Percussion tips needed.

[Batucada]

House music (especially funky House) often features rhythmic percussion; it seems minimal yet effective. However, when I sequence (Latin) percussion, it sounds like a ferocious African tribal gathering, not funky at all. Does anyone have any tips on arranging, panning, adding effects etc. to make it sound funkier?
Thanx,
B.

[djanthonyw]

Have you considered using swing?

[dan_s]

ferocious african tribal gatherings are cool to me.

maybe its your choice of sounds? clavs, tablas, shakers, rimshots, should do the trick, really short plonks, no big reverbs.

[himalaya]

Try what djanthony said plus play with velocity/volume of each hit.
Also, don't make it too complex. Very often with funky house all you need is the hits to be off beat.

Arrangement wise, there's so much you can do:
- adding some filtered noise hits underneath some perc hits may give more realism. Here's where velocity comes to play, so if you edit the sample in a sampler, you will have fine control of how much noise you want during play.

- subtle tube/amp effects may bring out the natural skin noise to the front. I used this technique just recently on tablas, where the gentle tube distortion + compression has brought the sound of the hands sliding on the tabla skin to the front.

- Filter your percussion to leave the mid/high freq only.

etc.
However, at the end of the day, 'funk' is not arrived at through fx processing so much as through music skill.

not funky at all.

make it sound funkier

[himalaya]

Another tip, which will teach you the skill very quickly is to collect a few percussion loops that you find 'funky' and then try to emulate them in your sequencer by drawing the notes yourself. Listen to the loop and edit in your sequence, listen and edit, etc.
Very soon you will develop the 'feel' for what works and why it works.

[yellowfever]

Another tip, which will teach you the skill very quickly is to collect a few percussion loops that you find 'funky' and then try to emulate them in your sequencer by drawing the notes yourself. Listen to the loop and edit in your sequence, listen and edit, etc.
Very soon you will develop the 'feel' for what works and why it works.

+1. That's how I learnt. Import them into your DAW as an audio file, stretch it (not time stretch, just the wav) and pick out individual sounds.

[paveloso]

Could you also be using a lot of low/mid-frequency-rich percussion like congas, tumbadoras or some surdos?

Perhaps you could try bongos, timbales and smaller shakers into your arrangement instead.

Hope that helps.

[ozmoz2008]

However, at the end of the day, 'funk' is not arrived at through fx processing so much as through music skill.

True! skipping beats, changing accents, syncopation etc...more "upbeat" than "downbeat" as it is often in "african" beats....but still they are mixing more and more nowadays...and in your case for House...cyclique approaches I would say.

[Kim Lajoie]

ferocious African tribal gathering

Maybe you're using too much percussion? Rather than focussin on filling in the silence with as much sound as possible, instead focus on using only a few patterns to compliment the groove.

Compliment the groove.

Compliment the groove.

-Kim.

[duncanparsons]

ferocious African tribal gathering

Maybe you're using too much percussion? Rather than focussin on filling in the silence with as much sound as possible, instead focus on using only a few patterns to compliment the groove.

Exactly. Remember that rhythm isn't found in the hits, it's in the spaces.

[ozmoz2008]

ferocious African tribal gathering

Maybe you're using too much percussion? Rather than focussin on filling in the silence with as much sound as possible, instead focus on using only a few patterns to compliment the groove.

Exactly. Remember that rhythm isn't found in the hits, it's in the spaces.

As Miles would have said...silence IS music

[himalaya]

ferocious African tribal gathering

Maybe you're using too much percussion? Rather than focussin on filling in the silence with as much sound as possible, instead focus on using only a few patterns to compliment the groove.

Exactly. Remember that rhythm isn't found in the hits, it's in the spaces.

As Miles would have said...silence IS music

Nah, it was John Cage.

[ozmoz2008]

ferocious African tribal gathering

Maybe you're using too much percussion? Rather than focussin on filling in the silence with as much sound as possible, instead focus on using only a few patterns to compliment the groove.

Exactly. Remember that rhythm isn't found in the hits, it's in the spaces.

As Miles would have said...silence IS music

Nah, it was John Cage.

Oh________yeah!

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference ... index.html

[Mushy Mushy]

I'm not sure how you enter your percussion, but since I got my Korg NanoPad my percussion has stepped up by a huge amount.... Just tap away to make your groove.... So easy and so effective.

I cant believe I used to enter my hats in one-by-one in the MIDI editor...

[Dopezart]

Yeah, I think the most important things are to filter out the low frequency as bongos/congas etc. can have lots of low end and ambience goning on. Also in a lot of tunes congas syncopate the beat and dont play all the time so try chopping out just the sections in the loops between the Kick or using some really heavy side chaining. But surely you're side chaining everything anyway, like me?