Customer Reviews

260 Drum Machine Patterns

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I bought this book years (decades?) ago. The copyright year says 1987; I probably bought it a couple of years later back when I had an Alesis HR-16 drum machine.

I remember programming in a few drum patterns from the book and being pleased with the results, it's just that back then I didn't have the recording equipment, synthesizers and so on to suplement the drums (plus, I wasn't as good of a musican as I am now, at least I like to think I've improved a lot since then). So I put the book on the shelf and forgot about it.

I remembered this book tonight, and on a whim I took it down off of the shelf, dusted it off, and began programming some of the "R&B" patterns into Sonar. Unlike those days in the late 80s, I have the means now to do the drum patterns justice. The advent of today's DAWs make it easy for "bedroom" musicans like me to realize their musical dreams.

Anyway, I've found that these patterns to be really good (so far). I'm hearing them in a way I couldn't originally. I'm looking forward to programming in many of the other patterns, especially the Rock and Funk patterns.

Some tips:

1) When programming in the drum parts, be sure to play around with the dynamics (MIDI note velocity). The book has accent marks for some of the notes, but really to get more realistic results you need to go farther. As a general rule, try emphasizing the downbeats. But let your ears be your guide.

2) The drum patterns use a small subset of the drums found in today's General MIDI drum map. Back then your typical drum machine didn't have a large set of drum samples to choose from. So be sure to take advantage of the GM drum map to add realism to the patterns. For example, if a drum pattern calls for a cymbal crash two notes in a row, use the first cymbal crash (note 49) for the first crash and the second cymbal crash (note 57) for the second crash. That way you're not hearing the same crash sample so close together. Even better if you have a drum machine (something like EZDrummer) that has some kind of humanizing algorithm for mixing up the samples.

3) You may want to play around with the note placements to change the characteristic of the beats. For example, moving the snare drum on beat 2 and 4 slightly ahead of the beat for a more driven feel.

4) Instead of using the same pattern over and over again, alternate between two patterns that complement each other. The book's introduction talks about this. Also, when repeating the same pattern, go in and make a small change so that it has some variation. This will add to the realism of the performance.

That's about it. I'm glad I've rediscovered this book. There are tons of prefab drum MIDI files out there (Groove Monkee comes to mind). These are great, but I gotta say, it's fun traveling a bit back in time and doing things the old fashion way. For one thing you really get inside a pattern by entering it by hand one note at a time. If you have the patience, it's very rewarding.

Years ago I was very into electronic music and searched for a book like this. No babble no fruit just drum patterns...recently I found some of my old gear and started setting it up. I searched around on amazon to buy something, well cause i was buying a present for someone and I wanted free shipping. Lame I know. But I found this book (there is an older version with 200 patterns - I think its the same but this one has some added pages, so get this one).

The book does exactly what its supposed to supply basic drum beats, variations, fills and breaks, in a bare bones matrix representation. The beats are good, the patterns are not awesome - this book provides a bases to build from. The breaks are OK but all these patterns start to get great when you tweak them, change to strange samples that fit the niche of whatever basic instrument and start to layer effects. Its not cheating because you programmed it and didn't rip from another song...like some...dj - :-D

if you program beats, buy this book

I am not very musically inclined, but I love making it. I use only a computer, no drums, so these beat patterns have been wonderful. I would never be original enough to come up interesting beats on my own. It's also helped me learn about rhythm.

There is actually very little on this topic of drum patterns for step sequencers so it does help you learn some principles and basic strategies . It will not make you Timbaland. it will show you how many pop and rock breaks used in songs today are made and give you a jump-off point.

I thought with 260 beat patterns there's got to be at lest a few good ones. Nope. Copy written in 1987, each pattern is only four beats long and utilizes only FOUR of it's ten different drum hits in each of it's patterns! Save yourself. This book is a true waste of time, money and programming.

260 isn't a very big number in this age of millions of google results, but it's a _lot_ of different drum patterns, given that most producers stick with the standard four-on-the-flour pattern.

Working through this book is a great way to expand your repertoire and get a better idea of how rhythms are constructed.

For $10 this is a great reference.

TJ

Well, I just got a Roland tr-808. It has a lot of 'antiquated' features I wish
newer ones had. This book provides ideas for fills, intros, and basic patterns. Good stuff!!!

I bought this book because I'm a guitar player, not a drummer, and I needed some ideas for my drum machine to record. I wish I could return this book (it was a present).

Please believe me, you will learn much more about drum patterns if you search online for drum TABs. To program my machine now, I look for a TAB to a song that has a similar beat and go from there. You could even do a search for basic drum patterns or something similar and in a matter of minutes have exponentially more and better information than what is contained in this book. Did I say it strongly enough...this book was ABSOLUTELY no help.

The comments from previous users, as far as dynamics, are right on. But again, an online search should point you to an excellent article by Nicholas Rowland. Save your money...please.

This is a drum pattern book. If you are looking for a book on how to play drums then this isn't it. I also doubt it would be of any use to an advanced drummer. If on the other hand you are a beginner and / or trying to program a drum machine then this book is very useful. I haven't had time to try out many of the patterns but it looks like most of the basic stuff is there.