I talked a lot about hardware already on this blog, but I also use a lot of software stuff. Especially for drums, since that is very timing critical and actually also because I can't drum :) I use different software for drums, but one of my favorites is Guru from FXpansion. It is like a mini sequencer inside your main sequencer. You can run 8 different sequences simultaneously. Each sequence can hold a lot of different patterns and sounds. From these you can make kind off snapshots that are called 'scenes' that you can assign to a key on you keyboard to play them in your arrangement. A very flexible and great sounding tool. Another nice this is that you can run it standalone, so that you can design the drum patterns first and integrate it in your track later.
On the right you see a screen shot of a pattern. You also see the drumpads you can use to play or you can just click the notes on top with your mouse. Usually that is what I do. There are a lot of drum kits included, but you can use any samples that you want. I hear from a lot of Akai MPC users that this looks a bit like a software version of a MPC. In Guru there are also several nice effects that you can assign to sequences or even individual notes. If you don't know this software I would say give it a try. It is really worth it. You can find more information here: http://www.fxpansion.com/
Funky Groove with Yamaha DX7 and Akai MPCX
2 hours ago
2 comments:
Did you use this much on the Aerodynamics album?
In particular I was thinking about the track "SuperSonic". I remember listening to it recently and thinking that the drumming style seemed a lot different to other electronic tracks that I've heard.
Was this a Guru assisted track? Or is it just my imagination :D
You are right :) I use Guru a lot for percussion tracks. It is great for that.
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