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i kind of struggle with building flowing drum loops, and i think its down to my hihat placements, ive read through what it says in the production bible, and ive tried studying other peoples tracks, but i dont really understand what makes the drums have that flow and sound less rigid.

ive tried placing beats slightly off quantized and it just doesnt seem to make any difference...

cheers

have you tried using triplets?

mycota wrote:have you tried using triplets?

i dont think so... can you explain this to me a bit?
cheers

use a few different(yet like sounding) hat samples and place them randomly, until it sounds good.

Brisance wrote:use a few different(yet like sounding) hat samples and place them randomly, until it sounds good.

or use the same sample but each with different ADSR/filter settings

Open wide, here comes the hi-hat triplet train! Choo-choo!

Try learning something about music & rhythm first maybe?

Take a night class in basic druming 101 maybe, or listen to tracks with drums you really dig, funk, blues, rock, house, dubstep, techno, whatever, just try and get those down first off and in the process i bet you'd nail many more drum tracks along the way as you learn hte ones you admire.

Music isn't a gift that's downloaded with the latest cracked DAW/VST bundles and the super spec PC/Mac you just blagged off your old dear for doing a weeks worth of washing up. Christ on a bike1111

Forgive me harshness, I'm pissed.

Caeraphym wrote:Open wide, here comes the hi-hat triplet train! Choo-choo!

Try learning something about music & rhythm first maybe?

Take a night class in basic druming 101 maybe, or listen to tracks with drums you really dig, funk, blues, rock, house, dubstep, techno, whatever, just try and get those down first off and in the process i bet you'd nail many more drum tracks along the way as you learn hte ones you admire.

Music isn't a gift that's downloaded with the latest cracked DAW/VST bundles and the super spec PC/Mac you just blagged off your old dear for doing a weeks worth of washing up. Christ on a bike1111

Forgive me harshness, I'm pissed.

yeah, how about fuck you?

no need at all, im only asking for pointers and youre being fully out of order.

also, theres a big difference between knowing music and knowing terms for techniques. a good ear for music and an innovative, creative mindset isnt something your music tutor can teach you on your really expensive grand piano or other instrument that you can afford.

i hate to be a dick about it but i asked on a production forum about advice on production, and you decide to be a knob about it, ive been a member on here for ages and hardly ever post, then when i do i get gunned down straight away.

go pick on someone posting pictures of alpacas or something.

















(cue pictures of alpacas.)

haha, why is her face blurred out?
its like shes on a police camera programme
an alpaca thief

People and alpacas under 18, look away.

TightLife wrote:no need at all, im only asking for pointers and youre being fully out of order.

welcome to the production forum.............


i'm with brisance
i get some nice hi hat lines using a few different hi hat samples and place them, i wouldn't say randomly, just so that they fit together.
gives a very nice rythm....
and aye triplets!!

just fuck with them till they sound nice. You just dont have the ears for it atm. Itll change, if you're dedicated.

Caeraphym wrote:Open wide, here comes the hi-hat triplet train! Choo-choo!

Try learning something about music & rhythm first maybe?

Take a night class in basic druming 101 maybe, or listen to tracks with drums you really dig, funk, blues, rock, house, dubstep, techno, whatever, just try and get those down first off and in the process i bet you'd nail many more drum tracks along the way as you learn hte ones you admire.

Music isn't a gift that's downloaded with the latest cracked DAW/VST bundles and the super spec PC/Mac you just blagged off your old dear for doing a weeks worth of washing up. Christ on a bike1111

Forgive me harshness, I'm pissed.

Dude he was just asking, he's asking about how to make the hats flow, so that is asking about music and rhythm?

If you're pissed, and know you are going to be a complete cock (which you must know quite well now judging from some of your posts) then just don't post!

Self control?

With regards to making the drums "flow" more, try using the hi hat sample in a sampler, so it created a pitch range of it, and make patterns within the hi hats themselves.

It's all trial and error really, just keep clicking in random patterns on the piano roll while it's looping that spot until it sounds good!

