Fakin' it with Dr. Rhythm

[HapiCmpur]

I'm trying to make the best of my DR-770, and I understand that one way to add a little realism to a drum machine is to alter the tempo and the volume occasionally, especially in the last measure or two before a bridge or leading into a major transition of some kind. The question is, how much? What's enough of a change to enliven the feel of a song without being so obvious as to catch the listener's attention and break the mood?

I realize that the best answer to this question is "Experiment with it and season to taste," but I'd like some general parameters to guide me in getting started. I'm hoping there are at least a few folks in this forum who can tell me what they've tried that worked and what they've tried that didn't. Thanks.

[RAMI]

I think you should be more concerned with varying the velocity within each pattern, not just leading into a bridge or chorus, etc....One way is to vary the volume of the high hats (or ride cymbal) for the up-beats and down-beats. For example, a drummer will usually play the 1,2,3,4 louder than the &'s. I hope you understnad what I mean. I'm not familiar with the 770, but most drum machines will give you a maximum velocity of 127. So you can make your 1,2,3,4 play at 127...and make all the &'s at about 90-100. There are other things you can do, but that's a good start to getting it to sound more human.
I don't really think it's neccassary to vary tempo. I know alot of people will suggest that. But personally, when I was MIDI guy, I never did it and people always said they couldn't believe it was a drum machine. Being a drummer helped me also, because I would program the way I would play.
Another thing to keep in mind is that a human being only has 4 limbs. So, you can't have more than 4 things ever hitting at the same time.

Hope this helps.

[Bill Furnett]

In addition to Rami’s dead on advice for the hats, here are some other things that have worked for me:

1. Increased sustain or decay (I don't remember the terms) on the snare.

2. Panning the toms L to R (higher pitch on the left, deeper on the right).

3. Avoid Higher pitch tom-low in volume -- Deeper pitch tom-high in volume, as it tends to wash out the peak of the fills in low end.

4. Bring the crash volume down-There is nothing worse than a big fake "KERWISH!" sounding cymbal hit above the rest of the drums.

5. Sometimes a deep tom under a crash adds some color.

6. Depending on the style of music an open hi-hat going into a fill can sound realistic.

7. After you have a beat, experiment with real time fills. Sometimes happy accidents in real time fills are rather musical.

8. It’s not easy (for me) to describe and will vary from person to person, but I have noticed in my own programming and others that it is really easy to “play on top of the kit”, which is to say, I have had whole songs worked out on the other instruments (including lyrics) and then programmed in too much of a hurry with the results being sterile or musically “clumsy”. If you have a song worked out in your head, try to let it go a bit and approach programming with the groove foremost in mind. If it’s a pop’ish song, does the beat make you tap your feet? If it’s a heavy number, does the beat compel you to want to kind of bang your head? If not, then try to come up with a beat that does, THEN work your parts over IT. When the right beat at the right tempo pulls the listener in, you can bang rubber chickens on oil drums and ppl will say “That’s cool” because it takes them along for the musical ride.

[HapiCmpur]

Originally Posted by RAMI

I think you should be more concerned with varying the velocity within each pattern

That's good advice. I doubt that the DR-770 will let me vary the velocity of individual hits within the pre-set patterns, but I can see how that would be an excellent way to add realism to the drum tracks. I'll dig deep into the manual tomorrow to see what it will allow me to do. Perhaps I could get away with tapping out a few key measures here and there and placing them in the song where such subtleties are most likely to be heard. Then again, I doubt my tapping skills are up to the task. We'll see.

Originally Posted by Bill Furnett

In addition to Rami’s dead on advice for the hats, here are some other things that have worked for me:

1. Increased sustain or decay (I don't remember the terms) on the snare.

2. Panning the toms L to R (higher pitch on the left, deeper on the right).

3. Avoid Higher pitch tom-low in volume -- Deeper pitch tom-high in volume, as it tends to wash out the peak of the fills in low end.

4. Bring the crash volume down-There is nothing worse than a big fake "KERWISH!" sounding cymbal hit above the rest of the drums.

5. Sometimes a deep tom under a crash adds some color.

6. Depending on the style of music an open hi-hat going into a fill can sound realistic.

7. After you have a beat, experiment with real time fills. Sometimes happy accidents in real time fills are rather musical.

