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Table Of Contents
Opening:
Message From the Editor
Columns:
In Tune -- Stotes Days at a Time
Monthly Software Review -- ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1
Features:
Beat me up, Scotty -- Percussion Tips, Part I
Closing Credits:
Message From the Editor
Welcome back to our third issue of Static Line. I must admit, I am
quite proud of the response I got from the last two issues. Were already
up to 42 subscribers -- 12 more than last month. I am, however,
disappointed in the fact that no-one has written to tell us anything.
Send us feedback, wed be glad to hear it.
Well, the educational year is well under way -- at least it is here at
Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, that
means that I am starting to get busy. The bad news: This months issue
is kind of short. The good news: It is my senior year, much less active
than last year. I imagine that next month and all the following months
will yield grand issues.
Moving on with this months issue. Setec is back with the first article
of a series dealing with percussion in tracking: Beat Me Up Scotty! This
month, Louis reviews ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1. See what he has to say
in his Monthly Software Review. SiN is writing again, and he and I bring
you the music of Stote in this months In-Tune.
Im still looking for columnists and guest columns. If you have an
article or topic in mind -- anything having to do with the scene -- please
contact me so that we can get you started for next month. We especially
need someone to review demos for us.
Thank you for Reading.
--Coplan
In Tune
Stotes Days at a Time
By: Coplan and SiN
This month, we will be reviewing a titled Days at a Time by Stote
of Noise. With the closing of the music section of the Hornet Archive,
we have had quite a difficult time finding a song for this months
review. You can help make it easier for us by letting us know of songs
worthy of a public review.
Now that everything is back to the so called norm, let me explain a
litle bit about how we do this column. Typically, SiN and I will take
turns selecting a song to review. The choosers review will be shown
first. The main reason for doing this is to develop the point,
counter-point type reviews that we provide to you. As you may have
already noticed, SiN and I have very different tastes in music. By
alternating song choices, we are able to bring to you a well rounded
picture of a larger variety of music available to you. Just something
that a good review should provide.
Now, on with the show...
-- SiN --
The tune starts off setting a quite dark mood with an ambiant pads
sample offset in chns. 1 2 with a wide stereo separation...
immediately creating an open, encompassing sound. With a jump in
song speed comes a stuttering tap sample that skips along in a
irregular, fast-paced pattern. It is soon joined by a couple of other
irregular percussion samples and a kick drum. At order 15 the main beat
comes in in a striking, unexpected manner that works very nicely. The
first thing that strikes me is the complexity of the percussion, it is
very interesting to listen to because the beat is NOT boom-tis boom0tis
in the least, AND the rythm is created by many samples playing their
roles and working together to make the beat. The beat varies at
transition-points and doesnt change much as a whole.. but because there
is always a new element that your ear can latch on to I find it
effective. The panning used in the percussion illustrates a good point
that EVERYONE should watch for... the tap sample bounces around to a
different panning position with every hit.. but it doesnt do it to the
extreme.. I think more in IT mods than FT2 mods that tracker get
caught up in what the panning LOOKS like, rather than how it benefits
the song... every tracker should check the song with headphones because
extreme panning can make the listener not only annoyed but uncomfortable
too...
Various different pads come in to accompany the percussion at
different point because in the first part of the song, the percussion is
the lead. There is a mood change at order 57 where it feels like the
song it is building into something.. which it is. At order 65 a synth
pattern joins the fray.. now, I WILL say that musically this new pattern
fits in nicely in tune and timing but the mood of the piece now swings
from dark to almost hopeful... the synth pattern actually reminds me of
Axel Foleys theme from Beverly Hills Cop 1, note I said reminds me of,
not sounds like... After this synth comes in, the percussion fades
and we have a lead change... with some nice accenting pads in the
background... this percussionless section then fades back to the dark
ambiant samples that started the song.. and it nicely loops back onto
itself again to restart...
Technically this song is well done... good quality, well chosen
samples, but I would have liked to have seen a little more variety in
some sections... like ords. 33-36 where basically the same pattern is
repeated four times... if as a tracker you vary the 3rd pattern out of
the four, I find that just when your brain is falling into the mindless
groove that small change will prevent it from completing its journey...
listen to your tracks when theyre done, if you EVER find your mind
wandering at any point, put some variation in there....
Overall, I loved this song, its the style of music I like, it reminds
me of the Canadian Industrial group Download in the sound, but not in
the chaotic nature of Downloads sense of timing and sample use... There
are comments of a somewhat graphic yet philosophical nature in the
Song-Text section, but I am reviewing the tune, not the tracker.. Ill
let you make your own opinions about those... The last thing I am going
to mention is how it is balanced not only right to left, but
frequency-wise too, be careful using alot of bass or treble or one
pitch, the song quickly becomes messy and muddy sounding, losing
definition and impact...
Well thats it for now, if you are a fan of non-mainstream music I
would suggest giving this one a download...
SiN, out.
