4/4 kick
off-beat hat/shaker
16th hats
snare on 2 and 4
I need some inspiration/tips/advice to reinvigorate my drums. What have you got?
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I can hear that pattern description 
seriously, velocity on the hats, some conditional trigs on the snare
add reverb, bam, techno!
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get rid of the snare
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Techno is all about groove. Fastest way to groove is using syncopation.
I have noticed putting the snare on two and four gives a very locked in feel that stretches to the whole bar. Even something simple like just moving the snare a 16th in front will give you a different groove. Try not putting its volume to loud as well. Or just put a few more in there.
Try removing hhats instead of full 16ths all the way. You could make a syncopated hihat pattern half a bar long instead of the full bar, again breaking the focus on the bar and with that, focus on the ā1ā.
Good idea is to place a few open hats first randomly on 16ths. The 16th after that you leave open. And the rest filled with closed hats
Random toms or a soft kick with a bit less attack on a few steps of 16ths will work amazingly.
Try some percussion be it acoustic or digital and forming a random pattern thatās not repeating every bar but instead after 12 or 5 or 7 16ths for some polymeters. Bass lines are also great at this since they work in tandem with the kick to shift your focus away from the start of the measure.
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If you use Ableton then it can be a lot of fun to play with m4l sequencers like the MDD snake. Throw in some percussion loops on slice mode and hit randomise - personally find I get way more interesting results and happy accidents with that sort of approach compared to programming drums. Euclidean sequencers are another good option, especially if youāre using the Rytm.
Another suggestion is donāt use drums. Take a copy of a bass part and saturate the shit out of it and add Erosion and some transient shaping to make it more percussive. Use a delay with no feedback and 100% wet to offset the rhythm, throw a square wave LFO on the volume so itās coming in and out rather than always present, whack some delays on etc etc etc.
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ā¦thatās basically ITā¦
now all u need is just some various secret spices to let this ingredients breathe and talk to and with each otherā¦interacting with all the other elements that makes the whole house music of any kind cakeā¦
and everybody looses the plot here from time to timeā¦one track makes bum bum bum and nothing happens, the other track makes bum bum bum and the whole world is turningā¦
the difference is always in all the little detailsā¦
and the bass lineā¦of courseā¦or the lack of itā¦
how long each element is taking placeā¦short, or long, or even lasting til it gets cut off by the otherā¦harsh cut off, soft cut offā¦
oh, and swing amountā¦that swing amountā¦and syncopationsā¦and polymetersā¦since not everything needs to count to 4 to fit the narrativeā¦
if the kick is prominent anyways, first choice is always, let all the rest duck away a little, or a little more, so the whole rhythm group starts to pump/breatheā¦thatās THE most common classic trickā¦but maybe there are other elements beyond that classic rhythmgroup that could also join that ducking or do exactly the oppositeā¦not to mention delays, reverbs or any other fx shadow beyond the classicā¦and never forget the filtering that msut talk in one way or the otherā¦all but in constant changing mannersā¦itās endless and all in these damned detailsā¦
only bad newsā¦all sorts of techno/house music reached an average production standard, u gotta nail to prevailā¦
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Full disclosure, i dont make techno music, but there is definitely something to this statement.
Claps, man, theyre where its at
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Toms that play around the kick, open and close hat variations, very tight snare hits with a little delay, tight bass notes that almost function as percussion, white noise with modulated length as a replacement for hats, the options are endless.
Another fun thing to play with is a longer more traditional groove that then locks in to a repeating pattern of only 8 beats.
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ā¦that 2 and 4 msut be a snare or a clap, or a clap and a snare together, or that interchanging is only the most common solution to accent that tschakk to or on that bummā¦
meanwhile, who says that 2 and 4 are the only options to define that tschakkā¦
but as alwaysā¦first and formost essential question always remainsā¦what tempoā¦?
sounddesign and tempo make all the difference to that endless subgenre treeā¦
and letās not even start with all sorts of percussion sounds from tom to whatnot else, but thatās where the interpolation reception happensā¦alterations meet variations, variations, variationsā¦
when i was into producing techno/house, all vocals were still a huuuge no goā¦so i did lotās of vocal toppingsā¦
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This is a great thread. Keep these gems coming!