Hope this helps

oh and stop hating on alpaca's tightlife what have they ever done to you poor buggers...

practice,make drumloops everytime you turn ya computer on,noone can teach you this shit you have to learn it yaself,


hats on the off beat to begin

get em to roll to your snare hit

EXPERIMENT


ALOT

Use loops! High pass and EQ some drum loops accordingly, or find some hi-hat/perc loops you like and chop out the bits that don't fit. Because dubstep is generally in halftime there's a lot of space to play with, and I tend to find that with a few minor adjustments most loops will fit into dubstep grooves. Sometimes the ones that you think 'surely that won't work', tend to have the most satisfying results. It's just a matter of making them fit by slicing them at the right place and careful placement within the groove.

Then, when you're bored of using samples (or generally against using loops and samples, I know a lot of people are) the technique that taught me how to program drums was mimmicing. In fact, mimmicing is the same way you learn any instrument really.

1.Find a sample or beat you like - be it a nice loop you have or a tune you admire, whatever.

2.Load it into your daw of choice and loop four or eight bars.

3. Listen

4. Find some drum samples/synths/ROMPLERS (whatever you use to make drums) that sound similar.

5. zoom in onto the loop and try and place your drums in the midi editor in the same places that the hits in the loop land.

Once you've done that you might get a better understanding of what's going on and how to get a better flow, then you can take what you've learned and apply it creatively to your own stuff

Oh, and assuming you've got a MIDI keyboard, try MPC style drum programming too - i.e. loop the region, hit record, bash out some rhythms and drop in some samples - don't worry if it's not in time because that's why they invented quantization and delete!

Man, that's a long ass post...

TightLife wrote:

mycota wrote:have you tried using triplets?

i dont think so... can you explain this to me a bit?
cheers

Boring techincal explanation:

A triplet is a rhythm playing three notes in the space of two. That is, three evenly spaced notes in the space of two notes of the same rhythmic value.

The most common example is the 8th note triplet. An eighth note triplet rhythm is 3 notes played in the space of 2 eighth notes. You may find it easier to think of the eighth note triplet as being 3 notes dividing a quarter note (since 1 quarter note = 2 eighth notes).

Again, a triplet is not just 3 notes grouped together, but a specific rhythm consisting of three equally spaced notes.

Easily explained:

When you count in 4/4, you can count 1,2,3,4. That's counting in quarter notes.

Then, in the same space of time you can split it into 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Eigth notes.

And eighth note triplet, however, would be counted as, 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a, in the same space of time. The bits between 1 and 2 are split into 3rds.

When you open up your MIDI editor and choose the triplet grid, that's what it's doing, it's splitting each beat so that they have thirds in them.

Was that post too condascending? Sorry if it was!

Karmacazee wrote:

TightLife wrote:

mycota wrote:have you tried using triplets?

i dont think so... can you explain this to me a bit?
cheers

Boring techincal explanation:

A triplet is a rhythm playing three notes in the space of two. That is, three evenly spaced notes in the space of two notes of the same rhythmic value.

The most common example is the 8th note triplet. An eighth note triplet rhythm is 3 notes played in the space of 2 eighth notes. You may find it easier to think of the eighth note triplet as being 3 notes dividing a quarter note (since 1 quarter note = 2 eighth notes).

Again, a triplet is not just 3 notes grouped together, but a specific rhythm consisting of three equally spaced notes.

Easily explained:

When you count in 4/4, you can count 1,2,3,4. That's counting in quarter notes.

Then, in the same space of time you can split it into 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Eigth notes.

And eighth note triplet, however, would be counted as, 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a, in the same space of time. The bits between 1 and 2 are split into 3rds.

When you open up your MIDI editor and choose the triplet grid, that's what it's doing, it's splitting each beat so that they have thirds in them.

Was that post too condascending? Sorry if it was!

that was exactly what i needed, you have made my early morning, thanks a lot!

and thanks to everyone who posted with useful information, ive learnt a lot from this all, so cheers!

and i wasnt hating on alpacas, i was just using them as an example, sorry alpacas

i had the exact same problem for ages, with me it was also about a lack of confidence in what i thought "sounded like dubstep". a few sessions of drum pattern making and some well guided advice from (some) people on here got me a lot more confident with making drums and adding some nice percussion to them - remember along with using different samples for your percussion so it doesnt sound so repetetive your also looking to give each hit different qualities in terms of how loud they are heard, where they are in the stereo mix and also how often they are heard, having the odd sound here and there can make such a difference (in good and bad ways, dont try and chuck the sound of a church bell chiming in the middle of a wobbley fuck-you-tnuc type of tune cos it just sounds like your an arty twat trying to be cool (yes thats exactly what i did) )