d&b drum fills? any ideas?

[dek-star]

hello,
I've come to a point in my track where i need some help. i'm currently on a atmospheric/jazzy d&b project, but can't come up with the fills i want. what i did on this track was sequence the break in midi with some drum samples, instead of using sampled breaks. this is the first time i've ever really "written" a break so i kinda want to write in some fills too. the only thing is....I don't know what to write! is there some kind of documentation i.e. drum tabs, of fills? or something like that? i've been listening to atmosperic d&b, and jump-up to study the fill patterns, but the songs are from 1999; i think things change so fast in this genre that i can't keep up so..... any suggestions? thanks.
dek::star

 

[fluxtah]

well, thats great your using single hits! I always use single hits for my tracks, they sound much better when they are tweaked right.

generally if you have a 2 bar drum and bass style beat happening you can get your fills by making a copy of your 2 bar drum track and then slice it into 16ths or 8ths, you can be random about this but more thought into the matter will produce better results.

Now.. sequence your beat for 3 bars, then for the 4th bar, take your cuts and re-assemble them to make up a bar in a random order. as I say, more thought and less randomness whilst making desicions on ordering your sliced up beat will produce more thought out results.

i do a series of things for my fills and thats just one of them, others are 32nd stutters and reverse hits that slam back into the groove. Just be creative and different when creating fills, you could use snippets of another beat just for the fill parts, there are endless possibilities! if you check out my recent puretone addicted to bass post youll find a short mp3 snippet
of the kind of fills i do, theres not many fills as its a short file though there will be some fill like traces

regards

fluxtah

 

[irie]

yes, the last post was very thorough and on point, I just wanted to add 1 or 2 things. You said that the tracks you were studying were from 1999 so you were afraid to copy them, well you shouldn't really think about it like that, I mean if you make a break that sounds dope, it doesn't matter if it's a 1992 or a 2002 style, if it fits with the rest of the track then you're set. Anyways, some of the drum fills in the latest tracks I've been listening to seem to be modelled after jazz drum fills, which were created decades ago...
on a more constructive tip...don't forget your filter when working with fills....I like to assign velocity->cutoff on my drum kit (or a copy of the drum kit) and then manually edit the velocity values in the fill to create an interesting dynamic with the filter, works pretty good, just make sure you don't overdo it.

ok good luck

peace

 

[dek-star]

what's up fellas?
thanks for the input! hey. can you guys recommend some tracks to listen to? irie? i'm not quite sure what you meant with the velocity, cutoff thang. is that on my sampler? what does it do? how do i use it? that sounds really interesting and i would like to try it. I'm glad i don't have to worry about what kinds of "trendy" sounds are cool, because i still like to use snare rolls, and not overuse those jack hammer type basslines. know what im saying? Yea i like tech-step, but..... it's a little too much science for me sometimes. i like the mellow stuff. maybe i'm just getting old. but back to the point (sorry to ramble) fluxstah, so basically i slice up my drum loop (at various resolutions) and rearrange the slices? oh yea, i found a program that does this for you. you might like it; it's called "amen" i guess from the famous amen break, but this program is dope. it slices at random, or you could control the randomness, until you get something you like, and exports it! well anyway, i'm trying to come up with a melody too. i figure the melody should be relatively simple right? i mean the melody should be just a simple melody. any tips on how to construct a melody? thanks yall.
dek::star

 

[fluxtah]

Hi that tool sounds great, probably has a lot to do with the amen break being one of the most sliced up breaks ever. I have a couple of tools that do a similar thing called X-Incarn,brilliant if i might add,

more tools would be wave surgeon and also recycle, they do the same thing, loop slicing.

Though where single hit drum loops are concerned, which i assume you are constructing judging by your first post then you can do a similar thing right in your sequencer by chopping up your drum parts.

the velocity cut of thing irie is talking about is a fantastic and creative way to make fills, or variations in the beat. If your sampler has a filter then you should be able to assign the velocity to the filter so when you hit your keys harder they have more cut-off and when you hit them softer they have less cut-off and vice versa , on a good sampler this feature of assigning the velocity to a parameter can be done to practically anything, pitch, start point (see below), filter, resonance, even the amount of lfo to send.

I use halion and that has a sample start point that can be assigned to the velocity so depending on how hard i hit my keys the sound will be triggered at relational start point. This can also be used creatively for fills.

another creative fill would be to pitch the drums. like a snare roll descending in pitch.

for maximium drum and bass fillage I recommend aphex twins new album and also squarepusher and aquasky.

as for a melody, well in drum and bass it seems that nice fading LFO lazor zaps and big bass is certainly kool. sometimes its just best to play a creative game of question and answer with some really big sounds and noises.
Imagine a blues jam where everyone playing is an alien with an individual voice in some inteligent rythmatic conversation that compliment the beat in radical ways in the fill parts, you can catch people out when your chucking sounds at them in an almost expected manner and by doing something just slightly different each time can often cause spine tingling attacks on your sonic receptors.

I often imagine my music, escpecially the drum and bass as a sonic assault of sounds that are aware of each other and give each other space to breath, then team together for the occasional strike.

I hope that wasnt to deep!

oh and remember, to many fills can seem like your trying to hard, its not worth doing a fill for a snare roll if it doesnt catch the user out or if it doesnt create any energy, you could put a fill at the end of each 2 bars but as soon as it becomes obvious to you whats about to happen then thats the point of boredom - but i wouldnt take this point to seriously as it comes with listening to the same beat over and over and over and arrrgh!

let your fills catch the listener out. so more variation in the beat and quantising will really give movement and energy to the beat, then the fills are just an extra added bonus


regards

fluxtah
http://www.mp3.com/dafluxtah