-- Coplan --
First off, the opening sequence to the song tends to be slightly
redundant. Though it is common in many mainstream songs, as well as
scene songs, long introductions arent always something to be desired.
The goal of the introduction is to lure a listener into the song. That
doesnt necessarily hold true here. On the other hand, the percussion
is done very well. Its obvious that some thought has been put into the
dynamics of the song since the kick base has a very unique style.
TECHNO and DANCE WRITERS -- this is proof that you can do more with the
kick base than a steady monotonous beat. Try it, it works.
I agree with SiN that the transition at order 15 is very well done. If
you notice, not a whole lot has literally changed with the song. The
cymbol crash is the most obvious, as well as the addition of two kinds
of snares. But notice, it isnt just that. The emphasis on the base
drum changes as well as its volume is increased. Do be aware of this
very common oversight -- one instrument, same note in two channels.
Notice the base drum is placed in two channels with the same pitch, and
the same panning position. For sample quality reasons, the sample
amplification feature isnt always good. When you must use more than
one channel for a given intrument with the same note, you must pan the
channels seperately. Pan them to opposite ends of the spectrum. Ive
said this many times before -- GUS and Interwave based sound cards will
actually change the sound of an instrument slightly when played twice
at the same pitch. Dont overlook this, even if you use a Sound
Blaster.
As with the opening, I found the closing of the song to be much longer
than it needed to be. In fact, I dont know exactly where the closing
began. In traditional styles of music, the closing often has a
completely different feel than the rest of the song -- a non-musician
listening to the song should be able to tell where the closing begins.
Think of that when you work on your closings, as well as your openings.
Overall, I found the song relaxing. It was good to play in the
background as I cleaned my room. However, when I sat down to analyze
it, I found that the song lacks a lot of things. For one, it lacks a
definative climax. It also lacks variety. A song this long should
allow several mood changes, something to keep the listener listening. I
personally had to struggle hard to listen to the whole thing through.
Im not saying that I didnt like the song, because I do. But when you
get down the the technical aspects of the song, and overall aesthetics,
I have heard better songs.
When you read my reviews, you must keep two things in mind. First, all
my background deals with traditional instruments and traditional theory
-- many of you call it Classical or Orchestral music. Second, I judge
a song mostly on its aesthetics and technical methods in that order.
In my opinion, I think that they are two completely different things.
However, in a review such as this, often times only the technical
aspects of a song come out.
Until next time...
Coplan
Listening Info:
Coplan: IT 2.14 useing default Interwave drivers Koss Standard
Headphones and his home stereo.
SiN: IT 2.15 useing MMX PNP drivers volume ramping @48kHz MikIT
Senheiser Studio-Reference Headphones and his home stereo.
Song Information:
Title: Days at a Time
Author: Stote
Filename zipped/unzipped: no-dayz.zip / St-dayz.it
File Size: 1,050k
Source: ftp://ftp.noisemusic.org/pub/users/wnoise/1998/no-dayz.zip
In Tune is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. SiN and Coplans opinions are not the opinions of the
Static Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend either your
own, or another persons, we can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
Montly Software Review
ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1
By: Louis Gorenfeld
In addition to BuzzTracker, theres another serious Windows 95 tracker.
ModPlug tracker doesnt try to do anything spectacular, its just your
basic tracking program. It saves in IT, XM, S3M, MOD and WAV and loads
in MOD, S3M, XM, IT, MTM, OKT, MDL, 669, FAR, WAV, MID, ULT and WOW.
There are plenty of problems with this program. The first is the
interface. It looks nice, but is very hard to track a real song in. The
main problem is that the pattern editor screen isnt big enough and
takes up less than half the screen, which makes you have to scroll
around too much. This can be adjusted but after a while of flipping
screens and readjusting the windows, it gets to be too much of a pain.
My suggestion is to disable the toolbar and free up a little bit of
space.
My next complaint are the tracking controls. Its lain out in 3-octave
style, and there is no way to disable the 3rd octave besides assigning
the notes to controls not in use. Luckily, it comes with presets:
Linear 3-octaves default and pretty useless, Impulse Tracker and Fast
Tracker 2. Oh yeah, and the interface is a little slow when switching
screens.
Now for the reasons why you should download this program: It supports
MIDI in if you happen to be better at keyboard than tracking, it kind
of not really supports filters, it has a fairly nice graphical sample
and instrument editor in which you can normalize, amplify, resample and
reverse the sound, zoom in and out, and cut and paste chunks of the
sample, it will automatically clean up unused patterns and samples to
save space, and it has a built-in wave writer.
After you do a lot of adjusting settings, this isnt really that bad of
a program. If youre looking for a windows tracker, I would go for this
one for now since it saves all the popular formats and is more finished
than Buzz.
