Polyrhythm and other rhythmic programming mysteries

Does anyone on here has any certain ideas/ways of producing polyrhythmic drum patterns. It really excites me when I hear sounds within drums that are emphasizing different tempo's within its groove. I've had a few goes at making tracks with this in, mainly experiments but never had an particular method at doing it. Although recently I have found that if I start by making a riff that sounds like its at half the tempo of the original BPM of my track when in solo. Then I bring in the quantize and work on the next sound that interacts slightly with the first but sound at the same BPM of the track. Perhaps there’s a mathematical formula to some of this? I was also wondering if anyone uses the T and D quantize values much??

Just a bit curious on what people on here have to say about this :oops:

looping things that are 3 16ths long is fun. acid lines in 3/4 or 7/8 ...

:clap: I knew you would post on this thread.

Yea I have had some synths in 3 bar loops. It sounds a bit mad and hard to follow sometimes but they do work well with acid lines. I find that you end up having to create fills all over the place to keep the track sound like its structured propperly or makes more sense. 3/4 and 7/8 I havnt tried yet, I dont think.

Make some solid notes ... make 2 duplicates on 2 different tracks...

Change they're start position make those lower in volume now random the volume of those tracks so that they kinda of come in and out in no predictable way!!

This is little crazy trick I used 2 do... 2 create some kinda of robert Hood/ Mills fuelled sequences.

The main secret is to have a few solid timmed/ volume notes in the more standard places... otherwise yer sequence will sound like a drunken keyboard player on an acid trip!!! lol

SX as some niffty randomise feat. 4 each track... b4 u had the IPS, Interactive Phrase Synt.


Z

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Originally Posted by DJ Ze MigL

The main secret is to have a few solid timmed/ volume notes in the more standard places... otherwise yer sequence will sound like a drunken keyboard player on an acid trip!!! lol

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This happens a lot to me hehe.

Yea good points there, I have already tried this a few times and it works.

Sometimes I hear more than one rhythm within the synth arps. Its like you got differant rhythms on differant keys that interact. Same with drums I guess only the pitch is not as important

polyrhythms hurt my fragile head...

nice to hear talk of them tho...some good ideas discussed. I think it's hard to pull off complicated polyrhythms unless the crowd can pick up on it. I see most technoheads wanting straight forward 4/4 heavy kick tracks when they're out clubbing.

I use the T & D quantise functions a fair bit, to give it a different rhythmic structure...i love my triplet paradiddles. :twisted:

I luvs my Midi EFX Quantizer as an Insert in SX.

Z

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DJ Ze MigL

I luvs my Midi EFX Quantizer as an Insert in SX.

Z

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Ohhh I havnt seen that one ! Let me investigate

Ive only just discovered that you can draw patterns in using the line tool. :lol:

yeah three and five step patterns rock on a 303 oh yes,with a few slides ,yum yum

im rocking da 6 step basslines :love:

another easy trick is just to put the track in 7/8 9/8 or whatever and program your kick drum, other essentials to meet up as if they were 4/4. since 4/4 is so intuitive, you only do the nitty gritty step programming on something where you are sure of how you want it to sound, and free to experiment with less aggravation elsewhere.

i have a problem with weird time signatures for techno...if I was to make some in 5/4 time if just wouldnt work when djs mixed it with a regular 4/4 track. What do people think??

I think most people stick 2 the 4/4 although they might use one or 2 sequences that won't use the normal 16 steps... but still somehow most of the percussion sticks 2 4/4.

Z

i heard once that eastern europe are loving 3beat techno at the moment...not sure if that means 3/4 techno or just techno with more complex & intricate kick patterns.

if you'll allow me to dork out for a moment...

...esp. in places like macedonia, bulgaria and parts of serbia, folk music is generally in what we consider off-rhythms. 7/8, 9/8, 13/8, even. what's so interesting is how easy it is to dance to this type of stuff.

there's definately a lot of potential for dance music to exploit this same idea.

Coming 2 think of it a lot of slavic techno is all about nice dose of distortion, "off-beat" synths (i.e. uneven steps) and a nice serving of compression... Yes please ... eheh ;)


Z

yeah, i've spent a lot of time in the former yugoslavia, and there's remarkable diversity in the ethnic music. most of it is geared towards dancing. macedonian wedding music is all off tempo, and in istria, the part of croatia bordering on btoh slovenia and italy, there's a weird harmonic scale called diatonic. really odd, dissonant stuff. anyways, i've thought that some of the ideas found in some of these things would translate well into techno if treated right (and not just the cheesy use of folk instrument samples).

Well U seemed qualified enought 2 get the ball rollin'!! ;)


Z

i'm def going to give it a shot, but my previous attempts at doing so have all been...umm...humorous.

right now i want to concentrate on geting a couple records out!

Hey, I 4 one think that techno is definatly missing some humor, it's become way 2 serious... :(

Z

true, true. techno headz are usually the most fervent afficionados of electronic music, so that probably has something to do with it.

i agree though. i think a lot of people, in the quest to be more "pure" or "correct," forget that this music is supposed to be fun too.

Fun.... funny.... happy....


Yes Please ;)

Z