A few things to note about the project and what I have regarding the drums -
~ The beats are "homespun breaks" which I programmed. I originally used an acoustic kit to fit the "fusion feel" (I just sold my real drum kit not too long ago). It sounded too ordinary, and I definitely did *not* want this to end up being some cheezy rock-fusion ballad or something - no offense to the rock-ballad lovers. So, I went lo-fi and a bit more sequenced sounding. I think the result is better than the acoustic stuff I had done, and will sound cool when the other instrument parts get added.
~ The drum samples are all short mono 44.1/16 bit wave files.
[i will prepare seperate copies of the different parts (bd, sn, hh, cym), if the mixer/engineer deems it necessary/useful].
~ The tempo is 134bpm and all drum parts are 4/4. I am not sure of Nestor's starting tempo. But is was really close to this. 134 is pretty much etched in stone now.
~ The drum loops are all "acidized," if you are so inclined to use this feature in your sequencer.
~ I named all of the drum and percussion parts to match Nestor's parts. i.e. - "drum 01a.wav" and "drum 01c.wav" are different rhythms which correspond to Nestor's "bass line 1.mp3".
~ The percussion parts are a 19" djembe. Again, the #'s correspond to the basslines by Nestor. Feel free to use them where-ever, but they tend to fit with the corresponding basslines . . .
~ The drums are all untouched. Whoever mixes will need to change this, wherever it needs it. Especially the hand drum - it needs EQ and Compression for sure. The breaks could probably use a bit too, but they are all ready sampled and normalized. Definitely a little bottom end though, and maybe compression, but use YOUR judgement!
~ There is no drum or percussion part for bass line 6 - It sounds really cool and mellow as is, and honestly, I did not know what to put because "there's so little there." It could definitely use some cool guitar harmonies (Paul!?) and a psychedelic pad or two. Maybe after I fill in a little percussion or something?
~ Also, I did not do anything specifically for bass line 2 - the bridge part - but pretty much any of the drumloops work well there. They just need faded out on the last 1/4 note so the next part rushes in . . . Neither for bassline 3, as that is just a faded in version of bassline 1, and similar treatment could be done for any of the variations of drumloop 1.
~ Important - bass-line 1 - I interpreted this as having an 1/8 note intro (treating the high accented notes as down beats). As such, it will need to be offset by this amount for the drums and percussion to line up (or just delete the first 1/8 note of the bassline). Sorry if I misinterpretted the artist's intent, but I figured that I had pretty free reign on the drums for this project, and the result is pretty slick sounding, if I do say so myself.
~ Bass line 5 - the really hard and funky one - has whacked timing(!). I don't know that much about 'theory,' but I know that this one was hard to sync to anything. I am pretty sure it is 4/4, but it feels a little rushed on the downbeats of the second half of each phrase. At any rate, the drums ARE in 4/4. Also, the bass part might be a *little* bit sloppy in a few places (no offense Nestor, that is a fast technical part and you rock out!), so perhaps it might be best to have this played over more clean and in sync with the drums? The bass phrase IS truly great though! Also, I think that this part could use a *big* sub bass, and I almost added it, but I thought that would leave it off. I still think it would sound great, but then again, I am a junglist.
~ The percussion part for bass part 5 has an extra measure on the end of the loop to let the tail of the djembe fall out naturally. For looping, just take the first four bars; it is seamless, I checked.
~ Bass line 7 - Nestor, I think your timing is a little rushed again(?). All of the downbeats feel a bit too soon, especially with the drums. Perhaps redo this one and Bassline 5? Just a suggestion . . . but then again, I don't normally play this kind of music, so I may have missed something or just don't have the "feel."
THAT IS ALL!
Peace out to all.
I am excited to see how it turns out. It definitely has gotten a twist from algorhythm.
bye,
Joel