I’m a big fan of drum machines, and feel like I cannot figure out Tom toms.
I know I could use them in a fill by playing then up or down the series of Toms. But I’m looking to utilize them more.
Do you layer them in with the kick? Or between the kick snare on a 4 on the floor?
Does anyone have advice on some fundamentals?
Thank you!
I too am not yet great with toms. Any time I’ve employed them successfully I feel as though I’ve lucked out.
Try using them as a bassline. They really work well for that. Rumble basses, or even tonal. Try polymeters. And run the drm machine through compression and/or saturation, making sure the kick is the loudest.
Oh and low pass filter them
So experimentation is the key?
They always feel out of place to me, but that maybe cause I use them so little.
They almost sound dated to me?
Glad I’m not the only one!
It certainly has been for me but that’s because experimentation is all I’ve got. Hopefully this thread can help me learn some guidelines and/or strategies for more intentional tom usage. I’d like to be able to imagine a result and go for it rather than just slapping down some tom sounds and seeing what shakes out.
Yo. You famous!
That’s a great idea. Usually a kit will have the same Tom pitched to represent size. Plus added pitch variation.
So if I use them as a baseline, how do you recommend sitting it. Start the series on the downbeat?
And the low pass is also good advice. Use it to edit out the click? Which muddles the kick?
The Burundi beat holds the key.
Well, that’s cryptic.
I feel like Indiana Jones.
Like @DaveMech said, toms are great for basslines, but I also like to use them for accenting certain parts in a pattern. For example a little „swoop“ with low velocity before the pattern loops again.
Yeah to make them less eh tommy. Also can experiment a bit with slightly slower amp attack.
I think this is a perfect example. I’m 99% sure this was completely made with a MFB tanzbar:
Awesome track by one of my fav artists. Try placing the the toms in between kicks. Later in the track the Tom bass gets layered with a bass osc
But like I said it’s also fun to experiment with polymeters like 5 step polymeters
So like a transition? Like how a filter sweep is sometimes used?
Thank you for helping point me in a direction.
Would amp attack also mean velocity?
Other than fills, I think they’re often used for syncopation — basically to accent the week beats. I’m not a drummer, but that’s what I hear in most music. I wouldn’t layer them with the kick, personally.
I also like to take tom samples and destroy them with FX and filtering to turn them into more tonal things, like bass melodies.
Certainly good to experiment with as well to create groove yeah. Otherwise it becomes fairly static. But amp attack means the envelope of an amp. Attack phase is the onset of the sound. So that way you could make some tons maybe slightly less punchy and take them more towards a plucky bass for example.
I‘ll try to find an example, but what I mean is more as an accenting part that counteracts the upbeat and kinda ties the groove together. Low velocity tom, low passed.
You would hardly hear it, but when you mute it, suddenly the pattern seems to have lost spice.
Try a low or mid tom on the 15 (assuming 4 on the floor) and play with velocity, filtering, microtiming. Or maybe 14 or 16 can work, also depends on the other elements.
Following @onthebannedwagon’s Burundi suggestion led me to this article. Haven’t read much of it yet but I’m definitely going to fool around with some of the patterns.
Oh attack envelope. I know that.
Not to keep peppering you with questions, but what’s the different characteristics of adjusting the attack phase of the filter vs amp envelope?
I imagine both would achieve similar results?
I only ask because some of my drum machines have both.
Bass tom is indispensable for… sub bass.
Send them in stereo, ping-pong, with a bit of distorsion, on an hypnotic shamanic rhythm.