8. It’s not easy (for me) to describe and will vary from person to person, but I have noticed in my own programming and others that it is really easy to “play on top of the kit”, which is to say, I have had whole songs worked out on the other instruments (including lyrics) and then programmed in too much of a hurry with the results being sterile or musically “clumsy”. If you have a song worked out in your head, try to let it go a bit and approach programming with the groove foremost in mind. If it’s a pop’ish song, does the beat make you tap your feet? If it’s a heavy number, does the beat compel you to want to kind of bang your head? If not, then try to come up with a beat that does, THEN work your parts over IT. When the right beat at the right tempo pulls the listener in, you can bang rubber chickens on oil drums and ppl will say “That’s cool” because it takes them along for the musical ride.

More great advice, and I thank you for it. I was actually thinking of doing the rubber-chickens-on-oil-drums thing, by the way, but now that I see it isn't original I'm going to let it go. By this time next month, someone will already be selling samples of it.

[GreenDank]

When I used to use a dr550, I'd sit down with my guitar unplugged and run through the song with it. I found that I'd naturally play some choruses or verses faster each time, and I just bumped them up until they matched my playing. I had thought perhaps I was crazy and that I shouldn't tweak the tempos like that, but I went with it, and they ended up pretty realistic. I'd say that's more important than bumping up the tempo just for the sake of trying to sound real-er. Just do it where it feels like it should be tweaked.

When I used to goof with the volumes of the individual drum items, it didn't seem to really add anything. Perhaps your model is different. My suggestion would be to program the drums so you can hear everything OK, then record the drum section in a program that enables you to compress it. There will be a fine line when the drums sort of breathe but don't sound like crap. To me, this is a very realistic effect. It of course won't emphasize exact parts, but overall will add another dimension.

I agree with bringing down the crashes, and cymbols in general. I once talked with an engineer who said to me: set the cymbols where you think they are low. Then lower them even more, by like 50%. Listening to a lot of CDs lately for cymbols, a lot of times they are really in the background and it doesn't sound weird at all.

[HapiCmpur]

Originally Posted by GreenDank

I found that I'd naturally play some choruses or verses faster each time, and I just bumped them up until they matched my playing. Just do it where it feels like it should be tweaked.

Yep, that's exactly what I'm thinking about trying to do. I only mentioned bridges in my first post because that's normally where I find myself playing louder and faster. The problem, however, is that I can't really figure out how MUCH faster I'm playing in certain places, so I'm not sure how much to tweak the drum machine. Gauging your own tempo is a lot like trying to count your own breaths; you end up cheating even when you're trying not to.

then record the drum section in a program that enables you to compress it.

Won't that defeat the purpose by flattening out all the lively dynamics? I know that's the way they do it in techno and other genres of dance music, but that's not what I'm after.

I agree with bringing down the crashes, and cymbols in general.

Absolutely. I do that anyway just because the cymbal voices on my DR-770 sound pretty terrible. (Mainly the decay.) I also record the faux cymbals on separate, dedicated tracks in the hope that one day I'll be able to overdub those tracks with real cymbals.

[Bill Furnett]

I noticed in my previous post i said "Playing on top of the kit", when i meant playing on top of the BEAT, but then again, that's not a great way to describe it either. Grrrrrrrrrr. I mean, if possible, avoid letting the other parts dictate what the drums do when it's time to program.

When i used the 550, i believe i achived the hi-hat "Variation" by useing
TWO HH patches. For example (in terms of level if measured from 1 to 10-and the very same thing Rami pointed out) one sound playing the 1-2-3-4 at 10 and the other sound playing the +'s at like 6.

[HapiCmpur]

Originally Posted by Bill Furnett

I noticed in my previous post i said "Playing on top of the kit", when i meant playing on top of the BEAT, but then again, that's not a great way to describe it either.

Yeah, I thought that was an unusual expression, Bill. I got your meaning, though, and that's what counts.

[GreenDank]

Originally Posted by HapiCmpur

Won't that defeat the purpose by flattening out all the lively dynamics? I know that's the way they do it in techno and other genres of dance music, but that's not what I'm after.

I guess what I meant was that I was never really able to acheive any "real" dynamics with my boss/roland drum machine, only volume changes, which didn't sound very dynamic, just fake. A compressor-effect seems to add more realism to my ears. But yeah, I don't mean squash the heck out of it, just a tad.

Another idea is to take something that needs dynamics, like the snare, and just remove it from the drum machine patterns and record you playing a snare on a separate track. Then you've got some flexibility and realism too. If you're doing 100 mph rolls and stuff that might be hard to play, but for a normal beat, that'd be pretty easy. And hand drums are cheap.