Very basics of drum patterns HELP

[SubWoofer]

Hey, I just started trying to produce hip hop beats in FL around 2 days ago and im really confused about when my kicks claps and snares should hit in my drum pattern can anyone tell me the basic rules of a drum beat. Like when my kicks and claps should be, I heard something like kicks are supposed to hit on 1 and 3 and claps 2 and 4 but im not sure. any incite would be helpful Thanks!

 

[Pumpthrust]

Learn how to count rhythm and measures. Learn time signatures.

 

[DirtyThirdBeats]

The very basics.

 

[1neSeason]

Beat Basics

Like Pumpthrust suggested, learning basic rhythmic basics (and even taking a music theory class) is absolutely irreplaceable. That goes both for your personal workflow as well as some "respect points" in the industry. Otherwise, a great practice technique might be to pick an instrumental that you want to emulate (YouTube any song title+"instrumental" and you'll usually get a remake at the least) and just mirror what you hear. Best of luck.

 

[Sam E.V.]

I wouldn't get stuck into a formula for your drums.. just do what feels right so you're not just pumping out generic beats

 

[ni-kulo]

youll get into it!

just watch some tutorials, and experiment^^ always use your metronome, so your actually doing the drums in sync with FL ;D
youll notice that youre gonna start to experience every sort of music differently now

youre gonna analyze it and separate it in your head to the single tracks, so with the drums! ;D


with time it will come!°

 

[rhythmgj]

>>>>I wouldn't get stuck into a formula for your drums.. just do what feels right so you're not just pumping out generic beats<<<<

I'd be careful with that "I'm an original artiste" stuff, before you even know how to count to four, in a 4/4 one-measure pattern...

To the OP-- Yes! Basically, at the most basic basic level in American/American-influenced pop music (Pop, Rock, R&B, Soul, Rap, Blues, Country), the bass drum is generally on beats "1" and "3," and the snare ("backbeat") is on "2" and "4."

But also-- Yes, there are a million variations when you get into upbeats, 16ths, syncopation, etc., etc., so take the time to learn the basics of a few of the styles that you really love, and analyze them to understand their individual elements better. There's a lot more to know than "boom, boom, bap; boom, boom, bap," but that's not a bad place to start.

If you're so inclined, I'd recommend taking a few drum lessons, even if your ultimate goal is to make synthetic, rather than natural/organic beats.

GJ

 

[bandcoach]

Changed my mind, here are those other posts requoted here

Classic hip-hop has one of two forms depending on whether you break the beat into threes or twos. Sometimes you add a groove template to either one to make it swing a little.......

Here is the beat as it would be in threes

Instrument	1	2	3	4	5	6	2	2	3	4	5	6	3	2	3	4	5	6	4	2	3	4	5	6
Hihats Open					X												X
HiHats Closed	X		X	X		X	X		X	X		X	X		X	X		X	X		X	X		X
Snare							X												X
Kick	X											X	X											X

No-Swing
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/hip-hop-16thTrips-noSwing.mp3[/mp3]

MPC66[SUP]%[/SUP]
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/hip-hop-16thTrips-mpc66.mp3[/mp3]

MPC60[SUP]%[/SUP]
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/hip-hop-16thTrips-mpc60.mp3[/mp3]

MPC72[SUP]%[/SUP]
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/hip-hop-16thTrips-mpc72.mp3[/mp3]

Here is the beat as it would be in twos

Instrument	1	2	3	4	2	2	3	4	3	2	3	4	4	2	3	4
Hihats Open								X								X
HiHats Closed	X		X	X	X		X		X		X	X	X		X
Snare					X								X
Kick	X							X	X							X

No-Swing
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/hip-hop-dotted-noSwing.mp3[/mp3]

MPC66[SUP]%[/SUP]
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/hip-hop-dotted-mpc66.mp3[/mp3]

MPC60[SUP]%[/SUP]
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/hip-hop-dotted-mpc60.mp3[/mp3]

MPC72[SUP]%[/SUP]
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/hip-hop-dotted-mpc72.mp3[/mp3]

Arpeggiator is a cool idea.

For me, though, I tend to think in terms of drum rudiments and what you can do to get interesting rolls.

