Program your own drum accompliments?

[Mark_OA]

Hello everyone,

 

I am looking for some advice from those who program their own drums. I'm no drummer, but like to program my own drum accompliments to play to. Up until now, I've used to program them using software but I enjoy using a computer less and less. Furthermore, I don't get the feeling of playing my own rhythms when just sitting at a keyboard, drawing Midi notes in software. I tried using classic drummachines in the past, but you lose to much swing and cadance using those in my opinion. Great for 4/4 quantized electronic music, not so much for anything else.

 

So, I'm looking for advice on how to make programming my drums a more tactile experience without the need to setup a full drum set. I'd also like to able to use the computer less for anything music related. Also, I want to use acoustic drum sounds, none of the electronic ones. Any of you have experience with this and if so, can make some suggestions?

 

Mark

[SamuelBLupowitz]

This doesn"t exactly move you away from the computer, but I have a bandmate who makes very elaborate demos with very intricate drum parts. One time I went to his house to work on a new tune with him and was shocked to find that he had mastered entering drums using 'musical typing' on his laptop. It was so ridiculous and he was SO good at it. He used Apple"s acoustic drum kit samples and went to town. You"d never know from his demos, which frequently sounded like a finished record (he actually did do that for the final drum tracks on a solo project he put out once).

 

What I"ve done in the past for demos, when I have specific ideas for feel and rhythmic accents but don"t want to record a drum kit, is sit with an SM58 between my thighs and tap out the part on my legs with my palms. Hat on the left, snare on the right, kick with a heel stomp, fills when needed. It"s not pretty, but it"s surprisingly effective in conveying what I want to a drummer. Again, that"s a performance more than programming, and not something I"d want to release for everyone to hear, but it"s definitely more tactile.

[AnotherScott]

I used to manually "play" the pads of drum machines (and there are much more sophisticated versions of that if you're so inclined, like octopads). These days, I load up a drum kit sound on a keyboard, find the keys for bass drum, snare, etc., and just hit the keys. Sometimes all in one take, or maybe I'll do one take with bass/snare/toms, then overdub hihat and cymbals.

[Music Bird]

I use General MIDI drumsets. I also have an Alesis SR-16 drum machine (the 2004 version). I"d look at Octapads. Octapads seem to have a big following in Latin and Indian music.