The Amen Break - An analysis of the most important sample in history | Drum Patterns Explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
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Much has been said about the history of the Amen Break, but in this episode we take a look at the drum pattern behind the legendary breakbeat, how it works, its little details and what makes it special.
► Instagram / captainpikant
Featured drum patterns - transcriptions available on Patreon:
The Winstons - Amen Brother
Gear used:
Roland TR-6S
Synthstrom Audible Deluge
#amenbreak #tr6s #909 #deluge #drummachine #synthstrom #roland #hiphop #jungle #dnb #drumnbass #breakbeat #sampling
Produced by Jean-Claude Dirckx and Sophie Hoppstädter
For all you Deluge users we made a list of some helpful shortcuts we used while making this video:
• Double clip length and rollout: [Shift] + press [◄ ►] knob
• Re-order kit row: [Audition pad] + press and turn [▼▲] knob
• Change single kit row colour: [Shift] + [Audition pad] + turn [▼▲] knob
• Make a kit row send MIDI: [Audition pad] + [MIDI]
(any sound assigned to the kit row is removed, it will only send MIDI now)
• Select MIDI channel / note for kit row: [Audition pad] + turn [lower] knob / [upper] knob
• Add current instrument to choke group: [Shift] + [Polyphony] > CHOK
• Sample start/end: [Shift] + [Waveform]. Press green start line or red end line, then adjust with [pads] or [select] knob. Zoom in for finer adjustments (press and turn [◄ ►] knob)
• Newly placed notes and notes played with the audition pads will default to the same velocity as the last note touched on that pattern (that's the reason I touch the cymbal step at 8:00 - so I can use the audition pad at this velocity).
These will of course also be in the Deluge Cheat Sheet we're working on right now! :)
An example done quickly on TR-6s without a sampler Real Drums th-cam.com/video/X2tOFAcPD9k/w-d-xo.html
I should hate this break as it's been used to death, but it really does sound so nice and lend itself to being used in so many ways.
I think the magic of it is it transcends a specific genre. When its used between artists between the likes of U2 down to NWA, its more of a flourish than anything
It's the blue jeans of break beats; Everyone wears them and no one cares that everyone wears them.
@@inthefade Interesting observation. I can relate and do appreciate your analogy.
Do you hate guitars and pianos and snare drums because they've been used to death too?
@@scottadams7820 Yes.. yes i do.
Man... timestretch artifacts are like a spcial sauce of each sampler. DnB/Jungle oldskoolers seem to just know an Akai timestretch vs anything else.
The 1010music blackbox has my favorite artifacts of any modern unit
I'm a big fan of the jank you can get from abletons stretching. At ultra low speeds the beat and granular modes start sounding amazing.
@@SlashCampable amen brother lol
the virgin timestretch
the chad playing it slower & faster by pitching it up and down
My mpc1000 gets a bit too crunchy lol
Edit: I am aware most dnb was on a s950 or s I forget the number
I can never get tired of hearing an Amen. Great video, thanks for sharing!
First time i heard an Amen, i would have never thought it was just a normal drumkit.
Right? I want to see that what snare drum looks like.
It's all about the room sound, compression and mic setup.
@@Gameboygenius It's a 14x6.5 ludwig steel
Real drums just pitched and sliced
@@leewightman8619 Ah yes, the original track Amen, Brother by the Winstons, famous for resampling and chopping their own drum break in the 60s.
I love how the drum beats that plays during the transitions are played by the featured drum machine (drum machines this time) in his videos.
Thanks! I think you're the first one to notice!
I always felt the charm of the Amen was how it changed in pitch when it was matched to the tempo of whatever track it was being used in.
Deluge is a junglemachine--the p-locking lets you change all sorts of parameters per hit, so you can do the filter/pitch/etc sweeping. Also, the timestretch algo is really reminscent of the early Akai algos, so riiiinnnnsssee oooouuuttt to your heart's content.
Just subscribed. This is by far the best analysis/breakdown of the amen break that I've ever seen. This is coming from a music producer who has been at it for 8+ years!
Just a subtle correction from a drummer: it's not a crash cymbal, its the edge of the ride cymbal.
I've literally just started playing around with music production stuff, videos like this really help with the motivation to keep learning cool shit like this!
I think it was pretty easy to sample, as just playing at 33 1/3 rpm (for the single version) immediately makes it hip hop
You mean, Straight out of compton.
