RE: Humanizing Drum Machines

["matt davignon" <mattdavignon@hotmail.com>]

Funny that you should bring this up. I just brought my old drum machine 
out 
of the closet and decided to start using it again a few months ago. I've 
used it in a couple shows so far, but each time I've used it, it's been 
the 
center of my attention.

I use a Dr-660 (Dr. Rhythm) which, if you use it the way it's supposed to 
be 
used, sets the stereotype for cheesy bad drum machine sound. I spent a lot 
of time designing really unique-sounding "drum kits" on it, and very 
rarely 
use the presets. One of the first things I did when I got it was get rid 
of 
all those awful bongo and cymbal sounds and replace them with something I 
don't feel I have to apologize for if I hit that pad.

When performing with the drum machine, I almost never use pre-created 
percussion loops. I create them in real-time, often turning the beat 
correction on and off to suit my needs. (I like my drum machine loops to 
sound sloppy but have recognizeable rhythm.) Sometimes I press the keys 
randomly with the beat correction turned on to create an initial 
random-but-rhythmic loop, then build from that. Performing a drum machine 
in 
this way is a unique looping experience, since you can easily remove any 
single sound from your loop, even if it was one of your original layers. 
Once I have a good loop going, I alternate between adding/subtracting to 
it, 
and improvising with "record" turned off, often changing the parameters of 
each drum (like pitch) as it goes.

I also apply a lot of effects to the output, since even when you build 
your 
own kits, they tend to sound like pre-sets. I found that additional 
echo/looping pedals tend to get a little too messy, so I settled on 
running 
it through my Dr. Sample, using the Dr. Sample specifically as an FX unit. 
(With the SP-303, you can quickly toggle between 6 different fx pads, one 
of 
which can be one of 20 different fx. It includes band-pass filters, 
bit-rate 
decimation, pitch shifter, and a number of other fun things.)

So far, the main challenge has been to set my loops to be in time with 
other 
players. I'm not very good at dialing my tempo to match other things going 
on. It'd be nice if I could get some sort of tap-tempo thing going on.

Matt

>Louie Angulo <laab2000us@yahoo.com> done wrote:
>
>I would like to know how many of us loopers are
>utilizing drum machines live.Some people shy away from
>them because they tend to sound sterile and
>repetitive, others sequence the patterns so they donīt
>sound so repetitive but i find a lot of people still
>find this live "not very authentic"...

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