Years (and years) ago I did a Djembe workshop, and the guy had us doing a simple eight-step pattern, where we'd just take certain steps and hit louder for those steps: Straight - right left right left right left right left With "velocity" RIGHT left RIGHT left right LEFT right left (Play the left and right hand slightly differently - e.g. closer or further from the center of the drum for more emphasis when you hit louder.) But for some dumb reason I never really thought to try it in sequenced beats, thanks! 🙂
Afrobeats (if that's the right term) are so intriguing, do you know of any techno or electro African music that's being produced today that's maybe or maybe not using traditional African or Middle Eastern instruments, but does have an afrobeat? Channel, afrorack, popularized about 5 years ago for Ugandan hardware synthesizer builder, making eurorack format synthesizer modules, and the beach that he made where it's just fun and attractive. There's so much seriousness in house that I want to kind of look away to something more fun.
I always watch your videos even though I make absolutely different kind of music, and a lot of people who I know also watch your channel to get some inspiration and apply it to other genres :) I think it is great^^
Yeppers. Fun challenges picking out something in a Ricky vid to attempt to recreate in VCV rack. Whether a tip, trick, melody, or even just a sound that grabs my attention.
Don't skip thís ....Add Swing . (groove quantize) or use a dotted or tripled note grid to get real funky. Use uneven bars (3,5,7,etc.) on an even grid ( 4,6, 8 bars ) for some patterns like snare or hats to make your grooves change over time . (very techno, works great on synth and bass to ) Happy grooving !
I so agree with this video! If you want to go that extra step, i've found that slightly shortening the length of your unaccented notes just gooses things along really nicely too. Or even if you're using the Digitakt, add a tiny bit of drive onto your accented notes. It really works!
Intentional, nuanced velocity changes are probably one of my biggest early takeaways from your channel when the MPC4000 was still making a few appearances. Always seemed like a blast to pump out a house track on.
yes! that's why I love the MPC pads and working with them because that velocity is on by default. You almost don't even notice that its enhancing your patterns because its just there
The segment where you run the three versions--accent on the downbeat, static, accent on the upbeat--genius demonstration. Entire chapter of music theory in less than a minute. 2:44
Grids and an extra Euclidean sequencer, driving a bunch of drum modules, using step sequencers to give a different pattern length cv sequence, modulating the drum modules. Patch it up, hit go, and just ride the dials for fun jamz
Well your wizardry worked! I am now a first time proud owner of the Digitakt. Why I waited so long is beyond me, but here I am. I am now watching this video again with it in my hands. Now I understand the hype, and why you always seems to have so much fun on this device. Can't explain it, but dang it is truly enjoyable taping those little squares.
Micro-timing is another one. Worth experimenting with pushing or pulling some hits, whether certain sounds (snare, toms) or even accents, aside from general swing. When it works can be very interesting, and stands out from the crowd, but can sound very right if you feel it. Accents on weak beats for syncopation, common in Jazz but also Latin, and African percussion. Also that tension from layering loops while experimenting with slightly different swings can be interesting too. Lots of House built from sampled loops has that slight friction, where some percussion still remains in a sampled bass loop fights against the main drums. Or the flam effects you get in sampled breakbeat driven music like hip-hop, hardcore, jungle. Overusing/abusing sidechain compression or expansion can give interesting breathing effects, like you can use signals to control the sidechain that aren't in the mix (ghost sidechain).
@@CatFish107 no, it's not my term. It's when you use the side chain heavily but then suddenly cruelly drop all contact without explanation, block it and run off with a multiband compressor instead. (it's when the control signal of the side chain isn't heard in the actual mix - say a secondary kick drum playing a different pattern to the actual, that's muted in the main mix but the side chain is made to breathe with it)
Definetly overbridge is a game changer for this kind of recording such small changes on a pattern and get endless pattern combinations. I struggle at the moment to transfer this kind of groovy patterns when playing around with my drumboxes to a recorded track. As stopping and having to record every track separately completely breaks the flow.
