STUDIO STRATEGIES

Less is decidedly more with this month’s drum programming lesson

Pro producer Ed:it shows us some workflow tips

Having previously served as Editor of drummer’s bible Rhythm as well as Computer

Music, Ronan is clearly the right man for this particular gig. He’s been playing drums for over 30 years and making music with computers since the 90s. With drums and percussion being all about transient, short-lived sounds, the spaces in between the hits are even more key to the parts that they play than with sustained melodic instruments. While that space is generally intrinsic and not specifically considered when programming drum tracks, very interesting things can happen when you make it the focus, resulting in unusual grooves that transform the mood of a composition.

Adding space to a drum line isn’t exactly hard to do: just delete notes as required to thin it out, paying careful attention to the rest of the music going on around it. Mind you, what I’m not talking about here is simply deleting everything that doesn’t fall on the beat – space and silence are at their most effective when the hits in between them form interesting rhythmic shapes, rather than simply being numerically halved or quartered in linear fashion.

Clearly, then, if you’re starting off from a busier part, as opposed to programming from scratch, that part needs to be more complex than a backbeat kick/snare with regular eighthnote hi-hats.

In this tutorial and the video that comes with it, I’ll be turning a busy, skittish drum beat into a more spaced-out, half time-esque version of its former self.