How do i program drums like Aphex twin?

[bewildered]

My main setup is Cubasesx3, NI kontakt sampler, a portable bitbucket (microtrack) which i make my own sounds, and a midi piano. This is nice and all if i want to do harmonies and melodies or mutlitrack a live percussion part, but what do i do when i want to do crazy drum tracks like aphextwin or squarepusher?

[Sloan]

drop acid.

[bewildered]

Um, maybe someone could answer who knows that their talking about? I asking what program one uses to put that much syncopation into a drumtrack and still have enough control not to make it sound repetitive.

[Sloan]

Here's an article:
http://xltronic.com/nostalgia/aphext...21766088.shtml

[invisiblenemies]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here & say you can't do it if you are asking this question.

You, personally, can't do it.

[bewildered]

i dont see your name on any record labels invisitard.

anyways, maybe i should rephrase this question for those of us who dont write out own music programs. how does squarepusher do his tracks, or like the million other composers out there who do the same crazy dynamic syncopations?

That article didnt really say much on how to do it and aphextwins tracks arent that unique that custom software would prevent anyone from replicating it.

[heroics321]

Originally Posted by bewildered

i dont see your name on any record labels invisitard.

anyways, maybe i should rephrase this question for those of us who dont write out own music programs. how does squarepusher do his tracks, or like the million other composers out there who do the same crazy dynamic syncopations?

That article didnt really say much on how to do it and aphextwins tracks arent that unique that custom software would prevent anyone from replicating it.

It's not some secret software. Software and hardware play a role, but it's all about talent, practice, trial and error, and some imagination. You might find a preset that shits out something similar, but it will be missing something. It's like asking "How does a welder weld and not just burn through everything? There's got to be some torch that just does it for you."

[bewildered]

well no shit it takes skill, but from what i glean from your vague answers they sit at a computer and point and click every drum sound for 2 years straight to get a drum track, cause thats how long it would take without some streamlined method of producing that level of syncopation. From what i can tell they do all the dynamics and effects and splicing after they lay down the basic repetitive drum track, but that doesnt explain how they lay down the drum track in the first place.

[travelin travis]

they figured out how to do it. put your time in and you will too. maybe you'll even find something of your own along the way.

[invisiblenemies]

Originally Posted by bewildered

i dont see your name on any record labels invisitard.

Actually, I run one.

Thanks for the concern...now get back to asking rhetorical questions.

[bewildered]

yeah, i run one too. hahahahahahahaha.

You must not be doing very well in your record label if you can find the time to go on newbie forums and harass people.

[breeeeza]

Originally Posted by bewildered

i dont see your name on any record labels invisitard.

He is not trying to be offensive he is just saying that you are NOT aphex twin. Everybody does thing differntly and if you are asking how to do it then you wont be able to produce as good results as aphex twin.

[Halion]

Let me enlighten you: http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/2005/07/livecut.php
LiveCut, you will be pleased.

[bewildered]

ah thanks, i believe this is what im looking for.

[noisewreck]

Actually, contrary to what a lot of people will tell you, maybe in the past they did sit down and tideously chopped some drums and single hits and such, they don't do that anymore. In fact they are both heavy MAX/MSP and Reaktor users. Squarepusher does use Reaktor for sure, so does Exile. There is a Reaktor ensemble that Chris List was programming that will let you do all kinds of crazy beatmashings in realtime using Reaktor. You can pop over to the Reaktor Library creators' forum on the NI site and look for that thread. It allows one to load up to 4 breaks/drum loops and go nuts with them.

[noisewreck]

To add...

Historically there are two other ways to do this, both deal with sample offsets.

One is to do this in a tracker such as Renoise.

The other is loading up the same drumloop in a sampler such as Kontakt, mapping it accross a range of keys, but setting up loop points so that each consecutive key triggers the loop from the next hit on. So for example if you had a one bar loop of:
k-------k--k----
----s-------s---
--h---h--h----h-
where k = kick, s = snare, h = closed hat, - = 1/16 rest, you'd set your loop points so that the first key would trigger the entire loop, the second key would trigger the loop starting with the first hat onwards, the third key would trigger the loop starting from the first snare onwards, ect.

This gives you a great flexibility on triggering the loop from whatever point you wish, doing stutters by repeating the key say on 1/64 notes, etc. If your sampler allows you to assign a MIDI CC controller to sample loop points, even better, then you can mess with those while the note is playing to a great effect!

It is in fact a lot simpler than you think. Don't think in tedium Just jam. And don't listen to those "real" drummers

[TuoKaerf]

What is your musical background? Do you have a somewhat solid grasp of theory?