Bro! Your energy, and enthusiasm while teaching is so amazing. I don't own one piece of Electron gear, but a video like this inspires me to want one really bad. The nuances of what you cover in the music making process is really second to none. As a former New Yorker myself. I hope to meet you some day.
Man, I can't be more thankful for your videos, they are so inspirational to me! Specially since you mess with the Digi, and that makes me also to mess with it to create unique stuff!! Thanks!
It should be pretty fundamental drum learning, but it's definitely easy to forget often. I find my head is often trying to come up with complex ideas with synths and harmonies, and then just lose focus on the lower level stuff like this. Another good one is to combine this with odd step number LFOs, and the polyrhythms/meters. velocity, decay/other envelopes, slight detuning, whatever.
Well, that was some masterclass! Thanks for this, maybe a bit basic for most, but I’m a guitarist and my Octatrack is in a totally different league from me, beats-wise... You cleared up how it is that some things I occasionally get sounding ok, though I didn’t understand why or how to repeat it... Never stop learning... Thanks again!
Adjusting velocities is crucial when it comes to programming beats. What many people consider the "magic" or "groove" of the TR-808 really boils down to using the Accent (which was the only way to adjust velocity on that machine). Sure, there's some jitter with the sequencers of the original TR machines, but the jitter doesn't make anything better.
Brillante. Ricky, es increíble la cantidad de ideas por minuto para un solo dispositivo. Muchas gracias por ayudarnos a disfrutar aún más nuestros Digitakts. Had to write this in Spanish because my English is not good enough to express my gratitude for so many amazing videos. Thank you very much!
I'm pretty new to electronic music making. The velocity tip was my biggest level up a few months back, I have a feeling the poly rhythm technique might be my next breakthrough
Ricky I know it might be a little basic but would you able to show us how you record separate tracks with the digitakt into ableton while keeping the effects on their own tracks? How do you set up in the Digi settings and Ableton settings. Thank you! Fire beat at the end!
@rickytinez I’m debating getting a digitakt and I’m totally new to groove boxes. I can make a mean track on Ableton. Would you recommend seriously pairing the digitakt with a digitone for full live show mobility or making songs while traveling? I’m looking to build a dawless setup that’s portable under 2k. Just moved out of LA to. Chicago wish I saw your channel years ago! Keep up the awesome work.
on the Digitakt. when in step record mode. hold FUNC+Left arrow or right arrow to SHIFT the entire pattern a step forward. So what I did was I changed my pattern from steps 1-5-9-13 to steps 4-8-12-16.
Ok, but we also already have this in workstations and DAW's. I already consider this more a matter of composing and editing in the studio, the studio and recording techniques are also what reveal how to make these productions more pumped and with a sensation of movement. I think it depends much more on the person than on the machine. I have been using these techniques since the 90s, but I do them with limiters and compressors for transient manipulation, on individual tracks. Accent was also included for that purpose in Roland TRs, to make some areas of a full rhythm sound more pumped and others less. The Roland Boutique TR-09 compressor allows me to use the internal compressor with the accent to do these very things, for full effect on the final sound. I have digitakt and I usually manage a lot of the automation of the sound volume and filter to do these things as well. The result is the same that you get on old house music records in the 90s, stuff from New York house music, Detroit house music, French house, you can hear this effect all the time. Thank you for these reviews, the video is nice and great.
Aren't the ride patterns the Ricky is using as examples in the first part of the video recorded extremely low... or am I losing the top end of my hearing?
