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Trip-hop tips and tricks | Drumbeat tips 1

(from LiquidAcrobat.com, with additions by triphoppin.net

1. The fewer the notes, the greater impact of each note.

2. Try working on a two bar pattern instead of one bar. (Or a four-bar pattern instead of two bar.)

3. For trip-hop, the hi hat part usually consists of eighth notes or quarter notes. Also common are "missed" hi hat hits.... For example.... 1 and (REST) and 2 and (REST) and 3 and (REST) and 4 and (REST).

4. Use 2 hard drum samples and 2 soft drum samples and also 4 different closed Hi-hat samples, to avoid the "robotic" sound. Give life to the beat.

5. Use the velocity or accent adjustment to simulate human playing and dynamics.

6. Try heavily accenting the downbeat and have the upbeat lightly accented or vice versa.

7. Accent all bass kicks. Or only a few.

8. Have different pitches set up for the snare - good for fills.

9. Don't quantize your drum track. Or if quantizing, quantize with "groove" or whatever your sequencer offers. Shuffle quantizations are essential for hip-hop/funky beats, 16th note/straight quantizations are essential for more straightforward (rock-style) beats.

10. Leave some hesitation and anticapation within the track. This creates the funk feel.

11. Lay back the snare a couple of clock ticks, or put it forward a couple ticks.

12. Use a different ride cymbal sample for the accents.

13. Layer an open hat with a closed hat (sounds good on TR606).

14. Layer boomy 808 kicks underneath break beat loops.

15. Use 808 hats with a slight delay for ambient tracks.

16. Old gritty drum sounds work best for hip hop beats.

17. Sample a "real" drummer playing a break beat loop. Cut it up using your desired editor. Also, you can chop up the loop using Recycle, and then re-arrange the hits (a technique used in jungle/drum n bass beats).

18. COMPRESS COMPRESS COMPRESS the drums. Make them sound like they're "breathing"..... this is heard clearly in Portishead's "Numb" (especially in the ride cymbal).

19. When applying reverb, try to use a longer pre-delay that is in sync with your song's tempo. This also makes beats "breathe" but it can lose their power/boominess if used incorrectly.

more tips coming soon!