How important is it to mix up drum patterns?

[timaeus222]

First off, thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. I don't think I can respond adequately to everyone who has posted in this topic, but I do appreciate everyone commenting and helping me reflect on the question at hand. A few main points:

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@SnappleMan - thank you for posting Billie Jean, because that was one of the examples I was thinking about when I was coming up with the question for the topic. Some songs seem to work perfectly fine with 1 or 2 drum patterns for the whole song. I guess it is a question of rhythm vs. just-drum-beats, something to consider how it fits into the overall sonic picture of the song you are trying to make.

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@Radiowar: the problem of putting everything in by mouse is that there is a tendency to sound mechanical, esp on FL piano roll sequencer. Another weakness is not knowing what people mean when they say fills and quantization (sorry Legion*)! The strength though is a good deal of control over the nature of the beat, allowing for repetition or variation as need be. It is good though to think in terms less of 'drums - strings - brass - etc' and 'rhythm section - lead section - backup section - etc' from time to time.

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Billie Jean works mainly because of the non-percussive instruments, especially the filler vocals (WHOO! EEHEE! ). Sometimes good drum sample selection/layering can make something sound less repetitive because you like the sound of it, and the way you write the non-percussive elements as well as their timbres helps too. From what I've observed, I think if you like something objectively, it tends to sound less repetitive to you than to someone else who doesn't like something objectively.

I put everything in by mouse, but I'm a pianist, so I naturally think about how velocities "should" be. Developing intuition like that is going to help reduce mechanical sequencing, at least, in the velocity variation aspect. Then, in some cases, mechanical rhythm in the sequencing is OK, such as a non-live performance containing piano (and it gets more OK as more elements cover up the piano, for example). Fills are things such as tom/snare/rimshot rolls, open HH usages, etc. Quantization is basically perfect rhythm in the sense of computers, as "perfect" rhythm in the sense of humans is imperfect rhythm in the sense of computers.

Edited September 16, 2013 by timaeus222

[Necrox]

My problem with drums is actually too much variation. It seems like a lot of what I make becomes an IDM break.

[EC2151]

My problem with drums is actually too much variation. It seems like a lot of what I make becomes an IDM break.

With a lot of my earlier, earlier, still-learning-how-to-use-FL compositions, that was the exact same problem. I think the reason is that back then I didn't listen to Michael Jackson and know how good a simple kick-snare-kick-snare could be!

[Meteo Xavier]

Maybe too much variation can be useful:

[WillRock]

Depends on the style honestly. Assuming you're talking about acoustic drums, I find that OCR seems to prefer more variation on drums than you'd usually hear in a general song. Sure bands like led zeppelin/dream theater will have some complex drum patterns, but plenty of songs are very standard 4/4 bass snare stuff with few fills or differences throughout. Generally, you want to always have velocity change ups to keep the humanisation, but unless you want to, you can keep the variation to a minimum imo. Rhythm change ups are cool for the different sections and pretty much standard, but otherwise, variations are done very subtlety. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, particularly when you look into progressive rock/jazz/fusion shit, just check out songs like burn by deep purple, which have verses that are continuous drums fills. Its really up to you, there is no "rule" for it, but OCR itself likes to have drums that aren't on auto-pilot.

[Chernabogue]

Try to stick your drum patterns to your lead sections.

Example:

Melody 1/Lead 1 -- Drum pattern 1

Melody 2/Lead 2 -- Drum pattern 2

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This way, things tend not to be too boring, and as drum patterns change with the actual melody, people WILL notice the change easily. Just avoid 8+ bars sections, or add fills between 2 runs of the same drum pattern.

[BlackPanther]

Some insightful information in this thread, thanks guys.