Crafting Better Beats - 7 Techniques I discovered while transcribing Drum Patterns
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- ► / captainpikant Support us on Patreon and get access to lots of drum patterns, cheat sheets and more!
Every once in a while we discover some great or unconventional tricks and techniques that we immediately mark down as "must try". In this episode we'll show you 7 of our absolute favourites - to use as inspiration for your own beats.
If you plan to buy something from a big online retailer you can use an affiliate link to support us - at no additional cost for you, we just earn a small commission.
► Europe: www.thomann.de...
► US: sweetwater.sjv...
Featured drum patterns (transcriptions available on Patreon):
Adamski - Killer
Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force - Planet Rock
Alexander Robotnick - Problèmes D'Amour
Björk - Hunter
Captain Sky - Super Sporm (Break)
Childish Gambino - Sweatpants
Cliff Richard & The Shadows - Do You Wanna Dance (Intro)
Four Tet - Love Cry
Hardfloor - Acperience 1
Harold Faltermeyer - Axel F
hubbabubbaklubb - Mopedbart
John Tejada - Stabilizer
Kraftwerk - Numbers
Logic - Wake Up
Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing
Orbital - Halcyon + On + On
Peggy Gou - I Go
Skinny Puppy - Dig It
Timecop 1983 - On The Run
Gear used:
Squarp Hapax
OXI One
8raw8
Roland TR-6S
Seaboard RISE 2 provided by ROLI
Arturia Keystep
TC Electronic Magus Pro
Thanks again to / vintagemodernaudio for recording the Yamaha RX120 MIDI mapping for us so we could verify the percussion part for Adamski's "Killer" :)
► Instagram / captainpikant
#drummachine #drums #electronicmusic #beatmaker #beatmaking #electro #techno #house #housemusic #technomusic #synthesizer
0:00 Introduction
Produced by Jean-Claude Dirckx and Sophie Hoppstädter
I literally have no access to any type of drums (other than my hands meeting a hard surface) but I absolutely adore the break down of your videos. Always a treat whenever you upload
Get koala sampler, it’s the best ! Hours of fun!
if you dont have a physical drumset or sequencer you could just use the in-app sequencer that GarageBand uses if you have an Apple device; or just get Koala Sampler if you don't (like the other reply said)
Whatever device you typed this comment on could be used for drums
iELECTRIBE is a pretty decent app for iPhone based on a Korg drum machine.
C
Thanks for the shout out example for Skinny Puppy. I style my beat making and bass lines after them. Big fan of evolving/dynamic/real-time delay to add motion to repetitive rhythms. BRAP ON!
I own on of their old 707’s 🥰
Love love LOVE when you bring up Skinny Puppy, and show us their techniques. Thank you!
Was about to say that exact same thing 👍
The quality of your videos and dedication to details amaze me every time 👏
Man it must take so much time and effort to produce these videos.. this is amazing, thank you!
I think your greatest achievment in transcribing drum patterns is that Timecop track. I'm in awe of how you managed to figure it out!
😂😂
0:54 The step I'm pointing to here is literally the ONLY one in the entire drum pattern that DOESN'T have a bass note under it. Why did I point there? Nobody knows. Maybe to demonstrate the exception to the rule? Yes, definitely...
😆
Your walk throughs give me hope that one day I'll be able to put together something cohesive. Thanks for the inspiration!
If there is anything to be learned from the Captain's fastidious analysis of these tracks & techniques - it's that trying stuff that doesn't necessarily 'make sense' often makes for the sickest sounds+grooves.
OMG THE JAM AT THE END!!!!! When’s the synth wave album coming out?! When?!
Thanks Jaelights! :) :) Let's see... we're only missing a TR-707 and a DeLorean and we should be good to go ;)
Every single video is awesome! The intern (I think that’s right) should have her own channel too. Magnificence.
Another pikant banger 🔥
A phenomenal and very inspiring video once again!
Keep up the good work
🤟🤖
Those drum patterns sheets are so cool!
Halcyon STILL sends chills down my spine to this very day.
12:55 Intro to the Bee Gees' Jive Talkin'! :) Great channel!
That usage of tombs and hi hats with low filter was such a cool idea, damn! never even thought about it.
The 2 drum machine method also makes very unique sounds.
That childish gambino clave trick was mind blowing, I would never even think of adding an effect on clave but holy moly, it sounds very much like a bassy xylophone note.
A sudden change in tempo also bring such a furious and chaotic feeling to the beat, my personal favourite, although, never even thought about changing tempo in the middle.
Microtiming and Swing were also thoughful things to try, they always remind me of J. Dilla, would you ever make a video explaining Dilla beats? that might be the coolest thing to watch, I'd like to watch it for sure.
Synthwave minimalism is also such a cool trick, again blew my mind.
All these tricks seem so easy yet I couldn't even think of it, a crazy upload.
Thanks Denis!! I actually still have an unread book about Dilla lying on my shelf ;)
Great video you two. You are the best. Like an album without a filller, it's 2 o clock.
It's a pure joy to watch these videos! 🙏
Ahoy Cap'n! Dope beats on the horizon! Good stuff sir, top shelf content.
Thanks for condensing thousands of hours of practice into 20 minutes.
10k views is criminal. This is the best synth/music channel in RUclips. Can't wait for your next one!
I really liked this video! Thanks for all the drum machine ideas. Also such a beautiful design aesthetic throughout the video. Masterpiece!
fantastic as usual
Your recreation of four tet's love cry drum pattern is amazing, considering that the actual sound was achieved by layering sampled loops over each other.
i think this may be my new favourite channel - excellent tutorial here . Thank You
Thanks Cap , inspiring as always... off to the studio 😅
Excellent vid. Ace song. Keep it up
Some great ideas here! I used the “distorted kick” for a baseline in a Beastie Boys remix I did a few years ago. Working on an 80s inspired project at the moment, and the “spot fx” idea is definitely something I need to look at!