Rating: 2/4
Min. Req: P90 or better and 8 MB RAM
Rec. Req: 486dx4 or better and 16 MB RAM
Platform: Windows 95
Homepage: http://www.castlex.com/modplug
Louis Gorenfeld
Beat me up, Scotty
Percussion Tips, Part I
By: Jesper Pedersen / Setec
Percussion is too often a topic that is regarded as being one of
the easiest things to track. Something that just needs to be taken care
of. The truth however is that a proper drum section is just as important
as the melody line or the chord progression. If done poorly, it can drag
an otherwise great tune into something that is less remarkable. On the
other hand, if the percussion is well-handled, it can be a major factor
in creating a great tune.
I will try to present you with some basic tips on percussion as
well as some ideas on how to improve your beats. Some of these things
might have been said before, but they can never be repeated too often.
This first part will be very basic, for trackers with little
experience in tracking percussion. There are still some tips that could
be valuable for experienced trackers as well, though.
BEAT ME UP, SCOTTY
PART Ia - Adding some flavour Basics
Most of this part will be about adding some flavour to a very basic
beat, providing you with various ways to add more feel to it. Attached
to this issue of Static Line should be three of my drum samples. These
are used in the following example, the file drum01.smp being the first
instrument and so forth. If you want to use your own samples instead
these are the proper assignments :
sample 1 - Bass Drum
sample 2 - Snare
sample 3 - Hihat
Note that using your own samples might make some of the later tips
sound wrong. But more on that later, on with the first chapter...
Imagine this rather basic and generic drum track ft2-style :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
08 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
09 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0A --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0D --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0F --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
this, and all following examples, is ment to be played at 125bpm
and speed 06
Now hopefully you are all thinking that you would never ever create
a beat as simple and generic as this. Not to say dead boring. First of
all, this is probably the most overused rock beat ever. Also, the hihat
line is sure to make your ears hurt. So what can you do to impro- ve
this?
For starters, let us change that horrific hihat line. A good place
to start is to add different volumes to some of the notes. The easiest
approach would be this :
C-5 3 -- 000
--- -- 000
C-5 3 20 000
--- -- 000
C-5 3 -- 000
--- -- 000
C-5 3 20 000
And so forth. Even though this is quite simple it is still a lot
better than the previous. The next thing I would do is something that
might make a lot of you twist your faces. Because this is one of the
things that is regarded as a no-no for a lot of trackers playing the
hihat at different notes. I would do it like this :
C-5 3 -- 000
--- -- 000
B-4 3 20 000
--- -- 000
C-5 3 -- 000
--- -- 000
B-4 3 20 000
This makes the downbeats feel more accented and basically just
makes it sound more like a real hihat. Just do not overdo the tip of
playing the hihat at different notes. The maximum should be a range of
three semi- tones and no more. A hihat sample has a very narrow range of
playable frequencies. Crossing that limit will only make it sound bad.
Okay. Now the hihat is a little less generic, but the percussion is
still dead boring. Before improving further on the hihat let us take a
look at the rest of the beat. If we count 1 2 3 4 we have the
bass drum hitting at each 1 and the snare at each 3. This is as boring
as it gets. For just a little bit of flavour we have added that extra
bassdrum at the first 4. But this is far from enough.
First of all, let us try not to have the bassdrum hit at each 1.
First off, try something like this :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
09 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0D --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0F --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
See how simply delaying the second bass drum two ticks makes the
beat much more funky and less generic? This is because that even though
being the standard, simply placing the bass drum at each second downbeat
is very! boring.
Well now we have spiced up the bass drum just a bit, let us try to
add some flavour to the snare :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
09 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000
0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0D --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0F --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000
Once again more flavour, less generic. Look at the snares we
added. They are positioned at points where nothing is playing, not even
the hihat. If you take a look at the previous examples we might as well
have halfed the length of those and played them at half the speed.
Because we only used each second row. This way, adding snares in
between, we make the beat sound faster and much richer in sound.
But try to listen to it once more. Those snares at 0C and 0F sound
wrong in some way, right? Because they are not on downbeats they should
not have this much accent. In other words, we need to lower the volumes
of these. Try this :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
09 --- -- 000 C-5 2 20 000 --- -- 000
0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0D C-5 1 20 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0F --- -- 000 C-5 2 10 000 --- -- 000
Much better. It sounds much more like a real drummer playing now.
See the extra bassdrum that I added at 0D? This compliments the way the
snare hits a lot of upbeats. It is a good idea to make the bassdrum hit
a few upbeats as well. Otherwise you get a percussion where the two of
them do not compliment eachother and this is something that they
should.
PART Ib - Accents
So what is important to be aware of, when tracking the percussion,
is which notes are to be accented and which are not. If you simply make
all notes accented you will get the kind of beat that we started out
with. The more variaty you put into the accents, the better percussion
you will end up with.
So how do you alter the amount of accent on a note? Well, we have
looked at the simplest way of doing it by changing the volume of the
note. But even though being the most used method, it is far from being
the only one.
One way that I think is very useful but too rarely seen is doing
a volume slide on the note. For example, in the above I would maybe make
the last snare at 0F look something like this instead :
0F C-5 2 20 A0A
For all you Impulse Trackers the A is D in IT.
