Ways to practice varying drum beats advice

So i am new to the mpc, not new to beat making but not super confident with the mpc yet.

I am finding alot of my drum beats sound similar and I would like to find ways to practice to make them more varied and different so its not like ever beat is

Boom bap boombaboom bap

Ay tips or advice appreciated!

Velocity variation is key. Even in software I seldom have the beats hit at the same level outside of kicks. Even those will vary but maybe I have the ones in rthe middle of bars softer than the ones on the one beats. For snares on say a 5 and 13 basic boom bap pattern I 'll use 2-8 variations an the velocity. Not straight random just enough for nuance. Maybe have the harder one on the 13 for x amount of bars then reverse it, or use the softer or harder one to accent another sound or a particular point in the sequence.

Kicks I always lock to a grid or play right on the beat, but all the other sounds can benefit from being slightly offset, early, late depends on the fell your after, and maybe whether or not you're trying match timing to a sample you're using.

And related to that just try to get used to working with the quantize/grid off completely for the full amount of places in time you can have the beats fall on.

Even though I used the boom bap example you're trying to avoid, this stuff all tranlates to house beats, 2 step beats, a more rock style drumming. But the grid can kind of restrict you into being more boom bap predicable like you mentioned.

I'm sure the guys who use their MPC's more than me can offer even deeper techniques as far as velocity layering and pad linking and FX. But the stuff I mentioned is real easy to go in with to get started on more varied drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn7YtjO6Mqc

Give that a watch! =) And realize that to develop we all need to expand to all genres of music, because there is something to capture from all styles. Just set out to listen to everything without any presumptions. That's my best advice

do your basic pattern, then add and take kicks and stuff away.

a kick on the 16th note right before the snare can give you some groove.

watch this video and apply the logic. even try copying the beat in the start of the video by just dropping things in grid edit or step edit if you dont have grid edit, then add and take stuff away from that.




this is another good tutorial with a more visual approach,



sometimes i like to put a kick drum hit on the 16th note right before the snare
if you look at 1:09 of this video and you will see 4 snares and 4 kicks,

if you focus on the second snare, try putting a kick on the square before that snare drum. and then build your beat around that pattern.experiment a bit, youll get it.

metatron is on point though too, velocity is key!

i also like having a kick drum on the very last 16th note of a grid so when it loops around it goes baboom back into the 1 and it doesnt just sound like the loop is resetting so rigidly.

good luck!

as an exercise you could try making weird, odd things just to get out of that other way of thinking..

for example, attempt to make a strange groove, just main kick and snare to start with, and try to continue even when it sounds awkward, you could probably say it is good if it sounds awkward here as that could mean you are no longer in your comfort zone, and being outside your comfort zone often means there are new things to learn.... do something strange, then try to make it sound good with fills and rolls and build from there.. because when you have an odd main kick/snare pattern, or odd to you.. then you might not be able to do your hats and ghosts hits as you usually do your patterns to make it sound good.. so it forces you to think outside the box a bit, as in how can you best add to it in a way that enhances what is already there?

you could also try to mimic styles you never touch otherwise, you don't have to be the best at it.. but when you have more experience from doing something else, then chances are that you will be less locked down into doing things or thinking in the same direction every time, as you now have more to draw ideas from

wellfunk wrote: And realize that to develop we all need to expand to all genres of music, because there is something to capture from all styles. Just set out to listen to everything without any presumptions. That's my best advice

I think that's the biggest thing. Listen to hip hop music you don't usually listen to.

You could learn to read drum notation (its not so hard) and get a book of exercises for a drummer. These contain lots of beats and variations designed to expand your drumming vocabulary. The Breakbeat Guide is a personal favorite.

learning to beatbox is quite useful too, and you can try sampling yourself beatboxing and then fingerdrum along with it till you nail the groove, then remove the guide track

Thanks for all the advice, and i listen to all genres of tunes so thats not the issueits just when it comes toplaying it i always wind up w the same groovethese are all great advice anksevertyone

try quantising your snares to fall early.

i use MPC2000XL

so i choose 1/16th - earlier setting - amount low (1-5) then select the snare pad and 'DOIT!'

something dilla did a heck of a lot! sounds real fresh to spice your beats up.

another thing, depends how you mix your tracks.

i would have the hi hats compressed but side-chain them to use the kick and snare as the key. (so they duck when the kick or snare sound) This will give them more groove.

two ways, either bounce all the tracks into your DAW separate (or at least separate the kick/snare then the hats) and compress in there or do them through hardware.

hope this makes sense, ask questions of course if not - i will try to explain better

what set-up you using?

which MPC? how do you record/mix?

Listen to many genres of music paying attention to the drum patterns/programming. Note the role of the kicks, snares and hats but also other percussion and how they add to the overall groove.

Try to recreate the drum tracks to get your programming skills out of the boom bap mindset.

Listening to other styles is a start, but you have to practice playing if you want to be able to play. surf around on youtube and play along with everything.. you need to train your muscle memory as much as your brain... you dont learn to ride a bike by watching other people ride them

Something I like to do is take various percussion, and get maybe a 2 bar loop going, then play one drum on a specific measure. Then when you've filled up that measure, fill another with a different drum, and they'll form a new and unique beat after so many drums are added. I usually use this method for secondary percussion to kind of give definition to the main beat.

For me, it's not just about the structure of the beat, but as it sounds "strange". Probably because i'm more interested in experimental/abstract stuffs, but i get better results when i just turn on the rec button and start to play my beats without using quantize. I avoid to make linear and straight things, adding noisy percussion elements or non-conventional sounds can help. Another thing that is often neglected is the use of drum fills; it's pretty hard to emulate a real drummer fill when you got samples with the same velocity, but i think that focusing on variations can turn out something tha you'd never expect in a "regular" beat. Anyway, Dilla docet

dont think just listen to artist that have good varied drum programming and replicate

then play and do shit in ur own way relative to u taste and the sounds that u have

slightly off topic but Silence+OtherSounds - just on your soundcloud. man your beats are beautiful. love the cinematic vibe

you heard bonobo? if not you will dig for sure