by Dave Mattacks
Welcome back everybody to “Back to Basics.” This is section two with your basic drummer, Dave Mattacks. I want to talk very briefly about drum machines. Before you all turn the page, I think you’ve probably read and heard that we all have to try to make them our friend and not see them as the enemy. I want to talk a little about basic programming. I’m not a drum programmer per se, and it’s not a particular avenue that I wish to pursue, but hopefully this brief segment will clarify some things for you. The area that I find myself predominately working in is with songwriters and singers. I often get to the studio and am asked, “can we do this track to a click?” and/or “can you give us a click?”
Dave Mattacks started out playing with Big Bands before joining the influential folk-rock group Fairport Convention. His extensive discography includes work with Fairport Convention, Paul McCartney, Elton John, George Harrison, Jimmy Page, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Richard Thompson, XTC, Jethro Tull, Joan Armatrading, Brian Eno, George Martin and Nick Drake, to name a few. www.dmattacks. co.uk
I did hear one story from a wonderful bass player friend of mine who worked with a young band. The young band said to him, “Would you like to do this with a click?” and my bass player friend said, “yes, I think this would be a good idea.” The drummer turned around, clicked his sticks together and then counted the number in. We’re going to get a little bit more complex than that, but the point of this discussion really is that if you’re going to work in a recording studio it’s really helpful to have something that I refer to as ‘listener anduser friendly’, to play along with.
Let me give you a very brief example of the worst kind of click that you can listen to in a recording studio. I affectionately refer to this as the “spike in the air.” Mattacks Ex. 1 - CD Track 16
I can’t think of anything worse than just that cowbell. The other thing that’s bad about it is that there’s a whole world in between those quarter notes, meaning there’s a lot of room for error. So, what I did was I bought myself a cheap drum machine and I programmed a whole lot of very simple patterns to make it a little more listener friendly. In other words, it makes it easier for us as drummers to play along to, and it makes it more enjoyable for instrumentalists and singers to play along to. The main thing about it is there’s no hiding place. When you hear that pattern, there’s a lot of room for error there. If you hear for example this pattern, you’ll know what I mean. Mattacks Ex. 2 - CD Track 17
That’s a lot nicer to play along to. Also there’s less room for mistakes, especially if you’re playing something with a 16th note group. Even if you’re just playing quartner notes on top of that, you’re going to hear very clearly where you fall, and, when and if you fall incorrectly. Let me give you another example with a slightly different feel, such as this. Mattacks Ex. 3 - CD Track 18
Those are just some 1-bar patterns that I’ve programmed. As I said, for the sake of maybe a couple of hundred dollars, it’s a good thing to take into a session with you. It’ll make your life in the studio a lot easier, and hopefully it’s going to be more enjoyable for the other musicians, singers and instrumentalists to play along to as well.
That’s simply a dotted feel. In other words, that might be a slow shuffle. Of course there are a lot of other different tempos and feels. And though you can change the tempo very quickly, it’s good to have something like this next example programmed and ready to go. Mattacks Ex. 4 - CD Track 19
What I’m going to do now is play along in three different feels. I’m going to leave the tempo pretty much the same, but I’m just going to play along for a minute or so with different feels. The dotted feel, the straight feel, and then I’m also going to demonstrate one in 6/8, too. Dotted Feel Mattacks Ex. 5 - CD Track 20
Straight Feel
Mattacks Ex. 6 – CD Track 21
Once again, this is another demonstration of what you don’t want to hear from a click. I’ll just play that and then I’m going to change it to the pattern that I think is more listener friendly, then play along with that for just a few bars. Bad Click, Straight 6 feel Mattacks Ex. 7 – CD Track 22
This is a brief addendum to the whole discussion on drum machines. When you program those patterns (filling up those bars with multiple sounds/voices), and you listen back to the drum kit that was just recorded, with or without any other instruments playing along with it, there is a tendency for everything to sound really good if you’re listening back to performances with the drum machine included in the playback. The drum machine can make things sound a lot better and groovier than they may actually be. So it’s really important that when you start monitoring in the control room, and you’re listening to actual takes of songs, to not listen to the track with the drum machine in, because it can lull you into a false sense of security about the feel and aspects of the song. It most definitely affects the swing and just the general performance. You have to learn to evaluate it without the drum machine. You may want to use the drum machine initially to check that your performance is lined up, but it’s important in terms of the piece of music not to include the drum machine, unless of course you’re planning to use the drum machine in the piece of music.
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