singemonkey wrote:
The problem is how to make it sound like a drum track appropriate to the track. Where to put in cymbal crashes. What fills are too much or inappropriately placed. And for some of my tracks simply nothing exists that's even close to appropriate to start with. My experience with programming tracks from scratch tells me that there's a lot I don't know.
Ah. Yeah - that's more of a drummer or composition/arrangement/production thing (you can think of a drummer as a drum composer/arranger). I've long said that the best thing I ever did for my guitar playing was learn to play drums. Even though I was never more than just a competent drummer, my understanding and appreciation of the role of drums and drum parts advanced exponentially. Being the proverbial jack-of-all-trades is of great help when it comes to programming the drums as there are lots of elements that come from the production, composition, arrangement and even engineering side that help you piece things together.
Basically, I think the most important thing to understand compositionally is that the drums are
a collection of different instruments with different roles in the music. Basically: Kick and snare provide the pulse, ride and hi-hat provide the timing and (to a large part the feel), other cymbals provide the accents. Smaller cymbals add punctuation, larger add ambience. Toms add variation. That's why a good drummer sounds just as good with a kick, snare, hihat and single crash as he does with a Peart/Bozzio inspired drum
installation those four provide all the elements needed, the rest is just variation. ?
The snare is an interesting drum as it can be pulse and/or timekeeper (think of a country snare train beat or a lot of Violent Femmes). Look at how your bluegrass players utilise (sometimes nothing but) the snare... There's a huge amount you can do with accents, ghosting, rimshots and sidestick.
As far as arrangement goes, you also need to know where each instrument in the kit sits in the frequency spectrum. You also need to know the approach of different styles of music (e.g. in rock the snare pulse on two and four is the important element, reggae the three is tops, pop/dance the kick is king, while in jazz the ride rules the roost).
The pulse is the most important and prominent part of most types of music, but the timekeeper provides the feel - think of a shuffle or swing, which can be a straight 2/4 on kick and snare, but the hats/ride provide the actual shuffle. So you usually start with your timekeeper and then add the pulse.
But yeah - even if you can't play them physically - you need to understand how to drum - especially when it comes to programming realistic parts. You need to understand the limitations as much as the possibilities and the tendencies (like if you are playing 16ths on your hats, anything you do on snare or toms will usually be at the expense of a hi-hat stroke).
Lordy lawks, this only scratches the surface... there's a lifetime of learning in any instrument and bookshelves could be filled with the details.
