Thursday 20th September. Periods 3 + 4.Music Technology A2

Drum Machines..What do you know?

A2 exam written question revision

‘The development of music technology’

•Must answer 1 question (choice of 2)•16 marks available (8% of A2)•Include 16 different points•Organise ideas in date order.•After planning, answer can be bullet points or prose

A2 exam written question revision

‘The development of music technology’Topics:

•Synthesisers•Samplers & Drum machines•Audio effects and audio processing - EQ•MIDI•Recording media (tape / digital etc). Consumer media (Vinyl & MP3 etc)•Multi-track recording (Digital and Analogue)•Computer based recording – Cubase / Logic etc•Electric Guitars and Amplification Internet•Mixers•Digital Synthesis / FM / Additive / Wavetable / Sample based

Drum MachinesHistory…

• ‘A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music.’

Drum MachinesHistory…

• A Drum machine is basically 2 things:

• 1: A Sequencer that triggers…

• 2: Electronically created (analogue or digital) Drum sounds to make a beat pattern.

Drum Machines

• First machine for generating electronically created rhythms was the Rhythmicon (also known as the Polyrhythmophone)

• Made by Léon Theremin in 1930.

• Works using a rotating disk with light passed through gaps in the disk triggering musical tones.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkodVcuPVAo

Drum Machines

• The first actual ‘drum machine’ was the Chamberlin Rhythmate

• Built in 1957. It uses tape loops of recorded ‘real drums’.

• Same principle as a Mellotron

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmAbtzMChHk

Drum Machines• The first proper Drum

Machine was the Wurlitzer Sideman. Designed to accompany Wurlitzer organs.

Generated sounds for the individual drums by using vacumm tubes and sequenced them via a rotating disk which triggered the sounds to make various patterns – like Waltz and Foxtrot.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLgyQG8Pu8s

Drum Machines• Analogue (using transistors)Drum

machines arrived in the 1960s. Again - these were designed to accompany organ players.

• 1967 FR-1 Rhythm Ace.

• Precursor to the Roland analogue drum machines like the 808.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glNmc7ohmCg

Drum Machines

• Analogue drum machines use basic synthesesis (subtractive) to create sounds – like using white noise for a snare / hat and sin wave for a bass drum.

• These did not sound like real drums! But that gave them a unique sound – this would influence electronic dance music heavily.

Drum Machines• Late 70’s / early 80’s saw

‘programmable’ drum machines.

• You could create the beat patterns instead of only having pre-programmed patterns.

• 1980 Roland 808

Drum Machines• Digital Drum

machines

• ‘Sample’ real drum sounds.

• EMU (created the Emulator sampler)

• SP1200 digital drum machine (1985). Used by a lot of Hip Hop producers.

• http://youtu.be/Ri-9Lez3M6Q

Drum Machines• Practical task.

• Using the SR 202 virtual sampling Drum Machine in Cubase.

• Record your own drum sounds / stabs. Must include at least:

• Bass Drum• Snare Drum• Closed hat

• Musical ‘stab’ short chord (guitar / piano etc) sample. 2 stabs of different chords that go together is a good idea.

• MUST BE 16BIT MONO WAVS

• Then make a beat pattern in Cubase just using the SR 202 and your own sounds. 8 bars min.

Drum Machines• Homework

• Find an example of a track from each of these decades that the use of a drum machine features heavily.

• 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s

• Pick a 4 bar section from each track and show the beat pattern on a grid.

Drum Machines

Drum Machines

Drum Machines