I also remember this guy (well I found him back while browsing some of the resources online) I think this is a really great visualization of the foundation of rhythm:
2 Likes
Interesting, with classic beats!
Not used to this circle vision, I think I prefer a linear one…
Btw I think it would be interesting to sample (or use existing samples) these beats, slice them with OT, and isolate parts with DJ eq or filter, on several tracks.
Track 1 Filtered Kick
Track 2 Filtered Snare
Track 3 Filtered hihat / Cymbals
Keep only relevant parts with corresponding slices on corresponding trigs. I recently did it for Amen Break and I found it interesting to understand the rhythmical structure of it…
There are so many rhythmic traditions and possibilities. Unfortunately there are not many books that provide a broad theoretical introduction. In German there is a classic book by Peter Giger (1993) “Die Kunst des Rhythmus”. Other kinds of books I find helpful are the ones specifically written for drummers to provide an introduction to various styles and grooves. One that I found particularly well designed and complete, and which provides not just the patterns but also ample information about the “logics” underpinning various styles is: Berry, M., & Gianni, J. (2012) The drummer’s bible. 2nd ed. Tuscon, Az: See Sharp Press.
2 Likes
Example, 3 tracks with same Amen Break sample, isolating drums, crossfader on decays. Learning and having fun with OT ! 
I ended with same pattern as above.
8 Likes
I think I’ll start my exploration of the rhythm by creating my own drum kit with my synth. From there it will be easier to play around with all these concept. I have a kick drum already synthesize, I’ll create a few more percussion and maybe sample stuff around the house and start there.
Sample chains ! Octachainer to create sample chains with slices having different lengths…
I mean I want to synthesize, create and record my own drum sounds, then create a drum kit from there.
1 Like
drum machine patterns
this book might be worth checking out. it breaks down how to program common drum sequences for various genres and taught me a lot
3 Likes
I found this at a thrift shop years ago and if you can get past the newage undertones, the actual rhythm exercises in it are really good, some of the best I know of.
1 Like
Me too, compared to the DT, the OT real sampled drums sound better. That’s because the OT is stereo and the acoustic recording of drums is better rendered. You hear the tails and placement of each part of the drum kit and that result in a more realistic drum groove.
But for electro drums, the DT sound sharpier.
2 Likes
Interesting. How are written rhythms in the book?
Autor
1 Like
Both need time, practise, experience and knowledge. Learning how to create drum sounds from synthesis would be the “easy” part, as there is plenty info available on the internet for that. Note that not all sounds are easily to make (and sound good) with synthesis, that 's why samples and samplers are widely used for drums. And it takes time to understand how synthesis works before you can create good sounding drums. (Although dedicated drum synths or FE the Digitone makes life easy on this)
For the compositional part I would suggest you to learn a real instrument (a drumkit, percussion, cajon etc but it can also be any other instrument which needs rythm like gitar or keys) for some better understanding how rythm works and how it “feels”. From there you will know how to apply these concepts in compositions and you will start to recognise patterns (and reverse engineer them) in existing compositions you like from other artists.
2 Likes
It’s really simple notation, but it varies depending on the type of exercise. So in the beginning it’s just claps, voice, feet and heartbeat on separate lines but by the end he’s doing stuff like correlating them with the names of different tabla bols and things like that, but it’s all very readable even if you have no musical background. It’s more focused on oral notation (which is good, a lot of rhythmic stuff that’s confusing written down is really logical when you can speak it instead). Not simple - even the early stuff is pretty challenging and I never was able to get that far as someone living in apartments where stomping on the floor and yelling phonemes every day to practice was never really an option - but easy to understand.
The new age stuff is maybe 5% of the book, it’s really very primarily about rhythm
2 Likes
Phone ring at 0m21s?
1 Like
Taketina is even taking things directly from Konnakol.
I had an opportunity of doing a workshop of Taketina and although R. Flatischler seems as antipathic as it is possible to be, i must admit the method he developed has a great potential.
It is clearly surfing on the new age bull*hit but it has secondary effects unexpected. It’s also the most expensive course i ever saw (like 100k € to become a teacher).
The trip comes after an hour of practice but if it was initially developed to teach people rhythm, IMO the interest is more about psychomotricity and the secondary effects. It asks a lot of focus to follow the things and by failing and retrying again and again happens the real trick. It was studied by some universities it seems and these connections/deconnections are also the way brain works to learn anything.
Konnakol has also counterparts in Western side.
A polyrhythm mixing 3 and 4 can be said as:
Pass the fucking butter
A 11/8 ryhthm as:
Houmous Chips Falafel
Etc.
If polymetrics are possible on the OT, polyrythms are a nightmare 
1 Like
When I was studyin polyrythms on the OT, the technique I use was to record the Medusa, keeping the same sample (or multiple of) length on the OT, but varying the BPM and number of notes on Medusa. But I understand that only using the OT, I wouldn’t know how to approach polyrhythm.
I love watching some of the konnakol masters. It can get really wild once they get going
Btw that video was really inspiring!
I love watching videos like This and then spolning your own logic to it for inspiration…
as an example.
@ 5 min in the video he goes through the different syllables in groups of four and then putting emphasis on one syllable within that sequence of for…
It inspired me to try something similar on the tracker. Where I use one instrument to be the emphasis of one syllable (one track is a syllable) the syllable it self is silent or blank in the sequence so the only audible part is the emphasis of the syllable…
After that I put the emphasis of the syllable to only trigger once every 1/4, but it can trigger any time within the range of 1/4.
It looked something like this
So each track is a different syllable and the trig on each track is the emphasis of that syllable. Track 3 is the Thalla (atleast I think that’s how he said it) which is the time signature and in this case being a snare sound. I made the sequence monophonic just so it wouldn’t be so chaotic.
A really fun exercise
1 Like
This book was recommended to me by pro guitarist Ed De Gennaro, who spent some time working in India as a session musician.
The nice thing about Konnakol is that you can practice it anywhere, without equipment or even reliance on the dexterity of your hands.
1 Like