Live Mpc Drumming?

I'd like to learn how to do live mpc drumming, but not quite sure where to begin. I can bust out basic drum beats and have alright timing, but what are some good ways to expand on this? Also, if anyone has any tips on which pads they assign which drums on that would help. I havent really found a technique that works for me. And lastly, I need to know how to build kits for drumming(i.e what certian drum sounds I need in each kit). I've been listining to Jel and others like him and thought that learning drumming would be a good place to start for making beats in that style. Thanks for any help you can give.

I'm no expert but I have used the mpc to do 'live' percussion takes on my recordings, using bongo and conga samples mapped out almost randomly across the pads, if you're timings alright the various samples make even fairly standard rhythmic patterns sound cool.

Another suggestion that counts as much for programming as it does for live play is think about the physical attributes of a drummer, like they only have two hands and two feet, and two brain cells (ah drummer jokes! lol) so they can't hit their whole kit at once.

Hope that helps, I also listen to a LOT of funk and progressive rock drummers they often have amazing technique if you can start to build what I call 'drum melodies' using toms and hat trills and fills it can sound quite funky.

I've done live MPC drumming for years. It's a bit easier for me cuz I've played drums for about 15 years. I'd suggest buying a book of drum patterns, learning the notation (drum notation is pretty easy) and going through that. Not only will it give you an idea of what sample/pad placement works for you, but it will also give you a lot of pattern ideas that you may never have thought of...
peace

I have SO many drum kits in the MP, I have to have some consistency in the pad layout if I'm going to be able to switch kits and be ready to run with the new sounds. I have 2 basic layouts I use, with some variation.

The first basic layout is vertical columns, on the left, it's kicks, 2nd column is high-hats, closed up top, half open, open, and pedal below. Snares down the 3rd column, and percussion down the right--cymbals, toms, shakers, whatever.

This arrangement works well with generic samples and for hip hop / trip hop / RnB / electro beats. If I'm trying for a more authentic sounding acoustic kit emulation, I have a different layout. Looks like this:

kick | clsd HH | snr A | hi tom
opn HH | 1/2 HH | snr B | hi-mid tom
Crsh mid | pdl HH | rim | mid tom
Crsh edge | Ride edge | ride mid | lo tom

For each of these I have 4 levels of velocity triggered multi-sample action to emulate the change in timbre that goes along with hitting a real drum harder or softer.

1)Lots of chops (that blend together well)

2)GOOD TIMING!!

Its really just that simple.

Thanks for the input. I think I am going to go pick up a drum book because coming up with patterrns is my main problem. And I do have a lot of chops, but no complete kits. anywhere online with some free full kits(complete with hats, cymbals, toms, multiple kicks, etc.)?

www.rogerlinndesigns.com offers some free kits at their website, (ethnic, 808, "ambient stereo drum set," "Orb Euro House Drums,") which were some sample kits for the MPC 60. They will work in whatever MPC you have.

something else you can do is try beats from songs you like. put jel on and try to mimick his beat. you can even sample a loop into the mpc and then practice that loop. i would definitely come up with a couple of set formations with the pads so that your muscle memory training can begin.

one more thing, jel is definitely amazing, but do you think he's playing over sequences or playing EVERYTHING live?

raised hand wrote:one more thing, jel is definitely amazing, but do you think he's playing over sequences or playing EVERYTHING live?

Most of his songs are completely live. There are some where hes got stuff sequenced, but for the most part hes banging every sound off of a pad.

raised hand wrote:one more thing, jel is definitely amazing, but do you think he's playing over sequences or playing EVERYTHING live?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twHhcB4D-po

dude plays two samplers live...

Alright. Its not only the live drumming part of it I want to learn, Its that real sounding, interesting drum beat going instead of a two bar loop. Thats what I'm really going for.

I've got one of those "all the breaks" cds, with 300 classic breaks. I've started making loops of my favorites. My plan is to burn some CDs where each loop plays out for a couple minutes, then I practice drumming along with these. My hope is that this will help me grow as a "funky drummer" by practicing these standards and improvising fills over top of them as well.