A snare roll works best if you have alternate sticking samples a left sample and a right sample and then make use of one of the standard roll rudiments to create the roll you are looking for. I show them as 16ths in this tutorial but you can make the 32nds no problem. Beginning Drum Programming: Rudimentary Watson

Tom rolls can be dealt with the same way as snare rolls as long as you remember that you are using 2 or more drums to achieve the same effect. You can also use combination rhythms that allow the roll to stop and start s a real drummer would do.

So you might have


0000000001111111
1234567890123456
X.XX..XXX.XXXX.X


And then mix it over two drums like so


0000000001111111
1234567890123456
X.XX......XXX...
......XXX....X.X

Just had an additional thought about using some of the rudiments in rolls around the kit.....


Take the paradiddle for instance


0000000001111111
1234567890123456
RLRRLRLLRLRRLRLL


apply it across both the snare and a tom


-|-0000000001111111
-|-1234567890123456
T|-.L..L.LLR.RR.R..
S|-R.RR.R...L..L.LL


Experiment with the other types of rudimentary rolls as well.

You don't need an MPC.

Part of the issue with Rap/Hip-Hop/RnB and several other genres and styles is that the sixteenth notes are played as triplet 8ths-16ths - Each quarter note beat is broken into 6 equal parts (two 16th triplets) and then the middle triplet in each set is not played:

1..&..2..&..3..&..4..&..
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.x​

Also using the regroove unit in reason without having sixteenth notes in the pattern will have absolutely no effect on your patterns.

As for quantisation, if you are going to use regroove, then make it 100% as the most common approach used in regroove patches is to quantise everything before applying the regroove patch to it.

You would need to do one of two things

1. Extend your steps to 24 (the number of 16th triplets in one bar and program so that
   • kick is on 1, 13 and any other spot you want
   • snare is on 7 and 19 and any other spot you want
   • and the hats are on 1,3,4,6,7,9,10,12,13,15,16,18,19,21,22,24 OR
2. Use a groove template to swing the sixteenths for you

Just realised that I got all ready to do an answer for this then didn't do it. - problem with moving house, you forget other stuff.

Anyway the tune you mention doesn't work because the beatmaker uses 32nds as his basic breakdown of the beat rather than triplet 16ths.

So the two bar phrase is something like this

1-e-+-u-2-e-+-u-3-e-+-u-4-e-+-u-|1-e-+-u-2-e-+-u-3-e-+-u-4-e-+-u-:|| beat level
x...x...x...x...x...x...x...x...|x...x...x...x...x...x...x...x...:|| Hats steady 8ths
........x...............x.......|........x...............x.......:|| Snare on 3 and 4
x..........xx.......x..x........|x...........x.......x..x........:|| Kick
00000000011111111112222222222333|00000000011111111112222222222333:||32nds
12345678901234567890123456789012|12345678901234567890123456789012:||level
​

This is what it looks like in notation (90bpm, more or less)

For those that are scared by that one, here it is as a half time notation - play it double time to get the same effect (180bpm more or less)

This is what either one sounds like - no fancy stuff, no velocity shift no humanisation, nothing.

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/koolaidDrums.mp3[/mp3]

And here it is with all of the above (velocity range, humanisation)

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/koolaidDrums2.mp3[/mp3]

A big George Martin thing was to have Ringo play a tambourine hit on 2 and 4.

Later Jim Steinman (Meatloaf, Bonnie Tyler, himself) under Tod Rundgren's production used the same idea - big tambourine hits smothered in reverb on beats 2 and 4.

Some producers use certain percussion instruments as part of their signature, others use them for colour.

Check out the range of instruments used in afro-latin percussion and the basic beats each is expected to play for each dance type (most afro-latin is dance music)...

Some terms first:
Clave: is Spanish for key. This is the overarching rhythmic structure of Afro-Latin percussion it is a five stroke pattern over 8 beats.

