In need of a percussion loop.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eurythmic
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Eurythmic

Eurythmic

majordomo plasticomo
Hi drummers/percussionists. I'm not sure if this is the forum to be posting in - why do I always have such strange questions? :)

I'm working on a song that I'm trying to demo out, and I keep thinking that it needs a percussion loop in the background. I've looked all over the net for something that I can use, but so far I've found nothing. So, I'm turning to you all in hopes of help. This should be a 5 minute task for somebody with more skill than me... I'm working on a fairly slow song - a ballad of sorts. I haven't broken out a metronome, but using my watch as a guide I'd say that it has about a 50bpm feel. Of course, you'd probably subdivide as 50bpm is a tough tempo to keep, but... I'm thinking that the song would do well with stark production, nothing but an acoustic guitar, vocals, and a drum loop. The acoustic guitar and melody are somewhat middle eastern/north african sounding.
The closest example I can think of is the percussion loop behind "Wonderful One", by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

Can anyone make me an easily loopable percussion bit, so I can try demoing this song out? If you like, I can whip up a quick mp3 of the guitar part, to give you an idea. I'd really appreciate this.
 
P.S....

In soundfont form would be great, but definitely not necessary! And at 50-ish bpm, it's only gotta be one bar long. :)
 
You can't make a loop in soundfont form can you? It's only for samples and stuff...Anyways, make a mp3 of the guitar part and I'll take a crack at it..

-travis
 
Soundfont...

Yes, you can. You just need the wave, and then you set a loop point - just like, say, a synthesized wind instrument. How else would you get it to play long notes? Plus, if the loop is in soundfont form, you can change the tempo of the loop just by playing a different "note". Pretty neat that way. I'm just not too good at setting the loop point. :) But I'll do that mp3, and get back to you guys in a little while! I really appreciate the hand.
 
Re: Soundfont...

Eurythmic said:
Yes, you can. You just need the wave, and then you set a loop point - just like, say, a synthesized wind instrument. How else would you get it to play long notes? Plus, if the loop is in soundfont form, you can change the tempo of the loop just by playing a different "note". Pretty neat that way.
Click to expand...

Cool! I didn't know that, I just load up some drum samples and whack away at the keyboard :) I'll have to mess around with that sometime.

-travis
 
Okay, it's up!

Sorry it took so long. My ISP crapped out for a while, as it sometimes likes to do... I recorded a little 2-minute version of just the guitar part of this song. Let me know what you guys come up with... and hey, if you've got the time, feel free to do alternate loops for me to try. If there's one thing I know about percussionists, it's that they're a heck of a lot better at doing what they do then I am. And a creative percussionist is always going to come up with stuff I didn't think of.

The file is about 2 megs.
 
I really like the mp3, and think that maybe a live drummer would do you good. I'd be willing to play a live track on a final mp3 if you'd like. I think that the song would just be suited more to a real drummer. I can still do a loop for you (even if it's live, and not some drum machine thing), but I'd just rather hear it with a real live drummer.

Jake
 
Cool idea.

Sure, I'd be willing to give that a shot! At what stage in the writing of the song would you want to add your drum part? I've got a pretty good idea, but I'm still writing the words and the melody. I figured that since I'm pretty sure about what the instrumental half of the song will be like, I can always work on completing that now. Would you prefer to hear a totally complete song?

Because I do have an idea - I'm assuming that you're going to do this in Cakewalk or the like, so you'd be able to just export the drum track by itself and send that to me. See, I was thinking that I could put a couple of mp3s online - one with the guitar part, extending the full length of the song, and one shorter one with guitar and vocal, to give you an idea of my melody and lyrics, as I finish writing them. You can import the guitar track into whatever you're using to record, lay down a drum part, and then export just the drum part and pop it back to me. That way, I still have the freedom of re-recording the guitar part, without the pressure of recording it "perfectly" right now. And, only the drum track would have to undergo the wav-mp3-wav process. What do you think of this?
Oh, and something logistical - Would you prefer a click track and a metronome marking, or would just the metronome marking do? And would you like the song to start playing immediately, or would you rather have a count in?
 
Everything you said.

I like the idea of the full guitar track and the partial one with vocals/melody. A metronome click on the whole thign would kick a lot of ass for me, I was having a hard time syncing one up when I jammed along with it. Give a little count in, just a 4 count. I use Nuendo, and will just export the drums with the count in, so you can sync them up.

Jake
 
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