Grow your groove.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twHhcB4D-po

dude plays two samplers live...

ive seen this plenty, but would be a good idea to copy his layout on the pads.. it's just few samples at the top and a bit of a break. it's nothing overly amazing, easy to mimic the concept to your own style i mean. you just need to be able to play drums or be fluent with a difficult rhythm, incorporating the samples around the drums you play.

i love just pounding out over a loop when creating untill i find something that works. but my style of music is more intricate so i can only comprehend scratching over and djing or maybe tap out a string of samples...

i used to be good at creating a dj routine back in the day, but being focused on production i lose sight of djing untill i do a live set with my main man. i should really be brewing up a dope live set while making beats.

makes me think of 'looptroop - modern day city symphony' some beats just switch into a breakdown then into then next beat. so you could chain a bunch of seqs/songs together but mute the main parts and play them, or come up with a routine were you play different parts(as much as one can) but still have the skeleton of the song rolling in the back.

idk where i'm going with this but i always try to make a beat with another beat attached to it, if you get me? makes things more interesting when you want to do change ups etc.. or live work i guess.

come to think of it the drums on 'blue moon' -myspace link below- i did in one 20 bar take then looped it. but the drum layout(top kicks, hat & snare most) i found works for my style and nice flamming for ghosting on the kicks, imitating beat juggle..

kick | cl hat | kick/hat | ride
kick2 | op hat | snare | crash

.....for the top half..... then introduce (thought out) samples to the bottom half, + 4 dif banks & q links can be tools for a dope live show

but depends on you and your style. for 'jel' style i would chop a 1 bar break into 1/8 notes. especially if the hi hat part in the break is 16th notes... so you get the chick--a effect. nah mean!?


peace!

Fatt Laced wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twHhcB4D-po

dude plays two samplers live...

ive seen this plenty, but would be a good idea to copy his layout on the pads.. it's just few samples at the top and a bit of a break. it's nothing overly amazing, easy to mimic the concept to your own style i mean. you just need to be able to play drums or be fluent with a difficult rhythm, incorporating the samples around the drums you play.

i love just pounding out over a loop when creating untill i find something that works. but my style of music is more intricate so i can only comprehend scratching over and djing or maybe tap out a string of samples...

i used to be good at creating a dj routine back in the day, but being focused on production i lose sight of djing untill i do a live set with my main man. i should really be brewing up a dope live set while making beats.

makes me think of 'looptroop - modern day city symphony' some beats just switch into a breakdown then into then next beat. so you could chain a bunch of seqs/songs together but mute the main parts and play them, or come up with a routine were you play different parts(as much as one can) but still have the skeleton of the song rolling in the back.

idk where i'm going with this but i always try to make a beat with another beat attached to it, if you get me? makes things more interesting when you want to do change ups etc.. or live work i guess.

come to think of it the drums on 'blue moon' -myspace link below- i did in one 20 bar take then looped it. but the drum layout(top kicks, hat & snare most) i found works for my style and nice flamming for ghosting on the kicks, imitating beat juggle..

kick | cl hat | kick/hat | ride
kick2 | op hat | snare | crash

.....for the top half..... then introduce (thought out) samples to the bottom half, + 4 dif banks & q links can be tools for a dope live show

but depends on you and your style. for 'jel' style i would chop a 1 bar break into 1/8 notes. especially if the hi hat part in the break is 16th notes... so you get the chick--a effect. nah mean!?


peace!

Great advice. The assignment for the pads you suggested is the one I've been using.

I've been playing along with a drum loop track I downloaded that a few hours long, changing each minute. Its great practice and Im coming up with better drum tracks already. thanks for all the help with this.

This works really well for me for live drumming, I'm left handed though. Open hat on the left there and pedaled hat on the right. 4 velocity layers on most of the pads. Kick, snare and closed hi hat pads are the same. This is great for fast stuff. Thumbs on the kicks, index on the snares, middle on the closed hihats rings for the other hats, ride and crash and pinkys for other stuff: