Funky Drummer

[dusted william]

Mark,

that is one tight funky drummer...woohoo thanks man!

-dw

[Markleford]

You cant for get impeach the president, that beat may be tied with funky drummer...

http://www.markleford.com/music/tmp/impeach-prez.mid

Also with pedal+closed as accented hi-hats. Note that I'm keeping timing imperfections in as per the particular measure of beat I'm slicing. In this instance the last snare is a smidge late, and the hat is a tiny bit before the the second kick, rather than being in unison. Really, once the other instruments start playing in the actual song, the groove locks in a bit more and has a lot more swing/shuffle. So groove-quantize to taste! And sound selection is very important (especially for the swishy open hat on Impeach), so refer to the clips on the Bourbon Breaks page.

I'm just doing this to learn, really. When I sit down at the drum kit I generally try to knock out grooves like this... or "live dnb" live Yuval Gabay and Johnny Rabb. Not that I'm any good, but it's cool to have something to aspire to.

- m

[Hink]

lots...
If you have midi data, then you can assign any drum sounds you want. Midi is also very easy to manipulate and small in size comparatively.

Weird, i always just programmed a beat in Fruityloops and reason and changed the samples in the channels if i wanted different drum sounds.

would you please stop making me feel old

[Rellik]

lots...
If you have midi data, then you can assign any drum sounds you want. Midi is also very easy to manipulate and small in size comparatively.

Weird, i always just programmed a beat in Fruityloops and reason and changed the samples in the channels if i wanted different drum sounds.

Yeah, I don't see the point of using a pre-programmed MIDI sequence for the drums. I mean, it's much more gratifying, imo, to program your own drum section. I'd rather adjust the timing to taste on my own than just lift the timing off some drumloop that people will probably recognize the timing of anyway.

I do like love slicing drumloops, though not for the MIDI, but for the audio. Using drumloop slices is a much better way to get drumhits than to search through a sample library. Plus, the hits used in the drumloops are of a nicer quality than most free drumhits you'll find anyway. Plus, they are not quite perfect, and have some character to them. It's just better all around, imo I would stop using drumsamples altogether if I didn't feel like it was a cop-out.

[Sascha Franck]

Err...
Using MIDI files and sliced drumbeats along with exported MIDI files STILL is QUITE a different thing.

A) When you got an audio loop with some ringing cymbals going, try to slice up that - good luck!

B) The exported MIDI files of some sliced up audio loops usually are chromatically ascending patterns, so you never know by the sheer look at it which is sounding how.

C) Sliced up loops don't actually contain "single" sounds in 99 of all cases. Just try to find a kick WITHOUT a hat on it, or, even worse, a fine open hat ringing all the way through.

All this is somewhat limiting the options of sliced up loops.
In addition, when using a MIDI file on some of my several more or less GM compatible drumkits, I can just easily add, say, a crash or whatever. Or just make that snare a different one by replacing it. Or fool with it quantize wise (not allways possible with sliced up loops, IMO they only allow quantization or tempo altering to a certain extent).

Oh yes, I also prefer to program my own beats - or let me better say, I *would* prefer programmíng my own. But I've got so much BRILLIANT drum MIDI files that I sometimes find myself using those instead.

Apart from all that - MIDI files are small, and (wohoo!) they just don't need ANY slicing because I can allready freely alter all data. Also, drag an drop of MIDI files into a proper host is a way easier procedure than dragging a sliced audio loop anywhere.

I think, the reason why a lot of people don't like MIDI files is that you need a really proper sounding set to see what they're intended to sound like. Also, the GM standard obviously is limiting note choices quite a bit. Still, once you got a few good sounding GM drumsets for your sampler of choice, MIDI files could just do a great job.

[tuz]

Oh yes, I also prefer to program my own beats - or let me better say, I *would* prefer programmíng my own. But I've got so much BRILLIANT drum MIDI files that I sometimes find myself using those instead.

I've just discovered the convenience of midi drum beats. where can I get some really good ones? I just don't have the rhythmical talent to create beats. I know groove monkee and keyfax but that's about it.

thanks

[Sascha Franck]

I've just discovered the convenience of midi drum beats. where can I get some really good ones? I just don't have the rhythmical talent to create beats. I know groove monkee and keyfax but that's about it.

What I've been doing for quite some time was surfing the web for MIDI files (of complete songs that is). Once I stumbled over some songs that were familiar (and that I liked from the original recording) I simply listened to them (be aware, there's TONS of utter shit when it comes to freely available MIDI files) and eventually loaded them into my sequencer of choice and then just extracted only the drum tracks.
Yeah, a lot of work - but IF you find some proper sounding song MIDI files (using any el cheapo GM soundset or the included M$ GM synth in XP), you will allready know the drums will be working in context as well.
Sure, there's less song MIDIs for contemporary "electronic" and dance styles, so in case you're into those, you might be out of luck.

I also got some floppies with a bunch of professionally programmed MIDI beats (I guess bundled along with some Roland Sound Canvas, it's been ages since I got those, so I don't remember), which actually were/are pretty good.

I'm not sure about the quality of some of the commercial, dedicated MIDI file bundles you can get (such as the more or less famous Twiddly Bits series), but I just recently heard some amazing drum tracks, apparently done using a large amount of some Bill Bruford programmed MIDI files.

Come to think of it, a very good drummer (a good friend of mine too) has some V-Drum kit, maybe I can get him to record some MIDI grooves one day... unfortunately he's rather busy.