I think this is a much better way of doing it. Some trackers I have
seen using the cut note command instead, but this makes it sound rather
rough. I personally find this method much more useful. This is one tip
that depends very much on the sample. Some other samples than the one I
have used might require a faster or a slower fade, and maybe the volume
needs to be altered as well. You will easily be able to figure this out
though. It is just a matter of experimenting really.
So by using voluming and volume slides you can get almost the
excact accent you want, and you can even have two kinds of low accents
low volume or a fast cut.
But there is yet another way of doing it. The offset command is a
very powerful tool when it comes to getting the most out of your
samples. Try doing this with the two upbeat snares :
09 C-5 2 -- 905
0F C-5 2 20 907
The IT command for offset is O
What you accomplish by this is making it sound like you actually
use more than one snare sample. The effect can be rather amazing if
applied properly. Note that I removed the voluming on the snare on 09.
When you do offsets like these you will most likely get a sample of
lower volume, since most snare samples fade rather fast. So both
applying the offset and the lower volume would make the snare much less
accented. You can still apply a mix of the two commands like I do with
the last snare though.
This is also a very sample-dependent effect, some snares might not
sound good like this. Once again, experiment, try different values.
So you actually have three different ways of adjusting the accent
of a drum. This is a very powerful tool that can really improve your
percussion once you get the hang of it. It will actually make the
listener think that you used many more drum samples or some sort of
drumloop. Variation is the key word once more. A real drummer is not
able to hit a drum at the exact same way over and over again.
PART Ic - The final touch
Take a look at the beat from before, spiced up further :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F07
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 R01 --- -- F07
07 --- -- 000 C-5 2 10 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
09 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 905 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F05
0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F07
0D C-5 1 20 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
0F C-5 1 -- 000 C-5 2 20 907 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
10 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F07
11 C-5 1 10 A06 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
12 C-5 1 30 000 C-5 2 10 R03 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
13 --- -- 000 C-5 2 10 903 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
14 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
15 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
16 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 R01 --- -- F07
17 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
18 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
19 --- -- 000 C-5 2 20 A08 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F05
1A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
1B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
1C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F07
1D C-5 1 20 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
1E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 -- 000 --- -- F07
1F --- -- 000 C-5 2 20 906 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
note : R01 equals Q01 in Impulse Tracker
First take a look at the hihat line. This has really changed.
Instead of a single B-4 note before each accented hihat I have put two
of rising volume. And on some of these I have applied a retrig command
to the first one This command should be used carefully, some samples
will sound very bad when applied to such a fast retrig. Anyway they
should only be used with low volumes, unless you are going for a very
different sound. Furthermore the hihat doesnt hit each fourth row
anymore, look at row 0C. There used to be an accented hihat here, but
now there is nothing. This is to compliment the action of the snare and
bassdrum at this point. Listen to it and you will hopefully see...
The snare has been spiced up even more, with a small crescendo at row
12. All of the action here should make sense to you by now.
The new bass drum track is rather interesting. Where the bass drum
used to hit at row 10 it has been moved to strike at 0F instead. This is
rather unexpected and really adds to the inventive sound of the beat.
Also note how the snare and bass drum compliment eachother, especially
around rows 0F-14.
Note that I do not use any offset commands on the bass drum. You
should normally avoid this, since it will sound wrong and probably also
click quite a lot.
Just to add to the funkiness I threw in the extra channel with the
variating 7/5 speed. This is a very easy way to spice up the
percussion, but it should only be used when it fits the atmosphere of
the tune.
This is miles from what we started out with. You now have a beat
that has depth, variation I could have thrown in even more and most
impor- tantly it is no way near being boring. And this has been
accomplish with only three samples! Imagine what you could do if you
threw in a second sample for some of the snares as well as a soft bass
drum.
Now go and experiment on your own with your own samples. Try out
all of the tips and ideas that I have granted you with. Open one of your
tunes, one with a generic percussion, and try to spice it up.
Experiment...
Setec / Immortal Coil
This is the first part in a series of percussion tips and ideas. Later
articles will discuss panning, drumloop usage and how to adjust your
percussion to fit the progression of your song. Comments and ideas on
topics to discuss should be mailed to me at: setecjp@hotmail.com
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@thunder.temple.edu
Assistant Editors: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@ironweb.com
Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net
Web Manager: Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@kosmic.org
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@thunder.temple.edu
Darkheart / Zach Heitling / darkhart@san.rr.com
Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net
SiN / Ian Haskin / ian.h@sympatico.ca
Staff Writers: Acell / Jamie LeSouef / jlesouef@melbpc.org.au
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@kosmic.org
Setec / Jesper Pederson / setecjp@hotmail.com
Technical Support: Draggy / Nicholas St. Pierre / draggy@kosmic.org
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See you next month!
