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Recording a Basic Drum Groove

Written by Bad Mister on May 16, 2018. Posted in 2010s.

RECORDING A BASIC DRUM GROOVE
SONG MODE
It is possible to record your own original drum tracks. This can be done in Pattern mode or in Song mode. The Motif XF has a new feature that allows you to PLAYBACK loops in SONG mode. This is extremely useful if you are working on a composition and wish to play along with a basic drum groove, rather than just simply playing with a metronome. Often a drum groove can give a better “feel” for what you want to accomplish. Therefore you may want to temporarily setup a drum groove to cycle while you are recording “linearly” in SONG mode. Later you can go back and construct a more complete drum track adding fill-ins and variations.

From the main Song screen press the [F3] TRACK and then [SF2] LOOP. Here you can set any track to loop from any measure to any measure. There is a column for the loop icon – when showing this will indicate that the track is set to cycle. In the screen shot (above) you can see that track 1 is set to LOOP between 001 and the top of measure 005 – this creates a 4-measure cycle.

Say you record the first four measures with a drum kit, you can then set measures to loop continuously by setting the START parameter to 001:01 and the END parameter to 005:01, then set the LOOP On by pressing [INC/YES] when you place the cursor in the LOOP box. This will playback looping the first four measures. Yes, you must set this so that the measure:beat region is inclusive. For details on this see page 143 of the Reference Manual “Loop Playback Settings”.

The loop can be set at any particular point in the composition. For example, many songs begin with a musical introduction, and the drums come in after some time with a build up and a roll into a crash, before settling into a groove. For example, the piano may start the song for 8 measures alone, but in measure 7 and 8 the drums do a build up and then drops into a groove at measure 9. You can set the loop to go between measure 009~017. Use your imagination.

The SONG LOOP function is here as a ‘work-in-progress’ tool and you will probably finalize a complete drum track before completing the SONG. You can use the arpeggiator or the PATTERN mode to create specific drum measures to finalize a complete drum performance.

Recording your own original drum Pattern
You may opt to use PATTERN mode for drum track creation. Pattern mode itself is designed around how old-style drum machines worked. That is, you have a set number of measures that will automatically loop during the RECORD process and allow you add data on each pass. This became popular as most drum machine purchasers where not drummers, and therefore needed multiple passes to complete a complete sounding drum pattern. Also memory on early drum machines was extremely limited. You could record a maximum of 1 or 2 measures at a time… then you linked (chained) those short patterns together to make a drum composition.

You can record by overdubbing (adding while listening to what you have so far) as the phrase cycles around. If you have never played drums before, not to worry… programming drum grooves from a keyboard is not for everyone. But you may find that you have an undiscovered talent for it anyway.

Drummers are not even aware sometimes that they make the best drum programmers, because there is such a thing as “thinking like a drummer”. The most convincing drum grooves are those that sound as if they could actually be played. The principal keys (notes) for the basic drum kit are found between C1-B2 on the keyboard. There you will find a kick or bass drum, several different permutations of snare (full, sidestick, handclap), toms, high hats, rides, crashes, tambourine, vibra-slap and cowbell. Above this you will get into full on percussion and other miscellaneous stuff. Below C1 you will find alternate kicks, snare rolls, brushes, etc.

The more you listen to good drummers the more you will be able to effectively program convincing drum grooves. One word of advice though, nothing says you have to emulate real drums but remember a drummer has only four limbs that they use for playing the kit. They only use two sticks and have only two feet (in most cases)… so if you have toms rolls, snare hits, high hats, crashes and rides all happening at once, just remember you have created a science fiction “virtual” drummer. Good and great programming leaves the listener unconcerned (and unaware) that it is not a real person sitting behind a real kit.

Recording Drum Grooves using the Arpeggiator
If you have no talent for programming your own drums, remember the Motif XF comes with more than 2300 drum patterns in the arpeggio section. Up to five different arpeggio types (grooves) can be assigned to the [SF] buttons. You can record while activating the different arpeggios so it is easy to outline a track with fill-ins and transitions.

