On 02/02/2005, at 6:21 PM, adrian.delso@btopenworld.com wrote:
if you write songs, then I would strongly recommend that you always write your drum parts, afresh every time.
Strongly agree. Especially if you want the song to have its own groove... and a big part of the defining characteristics of a groove is how well the bass and other instruments interact with a drum track. My feeling is that if the drum track is a stock beat, the whole song will either fit it and sound stock as well (which is OK if you WANT that... but don't settle for it if that's NOT what you want), or fight against it (in a bad way) and be mushy. I understand the speed concerns, though... something else upon which I'd like to comment later. And yes, I agree with Carl that programming published drum TABs can be educational... as long as it's used for good, not for evil. Learn from them, then build your own that fit your songs even better. Three suggestions to get away from the typical 4/4 rock beat: 1. Switch a snare drum hit with a bass drum hit in the same place (or two) all the way through the pattern, or just leave one out. (ex. instead of "bass- snare- bass- snare" each measure, try "bass- bass- bass- snare" or "bass- snare- snare- bass" or "bass- .....- bass- snare" etc.) 2. Write lines two bars at a time. So instead of each measure being basically the same... "bass- snare- bass- snare" think in terms of a longer pattern to be repeated: "bass- snare- bass- bass snare- bass- bass- snare" 3. Expand each measure within DB (creating more subdivisions of each beat), and put the bass drum ANYWHERE but beat THREE. "B / / / S / / B / B B / S / B /" "1 / / / 2 / / / 3 / / / 4 / / /" Hope this helps. DC