-eof---------------------
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September 888 888 888
1998 888 d8888oo,
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Table Of Contents
Opening:
Message From the Editor
Columns:
In Tune -- Stotes Days at a Time
Monthly Software Review -- ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1
Features:
Beat me up, Scotty -- Percussion Tips, Part I
Closing Credits:
Message From the Editor
Welcome back to our third issue of Static Line. I must admit, I am
quite proud of the response I got from the last two issues. Were already
up to 42 subscribers -- 12 more than last month. I am, however,
disappointed in the fact that no-one has written to tell us anything.
Send us feedback, wed be glad to hear it.
Well, the educational year is well under way -- at least it is here at
Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, that
means that I am starting to get busy. The bad news: This months issue
is kind of short. The good news: It is my senior year, much less active
than last year. I imagine that next month and all the following months
will yield grand issues.
Moving on with this months issue. Setec is back with the first article
of a series dealing with percussion in tracking: Beat Me Up Scotty! This
month, Louis reviews ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1. See what he has to say
in his Monthly Software Review. SiN is writing again, and he and I bring
you the music of Stote in this months In-Tune.
Im still looking for columnists and guest columns. If you have an
article or topic in mind -- anything having to do with the scene -- please
contact me so that we can get you started for next month. We especially
need someone to review demos for us.
Thank you for Reading.
--Coplan
In Tune
Stotes Days at a Time
By: Coplan and SiN
This month, we will be reviewing a titled Days at a Time by Stote
of Noise. With the closing of the music section of the Hornet Archive,
we have had quite a difficult time finding a song for this months
review. You can help make it easier for us by letting us know of songs
worthy of a public review.
Now that everything is back to the so called norm, let me explain a
litle bit about how we do this column. Typically, SiN and I will take
turns selecting a song to review. The choosers review will be shown
first. The main reason for doing this is to develop the point,
counter-point type reviews that we provide to you. As you may have
already noticed, SiN and I have very different tastes in music. By
alternating song choices, we are able to bring to you a well rounded
picture of a larger variety of music available to you. Just something
that a good review should provide.
Now, on with the show...
-- SiN --
The tune starts off setting a quite dark mood with an ambiant pads
sample offset in chns. 1 2 with a wide stereo separation...
immediately creating an open, encompassing sound. With a jump in
song speed comes a stuttering tap sample that skips along in a
irregular, fast-paced pattern. It is soon joined by a couple of other
irregular percussion samples and a kick drum. At order 15 the main beat
comes in in a striking, unexpected manner that works very nicely. The
first thing that strikes me is the complexity of the percussion, it is
very interesting to listen to because the beat is NOT boom-tis boom0tis
in the least, AND the rythm is created by many samples playing their
roles and working together to make the beat. The beat varies at
transition-points and doesnt change much as a whole.. but because there
is always a new element that your ear can latch on to I find it
effective. The panning used in the percussion illustrates a good point
that EVERYONE should watch for... the tap sample bounces around to a
different panning position with every hit.. but it doesnt do it to the
extreme.. I think more in IT mods than FT2 mods that tracker get
caught up in what the panning LOOKS like, rather than how it benefits
the song... every tracker should check the song with headphones because
extreme panning can make the listener not only annoyed but uncomfortable
too...
Various different pads come in to accompany the percussion at
different point because in the first part of the song, the percussion is
the lead. There is a mood change at order 57 where it feels like the
song it is building into something.. which it is. At order 65 a synth
pattern joins the fray.. now, I WILL say that musically this new pattern
fits in nicely in tune and timing but the mood of the piece now swings
from dark to almost hopeful... the synth pattern actually reminds me of
Axel Foleys theme from Beverly Hills Cop 1, note I said reminds me of,
not sounds like... After this synth comes in, the percussion fades
and we have a lead change... with some nice accenting pads in the
background... this percussionless section then fades back to the dark
ambiant samples that started the song.. and it nicely loops back onto
itself again to restart...
Technically this song is well done... good quality, well chosen
samples, but I would have liked to have seen a little more variety in
some sections... like ords. 33-36 where basically the same pattern is
repeated four times... if as a tracker you vary the 3rd pattern out of
the four, I find that just when your brain is falling into the mindless
groove that small change will prevent it from completing its journey...
listen to your tracks when theyre done, if you EVER find your mind
wandering at any point, put some variation in there....
Overall, I loved this song, its the style of music I like, it reminds
me of the Canadian Industrial group Download in the sound, but not in
the chaotic nature of Downloads sense of timing and sample use... There
are comments of a somewhat graphic yet philosophical nature in the
Song-Text section, but I am reviewing the tune, not the tracker.. Ill
let you make your own opinions about those... The last thing I am going
to mention is how it is balanced not only right to left, but
frequency-wise too, be careful using alot of bass or treble or one
pitch, the song quickly becomes messy and muddy sounding, losing
definition and impact...
Well thats it for now, if you are a fan of non-mainstream music I
would suggest giving this one a download...
SiN, out.