• Go to PATTERN mode and assign a drum kit to Part 1 of a blank pattern.
• Press [MIXING]
• Press [EDIT]
• Press Track [1] to view PART parameters
• Press [F2] ARP MAIN
• Set the SWITCH = ON
• Set HOLD = ON
• Set CHANGE TIMING = MEASURE

This will allow the ARP to play the drums, you will not have to hold down a key manually and when you do change arpeggios they will change at the top of the next measure (making the transition between arp types occur only at the top of the next measure). It is a good idea and is recommended that you turn LOOP OFF when you record arpeggios to PATTERN mode – this is so that the sequencer STOPS automatically at the end of the LENGTH you have selected.

In general, you will see a two-letter prefix (as part of the ARP name) that will give you a clue about what type of drum groove you’ve selected. If “M” is the first letter it is for Main and the letter following is degree of complexity with B being more complex than A, C being more complex than B, and so on. “MA” for example, is a Main “A” section groove, “MB” is a Main “B” section groove. “F” as the first letter is for Fill-in, “I” is for Introduction, and “B” as the first letter is a Break. But this is in general, you can use whatever you want; wherever you want – after all, it is your music. Simply pick the drum arpeggio type by ear – not necessarily by what is being suggested by the prefix.

At the bottom of the screen you can select from the more than 2300 “DrPc” category (Drum and Percussion) arpeggio types – listed between #3815 and #5723.

As a quick example make the following assignments:
• Press [SF1] ARP1 and assign:
Bank = PRE
Category = DrPc
Sub-Category = Rock
Type = 4479 “MA_Standard Rock”

In turn assign the following:
• Press [SF2] ARP2
Type = 4480 “MB_StandardRock”
• Press [SF3] ARP3
Type = 4481 “MC_StandardRock”
• Press [SF4] ARP4
Type = 4482 “FA_StandardRock”
• Press [SF5] ARP5
Type = 4483 “FB_StandardRock”

Activate the main [ARPEGGIO ON/OFF] button.

You can hear that #4479 (MA) is like the verse, and #4480 (MB) the drummer opens the groove to the ride cymbal (chorus), and you can use #4482 (FA) as fill-in to transition between the main A and the main B grooves. And you can use #4483 (FB) to transition between the main B and main C grooves #4481. That is how it is designed to work… but you do not have to do this at all – just file that away in your memory banks. There are no rules about using any of this. You can decide to use a Fill-in as a main groove – it’s your music.

If you wanted to record yourself making these types of transitions, you simply press [RECORD], then press [F2] ARPEGGIO, and you are given access to the [SF] buttons controlling the arpeggio types. Now when you press the PLAY button to start the transport – you can still access the [SF1]-[SF5] buttons in real time. You can interactively recall Fill-ins and move from arpeggio to arpeggio. This can be done in PATTERN or in SONG mode to facilitate real-time selection of arpeggio types.

The unusual: Looking for some inspiration? Here we will give you a tip on some of the unique drum arpeggio gems that you may not discover on your own or even know about. Drum/Percussion arpeggios #6789-6810 are in a category called “Genrl” (general)

• Call up Arpeggio Type #6802 “16BeatSlice1”
These “General” arp types can be used in a unique fashion to create alternative drum patterns – you will have to use your imagination and not be afraid to experiment.

• Hold down note “C1” (kick drum). Observe that a rhythmic pattern plays.
• Add note “D1” (snare drum) – so that now you are holding down both “C1” and “D1”
• Add note “F#1” (closed hihat)
• Add note “A#1” (open hihat)

Any held notes will create a drum pattern – the last four notes played will be active. Alternatively you can play individual notes and trigger a pattern that way. For example, in succession play a tom-tom fill using D2, C2, B1, A1

There are several ROLL arp types. To use these you may want to set the ARP’s LOOP = OFF
This is found by pressing [F3] ARP OTHER (shown below)

At [F3] OTHER you will find also the TRIGGER MODE parameter, which can be set to “Gate” or to “Toggle”. Gate is the normal setting and is easily understood – when you press a key the arp plays and depending on the HOLD setting, when you let go it will stop. Toggle is the setting that allows the first touch to start playback of the arpeggio phrase and the next touch stops it.

