Drum Programming / grooves

[Will Frances]

Also, turn your delay to ms mode, work out your 8th and 16th note delay time based on your tempo. Then automate between the differing delay times for stranger more varied delays that somehow always jump back in time with your song.

[Mslwte]

Thanks, these are some nice ideas that I've never considered at all.

[Críoch]

That delay thing, just another idea with the MS.

If you do a sparce loop, different elements from a kit, with nothing on the places where a kick will sit in the main groove..

Put a delay on that, as an insert.. a few % wet.. Bit of delay.. and sidechain that to the main kick, then the delays get ducked, giving a bit of subtle groove, filling up the space.. and the sparce loop isnt really ducked at all.

[TimBuys]

Some great tips in this thread! Might be a no brainer for most, but using a sidechained gate is a great way to control reverb length.

[SFBM]

Some fantastic tips! Must admit, I have never actually thought about sidechaining or gating a delay (either as just an insert, or parallel fx chain)..that's a fantastic idea!

[buffered]

It's amazing how important levels and velocity play a part in the groove process. It isn't just a case of where you place sounds although v. Important of course

agree with this. makes a big difference.
subtle delay sends also. can really fill things out in a rolling organic way.
Regis was mentioned earlier. Lots of his work has really nice use of delay. Elements of the track are somewhat simple but the way they are routed creates an effect that is more than the sum of it's parts.

[dubdub]

Does anyone else usually put delay on their kicks? I'm talking really small amounts, like 0.3% with ableton's simple delay set to the default and no feedback. I somehow feel like it makes the whole track more swung and rhythmic.

[Críoch]

I would sometimes.. but will make a rack, creating 2 chains. One clean or 'dry' - then the other, 2nd chain with the delay 100% wet.

I'd usually eq the delay.. then use the volume of the wet chain to blend in the effected signal with the original coming through the 'dry'. Might process them together after that also.

Edit.. it would typically be a ms delay that I'd have. Might even add gate after the delay, running off tge kick to kill the feedback.

[samnatur]

Having a MIDI keyboard with touch sensitive keys really helps with groove, it easily sounds stiff if all the drums are exactly the same volume on every hit. Stay off the grid, don't quantize the notes 100%. Ableton has a really nice quantize function where you can quantize the MIDI to a set percentage, like for example 6% so the notes slide 6% towards the closest point on the grid, it's really useful.

And yeah, delay and reverb are your friends.

[ross-alexander]

Crikey this was an old one nice to read back

[Mr.Dino]

Hey, i now thats quite obvius, but, take a look at the section 'beat dissected' from the attack magazine, i always catch some great ideas from them, reading, composing, looking at the coments. They have some tips that u can have that little insight sometimes

thats the website [im not the owner of this, not even trying to promote, sorry if this is ilegal]
https://www.attackmagazine.com/techniqu ... dissected/

[victer]

Another basic tip for ableton's sequencer:
When writing a succesive serie of hits, like a snare roll for example, you can stretch or tighten all your hits (except the last one) at once by selecting the roll and dial the marker that appaears in the time section above the sequencer back and forth. this technique is great to write weird rythms i.e. quintuplets and allows you to achieve original drum fills in your track !

I know this is obvious to most ableton users but i can remember how happy I was when I discovered this trick( most certainly from here), quintuplets for the win
Great info in here btw

[Críoch]

Yeah that shrinking / expanding notes is cool for buzzy, glitchy hits. Drums & synth patterns.

[nomadjames]

I play a lot of stuff in live with my Maschine, and don't quantize it. I record that stuff to audio. Like little fills and stuff. I also have the step sequencer in it set up the velocity is related to how hard I push the button, instead of always being the same value. I also like to use swing independent for each sound. I use the note repeat function and record that as audio so like If I'm doing a hi hat I have like 32 bars of that pattern and the velocity is a little different all the way through it and can use small parts of that to keep it changing and interesting.

Also, use chopped up breaks. You don't have to chop it into every single hit, you can have a few beats triggered by different pads, can really add to the groove.

[Dolorum]

Two things really helped me in getting my drum programming to "roll" properly. The first, making sure your track delay is set to work properly with whatever sample you're using. So if you have a hi hat, you can make the song groove very differently based on how ahead/behind the grid you place it. I like a rolling, chugging type groove so I always place them slightly after the 16th note grid, 5 - 10 ms depending on the sample. This goes for shakers, and other percussive blips, the trick is getting the apex of the sound's volume to hit properly within the groove, and Ableton makes it easy by modifying track delays.

The other thing is velocity. Subtle changes over time to properly mixed drums goes a long way to make a groove feel right. Just do what makes sense in how you want tension to build and release throughout a 16 bar segment or whatever. I personally found these two things more important than swing quantisation or whatever, especially considering lots of techno is very strict to 16th notes.

Obviously proper sample selection and subtle delay modulation are key parts but the starting points are important.