shaking snares....

a good tip for those 'chick-chick' snares often found in the shuffly bit in hop/breakbeat..............use the same snare as your main snare- tune up v slightly (so its hardly audible) and set the attack to around 7....voila....

often found layering this sound will a hat tail or other sound can help deepen the shuffly bit....

greg

Also, set the filter to around 94 or 95 to take a little of the top end off as sounds tend to lose top end when hit more softly. Or just set up your pads to change attack and filter setting the more softly they are hit (see the multisampling tutorials on this site for more info).

yeah definitly- i also use a fliter env to shave off the top end at the beginning of the sample-

greg

good tips keep em coming.


ghost snares are essential for jazzy grooves. just think of how a real drummer hits and rolls off snare, or better yet go try it out yourself on a friends kit or a music store drum kit

MPC-Tutors advice is rocking also.

i find that note lengths are critical for good grooves, especially on hats and stuff- if you listen to a beat the hits are never all of the same length- for example i always make my ghost snare short and tight....

this is really important for hats too- i found by analysing a beat in recycle, loading it in the mpc and by the notes to 'note off' you can hear the legnths of each hit and can go in to the step editor to see how long some hits last...

i found analysing a funky house beat that the hats never stayed the same, the second snare was slightly longer than the first- even the kicks varied...

so not just about note placement but gaps inbetween the notes as well....

greg

yeah good one munkey, thats true.

the same way an open hi hat sound would get cut off by a closed hi hat your ghost notes should be attenuated by the most percussive snare.

hold a pen in your hand and let it loosely hit your desk... thats what happens with a snare. id go so far as saying no MPC owner should go without having bout drumsticks at some time in their life

maybe that doesnt include you straight up hiphop heads but you funk/downbeat jazzy breaks cats might like to think about asking a drummer friend for a lesson.

i know my drum programming improved when i began learning the drums, as the essential relationship between your hands and feet drumming carry over into programming, especially lloose funk grooves.


might seem like im over-intellectualising rhythm but give it a go, you will be surprised.i hope to one day get lessons in Tabla drumming,,,, theres a wicked world of rhthym out there!