Can I just say as a non-musician, but an avid listener who loves doing deep dives on my favorite genres:
This was so refreshing and wonderful to hear a precise and in-depth break down of the building block that makes up my favorite genre, Drum and Bass. The way you've presented it is so wonderful and clear. Absolutely lovely. Thank you.
Welp. I’m afraid that means you like hip-hop and the likes mate 😅
@@CANControlGRAFFITI Amen breaks aren't unique to hip hop mate
@@CANControlGRAFFITIwhat’s wrong with that
@@CANControlGRAFFITIabsolutely, my love for jungle/DnB as a young teen is what helped me get into hiphop as an older one! (I mean I already liked classic NY hiphop like GM Flash, but everything more modern than that lol)
Wow, I wasn't expecting the reconstruction to sound as convincing as it does, seriously well done 👏
Excellent, can you do the Apache break next please?
Thanks! The Apache break and others such as the Funky Drummer break are definitely on our radar, but it will take a while until we get there :)
Loved the ending, another awesome video packed with tons of useful information for us producers....can't thank you enough for your hard work. Your editing is some next level shit, honestly
Thank you so much :D
@@CaptainPikant actually this tutorial was intersting because you started from the bottom and went to the top ;) just a historical jorney I really like as a 45 years old man who never lost contact with making music ;) and started at 13 ...
Everyone: The 'Amen' break is the most important drum sample of all time.
The 'Think' break: 🙄
I‘ve always struggled with my songwriting for the singular reason of being bad at designing beats. I just found this channel and it’s a godsend
this hardware is incredible, and here i thought this kinda drum precision necessitated a live recording...
it just makes things a lot easier and quicker. if you have a drummer handy just tell them to jam out some funky grooves for a few minutes. i recorded a guy with a single mediocre mic in a mediocre room and it worked out great. i had unique jungle breaks that nobody else did. i put so much effects and crap on them that it didn't really matter how good the original recording was.
0:08 Please say the name of the actual drummer: Gregory Coleman.
You know you did something when they make a GENRE out of your shit
(its breakcore btw)
Great video,I never really thought about how with slicing a break you could introduce all kinds of flam roll and ratchet wizardry in a song.
I love your channel. It’s equal parts synth music history and instruction. Keep up the amazing work! Thanks!
The time-stretching at the end reminded me of Fatboy Slim's Rockafeller Skank, where he used its slowdown artifacting intentionally when the song transitions to its slower part.
I can't shake the impression that despite the impressive versatility of the drum machine used here, it would be far more fun to actually play these fine rhythms yourself, on an actual real drum kit.
This is the best Amen Break explaination I ever have seen so far! Very good job! Awesome!
Excellent stuff, as always. Watching the deluge used for drums really makes me miss mine, the perfect rhythm interface. Cheers, always love your work.
I m 46 and an oldschool breakbeat rave fan from the 90s era. Also an amateur musician in that genre from 2000. The video blew my mind! Such an inspiration! (Especially the slices!)
Great video. With the Amen break, that ride cymbal can be a bit much, especially when pitching down. The bell of the ride just makes me pucker some times and reach for a lot of EQ. If you're using Ableton, the drum bus plug-in has a transient section that can really take the edge off it. Just dial it down to taste. It is much more pleasing than trying to notch out different frequencies. Plus it shortens up the ringing of the ride, creating more space for other sounds with mid-high and high, dominant, frequencies.
That was an awesome breakdown! Pun intended.
Velocities are so so important but since software, you wouldn't know it was a big thing for creating expression and dynamics. The velocity response/curve on many software instruments and drum machines is pathetic.
Edit:
and PS Captain, very authentic and well done. 😎
Did you already release that video about the humanization of samples, you are talking about at 8:10? Couldn't find it here on a channel or on your Patreon page. Anyway, excellent, high-quality content. Huge thanks for your time and effort, and separate thanks for posting it here on TH-cam for free. Make no mistake, your work is appreciated!
Hi Ivan, thank you so much! The humanization video is still in the works :)
Fun video!
This is so dope. I might use this as an excuse to transcribe to sheet music and cram as much of this info as I can
So fun watching you :) can u make a tutorial on the behind the secne of 606/707/808/909 sound design? 707 is the best kick and snare in the world for retro 80s synthwave ;)
Pretty easy.
For the kick, take a sine wave and cut it so it is a cosine.
