Beat Makers - share your techniques
Seems like we have a fair number of beat makers on the forum,
what with the fruity loops thread, and various others
thought it might not be a bad idea to start a thread on beat making techniques
When I was 15 or so, me and a few friends would regularly frequent this local Jazz club.
They had live jazz musicians playing for about 4 hours solid
something about the way the drummers played got me hooked
it's like your brain was following the beat, and expecting the next percussion hit
and it didn't happen
it happened on an odd beat
then resumed normally
you couldn't help but move to it
I always called it the rolly-shoulder beat
cause your head was bopping to the regular timing
then suddenly, the off beat caused your shoulder to roll
then back
Enter Swing Time into my life :lol:
Now, when ever I'm making a beat
and it's just not working
too monotenous, too robot like
boring after 20 seconds
adding in swung notes is the first thing I try
Here's a little text file illustrating (I hope) the difference
Swing Rhythm.txt
The basic idea is to un-regulate the beat slightly
by taking two same-length notes side by side
stretching one, and shortening the other
giving a slightly off-beat hit
Anyway, what techniques work for you?
I'll add some more at a later date