Re: Rhythm Question

[Mark Hamburg <mhamburg.pub@gmail.com>]

So, calling the first rhythm A B and the second rhythm C D, you get a six 
bar cycle:

        A+C B+D A+C B+C A+D B+C

That would seem to be 2 vs 3 but yes, I can see where that would work 
nicely. I don’t know of anyone hardware drum machines that make that easy 
(even if you have two machines). Maybe in software, but even there I’m not 
sure it’s something that’s readily available.

Is there a benefit to building it this way over just creating a two-bar 
pattern and a three-bar pattern?

Mark

> On May 29, 2015, at 10:32 AM, Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Here's a looping trick that sometimes has helped me:
> 
> 1. Make a two bar loop of rhythm.
> 2. Make another two bar loop of complementary rhythm (in parallel, so
> they both play together).
> 3. Copy the last loop by x3.
> 4. Divide it by /2.
> 
> Depending on the music and the time measure other figures may be used,
> but I personally am very fond of the "3 vs 4" approach.
> 
> Greetings from Sweden
> 
> Per Boysen
> www.perboysen.com
> http://www.youtube.com/perboysen
> 
> 
> On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 6:52 PM, Mark Hamburg <mhamburg.pub@gmail.com> 
> wrote:
>> I think one of the key issues is repetitive v the same. Loopers and 
>> drum machines make it easy to be "the same". The same is necessarily 
>> repetitive, but repetitive need only be mostly the same. Depending on 
>> the context, the same gets boring faster than a simple repetitive 
>> pattern does.
>> 
>> There is probably a related but different axis around mechanical v 
>> organic that also affects perception but I would assert that Tangerine 
>> Dream's sequencer work (e.g. Ricochet) shows that mechanical need not 
>> result in boredom — probably because the melody evolves.
>> 
>> For those of us using drum machines as backing, it would be nice if it 
>> were easy to program a main pattern, make copies with small changes, 
>> and then have it occasionally use the altered patterns on playback. I 
>> suspect that one could construct a reasonably sparse pattern that even 
>> if mechanical in playback would still groove and by having it change up 
>> just a little bit at random points avoid the "this is a machine" 
>> feeling from sinking in.
>> 
>> I'm not sure what the equivalent would be for an audio looper. The 
>> occasional random stutter?
>> 
>> Mark
>> 
>