For the snare, take the kick, pitch it up about three or four octaves, add white noise with an adsr with a decay and attack to taste, then for the cymbal, do it again only higher.
Excellent tutorial! Straight to the point, comprehensive and informative. In the 90s I despaired of re-creating this drum loop; wish I would have seen this video back then 😄
first time I've ever seen the Amen broken down in this way - super interesting, thanks!
Great clinic. I very much enjoy the production style.
I'm a drummer and this video was very helpful. Since Jojo Mayer and his band Nerve emerged, a loy of drummers try to freely improvise on this break in the manner that you just showed. Thank you❤
I was gonna like it anyway but calling the video an Amen Breakdown was a very nice touch that solidified a like and a follow! Great video!
Gregory Coleman.... put some respect on that mans name.
Try as you may you can't transpose his natural feel,groove and pocket though can ya.
Nooooooooo!
He deserves some sort of award for placing a crash cymbal where I would never have even considered when making a beat with a DAW or drum machine. To this day, bar three of the pattern still surprises me.
You must be psychic, I’ve been wondering how this would be recreated on a drum machine..
Very interesting break-down of the mother (or brother) of all breaks! Your videos always start me thinking and give me a better understanding of the music I love.
I've taken to programming some "realistic" (as far as my understanding of live drumming allows me to be) drums using the recently released free Vintage Drums library for the Spitfire LABS VST, that I then sample and chop to add a little variation in my D'n'B / jungle / braindance -ish sketches. It's great fun.
Waiting for the bassline to drop during that outro break....
Learnt a lot from that, thanks. For example, I tend to just lay in a bar or two of drums and repeat it. Now I’m gonna copy that a few times and tweak each bar. Second, I will start to use dynamics on drums more, for ghost notes for example. I need to go away and work out how to chop up a sample like that too. Very cool. Loving my new Deluge, what a machine. Thanks.
Far one of the best format i see about producing
I like to sea how much love and work you put in your videos.
Quality instead of Quantity
Dear Captain. Roland TR-6S. I think that with well-chosen and set final effects (Fattener, Reverb Ambient) you can easily approach the quality of real acoustic drums. Regards.
Very detailed and informative, and presented in a clear and accessible way. This is the best analysis of the Amen break that I have seen. Thank you.
I'd like to see you break down NIN The perfect drug.
🤔
My firm opinion is that hardware drum machines are just a waste of money yet after seeing this I want one.
Wow, the production quality as well as the content here are astonishing. Great work!
I've always feared these giant drum machines, but you make everything seem so logical and accessible.
That tip with the 909 kicks to supplement pitched up amens lack of low end is gonna be really helpful, this video is fantastic!
Excellent, need some time to process this. But it really is a great drum break. Thank you
Do you have a video discussing that sample kit workflow at the end?
No but there is a pinned comment with the Deluge shortcuts :)
This is legitimate my favorite break, and my favorite sample, I have samples at least one part of it in most of my (admittedly trash) songs! Very good analysis!
The video I didn’t know I need this am!
Ahhhhh, nice. Good explanation!
Edit: Also, suddenly wondering if I should be using a Deluge……hmmmm…. Why do I always want to buy things after watching your videos :`(
pay attention to the shortcuts, there will be changes in the next firmware 😁
Thanks, that's good to know! Any idea when that update is coming?
@@CaptainPikant still in beta 😁
Does that reshuffling of cuts in the end have a specific name? What would you call that technique? Besides, is it always done like that or are there other approaches? Sorry, guitar player here
It's called sample slicing or sample chopping :)
Whoah your sub count has exploded since I last looked. This is a great video!
It feels like kurtzgesagt for beats. Its nice!
... what about a comparison video between the "old" TR-6S and the "new" syntact? :-)
I had a deluge. fun little box. regret selling it for my son's chemo because he loved playing with it. aaand now I'm depressed again.
Sorry to hear that 😥
Hopefully he can play one again when he’s better
Don't cry over stuff. When time is right, you will get it back and it will be forever for you to keep.
Wonderful video about the amen break!
It's really cool you can link speed and pitch to bpm. Surprisingly hard to find in grooveboxes.
while you programmed this thing a real drummer would have recorded a whole track...
and?
How have I only just seen this! Amazing. Subscribed!
So cool! Never managed to deconstruct those dnb rhythms...
This is so entertaining, useful, cool, and informative. Thanks!
This video from 2004 is where I learned about the Amen Break. th-cam.com/video/5SaFTm2bcac/w-d-xo.html 🙂
Just what I needed!! Great tutorial for Amen Break lovers!
