2006-11-22
Drum Loops Fail The Turing Test
(Drum) Machines That Always Halt
Those lucky enough to know me are well aware of my disdain for drum loops. Give me a live drummer*. In the absence of live drums, I've amassed a collection of drum recordings that I've REX-ified to allow me to use them at different tempi. Before REX I used MIDI performances of real drummers, and I can program a mean SR16 drum machine in a pinch. Audio loops are so 1990's.
So Mister Music Man, explain this (links to external music track completed with the use of drum loops). In my defense, I was a mad tracker in the late 80's early 90's, so in a way, all of that stuff was loop-based. Plus the SEQ-SONG structure of the Ensoniq ESQ-1 sequencer was classically loop-based. But the frustration of working with MOD loops on a tracker was enough to prove to me the limitations of audio loops.
I bought the first version of ACID and used it for remixing, but I would often fly in the main drum track much later. By the time ACID added decent midi support, we already had SONAR, and SONAR has supported REX for a couple years already, so why use loops?
Two reasons, in this case. Reason 1: The loop the song is constructed around is interesting, but it is impossible to extract the drums/rhythm part from the harmonic content. Reason 2: I am lazy.
See, I've always complained that loop-based musicians were lazy paint-by-the-numbers remixers, and not real musicians.
And now I have joined them.
*As long as I don't have to mic the drums--placing mics for drum kits is a science that can't be learned in one lifetime.
Enjoy some loop-free band names. Now that I think about it, loops *are* implicit in some of them.
Those lucky enough to know me are well aware of my disdain for drum loops. Give me a live drummer*. In the absence of live drums, I've amassed a collection of drum recordings that I've REX-ified to allow me to use them at different tempi. Before REX I used MIDI performances of real drummers, and I can program a mean SR16 drum machine in a pinch. Audio loops are so 1990's.
So Mister Music Man, explain this (links to external music track completed with the use of drum loops). In my defense, I was a mad tracker in the late 80's early 90's, so in a way, all of that stuff was loop-based. Plus the SEQ-SONG structure of the Ensoniq ESQ-1 sequencer was classically loop-based. But the frustration of working with MOD loops on a tracker was enough to prove to me the limitations of audio loops.
I bought the first version of ACID and used it for remixing, but I would often fly in the main drum track much later. By the time ACID added decent midi support, we already had SONAR, and SONAR has supported REX for a couple years already, so why use loops?
Two reasons, in this case. Reason 1: The loop the song is constructed around is interesting, but it is impossible to extract the drums/rhythm part from the harmonic content. Reason 2: I am lazy.
See, I've always complained that loop-based musicians were lazy paint-by-the-numbers remixers, and not real musicians.
And now I have joined them.
*As long as I don't have to mic the drums--placing mics for drum kits is a science that can't be learned in one lifetime.
Enjoy some loop-free band names. Now that I think about it, loops *are* implicit in some of them.
- Turing Tar Pit
- Jarface
- Greenspun's Tenth
