Drum Roll Placement...

Basically, I just started messing with drum rolls.

How I do them is I just basically take a snare and place them very close with step edit then I bring down the volumes on these snares and I have them in either a descending or ascending velocity.

It sounds Aight!

But basically what I'm not too sure about is where are good places to put drum rolls. Are they used basically as a fill at the end of a 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th bar?

Are they usually at the beginning or end of a bar, or somewhere in the middle?

I'm sorry if it's a stupid newbie question, but I was just practicing here and was trying to put some drum rolls in a sequence and just wasn't sure where to place them.

listen to rjd2!
I don't know what is usual in real drumming :S
but you don't really have to follow any rules.. YOu don't NEED to have them in the end of a bar either.. if it sounds okei, put them where you want.. i like to have "breaks"/rolls in the end og each 8th bar.. haven't really messed around with it yet, tho'..

yeah add them wherever it sounds good to you, theres no rules for making beats, just to be creative

yeah man just mess around. I like putting drum rolls anywhere they sound good for that particular beat. I dont use step edit though (i dont have that feature). Sometimes i use note repeat at 1/32 (full level off), sometimes I'll just sample a dope drum roll and toss that in the mix

yo you should check out some of the posts in the "post your techniques" thread.....theres a cool post about how to create drum rolls like the pros do using the time signiture and song features...once you get the hang of it, it really sounds crazy and is a very versitle technique.....can mix and match with all kinds of time signitures for creating cool rolls..it may seem complicated at first but just follow the instructions posted in that thread i mentioned and you will learn the tech....hope this helps ya out...peace

In response to your question:

Rolls can only be used at the end of the fourth bar. Using them anywhere else will damage the operating system.

Damn! I wish you would have posted that earlier! Shit! I placed the drum roll at the 12th bar...now my whole set up is flowers! Why didn't any of you other guys tell me sooner........

Anyways! I just did my first track with a drumroll. I tried to make it as realistic as possible. Check it out at my soundclick. It's called "That's All!" I do one drum roll only and it's at the 17 second mark.

Drum rolls with quantise? Nah, turn it off (and turn off FULL LEVEL) and play it 'naturally' using two samples on two pads - just keep doing it until it sounds right. Even better, set up velocity sensitive attack on those pads - you definitly need to shave some attack off for realism.

good tip tutor!

Yeah, that's a good idea Tutor! Makes a lot of sense too, because that way it's mimicking what a real drummer does! Like having having two sticks hitting the same drum!

one more post lou and you at 5bills!!!!!

Holy Shit! Past 5 bills now! Damn! What's bad is that I got this title, and I'm still a newbie! I should re-sign up and start back from new member, but in a couple of months it'll probably be back up to 5 bills anyway. I love this forum too much!

hey man, your the expert!

HAHAHAHA! Expert....my @$$!