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My mentor's blunt remark about my drum patterns stopped me cold
He told me every snare hit on my track 'D11-04' was landing exactly where people expected it, so I spent a week shifting each one 16th notes off the grid. Has anyone else had a producer call them out on being too predictable with their beats?
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emerychen11d ago
quote: "where people expected it" - yeah that's the classic prison. what i do is start by moving just the ghost notes off grid first, keep the main backbeat on 2 and 4 but make everything else swing or drag. try setting your grid to 1/16 and pull the hi hats and snares like 5-10% late, then automate the swing amount so it changes every 8 bars. that way it still feels human but doesn't sound like a glitchy mess.
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terry_bailey3511d ago
Wait, you automate the swing amount every 8 bars? That's a level of detail I never even considered. I've been out here just picking a swing percentage and sticking with it the whole track like a fool. So you're basically programming a little rhythm narrative across the song, where the feel loosens up and tightens back down. That's wild. I gotta try that tonight, I bet it makes the beat breathe way more than a static groove.
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