What’s the best resource you’ve seen for programming drums? My current beats are fine but it usually involves me programming a simple beat then adding a percussion loop that I manipulate to bring it to life.
Now I’m trying to do all my drums exclusively on my Analog Rytm with no loops. So I’m trying to dial in that extra bit of missing groove that an extra loop easily provides. Curios if you’ve seen any content out there that really breaks down how to make interesting and compelling drum beats.
What are you doing with the hats? I personally like to put some sloppiness on the hats with micro timing. Pushing some back, some forward. Also change velocity and decay ever so slightly. Then live record percs.
Very good recommendation @Geneoart. Adding nice movement to hats really does help them come to life. Thoughtful use of LFOs can help with this. Ghost hits for snare / kick are really helpful to add movement to your groove. Don’t know of any specific resources myself, just a lot of trial and error plus searching through forums online.
Definitely ghost hit on the snares is a great way to bring drums to life. Also copy and paste your pattern across several patterns and change things up on each copied pattern. They don’t have to be massive changes even small changes in groove helps. Don’t be afraid to jump around all your patterns to bring movement to your drums.
Also conditional trigs, that’s the Elektron magic sauce right there.
Dig through the patterns in the preset project. You can learn quite a bit there.
less is sometimes more…it can be very tempting to add more sounds to build up a groove but keeping it simple can be as effective. Think about syncopation… sometimes those extras only need to be a little shaker or click in the right spot. Also planning and levels if you’re using the main outputs.
As a drummer I think about timing a lot. The funny thing is we strive for perfection and machines strive for naturalness which is the imperfection.
Things I’ve learned through the years that I apply to kit are applicable to sequencing and might help you out.
Kick on 1 is played heavier than other beats. “It’s all about the one baby!” That could mean both in volume, but also the weight of the sound.
With 2 consecutive 16th kicks the first one is usually lower in volume due to using the slide technique on a bass pedal. It can go the other way too, but typically I use the first example the most when sequencing beats.
1st kick anchors the rest of the bar. So the 1st kick is on the grid and the rest can be loose.
If you imagine your machine is either a laid back drum then delay the snare a little. Slide the note to the right. You could make it early, but that’s up to you. No one likes an uptight drummer 
either way is fine. Just make a conscious decision. I think that’s the most important is to have an intention. Trying to be loose or tight etc.
8th hats accent every other. Both ways have a certain feel, but drummers use both. Accents on down beats give a driving feel.
Swing is your friend. When doing techno, house etc I dial in swing until I hear it, then dial it back a little. Depends on the tempo, but I find myself a lot in 52-55% range just so it’s not so rigid. Claude Von Stroke delays his hats by 7ms. Can play with the timing and slide upbeats if 8ths or 16ths slide the even numbers.
If making boom bap I like super loose beats like Dibia$e who by the way did an awesome live stream making a beat on a 404 which is totally useful no matter what genre you ‘re in or what gear you use.
If you have time I would take up drumset or some hand drums like djembe or even conga. You can figure out a lot by playing. Hopefully, that helps.
The iPad app Patterning made a few things click for me.
setting up overdrive on the accents with velocity mod sounds good on the hats
A useful trick for seeing what’s happening is to grab a sample of a decent grove, such as the original Amen break, for example. Cut that groove into individual parts. Then try to replicate it accurately. You’ll then start to notice, that snare needs to be shifted early or late, those hats aren’t straight at all, etc etc. Also, look at so-called ‘world music’, look into those patterns and try to layer something similar over more conventional ‘western beats’. Another more random approach is to get you beat down as usual then enter live recording mode and tweak a couple of things on the fly, such as hi hat decay, tiny pitch changes on certain things. And you can always copy the pattern ahead of any tweaking in case you fuck it up haha.
Edit: to see what’s happening on a decent drum loop sample, load it into a DAW, zoom in and then you can see exactly where the hits are landing off the grid
Sorry to revive this question but I am also looking into more resource to learn about drum programming.
So far I am reading this book:
I’ve discovered this guy who is about finger drumming but which sees like a fun intro:
https://www.fingerdrummingacademy.com/new-page-1
And the found Capitain Pikante video with some intro into drum programing:
The I though my next step could be to try out some or all of the 200 patterns here:
But as I am sitting in my couch to night, I was hoping to find a complete course on drum machine programing that I could follow along, online, while playing with my Model:Cycles.
Anyone know of an online class like that?
and just discovered this :
And do not forget also
I strongly recommend:
Bess, Josh. 2015. Electronic dance music grooves. Hal Leonard.
At first sight, this looks Ableron focused, but I found the advice and pattern very broadly applicable. In addition, the author provides good background for the styles and nicely explains variations.
Another well produced and informative Captain P. video…
What I find surprising is that this thread didn’t go anywhere. What I mean to say is that these forums and its users have all sorts of equipment with sequencers. We all make music where programming drums and rhythms is important and us casual users could learn so much from the more experienced users and from available resources as yet undiscovered.
So, anybody holding out on the MC Ice-T ‘straight dope’ of drum wizardry and care to break off a piece?
I second this…
Its great to establish a starting point, then do variations. And I’m beginning to realize you don’t have to overcomplicate or break the mold…
Frame the bass line with the kick, add fill every 32 bars or so…
But saying that, i would love to hear more suggestions.
I wish there were more videos like this one…
To get “that” sound, you do have to use loops. It’s the processing upon processing upon processing and mashing upon mashing of sounds that make them sound and groove like that.
But having said that, try sampling individual drum sounds and snippets from the loops or records or tracks. Then sequence those. And swing is your friend, right?
I think in the end, it’s all about choosing the right sounds. A simple hat, kick, snare pattern can sound really full, textured and groovy if you use the right sounds. And a little bit of swing never hurt 
I’ve been having great results in reducing the number of elements, making simple loops, chopping and reconfiguring, then adding in small details of other percussion and sounds.
I’d like more ideas and resources please - Elektronauts activate!
