TIMPANI

Program epic orchestral percussion in your DAW with this tutorial

The timpani, also know as kettledrums, are the large, copper-shelled drums often seen at the back of the orchestra, called upon by composers to deliver thunderous percussive impact of a kind that no other instrument can. Rather like the tom toms in a drum kit, timps are tuned to the key of the piece in which they’re used, giving them a melodic role as well as rhythmic.

Played with mallets, timpani are known for their big, resonant sound. While they might not seem like the most obvious thing to fly into a contemporary dance or pop track, when used appropriately – and probably under the concealing canopy of heavy effects processing – they can yield interesting results. In this tutorial and its accompanying video, I’ll show a few ways in which the timps can be employed in a dance music context. I’ll be eschewing the prerecorded rolls and other articulations of my orchestral ROMpler and programming every note by hand – although there’s nothing wrong with using such compositional aids, of course.

It’s important to note that timpani aren’t really a natural fit for anything other than orchestral music, due to the sheer size and ‘roundness’ of their sound, but with that understood, here’s how you might approach working them into a dancefloor banger, if you’re adventurous enough to try…