-- Coplan --
First off, the opening sequence to the song tends to be slightly
redundant. Though it is common in many mainstream songs, as well as
scene songs, long introductions arent always something to be desired.
The goal of the introduction is to lure a listener into the song. That
doesnt necessarily hold true here. On the other hand, the percussion
is done very well. Its obvious that some thought has been put into the
dynamics of the song since the kick base has a very unique style.
TECHNO and DANCE WRITERS -- this is proof that you can do more with the
kick base than a steady monotonous beat. Try it, it works.
I agree with SiN that the transition at order 15 is very well done. If
you notice, not a whole lot has literally changed with the song. The
cymbol crash is the most obvious, as well as the addition of two kinds
of snares. But notice, it isnt just that. The emphasis on the base
drum changes as well as its volume is increased. Do be aware of this
very common oversight -- one instrument, same note in two channels.
Notice the base drum is placed in two channels with the same pitch, and
the same panning position. For sample quality reasons, the sample
amplification feature isnt always good. When you must use more than
one channel for a given intrument with the same note, you must pan the
channels seperately. Pan them to opposite ends of the spectrum. Ive
said this many times before -- GUS and Interwave based sound cards will
actually change the sound of an instrument slightly when played twice
at the same pitch. Dont overlook this, even if you use a Sound
Blaster.
As with the opening, I found the closing of the song to be much longer
than it needed to be. In fact, I dont know exactly where the closing
began. In traditional styles of music, the closing often has a
completely different feel than the rest of the song -- a non-musician
listening to the song should be able to tell where the closing begins.
Think of that when you work on your closings, as well as your openings.
Overall, I found the song relaxing. It was good to play in the
background as I cleaned my room. However, when I sat down to analyze
it, I found that the song lacks a lot of things. For one, it lacks a
definative climax. It also lacks variety. A song this long should
allow several mood changes, something to keep the listener listening. I
personally had to struggle hard to listen to the whole thing through.
Im not saying that I didnt like the song, because I do. But when you
get down the the technical aspects of the song, and overall aesthetics,
I have heard better songs.
When you read my reviews, you must keep two things in mind. First, all
my background deals with traditional instruments and traditional theory
-- many of you call it Classical or Orchestral music. Second, I judge
a song mostly on its aesthetics and technical methods in that order.
In my opinion, I think that they are two completely different things.
However, in a review such as this, often times only the technical
aspects of a song come out.
Until next time...
Coplan
Listening Info:
Coplan: IT 2.14 useing default Interwave drivers Koss Standard
Headphones and his home stereo.
SiN: IT 2.15 useing MMX PNP drivers volume ramping @48kHz MikIT
Senheiser Studio-Reference Headphones and his home stereo.
Song Information:
Title: Days at a Time
Author: Stote
Filename zipped/unzipped: no-dayz.zip / St-dayz.it
File Size: 1,050k
Source: ftp://ftp.noisemusic.org/pub/users/wnoise/1998/no-dayz.zip
In Tune is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. SiN and Coplans opinions are not the opinions of the
Static Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend either your
own, or another persons, we can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
Montly Software Review
ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1
By: Louis Gorenfeld
In addition to BuzzTracker, theres another serious Windows 95 tracker.
ModPlug tracker doesnt try to do anything spectacular, its just your
basic tracking program. It saves in IT, XM, S3M, MOD and WAV and loads
in MOD, S3M, XM, IT, MTM, OKT, MDL, 669, FAR, WAV, MID, ULT and WOW.
There are plenty of problems with this program. The first is the
interface. It looks nice, but is very hard to track a real song in. The
main problem is that the pattern editor screen isnt big enough and
takes up less than half the screen, which makes you have to scroll
around too much. This can be adjusted but after a while of flipping
screens and readjusting the windows, it gets to be too much of a pain.
My suggestion is to disable the toolbar and free up a little bit of
space.
My next complaint are the tracking controls. Its lain out in 3-octave
style, and there is no way to disable the 3rd octave besides assigning
the notes to controls not in use. Luckily, it comes with presets:
Linear 3-octaves default and pretty useless, Impulse Tracker and Fast
Tracker 2. Oh yeah, and the interface is a little slow when switching
screens.
Now for the reasons why you should download this program: It supports
MIDI in if you happen to be better at keyboard than tracking, it kind
of not really supports filters, it has a fairly nice graphical sample
and instrument editor in which you can normalize, amplify, resample and
reverse the sound, zoom in and out, and cut and paste chunks of the
sample, it will automatically clean up unused patterns and samples to
save space, and it has a built-in wave writer.
After you do a lot of adjusting settings, this isnt really that bad of
a program. If youre looking for a windows tracker, I would go for this
one for now since it saves all the popular formats and is more finished
than Buzz.
