Good advice, except Bonham didn’t always play with swing.I wrote this ages back as advice for an absolute beginner in drum programming, so some of it will obviously be well known to the fine folks of KVR, but mebbe bits will be useful;All good advice there, and there's also simple little things which musicians do, which are often forgotten when recording/programming. Probably more applicable to pop/rock stuff than to this contest, but having a think about the mechanics of an instrument and how it's actually played in a real world context can go a long way when you're trying to program something. A few general observations on drums (not rules - they're for fools...);
Drummers are simple, excitable creatures and will play way ahead of the beat in rolls (when I used to play in bands sometimes I could see the rest of them looking at me as they struggled to catch up). Don't be afraid of nudging the notes back quite a bit in fills.
Keep in mind the buggers only have two arms and legs, so always keep an eye on what's feasible and what isn't - e.g. you wouldn't be able to go straight from some big fill finishing on the floor tom back to the hi-hats on the next beat - if in doubt leave a gap.
Swing is your friend. As outlined above, in terms of real instruments, very little is actually played absolutely straight on the beat. Even a little bit of swing adds loads to the feel of a song. Mr Bonham played absolutely everything with swing...
Velocity and volume variation and automation are key. Even if you're going to reduce the dynamics with compression etc later, any good sampled kit will have a number of velocity layers so use this to your advantage to emphasise both sections in your song, and also use automation to build things within sections. In the real world, as well as playing louder and harder, drummers also tend to do things like gradually open the hi-hat pedal a bit coming up to chorus etc to build things up.
Use the articulations in the kit. Good sampled kits/drum vsts will have a number of articulations for most drums (e.g. hi-hats with varying degrees of openness, snare and toms played in the centre and as rimshots etc). If you mix these up a bit (being careful that it doesn't sound unrealistic - things like rimshots are more generally used for emphasis rather than as the default snare sound) then it makes a lot of difference.
He did use it a good deal, but not for everything. Peart was kind of the opposite: sometimes with a bit of swing, but usually he was nearly right on top of the beat. Also the rimshot sound - in the early Yes stuff, Bruford played it that way a lot. He even mentioned that himself in some video where he was talking about Yes music. But you’re right about it generally being used just for emphasis.
Statistics: Posted by Examigan — Tue Jul 30, 2024 12:47 pm