Drum Help?!

[Top Jimmy]

Hey guys,

I'm interested to hear how you guys have been recording your drums? My biggest problem is laying down drum tracks. I have A DR550 mkii that sounds pretty good. But dammit! this whole thing with programing in a song bites. Once you program your basic pattern you have to program in rolls and fills. This takes forever to get in the right spots.

There has got to be a better way! I'm thinking about a DR770 but is that going to be the same thing basically with just more patterns and drum sounds.

I'm recording with a Fostex FD-8(FYI)I'm am not computer based at all.

Any suggestions would be nice.

Thanks

[Brad]

Top Jimmy,
The DR-770 wil be the same - just with better drum sounds.
I have found, as a guitar player, that I never really had an idea of how important the drummer is in a musical composition. I mean, I know the beat is kept and the drummer is the time keeper, but if you listen to a band like Rush, you will see how the drums can become a melodic instrument as well as a time keeper. I still have many frustrations while programming a drum machine. If you can't get a drummer to program it, the next best thing is to have your bass player program it. He sees the drums in such a different way from the guitar player. That is what works for me, when I try to program drums, they suck. When my bass player does it, it works very well.

Brad

[Torpid-x]

Hey Jimmy
We'll programing a drum machine is the same as learning a new instrument-you get better with practice. I hate doing it, takes time, patience, and lots of trial and era. You are actually composing when programing, therefore should take about the amount of time as writing on any other instrument. theres many techniques. Try finding your basic groove with the kicks and snares, adding in a pulse like a hi hat(if neccessary)then look for your accents,crashes,cowbell,etc. with the dr 550 you may want to string 4 or 8 measures into a song to find your groove,before adding accents, also to get a real sound, it helps to play air drums and see if it would be physically possible for a drummer to play your parts. You may want a real drummer to play the parts someday!!!

Rich

[Torpid-x]

thats trial and error not era ,I don't know what happened there.

[Top Jimmy]

Brad,

I couldnt agree with you more! Problem is I havent been in a band for ten years. So it's me, myself and I plugging away in my basement.

But, yeah if you listen carefully the drums can make or break a song.