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Great post Rick! I too love the juxtaposition. Thanks for the history lesson as well. Also loved your post on 'why... looping festivals'. Very inspirational.....and makes marketing sense too. As far as beats go, I rely on my brother Chris who is a great drummer imho, but he's in LA and I'm in Vancouver. We have a semi dormant project called Idiot Bliss. When I play, I am accompanied on some pieces by his looped beats, played from my laptop. Anyway, please excuse the promotional spammage, but he has a new drum sample CD out through Ilio. FYI the CD is 'Stark Raving Beats'. http://www.ilio.com/ilio/srbeats/index.html Finally, yes I'd love to know more about programming tricks. I am a guitarist afterall :-) Terry O'Brien www.anomalousdisturbances.com >From: "Rick Walker/Loop.pooL" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com> >Reply-To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com >To: "Loopers Delight" <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> >Subject: OT: Drum machines vs. Human beings >Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 23:07:06 -0700 > >Dave wrote: >"Years ago I read an interview with Stan Ridgeway, then still with >Wall of Voodoo, where he said that drum machines ought to sound like >appliances. I liked that. If you want human feel, get a human! " > >I laughed at this quote! There is a place where I agree. > >I have been a professional drummer and multi-percussionist all of my adult >life and am constantly besieged >with questions about both drum machines, sequencers and looping >devices............."Aren't you afraid of >putting musicians out of work" These are my thoughts about this sort of >question and my feelings about >drum machines in general. > > >Just for a little historical perspective: > > Shortly after the turn of the century, when the Secretary of the Navy >prevailed upon the mayor of New Orleans >to shut down the Red Light district (for upright moral reasons), whose >Madams had been the financial backers for the new music >that many white people were calling 'Jazz' (a term which is synonymous >with >Sperm or Gism or Jizz), >they first tried to put pressure on the houses of ill repute by using >housing code >violations, trumped up 'disturbing the peace' violations and the many >other >ways that cities have of hassling >musical establishments (and it continues to this day, bless their pointed >little heads). > >Anyway, as the sailors began to drift away from the port of New Orleans >(where the navy had disbanded leaving hundreds >of marching band instruments----drums and brass instruments, primarily >whose >prevalence and , hence, cheap prices had fueled >the early jazz musicians) and the finances started to drain out of the >area >(sound familiar dot.com busters in the S.F. bay area?) >the Madams were forced to start hiring smaller and smaller bands to play >jazz at their establishments. Also, many musicians >started heading up the Mississippi to look for work in places like >Memphis, >Kansas City, Chicago and eventually, New York >and Los Angeles causing the spread to the rest of the country of both jazz >and blues. > >At the time, the de rigeur rhythm section consisted of either a bass >drummer >and a snare drummer or >a bass drummer, snare drummer and cymbal player, which were the classical >drumming units in a Navy marching band. As the 12 piece orchestras >became >10 piece and 6 piece and finally 3 and 4 piece bands (the 'typical' jazz >band size of today), some enterprising young black man (and I have never >found anybody to say who it was specifically in all the 1st hand accounts >and histories of jazz and drumming that I have read, which is a lot) came >up with a 'contraption' that allowed him to play the bass drum with his >foot and play the snare drums with both hands (because it was now on a >stand)..........it took 8-10 years later before another person (again, >nameless, to my knowledge) before another young black drummer added to the >contraption (which had >, by this time been shortened to the term 'Trap Set'----a contraction of >contraption, as it were) by putting two cymbals together >with a pulley mechanism to form the first high hat (although the original >ones were not "High Hats" at all, but "Low Bows" or >"Sock hats" because the cymbals were at the level of the drummer's >socks--------it took another few years for some one to >raise the heighth of the tube supporting the now named "Hi Hats". > >In this way, the original 'contraption' inventor reduced the job of two or >three drummers and the budding 'Drum Set' and it's importance in the >original jazz ensembles was born. > >Imagine what would have happened to the history of modern music if that >person had heeded the question, "Aren't you >afraid that this invention will put musicians out of work". > >Innovation