Rating: 2/4
Min. Req: P90 or better and 8 MB RAM
Rec. Req: 486dx4 or better and 16 MB RAM
Platform: Windows 95
Homepage: http://www.castlex.com/modplug
Louis Gorenfeld
Beat me up, Scotty
Percussion Tips, Part I
By: Jesper Pedersen / Setec
Percussion is too often a topic that is regarded as being one of
the easiest things to track. Something that just needs to be taken care
of. The truth however is that a proper drum section is just as important
as the melody line or the chord progression. If done poorly, it can drag
an otherwise great tune into something that is less remarkable. On the
other hand, if the percussion is well-handled, it can be a major factor
in creating a great tune.
I will try to present you with some basic tips on percussion as
well as some ideas on how to improve your beats. Some of these things
might have been said before, but they can never be repeated too often.
This first part will be very basic, for trackers with little
experience in tracking percussion. There are still some tips that could
be valuable for experienced trackers as well, though.
BEAT ME UP, SCOTTY
PART Ia - Adding some flavour Basics
Most of this part will be about adding some flavour to a very basic
beat, providing you with various ways to add more feel to it. Attached
to this issue of Static Line should be three of my drum samples. These
are used in the following example, the file drum01.smp being the first
instrument and so forth. If you want to use your own samples instead
these are the proper assignments :
sample 1 - Bass Drum
sample 2 - Snare
sample 3 - Hihat
Note that using your own samples might make some of the later tips
sound wrong. But more on that later, on with the first chapter...
Imagine this rather basic and generic drum track ft2-style :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
08 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
09 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0A --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0D --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0F --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
this, and all following examples, is ment to be played at 125bpm
and speed 06
Now hopefully you are all thinking that you would never ever create
a beat as simple and generic as this. Not to say dead boring. First of
all, this is probably the most overused rock beat ever. Also, the hihat
line is sure to make your ears hurt. So what can you do to impro- ve
this?
For starters, let us change that horrific hihat line. A good place
to start is to add different volumes to some of the notes. The easiest
approach would be this :
C-5 3 -- 000
--- -- 000
C-5 3 20 000
--- -- 000
C-5 3 -- 000
--- -- 000
C-5 3 20 000
And so forth. Even though this is quite simple it is still a lot
better than the previous. The next thing I would do is something that
might make a lot of you twist your faces. Because this is one of the
things that is regarded as a no-no for a lot of trackers playing the
hihat at different notes. I would do it like this :
C-5 3 -- 000
--- -- 000
B-4 3 20 000
--- -- 000
C-5 3 -- 000
--- -- 000
B-4 3 20 000
This makes the downbeats feel more accented and basically just
makes it sound more like a real hihat. Just do not overdo the tip of
playing the hihat at different notes. The maximum should be a range of
three semi- tones and no more. A hihat sample has a very narrow range of
playable frequencies. Crossing that limit will only make it sound bad.
Okay. Now the hihat is a little less generic, but the percussion is
still dead boring. Before improving further on the hihat let us take a
look at the rest of the beat. If we count 1 2 3 4 we have the
bass drum hitting at each 1 and the snare at each 3. This is as boring
as it gets. For just a little bit of flavour we have added that extra
bassdrum at the first 4. But this is far from enough.
First of all, let us try not to have the bassdrum hit at each 1.
First off, try something like this :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
09 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0D --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0F --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
See how simply delaying the second bass drum two ticks makes the
beat much more funky and less generic? This is because that even though
being the standard, simply placing the bass drum at each second downbeat
is very! boring.
Well now we have spiced up the bass drum just a bit, let us try to
add some flavour to the snare :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
09 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000
0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0D --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0F --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000
Once again more flavour, less generic. Look at the snares we
added. They are positioned at points where nothing is playing, not even
the hihat. If you take a look at the previous examples we might as well
have halfed the length of those and played them at half the speed.
Because we only used each second row. This way, adding snares in
between, we make the beat sound faster and much richer in sound.
But try to listen to it once more. Those snares at 0C and 0F sound
wrong in some way, right? Because they are not on downbeats they should
not have this much accent. In other words, we need to lower the volumes
of these. Try this :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
09 --- -- 000 C-5 2 20 000 --- -- 000
0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000
0D C-5 1 20 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000
0F --- -- 000 C-5 2 10 000 --- -- 000
Much better. It sounds much more like a real drummer playing now.
See the extra bassdrum that I added at 0D? This compliments the way the
snare hits a lot of upbeats. It is a good idea to make the bassdrum hit
a few upbeats as well. Otherwise you get a percussion where the two of
them do not compliment eachother and this is something that they
should.
PART Ib - Accents
So what is important to be aware of, when tracking the percussion,
is which notes are to be accented and which are not. If you simply make
all notes accented you will get the kind of beat that we started out
with. The more variaty you put into the accents, the better percussion
you will end up with.
So how do you alter the amount of accent on a note? Well, we have
looked at the simplest way of doing it by changing the volume of the
note. But even though being the most used method, it is far from being
the only one.
