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Home , Drum beat, Drum machine

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TEACHER UNIT GUIDE NOTES

BACKGROUND INFORMATION Fig. 11 -1 A drum is a dedicated instrument that can record, store, and playback drum and percussion sounds. Essentially, it is a hybrid device that combines a pattern-based sequencer and song arranger with a . Sounds are played with the fingertips on a one or more rows of pads located on main surface of the instrument.

The roots of drum machines can be found in the preprogrammed sections in home organs in the 1960s and 19705. Near the end of the 1970s, the first stand­ alone, programmable drum machines became available. These units allowed the user to a number of individual patterns and then link them together into a complete song. In 1980, the Linn LM-1 was introduced. Itfeatured digitally sampled drum sounds, which provided vast improvement over the sound quality of earlier drum machines. Since then, drum machines have flourished, and many new and innovative designs have been developed.

Several manufacturers now make rack mount drum/percussion modules. These modules contain hundreds of drum and percussion sounds without the programming capabilities of a standard drum machine. Drum parts on these units are created through MIDI with a sequencer.

Recently, a new breed of drum machines have become popular with DJs, remix artists or those that work in the rap, , , urban or dance scenes.

You might think of them as /I drum machines on steroids." While a name for these devices has not been standardized, they are sometimes referred to as a Drum Studio or . They are hybrid devices that may include digital sampling, a comprehensive MIDI sequencer, a bass line synth or a sound module that goes beyond percussion sounds. Popular hardware hybrid drum machines include the Akai MPC2000 Studio, E-mu SP-1200, Ensoniq ASR-X, the Roland MC 303 and MC­ 505 Grooveboxs and the Zoom RhythmTrak 234. Several companies also make software versions including Steinberg (Rebirth RB-338 2.0) and Dimension Arc (Revolve 100M). {. COMMON DRUM MACHINE SOUNDS All drum machines include most if not all of the following drum set sounds (often with multiple variants of certain sounds):

Drums (or Kick Drum) Closed Hi-Hat Open Hi-Hat RUn Shot Pedal Hi-Hat Toms (High, Medium, and Low) Ride Side Stick

Inclusion of Latin and auxiliary percussion sounds varies between different models of drum machines. These are the most common sounds to be found:

Congas (High and Low) Bongos (High and Low) Cow Agogo Timbale Whistle Shaker Claves Hand Claps Triangle

Most drum machines focus on rock, pop, rap and dance oriented sounds, since a large percentage of the purchasers work in these styles. Electronic and techno drum and percussion sounds are also commonly included.

DRUM MACHINE COMPONENTS The two primary components of drum machines are the sound source and the programmable memory for creating and storing rhythm patterns and songs. Some more advanced machines also contain certain sound editing features such as instrument tuning or attack and decay adjustments.

The Sound Source Nearly all of the current drum machines are built around digital sampling technology because of its ability to offer high quality, realistic sounds. Very few ··allow the USE!r to sample new sounds; on most, the sounds are stored on ROM chips for playback only. Many drum machines refer to the sounds as being "PCM sampled." This stands for Pulse Code Modulation, which is a common method of sampling.

Some early drum machines, like the Roland ill-808 and TR-909, used analog synthesis to create their sounds. These units are not in wide use today, but do have a loyal following among rap musicians. In fact in some circles these older analog drum machines, like analog , are considered to be valuable collector's items. Because of their ongoing popularity, most drum machines include these vintage sounds in their selection.

The Rhythm Programmer In the world of drum machines, creating a rhythmic pattern or song is referred to as programming. The programming section of a drum machine allows the creation and storage of rhythm patterns and songs. Since most drum parts in popular and commercial music are repetitive, it makes sense to utilize a pattern­ based sequencer to record and arrange parts.

A pattern is a rhythmic figure that is typically from 1 - 4 measures in length. When the drum machine is in pattern or pattern play mode, the selected pattern will be played repeatedly or "looped" until stopped or until another pattern is selected. The same is true when recording a pattern. In real-time record mode, also called write mode, the pattern loops or repeats while the various instruments are recorded. Instruments can be added or deleted with each pass of the loop while recording. An internal electronic metronome provides a click for each beat during recording. Creating a pattern in the real-time mode involves tapping the on the appropriate drum pads while listening to the click.

Patterns can also be created using step record mode, a non-real-time mode where each sound is entered one step at a time. With step record, a rhythmic value is selected and the pattern is advanced one step as each note is entered. Additional instruments can be added or overdubbed as with real time record mode. This mode may be advantageous for players who have not developed a solid sense of rhythm yet.

Depending on the amount of RAM in the drum machine, a large number of individual patterns can be created and stored. Each pattern is assigned a number for a memory location and the more expensive machines allow the user to name the patterns. Some drum machines also include a number of preset patterns covering a large variety of styles stered permanently in ROM.

Patterns generally fall into one of four categories - the basic beat, the fill, introduction and ending. The basic beat is the pattern that is used somewhat repetitively throughout a section of a song. A fill is a change in that pattern used to mark the end of a phrase or section, or in a transition. Song introduction and endingpatterns are also commonly used to for the beginning and endingo£ a­ song.

In creating a song or track, patterns are strung together one after the other. In song Fig. 11 - 2 or track record mode, patterns are linked together one after the other in the desired order. When song play mode is selected, patterns are played back in the recorded order.

Most drum machines are able to store 100 or more patterns and about 20 - 50 songs I in the internal memory.

OTHER DRUM MACHINE FEATURES Tempo Most drum machines feature a digital readout of the tempo, displayed in beats per minute. This is useful in setting exact tempos and for using the drum machine as an electronic metronome.

Metronome or Click The metronome or click is an audible pulse that is played when programming a pattern in real time.