Another great video.
Amazing Video CP. I really can hear that you have become more confident (due the better knowledge you have acquired after so many hours of dedication to drum analysis). Kudos to you. PS. Where i can listen to your originals.. keep up the good work. Cheers Sid
You are always the best, always very informative and full of content and No Unnecessary Talk. Love it
Lovely video! Thanks Captain Pikant, I very much enjoyed this!
Great as always. I would maybe just add triplets to the list. The last track has that gallop of triplets on a 12/8 beat.
Always get a lot from your great vids
Love this! Have you explored dissecting early Disclosure songs? Would be cool to see you recreate the Latch drums or synths
this is a fantastic tutorial
the "shifting an instrument with microtiming" trick was also heavily utilized by J Dilla!
Love the synthwave cover! Would love to see some more of this genre Pertubator, Carpenter Brut in the future
Excellent material!! 👌
I sometimes take 2:38 even further by adding fast delay with high feedback and reverb which can turn drum sounds into drones, just be careful with the levels.
Another absolutly great video and you finish it off with a banger!! Really keen on recreating it, or something that sounds similiar. Thank you!🙏🔥
So. Endlich ab ich es mal geschafft euch bei Patreon zu unterstützen. Danke für eure Videos und Zeit die ihr aufbringt.
luv your vids
Many thanks -- and I really think your Intern's manicurist deserves a separate credit.
Double credit for her then ;)
Top quality stuff.
Amazing video as ever! Where is that page from at 9:04. Would love to know
Thanks! It's a printed out page from our drum pattern transcriptions on Patreon :)
@@CaptainPikant thanks! You just got a patron :)
great vid
Interesting stuff. Years ago I had composed a bass line by triggering a synth from a drum machine; similar to your suggestion, but in the other direction :D
Freaking Master-piece of a vid!
love this!
Top content as always! Off to patreon to get the beats!
Always FUNdamental videos. Tip ‘o the hat 🧢
Would love to here your thoughts on the Man Parish - Hip Hop Be Bop drums, they definitely have a kinda shuffle or swing-ish thing going on but it's quite subtle. Also when you look at the waveform it looks like they've shifted the left in relation to the right of things somehow on certain drums, but it doesn't sound overly that way when heard in the mix? How does The Egyptian Lover get that thip sound in Egypt Egypt from an 808 - a la Tour De France? Is it something pitched up and put through tight wah or filter? Sounds like it has a slap back-esk delay on it but whats it's origin?
Great vid as always...
The first technique.... Happened to run into that by accident by happening to run a 505 midi out to a synth. Took quite a while to realise that the baseline that turned into was very similar to a Depeche mode song😂
can you make a video on the new roland p6 please i love your channel
Very interesting. But how to use the patterns from the drum machines in an actual song? How to trigger and stop the patterns where you want them to play?
You can queue patterns. Some machines also have a song mode to make a playlist of patterns or can fire off different patterns via MIDI program change messages :)
@@CaptainPikant Thank you for your reply! I tried to get the individual concepts of different devices, but found it quite hard and often counterintuitive. Eventually I used some machines as sound generators, triggering the individual instruments via midi. In modern DAW workflows, that became somewhat pointless as sounds can be played from within the computer itself. It's a shame, loosing the advantage of the microtiming and other nice functions built into the machines if played externally via midi. I'm just a hobbyist musician so I don't know much about the real possibilities. I wonder if hardware drum machines are still in use in professional music productions today.
Damned well they are. There are modern drum machines like TR 06, or recreations of mr. Uli Behringer. And others. And Akai and Roland samplers are also basically drum machines. And an original Linndrum or TR 808, 909, is about more or less as expensive second hand as selling one kidney gets you.
Most sequencers can use microtiming.
Thank you for the video.
Just wondering with the Adamski story, you could change midi note values for transmit and receive for each if the drums on my rx11. Was wondering if this could have happened on Adamski's machine, hence the appare mismatch
As a side note, this facility allowed for melodic exploration. You'd reassign intelligent note values to the drums (kick to the root say, closed hats to the 5th etc.) and use your drum pattern or song to trigger an external synth via those midi values. With a bit of adjusting note values on the rx11 to taste, changing tempo, and playing the synth back through fx, you could get the basis of an ambient track. The results were agreeably unpredictable but remained musical as the notes played by the synth reflected the underlying patterns of the rhythm parts.
Hey Paul, that's a good point! Following your comment we read through the RX120 manual, but we couldn't find any option to reassign the MIDI notes for the instruments, so maybe that feature didn't make it from the RX11 to its succesor :)
The videos are awesome!!, Do you guys know your mbti type?
Subbed
Have you watched Alex Balls video on Human League? There's a hidden aspect to some early drum machines.
Oh if you mean the built-in microtiming of the LinnDrum samples then yes, that's super interesting! :)
Bjorks song is the bolero
I believe you are right, it was inspired by the Bolero. In an interview Björk said that she showed Ravel's Bolero to Mark Bell to give him an idea of what she was aiming for :)
Mopedbart! 🎉
Update! From my last post 5 minutes ago I'm after as you described in your Analyzing Kraftwerk vid "..the lazer-clicky sync-trigger sound." Is this from an 808???
Hey Don, you can indeed get that laser clicky sync trigger sound from the sync output of the 808. We tried this with the RD-8 and it worked pretty well :)
Am I first?
Yes
😂
Second!!!
Top Quality stuff!!