Drum programming/ Jungle/ Aphex Twin

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Lately I have found that the blank little corners are great spots for conditional trigs.
Take a solid groove, and for instance add low velocity ghost notes, some with retrig, on the snare and hatsā€¦ You get an ever changing loop constantly rebalancing the grooveā€¦

I really had fun with that on my last track (poorly mixed on the OP-1).
If you can pay attention to the AR only, youā€™ll see what I mean :slight_smile:

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@LyingDalai good point, in this type of scenario it can be great. Nice track too!

Wow on that standalone tracker!!!

Iā€™ve seen something similar at the Avignon Festival (but mostly with pianosā€¦).

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A Boss DR-660 (which is basically like a tiny, stripped down 90s MPC sequencer in a plastic box with no sampling - Linn even had a hand in designing the OS and it shows) sequencing an external sampler was a sort of budget version of this, too. Supposedly thatā€™s how at least some of the early Squarepusher stuff was done.

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Resurecting this thread as Iā€™ve done a drum kit out of one of the upload from Aphex on Soundcloud.
I made a video to explain the whole thing. You will find all the links in the description :wink:

Feel free to ask some questions in the chatroom during the premiere tomorow at 18:00 !

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Nice video

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I think it was said upthread alreadyā€¦ donā€™t make straight one-shots. Start your sample cuts at the sound you mainly want, but cut after 1/8th or 3/16ths (or longer) so you get the flams, ghost notes, extra hats and so on in the sample. For hats and bongos, make the initial cut on an off-beat, or an off-16th, so your sample starts with the quiet, de-emphasised hit, and leave the sample long enough it includes a louder one. When you arrange these ā€œirregularā€ pieces into a groove, you get new rhythms and emphases.

And then, as also said upthread, retrig and FX to hell. Iā€™m always amazed how many effects Aphex and Squarepusher apply to their drum edits. They donā€™t just make these great drum ā€œsongsā€, they process, resample and re-texture the tone to hell, to mark transitions and changes of mood. Delightful, and so detailed.

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Ned rush has done some nice aphex / breaks videos and offers ableton projects on his patreon

Plus his approach in making videos is very watchable/listenable ā€¦ heā€™s still on my list of influencers that donā€™t infuriate me ( itā€™s very small )

I donā€™t personally like the ā€˜random tool box stumbling down the stairsā€™ style of beats ā€¦ but Iā€™m old.

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Agreed, Been following Ned for a very long time, his old Reason videos were where I started. Heā€™s not an ā€˜influencerā€™ just some bloke that likes making noise, and can be bothered to make videos. His albums are good too.

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Quoting this again 4 years later because I recently put together a really breaks-heavy EP and this is exactly how I did all of it. Ntot so much using roll, though, mostly quantized finger drumming for the actual chopped breaks and unquantized finger drumming for everything else.

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