"Humanize" and "Groove" Because the patterns generated by drum machines are automatically quantized, they generally sound mechanical. Some of the more expensive drum machines offer a "humanize" capability, which randomizes the rhythmic placement slightly

to give a less perfect feel to the pattern. Another variation is IIgroove" quantize, which allow individual parts to be played slightly ahead or behind the beat to create the groove or feel that is an important part of certain styles of music.

Velocity-Sensitive Pads Most higher end models have velocity sensitive (touch sensitive) pads; i.e., the harder the pad is hit, the louder the sound is played. Some machines even allow changes in timbre as different pad velocities are played. (An example would be a simulation of moving toward the center of a cymbal as it is played louder.)

MIDI Virtually all current models are MIDI equipped. This allows the user to play the drum machine from an external controller like a MIDI keyboard or MIDI percussion controller and to sync the drum machine to an external time pulse. Some drum machines that don't include velocity sensitive pads, will respond to velocity information over MIDI. When played from an external MIDI controller, Fig. 11- 3 such as a velocity-sensitive keyboard or percussion controller, the sounds can be ., played with varying loudness. (This is done because the physical mechanics of velocity sensitive pads add considerably to the cost of the unit.) When using a ~percussion controll€rto playsoundsona drum.machiner each pad onthe. percussion controller is assigned to a MIDI note number which plays the corresponding sound in the drum machine.

There are usually three different MIDI parameters to be set on the drum machine:

MIDI Channel - This setting adjusts the channel on which the unit will receive MIDI information. Most drum machine are set to send and receive on a single MIDI channel. The default for most drum and percussion units, and General MIDI is MIDI channel 10 (See Unit 9 on MIDI.) MIDI Clock - This is a timing pulse that is transmitted by time-based MIDI devices. Itallows the synchronization of multiple drum machines or sequencers. Devices can be set to either send or receive MIDI clock pulses. Only one device should be set to send ("Master" or "Internal" mode), and all others should be set to receive ("Sync" or "External" mode).

MIDI Note Number - This allows each sound in the drum machine to be set to respond to different note numbers as they are received over MIDI. This is helpful when controlling the drum machine from an external MIDI device, so that the sounds can be configured to the most useful layout for performing.

External Storage Most drum machines offer limited on-board storage, so they often allow the user to store patterns or songs externally. One of the most common ways to backup and download pattern and song data is through MIDI. Almost all current drum machines also allow the entire memory to be backed up using a MIDI system exclusive data dump to a computer, sequencer, or MIDI data storage device. Some drum machines also have a slot for a memory card thatcan store and load information. ."'0q',',''''...?.(.'."'.;lM;':"".".E ­ '---..,. IT_9B M"!31 ~:~i'."'S')0;,-·-"" -,;;:-,~:,,;,,;" ~MUltMllliI11 CRASH 1 CRASH 2 BELL

--- HIGH TOM --- ~:.:,:,:.:~ ~ --- ~~ SIDE STICK RIM SHOT CLOSED HH OPEN HH EDIT BUTTONS --- VOLUME TEMPO

SNARE PEDAL HH CLAP

Figure 11 -1. A generic drum machine.

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Song or Track pattern list:

Pattern 1: Basic Beat 1 II: 3 X : II

" Pattern 2: Fill 1 1X

Pattern 3: Basic Beat 2 II: 4 X : II etc. IN OUT L R MIDI AUDIO 6:H::1 r:J c:J I""""'I.....•... ~I""""'II""""'I...... IN OUT a....J~a...... J~ MIDI LjE:Jc:Jc:J

Drum Machine

MIDI Percussion Controller

Figure 11 - 3. MIDI Percussion controller connected to a drum machine. Each pad on the MIDI percussion controller is assigned to a different MIDI note number which plays the corresponding note on the drum machine via MIDI. DRUM MACHINES

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

READING: 200 Drum Machine Patterns Rene-Pierre Bardet Hal Leonard Publishing. 1988.

Tire Art Of Digital Drumming By Wilkes, DeFuria & Scacciaferro Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation. 1990. (Book and )

VIDEO: An Overview of Electronic Instruments DonMuro USA. 1993. There is an excellent demonstration of drum machine programming in this video.

INTERNET RESOURCES: Audiofusion tws 1.0.1 http://syclone.com/audiofusion/ Audiofusion is a shareware program for the Mac that includes a drum machine, sampler, audio recorder and looping. Itessentially turns the Mac into a Techno Workstation.

SequBeat http://www.neztech.com/ SequBeat is a software based percussion sequencer for Windows that includes high quality sampled percussion sounds. Sequbeat is shareware software.

Stomper http://www.lysator.liu.se/....zap/stomper.html Stomper is a PC (Windows) program that creates the famous Roland TR-909, 808 and Simmons drum sounds. Stomper is musicware; the program is free but the author requests samples of musiGthat is created using the software. -..-,

Virtual 3.1 http://www.virtualdrummer.com/ Virtual Drummer is a freeware program for the Mac. It is a virtual drum machine that uses Quicktime Musical Instruments for the sound source.

Drum Machine Museum - The Ultimate Drum Machine Web Site http://www.drummachine.com/ This site is dedicated exclusively to drum machines. DRUM MACHINES

VOCABULARY LIST agogo bells basic bass drum (kick drum) cabasa claves cow bell crash cymbal drum fill external storage hand claps high and low bongos high and low maracas metronome or click

MIDI channel

MIDI clock

MIDI note number open hi-hat, closed hi-hat, and pedal hi-hat pattern pattern play mode programming

Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) real-time record (write) mode Drum Machines Vocabulary - page 2 rim shot shaker side stick snare drum song or track song (track) play mode song (track) record mode step write mode tambourine tempo timbale timpani toms (high, medium, low) velocity (touch) sensitive pads whistle