Groove and Rhythm....????

C

Chew_Bear

New member
I know that most producers will apply some form of groove to their drums and percussion in order to give it a more "human" feel and therefore its not so robotic/quantized.

But...If you are still a newbie and don't know how to apply groove and rhythm to your drums/percussion.....

Is it possible to just have A LOT of tracks and/or instruments playing thru out your song...so as to re-direct the listeners attention to the other instruments in the song instead of the drums/percussion...???

Therefore..."drowning out" the robotic and quantized feel of the drums/percussion.

Or is this unheard of and/or will never work/apply.....???

Unless...robotic and quantized drums/percussion is what your going after than...I guess it really does not matter how many and/or what kind of other tracks and instruments are in your song than.
 
It won't really change the underlying rhytm if you drown it out; you'll just probably end up with a messy mix. Work out how to get it to groove instead of trying to ignore it.
 
One could watch a tutorial on YouTube on how to develop groove near the beat. I've always been confused by this term, but I think it's called playing "in the pocket"?

One could also watch a tutorial on using whatever "humanizing" setting his DAW or percussion virtual instrument has on board. That could be very easy, though different.

But if one doesn't know, just quantize. It doesn't sound nearly as bad as anyone thinks. And most stuff in the charts has quantized percussion.



I would advise you not to bury your song in many layers for any reason. Many pop and country tunes have many, many layers, but groups of those layers function as a whole. Like a song with seven layers of electric guitar, but five of them are playing matching rhythm parts, and two are playing matching lead parts. It just gels into one texture or element of the song.

And most electronic and urban songs topping the charts have very few elements. They can be incredibly sparse. But they have the right combination of instruments playing the right notes. Sparse mixes sell.

It's super easy for me to just bury a song with melodies and backing instruments, with so many parts it's tough to know what's going on. My favorite tracks are the ones that I've forced myself to compose sparsely. And I'm starting to observe overly dense mixes as a sign of amateurishness.

After you think a song is nearing completion, see if you can cut any tracks out. It may help.
 
Oh, also on groove:

My prof defined groove as one rhythm playing against another.


This Love by Maroon 5 is a perfect example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfQ10SnsYrM

It starts out with the drummer playing his hat and snare in the most straightforward, plain Jane way imaginable. The piano player is doing the same thing with simple chords with his right hand.

Simultaneously, the piano player's left hand, the electric guitar, and the kick drum are playing a rhythm completely contrary that offsets the plain Jane rhythm. Two rhythms squashed together. That is groove.

Then the rhythm electric guitar comes in playing a third rhythm in a funk style. The interplay is perfect.



If you want a simple way to apply groove, have a rhythmic instrument play a simple pattern, then have a different rhythmic instrument play a contrary pattern. If the two are substantially different but can still co-exist, you have groove.
 
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