#GROOVE AGENT 4 PATTERN EDITOR HOW TO#
#GROOVE AGENT 4 PATTERN EDITOR DRIVER#
#GROOVE AGENT 4 PATTERN EDITOR PRO#
#GROOVE AGENT 4 PATTERN EDITOR FREE#

#GROOVE AGENT 4 PATTERN EDITOR DRIVER#

Once you’ve figured out the rhythm of the main groove driver it’s time to modify your initial drum groove accordingly. It might help to mute the drum track and keep the metronome/click going in your DAW for an additional point of reference throughout this process. Once you can clap it you can then slow it down in your head and slowly piece it together one hit after another. If you are having a hard time with this, try clapping along to the riff with your hands. In your head, try to figure out the rhythm of the element that you just identified as the main groove driver in the last step. In most cases this is the element that drives the main groove of the song. Most of the time when a song happens to be in an odd time signature, there is a pretty obvious reason for it like a very distinct rhythm on a guitar or vocal riff that involves a lot of accents. Once you’ve set that up start listening to the rest of the music in your song. This could be 1/16-notes double Bass hits all the way through if you are working on a Metal track, or just 1/4- or 1/8-notes here and there in a Pop or Rock setting. Fill up the measure with Bass drum hits as you see fit. You can start with the Snare drum on beats two and five or, if you’re headed for a half-time feel, try putting it on the offbeat of beat three. So in order to fit the drums to the rest of the music in any given song the following technique has proven to be very effective.įirst, spread out your Bass and Snare drum hits somewhat evenly across the measure. When working with odd time signatures, most of the time the underlying music will have a very distinct groove.

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As a matter of fact, we are free to do that in any time signature, but this is more relevant in odd time signatures. The opposite is true! We are totally free to put our Bass and Snare drum hits wherever we think they might fit. As a result it may seem like it’s overly difficult to program drums in odd time signatures. While we can use a simple rule to build grooves in 4/4-time (explained above) in 5/4-time (and when working with odd time signatures in general), we can’t make these general statements anymore. However the techniques you’ll learn can be applied to any time signature, including 4/4-time or any odd time signature.

#GROOVE AGENT 4 PATTERN EDITOR HOW TO#

The next sections of this article will show you how to program grooves in odd time signatures, particularly 5/4-time.

You might not regularly hear anything else but 4/4-time on the radio, but there is a whole other world of groove possibilities beyond the limitations of four beats in one measure. While a vast amount of music is indeed written in 4/4-time there is, in fact, an infinite amount of possible time signatures available for you to use creatively in your songs. Drum programming beyond 4/4-time with odd time signatures If that looks unfamiliar to you or if you don’t know how to navigate to the equivalent of the above window in your program of choice check out this post about setting up your DAW for drum programming to get you started.

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The example above is taken out of a Cubase session but it should look pretty similar in Pro Tools, Logic, and all the other DAWs as well. The screenshot below shows how that might look in your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

Now you can start refining your groove from there. Add the accompanying element (Hi-hat or a Ride or Crash cymbal) of your choice to each hit and you’re good to go. Now, when you are trying to program a groove for this kind of music but you don’t know where to start there’s a little trick you can use: Just put a Bass (Kick) drum hit on beats one and three and a Snare drum hit on beats two and four. I’m sure you’ll instantly feel how it works. We don’t have to get to technical but if you are not sure about the concept just turn on a mainstream radio station and count along to the music: One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, and so on. What that means is basically that there are four beats in each measure (or bar). When you are working on a song in genres such as Pop, Rock, and Metal chances are it’s going to be in 4/4-time. Programming Drum Grooves: From 4/4-time to odd time signaturesīy: Chris Nothdurfter Programming drums for mainstream hit songs

Groove agent 4 pattern editor