the bass generator will generate the sound....

for those who dont know, the subject line is from a classic line from a Dynamix II miami bass/electro record :) which leads nicely into some thoughts on drum programming.

I tend to use a lot of 808's and 909's in my music, primarily because I'm still in love with electro bass, adidas track suits, and spacy futuristik vocode voices. I try to layer drums a lot, to give a little breadth to my tracks as opposed to straight 100% pure electro beats, but concerning drum programming, a recent interview with Arabian Prince pointed out some interested information that I hadn't really thought about.

he was going on about how back in the day, you got a little bit of a different feel with each hit of the bass drum, snare and other percussive parts because you were using analog machines - no sound was every exactly the same as the one before it. Specifically, he mentioned the 808 bass drum sound, and how now in 2008 cats who use samples of these machines just set a bass note and off it goes - resulting in a rigid non-stop assault of the same tone throughout the track.

He pointed out that to emulate the classic feel of these machines, you should have slight adjustments in attack/deday/length (and obviously velocity) of each hit throughout 4 bars- not only does this apply to the classic 808 and 909, but of course drum programming across the board.

Its very easy to get lost in a groove of a track, and I'll be the first to admit that while I pride myself on my drum programming, I definitely dont spend enonugh time when wrapping up songs to give it that detail - and more often than not, its that detail that can really make a track stand out.

As soon as I get out of the office, I'm heading straight to the studio where I will hopefully be able to post some samples of a straight loop, and one thats been massaged and tweaked - I'm eager to test out his theory!