The ACCENT VEL THRESHOLD parameters sets a velocity level that when exceeded can add pre-programmed “accent”. Refer to the DATA LIST 2 booklet to see if a particular drum arp type features VELOCITY ACCENT. Initially, this parameter maybe set to a value of 64 which can be an issue – set as you desire.

You can very much influence how an arpeggio is playing on this particular screen. Experimentation is the name of the game. For definitions of each parameter please see the Reference Manual pages 59-60.

TIPS: When composing don’t force yourself into working uncomfortably. We get many questions about should I use SONG mode or PATTERN mode when first working out ideas. This is a personal choice. Pattern mode is convenient for some things and not so much for others. Its the old hammer and nail thing. PATTERN mode, for example, is great because it cycles, but you may not think initially in a set number of measures. Perhaps you get your best ideas by opening a linear record structure and just play freely – until inspiration hits. So SONG mode is a viable option. And since Tracks can be set to LOOP in SONG mode while you are working out basic ideas, why not use it if you find linear recording more inspiring!

Don’t have a favorite mode. Learn to use the both. You would not hire a builder that only had a hammer! If all you have is a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail!

Divide Drum Track

Written by Bad Mister on May 16, 2018. Posted in MOXF.

Divide Drum Track: Drum Track Construction Tool
Let’s look at “Divide Drum Track” – which is found by pressing [JOB] > [F5] TRACK

This function is a sequencer JOB that basically allows you to use 8 tracks of the sequencer to initially construct your drum track. It can separate the different drums by their type to separate tracks. Then once you have worked out the drums you can reassemble them on to one track. This will use 8 tracks of the sequencers as a work area for drums and when you have completed your work you will clean up and free those tracks for other music data.

Concept example: You record your basic drum groove using a single KIT on a single MIDI Track. Divide Drum Track will then analyze what you played and automatically EXTRACT the different components and split them (dissolve) to separate tracks 1-8. The idea is so that you now have separate tracks for your Kicks, snares/Handclaps, cymbals, toms, percussion etc. And you have the data in separate Phrases. If your workflow is to work mainly in SONG mode, this Divide Drum Track allows you to assemble the drums as separate entity. You are going to use a PATTERN to construct the Drum Track, then you can basically do the equivalent of Cut and Paste it into the linear SONG structure. The entire power of PATTERN mode to work out the DRUMS!

Often in writing and composing you need to work things out linearly first – this is where you might use a simple Drum Loop in SONG mode as a tempo giver. Later when you have the basic structure of your composition, you can go back and build the exact drum track, with fill-ins and build-ups in just the right places. This is a case where you have the majority of the composition in a linear SONG, while you can work out the drums in PATTERN mode. Since data can be moved and copied between SONG and PATTERN mode it is not impossible to transfer a region of measures from your linear SONG to a PATTERN SECTION to work out the drum and percussion PARTS. This is where the mastery of the SEQUENCER JOBS comes into play. In this article we will introduce you to few of the JOB functions and talk about how they work in a musical context.

This will allow you to do things like quantize the different components with different swing values. In general, quantize (timing correction) can be done in the sequencer either as you record or after the fact… it can be done both permanently or non-destructively. You can now shift just the snare drum hits behind the beat… you can swing just the high hat parts… basically you can bring the full power of the sequencer editing jobs on each individual drum component.

Divide Drum Track will also allow you, if you wish, to keep the drums (permanently) on separate tracks, choose different kits. Or you can choose/audition different sounds and then assemble those sounds into a custom drum kit… the possibilities are many. However, once you have edited the timing (swing) and velocity of the performance on separate tracks you can reassemble the drums to a single track (using the “MIX TRACK” Job).

What it does:
Divide Drum Track will take your kicks and place them on tracks 1 and 2, the snare/handclap or any item that functions on the back-beat and place them on tracks 3 and 4, cymbals and other dressing on 5 and 6, toms and percussion to 7 and 8. So you can think of this JOB as a special type of EXTRACT job. There is also a specific EXTRACT EVENT [JOB] found at [F3] EVENT, that lets you take all of one particular note (or range of notes), for example, and move it to a separate phrase – which can then be ‘patched’ to a new track. This is useful for example to pull out one drum and then affect its performance data in some way and then place it back (using the MIX job). The DIVIDE DRUM TRACK Job will overwrite data in the target location. However the EXTRACT EVENT and MIX Jobs will merge the data with the target.

