Hey guys! I have a few questions to ask: 1) Is it good practice to match the kick's pitch to that of the bassline? I find that trying to do so cut's out much of the kick's high end. 2) Aside from the typical percussion programming used in psytrance, I'm having trouble figuring out how to use percussion for breaks, fills, etc. Any suggested reading on this matter? Boombolé! Greetings from Portugal!
I know of a few people that do match the pitch. I don't bother. Also, if you want to cut the high-end off a kick, just use a parametric EQ. Reading?? Nope. What you want to do is some listening Just find a pattern you like, from an artist you like, and have a go at copying their drum patterns. When I was first starting producing when I was at college, in lessons we used to 'copy' a famous track, just as practice for the techniques used. It's by no meens a way i'd recommend writing music of your own, but it will help you learn new drum patterns and processes. Good luck
Tuning the kick refers to the end of the kick, and the pitch it finishes on - I have no idea what level your production skills are at, so I apologise in advance if you already know this, I always reckon it is best to start at the beginning though! As tuning a kick only affects the tail of the sound, it shouldn't affect the uppers of the kick in any way, shape, or form Personally, I don't bother - it can be a nice affect, but then, so can not tuning your kick. As to making percussion on breaks and fills, no, no suggested reading that I know of I'm afraid - the only method I can suggest that I know works (because it is what I did) is practise, practise, practise; it takes years, but you'll get there in the end, perseverance is the key in this game!
You're right Speakafreaka, bad choice of wording on my behalf! Alrighty then, I'll have a go at emulating drum patterns, that does seem to be the best approach to take. It seems that a fair amount of people choose to use pre-made loops though! Thanks for the replies so far guys.
Tip I got from cameron is to have some boost at 2k then again on 5k on the kick to improve the attack action, handy nonetheless and esp if you're losing its top end. Even better, use speaka's psykick or even bazzism if you feel like splashing cash to synthesize the kick right in tune in the first place.
a shortcut you can take to emulating those fills you want is to find a pre-made loop and bring it into your DAW look at where the hits lie in the loop and copy them. once you have the basis of the rhythm you can chuck away the loop and set about making yours more interesting.
NabLa: I used to use bazzism for all of my kicks, but I've since left cubase and started using logic; it is an absolutely fantastic tool though! I'll also give that a try arghhh, it would simplify the process greatly! Offtopic: Give this a listen, phenomenal local producer: http://www.myspace.com/bunkerjack (I recommend listening to Virus!)
Encouragement based advice - my percussion was SO shit when I started, I had no idea what I was doing! Simply trying to make it sound better on every track it quickly got much better
