Instant Drum Patterns

200 and 260 Instant Drum Patterns

New, Download all the patterns for free! Download InstantDrumPatterns.ZIP. Enjoy, joel

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At last, a solution to electronic drumming for people without a degree in percussion! Two all different book and software packages are available: 200 Instant Drum Patterns and 260 Instant Drum Patterns - for a total of 460 different patterns! They both include a variety of musical styles and fill patterns. About one-third of the patterns are fills.

Features

• All patterns on disk
• Patterns shown in both music and grid notation
• Includes fill patterns
• Works with any sequencer (Standard MIDI File format)
• Works with any keyboard, module or drum machine with percussion sounds

200 and 260 Instant Drum Patterns Contents

Instant Rap Patterns

You asked for it - hot rap beats! The 560+ unique measures were written by leading drum author Chuck Kerrigan for drummers. The patterns can be used for rap, house, dance, pop, jazz or any style of music where you want a modern rap feel.

Features

Over 1000 measures on disk

Patterns shown in music form with included book

Includes an audio cassette

Includes fill and Latin percussion parts

Works with any sequencer (Standard MIDI File format)

Works with any keyboard, module or drum machine with percussion sounds

Using Instant Drum Patterns

All of the Instant Drum Patterns from Five Pin Press, 200 Instant Drum Patterns, 260 Instant Drum Patterns and Instant Rap Drum Patterns are in Standard MIDI Files format. They require a software or hardware sequencer that can read Standard MIDI Files.

The patterns use General MIDI percussion note mapping. They are organized one drum per track to make it easier to transpose notes if necessary for your particular instrument. They work with your computer and any keyboard, sound module or drum machine with percussion sounds. The included music book shows all patterns in both music and in grid notation for 200/260 Instant Drum Patterns.

If your percussion sound source does not use General MIDI mapping you will need to transpose each track for the proper drum sound. An easy way to do it is to transpose the entire track. Check your software manual for details.

Once you have the patterns setup you're ready create a custom rhythm track with your sequencer. The first step is to write your arrangement. Audition the drum patterns and select the style and alternate beats you like. Jot down the measure numbers you want to use. Next figure out where your fill patterns will be and the Instant Drum Pattern fills you want at each location. When you are done you should have a percussion arrangement for one time through the verse and chorus. Often those sections can be repeated to form the entire the song. The introduction and ending are usually handled separately.

To create the actual rhythm track you copy and paste in the measure view of your sequencer. Select the measures you want and copy them to unused tracks or at the end of our patterns in the desired order. Most sequencers have a measure view where you can copy and paste entire measures, check your particular software manual for instructions. Make sure you change the file name so you don't overwrite the original Instant Drum Pattern file. Once your song track is completed, you can either delete or mute the original tracks from Instant Drum Patterns. After you have the drum track add bass, other rhythm instruments and the rest of your parts. It is much easier to play syncopated rhythm parts with the Instant Rap Drum Patterns as the metronome rather than a conventional MIDI or audio metronome. You can use our patterns as a basic guide and modify the patterns for even more variety. If you want to create totally original patterns try the step entry mode of your sequencer.

You can also combine Instant Drum Patterns with an existing sequence. This also works to "punch up" Band-in-a-Box generated sequences. Most sequencers can do this via the copy buffer. Create your arrangement and drum track similar to above and copy the drum track into the copy buffer. Load the second song sequence (which will overwrite the drum sequence but should leave the copy buffer) and paste the drum track into the second sequence. Check your sequencer manual for specific details on how to merge two sequences.

Here are few ideas on how to modify and get the most out of Instant Drum Patterns. An easy modification is to change one percussion sound to a different sound. For example, several patterns use a snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Try changing the snare drum to a rim shot, tom or hand claps for a few measures. Different accents can also be used effectively if you vary the accents slightly. This gives the patterns a more human feel. For example, when a drummer plays a roll, the left hand is slightly softer than the right hand (if the player is right handed). Added to this are techniques such as the paradiddle and other methods that rely on the stick bouncing off the snare head to sound some of the notes. This slight differences in volume makes drums sound "real." You can change also the overall dynamics by adding crescendos and decrescendos that match your songs dynamics. Sequencers with graphical editing make changing dynamics easy.

If you want to record your own patterns or add beats to these existing patterns with sequencing software, try recording in step-record mode. The step-record automatically records exactly on the beat. Another sequencer tip is to slide the patterns in time slightly. If you slide the drum track forward, the slight anticipation can be more driving while a slight lag in time puts the song "in the groove."

General MIDI Percussion Map

GM always uses MIDI Channel 10 for drums.

200 and 260 Instant Drum Patterns
As reviewed in Electronic Musician magazine

As every drummer worth his backbeat knows, non-drummers who program drum machines rarely have a handle on how drums are supposed to sound and feel. For those of you who don't know the difference between paradiddling and twiddling your thumbs, Five Pin Press has put together a gem of a product line that gives you instant access to 460 drum patterns and fills.

Two packages are currently available: 200 [Instant] Drum Machine Patterns and 260 [Instant] Drum Machine Patterns. Each package consists of a book in which all 200 or 260 patterns, breaks, and fills are written out in music notation and in drum machine grid notation for entering into your drum machine in step time.

The best part is that a disk (IBM, Mac, or Atari) is included that contains the patterns in Standard MIDI File format. You just load the patterns into your sequencer, click on Play, and away you go. Note-number assignments default to the General MIDI Percussion Map. Each drum sound is on an individual track, which makes transposing note assignments easy in the event that your drum machine or sound module does not conform to the General MIDI map. A separate users manual includes convenient MIDI drum-note assignment charts for several popular synths and drum machines.

A broad range of styles is represented, from rock, pop, and blues to reggae, ska, R&B, disco, Afro-Cuban, swing, shuffle, Latin, ballads, and marches, each with fills to match. Rap and hip-hop grooves are conspicuously absent, though.

The patterns are well-crafted and definitely usable. Unfortunately, the differences between certain patterns are slight. For example, the Funk and R&B patterns sound so similar stylistically as to be cut from the same cloth. Other patterns, such as Swing, wouldn't fill the bill for me if I were programming a jazz or swing tune. In other words, don't get too hung up on the pattern labels; you still have to use your ears in the end. The breaks and fills are interesting, but they sound a bit stiff, as they are 100% quantized. I would like to see the patterns "swing" a bit more. Even so, most of the patterns groove, particularly the Samba and some of the other Latin and Funk varieties.

The idea is to use the drum patterns as templates, starting points from which you can edit to your heart's content, adding and subtracting, accenting, swinging, and switching sounds until you've tweaked yourself into drum track heaven. For instance, adding further elements of "humanizing" is up you and the capabilities of your drum machine or sequencer. (For "humanizing" ideas, see "The Feel Factor: Humanizing Your Sequences" in the October 1987 EM, and "Make Your Drum Machine Swing" in the May 1992 issue.)

Overall, the 200/260 Drum Machine Patterns packages have a lot to offer the non-drumming programmer. And by not having to start from scratch, even drummer/programmers can save time and come up with some new ideas.

EM METERS RATING PRODUCTS FROM 1 TO 5
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Michael McFall is the former editor of Rhythm magazine. Currently, he heads VDO Productions, a video production company specializing in music instruction videos.

Excerpted from the November 1992 Electronic Musician magazine. Copyright 1992 Electronic Musician. Reported with the permission of the Publishers.