Ok, so I have all the gear but for now my music can be described as "acoustic" - e.g. have no idea how to approach laying the drums down. Even something simple, like standard 4/4 tom+hi-hat. I got cubase SX and enough gear to make a pro envious but absolutely no clue where to start with drums. When i hear a buildup in songs I am ready to explode with envy coz i got no idea how to do that. If you're in a PA/NY/NJ area I am even willing to pay for lessons! Please help me turn my acoustic into dance!

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Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition

All i can say is expermient (listen to your favorite tracks and attempt to copy them for now) and look at some threads in this forum

tezz

listen to the amatuer section on here

if you hear something you like drop a PM to the TA asking for advice and most of them on here are cool enough to explain how to ge it

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This was a place of fun and madness that is sadly long gone now

All the best to all the UKTAs

08/01/16

Big Dave/little Dave

Here are the basics:

Your drums consist of kicks, snares, claps, hats, and cymbals.

The standard pattern goes like this:
K-h-X-h-K-h-X-h

where each character is a single beat, and:
K = kick
X = kick + snare or kick + clap
h = hat (usually hi-hat)
- = nothing

This is a very simple pattern.

For build-ups you should put snares on every beat, and make them increasingly "aggressive" by putting two snares or even four in one beat (you can do that easily in any prog). Your resulting pattern would look like "ssssssssssssssss".

Use cymbals to demarcate the start of a section or a subsection. Use a reverse-cymbal, called a sweep or a rev, to "prepare" the listener for the start of a new section. So the rev will be put at the very end of the previous section. For emphasis, remove any drums from the very last subsection of your current section, so that the track "plunges" full spead ahead.

Hats are important because they create a "drive" for your track, a groove energy. Place them between the kicks first, which is the most basic version possible, and then add other hats here and there by experimenting. Note how the groove changes slightly.

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