Sequencing Drums with Redrum

Sequencing Drums

The beat is the core of most modern popular music. Lets start by programming a drum pattern in Redrum - Reasons drum sequencer.

You need to read and follow Tutorial 3 - Creating a Drum Pattern in the Getting Started PDF before you start this section.

The key concepts presented in this page are space in the rhythm and beats that roll. Anyone can program a beat in Redrum, but achieving that indefinable quality that makes people tap their feet and nod their heads instinctively is the clever bit, that's the art of drum programming. The only way to get good at drum programming is to practice, but there are some simple tips and tricks to make things easier.

Open Reason and create Redrum

Click the folder symbol (bottom left) to load a new Drum Kit and choose:
Reason Factory Sound Bank - RnB Kits - RnB Kit 01.drp

If you don't have this kit, don't worry, just choose any RnB or Hip Hop kit. Your loops won't sound identical but the concepts still apply.

Redrum should look like this:


Lets start with the fundamentals of a 120 bpm hip hop / RnB rhythm with just a kick drum and a snare drum. We're going to use the step sequencer built into Redrum to program our basic beat. We can make a more complicated rhythm section that changes and throughout our tune with the sequencer. More about that later...
Make sure the tempo is set to 120 BPM (beats per minute) in the transport bar at the bottom of the reason window.

Click the play button at the top of instrument 1 in Redrum. It should be a heavy bass drum sound. If not use the up and down arrows to find one.

Select instrument 1 by pressing the select button at the bottom of the instrument column so it lights up.

Make sure the Dynamic switch is set to MEDIUM.

In the pattern sequencer click note buttons 1, 5, 9, 13. By default Redrum chooses a 4/4 time signature which means 4 quarter notes (crotchets) per measure (bar). The pattern sequencer is set to divide a musical measure or bar into 16 equal parts.

Click the Run button - you should hear a constant kick drum, one every quarter note that sounds like the bass drum for a house or disco tune.

We could go on from here, adding snares, hihats, shakers and hand claps to create a classic hands in the air house anthem for the Ibiza club season, but that's for another day. Right now we want something funky and funk is all about space.
The most basic rhythms for hip hop, R & B, funk and soul are based on a bass drum and a snare drum.
Change the kick drum pattern so that you have notes on 1, 3 and 11 only, by clicking note buttons that are already lit to switch them off.

Select instrument 2. Click the play button at the top of the instrument column - it should be a snare drum sound.
Click note buttons 5 and 13.

Click Run.
You should now be listening to the basis of your classic hip hop or R&B rhythm.

The most important feature of rhythms in R & B and hip hop, which are musical styles which have their roots in funk and soul, is the space in the beats. James Brown, the godfather of soul said "Funk ain't about the notes it's about the gaps".

There is a quality of certain rhythms that they "roll". It's hard to identify why one beat makes you tap your feet, whereas another, seemingly very similar, does not. Let's try and add some energy to our rhythm with a hihat.

Select instrument 5. Click the play button to make sure you have a closed hihat sound.
Click all the odd numbered note buttons, 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15.

Run the pattern.

The constant hihat adds energy to the rhythm, spices it up. But it's not funky. This kind of constant hihat has more of a rock or disco feel to it. To find the funk - we need space.

Thin the closed hihat right out so that it is active on notes 1,2, 5, 9, and 13.

Run the pattern, you can hear how some of the energy is gone from our rhythm that the constant hihat had brought in, but there is a lot more space in the pattern. The extra note on number 2 just adds a little extra, giving the rhythm a bit of "roll".

To bring the energy back in, but maintain the space, select instrument 4 and make sure it is an open hihat sound. It should sound longer than the closed hihat, more of a "ssshh" than just a click, and a bit louder.

With instrument 4 selected, click on notes 3, 7, 11 and 15 adding an offbeat open hihat to the rhythm.

With the off-beat open hihat and the closed hihat kicking it along this beat is starting to roll.