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Maybe add a subtle polymeter or euclidean rhythm part.
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-Different quantization percentage for seperate drums (if possible).
-Microtiming - for example try to put the claps a bit late (or early)
-Try to forget the formulars
-Put random kicks on the steps (not 4/4) and see how you can develope a groove from there
-Use sounds that arenāt typical drum sounds
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As mentioned above, drop the snares on the 2 and 4. Do not replace with claps. It just gives it too rigid a feel. If youāre going to use either, use claps on offbeats and/or shifted a step before or after a kick. The rest is low-end groove through a myriad different methods. Compression is important as well.
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For Analog Rytm, but it can work on any sampler:
Set up the HH as just a normal tic. 1/8 notes on the track. Put a SMPL on your HH, I like a 606 CHH. Loop the SMPL. Change the SMPL END until itās just about correct for the loop time, sounding like 16ths, doesnāt need to be perfect. Lower the AMP DECAY until you canāt really hear the looped part of the sample. Put a LFO on the AMP DECAY, slowish, and not too deep.
Now youāll hear the hihats waver between 1/8th and then swingy 16ths, depending on how accurately you set the SMPL END.
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Use other percussion: wood blocks, claves, random bits of metal stuff from around your house, paper, cardboard, sandpaper, tabletops, congas, toms, cheese graters, metal railings at the park, a step ladder, yourself coughing and huffing, coins in your pocket, cutlery, toilet paper tubes, plastic pipes, bags of peas, bags of nailsā¦
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If you have the rytm, use the toms layerd with low percussion samples, put 1:2, 1:4 trigs, and lock a repeat trigger that increases velocity, you could have some irregular knocks this way. (flams)
Always try to mix the drums, high frequency sounds dont need to be as loud as lower frequeny tones. Subtelity comes also from adding layers and removing them.
Listen to djembe groups to copy their rythm interaction.
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listen to latin/world rhythms, and listen to tracks and recreate the grooves with your drum machines. even staying within the 16th note grid, there are endless possibilities of 1 note, 2 note, 3 note permutations per beat. buying a drum pad/sticks and learning how to play these patterns can help move rhythms from āthinkingā space to āfeeling with your bodyā space.
there was a good documentary about footwork producers (who are all dancers), who are very tapped into how different rhythms make their body move, and when they write rhythms, itās a very intentional communion of sound and dance. i feel like shifting more in that direction is always the move imo
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ā¦oh, and of courseā¦drums come always in at least two basic naturesā¦
as one shot samplesā¦and as synthesized versionsā¦
always give both a try and curate the best fit in layering or one for the otherā¦
once something getās rollingā¦create samples of that and REVERSE them allā¦
each shadow can fall behind u, but also in front of uā¦various lead inās before the actual grid position can do wondersā¦
and speaking of gridpositionsā¦does the 1 always need to stay the 1ā¦?
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Velocity is important, like accents eg. on the first kick and clap.
Use swing: around 55-63 for starters. Shift the snare/claps a tiny bit so they donāt mess with the kick transients.
Use high-pass filters or EQ on snare, claps, hats, cymbals.
On 8th hats, have the odd ones with lower velocity, to create a push-pull effect.
Layer two different 8th or 16th hats with slightly different frequency ranges.
Try to shorten the tails of all your percs, that will make your mix cleaner.
Use the kick loudness as a reference and mix the percs in so they are heard but not super noticeable, especially the 16th hat.
Effects are super important for adding syncopation and groove: chorus, delay, reverb, phaser/flanger go a long way, they donāt need to be noticeable.
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if your kick drum is 4/4, move one of them (any one of them) somewhere else
add tiny snippets of sampled breakbeats low in the mix with a stringent narrow EQ
thatās whatās working for me
and donāt be afraid of congas
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