It is usually shown as a two bar pattern though it can be put into one bar by halving all the durations:

3/2 clave

1+2+3+4+|1+2+3+4+:|| ||:1e+u2e+u3e+u4e+u:||
X--X--X-|--X-X---:|| ||:x--x--x---x-x---:||

​

2/3 clave

1+2+3+4+|1+2+3+4+:|| ||:1e+u2e+u3e+u4e+u:||
--X-X---|X--X--X-:|| ||:--x-x---x--x--x-:||
​

Some folks just use the 3 part of the clave pattern continuously:

1+2+3+4+|1+2+3+4+:|| ||:1e+u2e+u3e+u4e+u:||
X--X--X-|X--X--X-:|| ||:x--x--x-x--x--x-:||
​

Check out the following articles and tutorials on how to use afro-latin percussion more effectively

• Latin Percussion: Clave: The Key To Afro-Centric Music
• Latin Percussion: Bongo Basics
• Latin Percussion: Timbale Transitions
• Latin Percussion: Foundations of Afro-Cuban Music: Introduction to Rumba Guaguanco
• Instant MIDI Drum Patterns
• http://www.jamesdreier.com/files/timba_go.pdf
• Drum Lessons - 1000's of Free Lessons for Drummers!

OK, so I'm back with a large example

I avoided using the redrum interface for these descriptions because it would have meant way too many large images. Secondly, and probably more importantly, I'm using a grid to show these patterns so they are equally valuable to any daw user.

The grid layout is from top to bottom
Hats
Snare 2
Snare 1
Kick 2
Kick 1

So first up I avoided the whole issue of using 2 sections of redrum (i.e. more than 16 steps) by limiting myself to writing in triplet 16ths and writing half-bar patterns.

Here are my four main 1/2 bar patterns:

.

.

.

I then created a variation for each of these patterns, mostly a second snare hit:

.

.

.

Each pattern is then exported to a track. They are then quantised using iterative quantise and random ticks of the grid set to 4 (Reason (F8) tools palette). next they have their velocities randomised by 4% several times, then scaled by 75% to bring them under the 100 velocity point.

This gives us the following audio:

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/pattern-01.mp3[/mp3]

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/pattern-02.mp3[/mp3]

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/pattern-03.mp3[/mp3]

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/pattern-04.mp3[/mp3]

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/pattern-05.mp3[/mp3]

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/pattern-06.mp3[/mp3]

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/pattern-07.mp3[/mp3]

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/pattern-08.mp3[/mp3]

The trick then is to combine these patterns into full bar patterns. This gives 64 different patterns to choose from. Some will be ok, some will suck, some will be great. Only you can tell for sure.

Patterns 1-8 followed by pattern 1
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/patterns1-08.mp3[/mp3]

Patterns 1-8 followed by pattern 2
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/patterns2-08.mp3[/mp3]

Patterns 1-8 followed by pattern 3
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/patterns3-08.mp3[/mp3]

Patterns 1-8 followed by pattern 4
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/patterns4-08.mp3[/mp3]

Patterns 1-8 followed by pattern 5
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/patterns5-08.mp3[/mp3]

Patterns 1-8 followed by pattern 6
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/patterns6-08.mp3[/mp3]

Patterns 1-8 followed by pattern 7
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/patterns7-08.mp3[/mp3]

Patterns 1-8 followed by pattern 8
[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/patterns8-08.mp3[/mp3]

Lastly, a banner sized example of all the patterns and how they combine to make up full bars. Don't forget that the grid represents
Hats
Snare 2
Snare 1
Kick 2
Kick 1
from top to bottom

click to open full size version

here are other lionks that may seem relevant now - bnot everything needs to be on youtube nor can everything be reduced to a simple do-what-I-do monkey-see-monkey-do approach to teaching

https://www.futureproducers.com/for...y-composing-sound-design/groove-swing-380401/
https://www.futureproducers.com/forums/production-techniques/getting-started/snare-roll-help-374069/
https://www.futureproducers.com/forums/production-techniques/getting-started/snare-hat-rolls-365267/
https://www.futureproducers.com/for.../what-some-techniques-making-fill-ins-361712/
https://www.futureproducers.com/for...ay-any-rhythm-make-any-sound-you-want-353573/

 

[bryan_da_square]

Youtube is your friend when you're just getting started. I can't lie I been on FL Studio since Fruityloops 2.5 and I am STILL learning new ways to do things. There are tons of basic tutorials out there that I WISH were out when I began. Can you imagine how raw I would be today if they were. You came in the game at easy time for most. I've seen cats just get the program and start knocking out in few weeks, so it can be done man just gotta be willing to do the research and put in the effort to get the sound you're looking for.

 

[ENTITY361]

Nice work above with the breakdowns, I offer a manual as well giving you 260 drum pattern templates to begin with. Check it out if interested. HERE!