perfect measure, then loop' thing though.

KIDD:
Sequencer eh? That sounds like what I need if I'm going to be making up drum tracks by myself.
I will have a go at fixing it this evening. Whether I get it fixed or not, I'll post it up later in the week without the drums for you to play with. (If you're still game.)

It's a good start. Zip.

I've found that adding drums in later can be awkward, but possible.

While it does seem to rush a bit toward the end, that, too, can be okay, if the drums follow. (If you wanna hear speeding up tempo changes, check out Radar Love, right?)

Good crunchy tone, though. Looking forward to more from you as you develop this.

ZIP !

Im with ya on the MIDI syndrome...Its been explained to me a million times..Ive read many tutitorials but my brain absolutley refuses to grasp the concept of key up key down ... .The only thing I MIDI is keyboard to a data disk (3.5 floppy) to store sequences, songs and track data which happens automatically..All I have to do is name it...Yeah ,Ive posted this idea on a few posts but no has ever commented??(hence ...my frustration... )...OMG, if anything ever happens to that SQ1 Ill HAVE to die..My whole life (well half). is on those 3.5 floppies... ...YEAH, see with you now jumpin on the band wagon here in 2008, you wont need a data disk...All you'll do is record your drum tracks ANALOG straight from the keyboard to your sound card/interface...THEN , I always put an 8 count before the tune starts..That way everything starts at the same time..Get ya an old 61 note synth/ SEQ like an Ensoniq SQ1 , or Yamaha SY55 like "Howlin's" got. and Ill help ya...Yeah,Craig, it would be tough to do the drums on the keyboard first becuase I wouldnt be playing live ...A tune like that has alot of sycopated changes happenin through out...When I track drums, I put the basic beat HH/RC, SD, BD, on 3 different tracks THEN once all sequences have been created, THEY will play in order with me putting fills and crashs in SONG MODE while the arr. is playing...I could do it....It just may take many small sequences...It would be MUCH easier to play it in real time LIVE micing my kit..Im gettin better at EQing live drums..
Well, I gotta go to KY...Ill be back SUN..But yeah,ZIP record a new arr with a click in your cans (be sure and give me a 8 count intro)and KEEP the old one up till I have a chance to record it...Ill need both...Anyway, gotta run...Be back SUN..


John

I'm a posting a second drum version for a brief time.
Some of it I made sound better, but I made 'some' stuff worse. If I'm adding
and drum or cymbal stuff when the tracks are playing by, I get this damned lag form the keyboard input that ruins the timing.

KIDD, I'll keep the old one up.
The second version that I'm about to post is titled: Cripes (diff drums).

If I'm adding
and drum or cymbal stuff when the tracks are playing by, I get this damned lag form the keyboard input that ruins the timing.

Mute that track's monitor while recording. You are hearing a kind of loop. There should be an option to "not" listen to the track while recording it. Then you can just follow by playing to what is already laid down on the other tracks, and the timing will be right.

Taking the second one down.
I'll try it out Craig, thanks.