Hip Hop Drum Samples
Drum Samples with Swing
Beat makers of all ages and all expertise levels sometimes overlook two of music production's biggest 'sleeping giants' - swing and time-sensitive density. Let's go through some of the things related to the former, as many newbies and veterans still don't pay enough attention to the swing that applies to drum samples. By the end of this, you should have a better understanding of the topic and be able to make your own beat with your elevated understanding!
A lot of music producers (especially ones just coming into the game) will often question all the fuss about using swing on hip hop drum samples and other tracks in a beat. The answer given on a lot of forums and blogs is usually something like this: the human ear loves variance. If every drum beat was to fall on the exact time grid of quantization, it wouldn't sound very pleasing. This is also the reason concerts are so popular. We've heard all the great songs already - countless times - but hearing them with some variation in drums and vocals is very appealing! If the artist instead simply played their CDs for the audience while lip-syncing, it wouldn't be good at all. Not half as appealing as live instruments with the possibilities of mistakes.
When tapping out samples on hardware, the swing will act as some sloppy quantization. Not that sloppy, though, just enough to get you into the groove template. It's great for those not yet very accurate with tapping.
What exactly is the swing we're talking about, you ask? Swing, when you make your own beats, is a quantization level that can be adjusted and custom made. A lot of hardware devices have their own swing settings. It's nearly the same as snap-quantization except that the hits are a little off every time to give the beat a humanization factor. For a 50% swing, there is no variance at all, it lands on the grid. Going up one level to 51%, though, the swing would be one percent off either way. It can be random or hard-coded into a groove template. The famous MPC swing is hard-coded into the MPC, for example.
Swing templates are especially useful when using electronic instrument parts that are fully quantized. Using these synthesizer sounds and drums, everything being quantized, will lead to staleness. So in this case, many top producers will leave one quantized and swing the other, or swing certain instruments. Swinging the drums in this case will produce some nice ear candy as the drum parts interact with the electronic instrument sounds.
Starting to implement these methods can be a bit daunting to start with. What you should probably do is perform some controlled experiments. If you can start with swing template percentages of 51% to66% or so, you'll be well off to a testing start. Apply the groove to a drum track (dry preferably) and then remove it. Go back and forth and try to catch the difference. Your ears will start to hear the effect that the swing has on your drum samples, and you will then be able to make creative decisions easier.
Have you ever asked yourself, "how do I make my own beats?" Then stay tuned!
A lot of music producers (especially ones just coming into the game) will often question all the fuss about using swing on hip hop drum samples and other tracks in a beat. The answer given on a lot of forums and blogs is usually something like this: the human ear loves variance. If every drum beat was to fall on the exact time grid of quantization, it wouldn't sound very pleasing. This is also the reason concerts are so popular. We've heard all the great songs already - countless times - but hearing them with some variation in drums and vocals is very appealing! If the artist instead simply played their CDs for the audience while lip-syncing, it wouldn't be good at all. Not half as appealing as live instruments with the possibilities of mistakes.
When tapping out samples on hardware, the swing will act as some sloppy quantization. Not that sloppy, though, just enough to get you into the groove template. It's great for those not yet very accurate with tapping.
What exactly is the swing we're talking about, you ask? Swing, when you make your own beats, is a quantization level that can be adjusted and custom made. A lot of hardware devices have their own swing settings. It's nearly the same as snap-quantization except that the hits are a little off every time to give the beat a humanization factor. For a 50% swing, there is no variance at all, it lands on the grid. Going up one level to 51%, though, the swing would be one percent off either way. It can be random or hard-coded into a groove template. The famous MPC swing is hard-coded into the MPC, for example.
Swing templates are especially useful when using electronic instrument parts that are fully quantized. Using these synthesizer sounds and drums, everything being quantized, will lead to staleness. So in this case, many top producers will leave one quantized and swing the other, or swing certain instruments. Swinging the drums in this case will produce some nice ear candy as the drum parts interact with the electronic instrument sounds.
Starting to implement these methods can be a bit daunting to start with. What you should probably do is perform some controlled experiments. If you can start with swing template percentages of 51% to66% or so, you'll be well off to a testing start. Apply the groove to a drum track (dry preferably) and then remove it. Go back and forth and try to catch the difference. Your ears will start to hear the effect that the swing has on your drum samples, and you will then be able to make creative decisions easier.
Have you ever asked yourself, "how do I make my own beats?" Then stay tuned!