But as always with funk, less is more so take out the open hihat (instrument 4) on note 11, and take out the closed hihat (instrument 7) on note 9.

Now we've got space in the rhythm again, but as before the energy has gone - the beat doesn't roll. Lets find some new sample and bring back the roll but make it more funky by using a longer less percussive sound.

Select instrument 3. Click the folder button and browse to:
xclusive drums-sorted / 05_HiHats / Hh2_Xtc5
Click the play button - it should be a long splash cymbal sound. If you don't have this sound in your Reason 4 sample collection, add one cymbal crash on note 9, run the pattern and keep clicking through the sounds with the up arrow until you find a long cymbal or hihat sound that works for you.

With just the one note on number 9, run the pattern.

The space is filled and the funk is coming back.

Adding Tension and Energy

Creating and filling rhythmic space is one way of building tension and energy in dance music, another is through tempo. As an experiment, find the tempo control in the transport bar at the bottom and with the pattern running click the up arrow to slowly raise the tempo to 140 bpm.
Can you feel the energy in the musio rising?

Drop the tempo down slowly past the original 120 bpm to 100 bpm.
How do you feel about the change in energy now?

It's often the case that if we design a rhythm at a certain tempo, it just doesn't sound right at tempos that are more than a few BPM different. At 140 BPM our beat has lost it's space and funk. At 100 BPM our beat sounds sparse and the individual sounds sound cliped.
A technics 1210 record player which has been the industry standard for DJ's since the modern twin deck DJ style was invented in New York in the 70's has a pitch (speed) control that allows an adjustment of -8% to +8%. The DJs use this adjustment so they can match tempos of two beats to "mix" the two tunes  For our rhytm it means that it may get played between 110 BPM and 130BPM.
But (and this is important) the speed control on a turntable *speeds up or slows down all the sound* changing the pitch, whereas the tempo control on Reasons transport bar changes the speed of the rhythm but each individual sound plays back at the same speed (and pitch).
This is going to be important to understand when we start introducing recorded samples to our music later in the tutorial.

Set the BPM back to 120BPM.

Up till now we have been adding percussive sounds to the beat all at medium strength (volume or velocity).
By varying the velocity (how hard the drums are hit) we can subtly alter the mood of the rhythm.

• Move the DYNAMIC switch to the HARD position.
• Select the Kick drum (instrument 1) Click note 1 - it should change color to red from orange to indicate the harder strike (greater velocity).
• Run the pattern

The higher impact and louder sound of the first beat of the bar emphasises the start of our rhythm. This can help you to feel the timing of the rhythm especially when dancing.

So our rhythm is sounding pretty good now, but to really spice it up and make it truly funky, we're going to add a classic light snare and try and evoke one of the most sampled beats of all time James Browns "Funky Drummer".

• Click the Dynamic switch to soft
• Add soft snare drums (instrument 2) to 8 and 10.
• Change the kick drum (instrument 1) on note 11 to hard
• Add a medium kick drum to note 8 to support the new snare on 8.

Run the Pattern.

Like it? Now that's funky. :)

If you want to load the Reason project file we created whilst making this tutorial it's available here:

Reason Funky Drummer.rns

After working through this tutorial you have an understanding of some of the concepts and the process of drum programming and how to develop, or evolve a great rhythm.

Save your work in Reason because we'll be needing this later.

• With our beat as a starting point try adding and taking out more notes in each of the instruments with the pattern running.
• Try swapping the sounds for others.
• Try changing the whole drum kit.
• Try adding another instrument.
• Try and concentrate on how the changes affect the energy of the rhythm. As you experiment keep in mind that with drum programming just adding more sounds doesn't necessarily add more energy - so often less is more. Keep it funky!

Changes to try:

• Kick Drum (instrument 1), clear note 11, add note 12.
• Add a kick drum to 9.
• Clear the closed hihat on 1.
• Add a soft shaker on all the notes.