Depending on your final goal, you can either leave your drums divided out on separate tracks or you can reassemble them to a single track. The possibilities are there for you. As we have mentioned numerous times, there is no one-way to work. We have suggested that you might begin your composition in SONG mode using just a simple repeating drum-groove-as-metronome, you could later use the entire PATTERN mode to construct your drum track in greater detail. Moving data between the two sequencer modes is easily done with the appropriate JOB functions. Your drum track could be assembled in PATTERN mode and then moved to a linear Song, even cut and pasted to specific measures within that Song.

The Divide Drum Track is a very useful spin on the EXTRACT function – because it can intelligently sort data and give you separate phrases from a single phrase. If you, for example, originally have your drums on Track 10, when you Divide Drum Track, you wind up with your original data (phrase) assigned to track 10, and individual “divided” phrases spread out as necessary on tracks 1-8. By using a track outside of the original eight, you can maintain the original undivided phrase and get each drum category divided out by the job.

What you can do with the divided data is open for you to explore. Ever want to grab just the hihats from a particular drum groove? Ever want to quantize the hihats separately from the rest of the kit?

If you are not going to need the additional tracks then you can simply skip the “MIX TRACK” job and use tracks 9-16 for your music. But if you require the tracks for your other music, you can create a custom kit containing just the sounds you like – assembling drums into a kit is easy enough (covered in the REFERENCE Manual, page 47).

Extract Event, Mix Track and Mix Phrase Jobs
Start to see these JOB functions as inter-related tools:

Extract Event
Press [JOB]
Press [F3] EVENT
Select JOB 04: EXTRACT EVENT: This Job lets you define a measure region (even a single note) and remove that region of events by moving them to an empty track. The data is actually removed from the source track and placed in the target destination track. This allows you to remove all of one type of data, be it volume data, system exclusive data, note events, etc. You can isolate a snare drum assigned to note D1, extract it to an empty track; perform a timing edit and then place it back in with the original data using the “MIX TRACK” Job.

Mix Track
Press [JOB]
Press [F5] TRACK
Select JOB 03: MIX TRACK: This Job lets you take data from the source track and combine it with data on the destination track. It does this without deleting the source track and it merges the data with existing data on the destination (target) track. Because the source track data remains you can delete it separately or keep it to combine it with another track.

Mix Phrase (Pattern mode only)
Press [JOB]
Press [F4] Phrase
Select JOB 03: MIX PHRASE: This Job lets you take data from a PATTERN mode phrase and combine it with data of another PATTERN mode phrase. You can use this to combine data even if that data is from a different PATTERN number entirely. It is non-destructive as both the source and destination phrases will remain. When combining Phrases within the same PATTERN check the “Current Pattern” box.

Earlier in this article we discussed the “Divide Drum Track” job. What it does is use the Extract function to divide drum kit notes by kind, splitting them to empty tracks. You can then edit those tracks and finally recombine the data (if you wish) using the MIX TRACK or MIX PHRASE Jobs. If you EXTRACT a snare drum, for example, you can then select a special DRUM kit that is nothing but snare drums. These ALL Snare Drum kits (“Acoustic Snares” and “Grouped Stereo Snares”) are useful because then by simply Note Shifting the data you can audition many different snare drums in rapid succession. When you find a particular snare drum you like, you can either just leave the note ‘shifted’ to that pitch or you can identify which snare that is and edit it into your own custom KIT. (See the article on the DRUM KIT VOICE for details).

There are also ALL bass drum Kits, as well, (“All Kicks” and “Dance Kicks”) which in a similar fashion can be used to “try out” different Kick drums in rapid succession, in the context of your music! Depending on your final goal, you can either leave your drums divided out on separate tracks or you can reassemble them to a single track. If you are not going to need the additional tracks then you can simply skip the MIX TRACK job and use tracks 9-16 for your music.