Awesome tutorial mate, second half is junglist approved. 👍
can you explain why it's called a drum BREAK? for the life of me, i've never understood why people, esp. in hiphop, call it that? a drum part, a drum sequence... why a break?
I believe it's because the other musicians literally took a break while the drummer was playing alone. That was en vogue during a certain period, which is why there are all these old records from which you could easily extract beats from.
@@CaptainPikant thanks! that is a great explanation. sounds like when john bonham would solo for 10 mins, and the rest of the dudes would go off-stage to drink. if this is indeed true, it makes sense. but no-one ever explained it to me before. thanks again
Nice deconstruction! I think it would be even better if you built the pattern on the deluge from the beginning as the sequencer lets you see multiple rows at once which helps a lot with understanding. To improve the visibility a bit more you could lower the brightness or put some shadow caster in front of the deluge as its lit up pads have really low contrast here and a bit hard to see.
Eamonn Break. Irish hero.
You certainly know your stuff Buddy. Excellent 👌🏼
Great vid but i don't think there is a ghost snare on the very 1st beat of bar 4, I will have to have another close listen tomorrow, I might have missed it after all these years !
The Amen Break has been in thousands of American songs! Thank you for this documentary. Once you hear it, you can't forget it!
For me, the nicest thing about the Amen is that Im not playing a loop. It has its notes and it's structure but you are giving me all this
The basis of drum sampling
Might seem like a simple thing to say today, but a godsend to the world when it happened. I have a drum set!
You are the drum machine shaman!
Fantastic, thanks!!!
The New Tetris OST for the Nintendo 64 used this break beat a lot. They also used time stretching to great effect.
You got the perfect dental-care-ad voice
Yo this is great for just having drum programming vocabulary. Subbed!
My PO-12 1-bar patterns alone will benefit greatly.
Definitely would want to see more tr6s videos
First video of yours I've seen. Subbed and liked :)
You should listen to the Hexstatic album "Listen and Learn" for some rad synth use!
Holy Hell!. I have learned so much just from this one video. Thank you, dude!! 😃👌👍
Sampling history & revisionism.
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Sampling emerged in the early 1980s but the majority of users with affordable samplers after 1986 never went beyond 1965 for content.. They were sampling their influences in funk, disco or genres with drum breaks. Copyright was also fairly lax.
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Reggae , Hip Hop purists & crate diggers had & still abide by codes which state that you aspire to be original. Do not reveal your sources. Do not sample from Artists who sample. Do not use compilation albums.
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Many in the early days of drum & bass & Jungle didn't even make an effort as they just sampled last weeks recordings or The Winston Brothers - Amen between themselves. And the revisionists have altered the narrative stating that it was the foundation etc.When the reality is that.
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Jungle & drum & bass was a trite genre with a community that couldn't even be bothered to make some effort & find unused drum samples. As a consequence every video commenting on the Winston Brothers - Amen as the most important sample in history blah blah blah is ludicrous , revisionist & totally disconnected from crate digging culture.
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Can you see the absurdity of these statements ' The most important guitar ' The most important piano' ' The most important drumkit ' etc
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However. ' The most important sample is widespread in the lexicon '
Oooooh the bunny has smashed it this time. That was awesome. Looks like you have set me some homework. Cheers Cap!
Hey Michael, glad you liked it :)
"a-MEN" the word is accented on the second syllable in English.
You are pronouncing Amon Tobin's first name here. He likely also used the Amen break…
Hey, this is a great video, and is incredibly well made! Gave it a like :)
Brilliant work after slicing and adding Thank you for the tips
This got me wondering if anyone has combined the amen break with rhythm changes (songs using the changes of I've Got Rhythm for the non-jazz folks)?
Did @FloydSteinberg uppitched his voice and created @CaptainPikant?
great video! love your work - thank you!
You just got a sub from and old school junglist. Pure homage
Great video and thanks for sharing ! what is the name of the drum kit played by Deluge?
We found the 60's style Black Oyster kit to be a good fit for breakbeats. There was a lot of tweaking necessary though :)
This is prob a lay up for a lot of people, but I felt like I hadn’t been doing it right. Thank you for doing this video. It def helped me w/ my amateur programming. Haha…
OMG. This is why I'll never be a drummer. But I still need to lay down drum tracks, so...
* puts on hard hat and continues *