One way that I think is very useful but too rarely seen is doing
a volume slide on the note. For example, in the above I would maybe make
the last snare at 0F look something like this instead :
0F C-5 2 20 A0A
For all you Impulse Trackers the A is D in IT.
I think this is a much better way of doing it. Some trackers I have
seen using the cut note command instead, but this makes it sound rather
rough. I personally find this method much more useful. This is one tip
that depends very much on the sample. Some other samples than the one I
have used might require a faster or a slower fade, and maybe the volume
needs to be altered as well. You will easily be able to figure this out
though. It is just a matter of experimenting really.
So by using voluming and volume slides you can get almost the
excact accent you want, and you can even have two kinds of low accents
low volume or a fast cut.
But there is yet another way of doing it. The offset command is a
very powerful tool when it comes to getting the most out of your
samples. Try doing this with the two upbeat snares :
09 C-5 2 -- 905
0F C-5 2 20 907
The IT command for offset is O
What you accomplish by this is making it sound like you actually
use more than one snare sample. The effect can be rather amazing if
applied properly. Note that I removed the voluming on the snare on 09.
When you do offsets like these you will most likely get a sample of
lower volume, since most snare samples fade rather fast. So both
applying the offset and the lower volume would make the snare much less
accented. You can still apply a mix of the two commands like I do with
the last snare though.
This is also a very sample-dependent effect, some snares might not
sound good like this. Once again, experiment, try different values.
So you actually have three different ways of adjusting the accent
of a drum. This is a very powerful tool that can really improve your
percussion once you get the hang of it. It will actually make the
listener think that you used many more drum samples or some sort of
drumloop. Variation is the key word once more. A real drummer is not
able to hit a drum at the exact same way over and over again.
PART Ic - The final touch
Take a look at the beat from before, spiced up further :
00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F07
03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 R01 --- -- F07
07 --- -- 000 C-5 2 10 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
09 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 905 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F05
0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F07
0D C-5 1 20 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
0F C-5 1 -- 000 C-5 2 20 907 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
10 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F07
11 C-5 1 10 A06 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
12 C-5 1 30 000 C-5 2 10 R03 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
13 --- -- 000 C-5 2 10 903 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
14 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
15 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
16 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 R01 --- -- F07
17 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
18 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
19 --- -- 000 C-5 2 20 A08 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F05
1A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07
1B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
1C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F07
1D C-5 1 20 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05
1E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 -- 000 --- -- F07
1F --- -- 000 C-5 2 20 906 --- -- 000 --- -- F05
note : R01 equals Q01 in Impulse Tracker
First take a look at the hihat line. This has really changed.
Instead of a single B-4 note before each accented hihat I have put two
of rising volume. And on some of these I have applied a retrig command
to the first one This command should be used carefully, some samples
will sound very bad when applied to such a fast retrig. Anyway they
should only be used with low volumes, unless you are going for a very
different sound. Furthermore the hihat doesnt hit each fourth row
anymore, look at row 0C. There used to be an accented hihat here, but
now there is nothing. This is to compliment the action of the snare and
bassdrum at this point. Listen to it and you will hopefully see...
The snare has been spiced up even more, with a small crescendo at row
12. All of the action here should make sense to you by now.
The new bass drum track is rather interesting. Where the bass drum
used to hit at row 10 it has been moved to strike at 0F instead. This is
rather unexpected and really adds to the inventive sound of the beat.
Also note how the snare and bass drum compliment eachother, especially
around rows 0F-14.
Note that I do not use any offset commands on the bass drum. You
should normally avoid this, since it will sound wrong and probably also
click quite a lot.
Just to add to the funkiness I threw in the extra channel with the
variating 7/5 speed. This is a very easy way to spice up the
percussion, but it should only be used when it fits the atmosphere of
the tune.
This is miles from what we started out with. You now have a beat
that has depth, variation I could have thrown in even more and most
impor- tantly it is no way near being boring. And this has been
accomplish with only three samples! Imagine what you could do if you
threw in a second sample for some of the snares as well as a soft bass
drum.
Now go and experiment on your own with your own samples. Try out
all of the tips and ideas that I have granted you with. Open one of your
tunes, one with a generic percussion, and try to spice it up.
Experiment...
Setec / Immortal Coil
This is the first part in a series of percussion tips and ideas. Later
articles will discuss panning, drumloop usage and how to adjust your
percussion to fit the progression of your song. Comments and ideas on
topics to discuss should be mailed to me at: setecjp@hotmail.com
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@thunder.temple.edu
Assistant Editors: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@ironweb.com
Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net
Web Manager: Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@kosmic.org
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@thunder.temple.edu
Darkheart / Zach Heitling / darkhart@san.rr.com
Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net
SiN / Ian Haskin / ian.h@sympatico.ca
Staff Writers: Acell / Jamie LeSouef / jlesouef@melbpc.org.au
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@kosmic.org
Setec / Jesper Pederson / setecjp@hotmail.com
Technical Support: Draggy / Nicholas St. Pierre / draggy@kosmic.org
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