occurs..............people are always looking for better and >better ways of getting the music in their heads out into the world. >it is a never ending process. As a young man, I remember a producer >telling me "You can bitch and moan about the >proliferation of drum machines in recording studios, Rick, or you can >learn >how to program them so you will always have work". > >Well, from the time that I first saw the band Ultravox play with a trapset >player with only a bass drum, snare drum and cymbals >(wierdly minimal in the era of 10 tom, concert drum sets which were de >rigeur at that time (late 70's) and Roland CR78, which was >the first official primitive 'programmable' drum machine, I was >transfixed. >I love the juxtaposition, timbrally, of the heavy drums and the artifical >and light sounding analogue drum machine sounds............I thought it >was >really beautiful and it changed my life. I through myself into the >world >of what I call hybrid drumming: real drums, percussion and either drum >machines or triggered samples. > >Early on I discoverd that if I put an old Synare trigger on my kick drum >and >then made the note as low as I could make it but >shortened the envelope so that it was almost inaudible, that I could make >my >kick drum sound like GOD and still have all the punch >and attack and human nuance of a reall drum (which it was). > >Well, since then I have consulted and provide samples for EMU (I've heard >that my famous one headed kick drum tuning is the most used drum in their >sample library which makes me proud), I've helped them choose sounds (the >EMU Carnaval and the EMU >Phatt) and I've programmed preset rhythms for the ZOOM 123. I've also >done >a tremendous amount of programming for >musicians who feel like they just don't know how to program drum machines >realistically (boy, can I tell when most guitarists or keyboardists >program >their drum machines). As a matter of fact, tomorrow, I will be >programming >an old Roland TR505 for >a steel drum band that does work teaching music to children in >schools...............they can't afford to hire a reall drummer >for their shows but they want their valuable tithing work to the community >to continue (and, lo and behold, a drummer will be >earning a little bit of money to program the machine with conciousness!!! > > >As a matter of fact, if any one is interested in this very off topic >chain, >maybe I could show you guys some great tricks for >programming drum machines in the most simple and effective ways for your >music. Just let me know if anyone is interested and I"ll post these >tricks >when I have time. > >So, personally, I love electronic sounds and old analogue drum machines >because they are specifically not in the tonal range >of the drum set and percussion playing that I do. I also am really >deeply into a kick lately to try and invent acoustic >instruments that sound as if they were electronic or processed and then >loop >and process them. > >I feel like the companies are trying as hard as possible to make their >drum >machines sound realistic and I'm heading in the opposite >direction................I guess I just dig the "NEW". I'd be happy to >talk about some creative ways for looping drummers >to create new timbres for their acoustic drums that sound like they are >on >a >Portisehead record or whatever. Again, just let me >know. > >The human being is so complex that the drum machine companies don't have a >bat's chance in hell of truly duplicating >the 'real' thing..............It is the artificiallity of the drum >machine, >ironically, that draws me to them..............I love the juxtaposition >of the highly processed and articificial and the extremely primal and >human >and idiosyncratic natural. >It is, after all, the world we find ourselves in today! Part of our >existence here in this culture has to do with reconciling >the modern/technological/computer driven and automated aspects of our >culture with the urge to just bang on a tree trunk >or pick at a piece of gut stretched over a gourd. I say, RECONCILE >it >all!!!! It's who we are anyway, n'cest pas? > >So we come full circle (if you haven't fallen asleep yet---------------boy >am I long winded sometimes--------LOL) to >Stan Ridgeway's comments about drum machine that should sound like >appliances............ > >towards that end, I have a new piece on my next abstract electronica CD, >'Purple Hand' which I'm hoping to have finished by late summer and early >fall where I took a $60 sampling Casio watch and drove around the bay area >(to looping gigs, I might add...:-) >and sampled really cool cash registers that I heard................it came >out great............hope some of you get to hear it at some point. > >yours, in looping and drumming and the love of drum machines. > >Rick Walker (loop.pool) _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com