how do you approach creating house drum patterns?

[kbridge]

I thought it would be interesting to find out how different producers create different drum/beat patterns for use in their productions.

As an example and an Ableton user, I have recently been using "instrument rack" to create my kick, hi-hat and "snap" (what I call my snare/clap). This way I can take a transient that I like and add a different tail/effect (e.g using the transient of one kick, then layering on top of an 808's bass).

For house drums, I always use seperate clips for every different variable (kick, hats, snap etc) so that in the arrangement, I have the option to begin the track with just kicks, then bring in the snap and so on and so forth. I would LIKE to use the drum rack to create a complete drum pattern in just one clip, however I am unsure of how to then begin a song with JUST kicks, then progress as I mentioned above.. it seems if you use a drum rack, then that clip is always going to be the full pattern and there is no way to chop it down to the individual hits? (correct me if I'm wrong, as I HOPE I am!)

I always use a 4 x 4 kick when creating the patterns, normally with a light hat on the offbeats and the snap sitting on every second kick, how do you like to create your patterns?

KBRIDGE

[grazz16]

you are wrong...thankfully :P

you're initial pattern is set in clip view, but as soon as you change to arrangement view you can do whatever you want to the drum pattern by splitting it and then editing it. Then if you want you can drag that clip back to clip view to use there, but its really easy to use drum racks and then edit them like that.

[kbridge]

you are wrong...thankfully :P

the best news I've heard in a long time, that's proper sorted me out in terms of programming drums! I previously had drum taking up 9 or 10 different channels and without being able to see the pattern, I found it very difficult to come up with any sort of groove!

Anyone else out there choose to do drums in a different way?

[BiggChev]

Not an ableton user but I'll try to explain my method for drums in Maschine, which for the exception of a few specific details can be transferred to other DAWs.

Firstly I'll load up 2 different drum banks. Start with something incredibly simple (4 x 4) and start adding in little bits. Duplicate the pattern and keep adding, duplicating so on and so forth until I have about 4-8 different variations. Once I'm there I'll go back and pick two logical connectors so to speak. Once I've sorted which pattern I want to flow into the other I'll start doing little fills. Again, duplicate and tweak. Sometimes I'll be up to 10-12 patterns. I know it sounds like a lot but in essence there are only minute changes from one to the other.

Also note, that I don't do this for every track. I tend to do ONLY drums. Back when I worked in Acid Pro + Cubase I'd usually bounce out each pattern into my "Drum Loops" folder all in a sub-folder with a descriptive name and tempo. This way I could pull them up when the inspiration hit. Because of this very little "mastering" or fx/eq are done as I don't know yet how they'll fit.

Here's something interesting as well...

[kbridge]

Firstly I'll load up 2 different drum banks. Start with something incredibly simple (4 x 4) and start adding in little bits. Duplicate the pattern and keep adding, duplicating so on and so forth until I have about 4-8 different variations.

So you're saying you duplicate the initial section of the drums and just alter then end of the loop to keep it from becoming repetetive?

I like the idea of opening a DAW to JUST create a bank of drum loops for further productions, opposed to starting every project and dedicating time to the drums, which can take away time from translating melodies from brain to program!

How long do you tend to make your fills? one bar?

Also, does anyone else create drums in drum rack etc then bounce the loop to audio? I've seen a lot of producers do this, but can't work out why this is beneficial or the point?

[grazz16]

the best news I've heard in a long time, that's proper sorted me out in terms of programming drums! I previously had drum taking up 9 or 10 different channels and without being able to see the pattern, I found it very difficult to come up with any sort of groove!

I used to do the same thing, except i started with drum racks and thought i couldnt individually adjust the volumes. Then i found it even more of a pain in the ass to deal with like 10 drum tracks so i just went back and learned how to use the drum rack better lol

[Polygon]

I do it all by hand with different tracks in cubase, so that i can buss everything with no restraints. For layering kicks and snares i usually open up a separate project and bounce out an audio file of the kick/snare/whatever i created. Time consuming? Yeah, totally. But i really feel "at home" doing so

[kbridge]

I do it all by hand with different tracks in cubase, so that i can buss everything with no restraints. For layering kicks and snares i usually open up a separate project and bounce out an audio file of the kick/snare/whatever i created. Time consuming? Yeah, totally. But i really feel "at home" doing so

Can I just ask why you would bounce your loops/patterns into audio?

[Polygon]

Can I just ask why you would bounce your loops/patterns into audio?

Not loops, just the layered sounds ,say,for the kick, subbass from one kick, midbass from another, and hf from a third

[kbridge]

Not loops, just the layered sounds ,say,for the kick, subbass from one kick, midbass from another, and hf from a third

but why? to save CPU? or just for tidyness?