I tend to "forget" to hit record way too many times. 😂 That’s why I started using Rewind (by monkey(c), no ties here). It’s just there when I fire up my Mac … and it already saved me a lot of times - and recorded lots of happy accidents. 😊 Apart from that: Thank you so much for this video! Those sure are things to remember and (even more important) practice (aka mess with)! 🎉
Aren't those polymeters you're talking about? I think a polyrhythm would be if there were a different number of beats in the same time. You're changing the length of each pattern, but the length of the individual beats remains the same. Awesome stuff anyways!
hmm i like your vids, but that one is kinda "banal" not sure if that translates well into english... the feeling is the most important thing. that's it. you can fiddle velo, pitch, pan, whatever. feel and do the stuff. that's the thing. but ok. if there is no feeling, the head will appreciate it, i think. cheers! 😅
I know on some samplers it will play a completely different sample depending on which velocity is used. Think about hitting a crash cymbal. It sounds much different if you hit it really hard verses lightly tapping it.
Didn’t you also work for Novation? Two of the best. No need to excuse where you work…. Unless it’s walmart!!! Here’s a more serious question: how do you get the studio dust free?? Dust free and cool?! Cheers!
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
Years (and years) ago I did a Djembe workshop, and the guy had us doing a simple eight-step pattern, where we'd just take certain steps and hit louder for those steps:
Straight - right left right left right left right left
With "velocity" RIGHT left RIGHT left right LEFT right left
(Play the left and right hand slightly differently - e.g. closer or further from the center of the drum for more emphasis when you hit louder.)
But for some dumb reason I never really thought to try it in sequenced beats, thanks! 🙂
Afrobeats (if that's the right term) are so intriguing, do you know of any techno or electro African music that's being produced today that's maybe or maybe not using traditional African or Middle Eastern instruments, but does have an afrobeat?
Channel, afrorack, popularized about 5 years ago for Ugandan hardware synthesizer builder, making eurorack format synthesizer modules, and the beach that he made where it's just fun and attractive.
There's so much seriousness in house that I want to kind of look away to something more fun.
I always watch your videos even though I make absolutely different kind of music, and a lot of people who I know also watch your channel to get some inspiration and apply it to other genres :) I think it is great^^
Same here! It’s just great content man. And I also still learn something I can use within the genres I do dabble in.
Yep, I as well. This man gets me inspired like no other!
SkinnyVampiress, thanks so much for the kind words. I'm happy to help facilitate you wanting to get up and create something!
Same for me.
Yeppers. Fun challenges picking out something in a Ricky vid to attempt to recreate in VCV rack. Whether a tip, trick, melody, or even just a sound that grabs my attention.
Don't skip thís ....Add Swing . (groove quantize) or use a dotted or tripled note grid to get real funky. Use uneven bars (3,5,7,etc.) on an even grid ( 4,6, 8 bars ) for some patterns like snare or hats to make your grooves change over time . (very techno, works great on synth and bass to ) Happy grooving !
In case you want the See You Later Oscillator hat I got on, you can get it at my shop here! - synthshit.com/products/sylohat
I appreciate all of you.
I remember a little while ago you said you'd been listening to a lot of Theo Parrish and the like, definitely feeling that sort of influence. Nice one
Had no idea you have an online shop. On my way there to support you.
I so agree with this video! If you want to go that extra step, i've found that slightly shortening the length of your unaccented notes just gooses things along really nicely too. Or even if you're using the Digitakt, add a tiny bit of drive onto your accented notes. It really works!
Love it, when you get excited about stuff you learned. Always makes me want to make more music. Share the knowledge, my friend. ❤❤❤
How did I not know after all this time. You are an elektron employe? 😮 makes sense you’re awesome and so is the company
He worked for Novation for a long time; think it was just last year that he made the jump to Elektron.
Nice one! We're back to programming beats! Yes!
Intentional, nuanced velocity changes are probably one of my biggest early takeaways from your channel when the MPC4000 was still making a few appearances. Always seemed like a blast to pump out a house track on.
yes! that's why I love the MPC pads and working with them because that velocity is on by default. You almost don't even notice that its enhancing your patterns because its just there
Less is more!
Simple and cool grooves! Thank you for sharing, this is very inspiring!
Ricky + Digitakt is like my favorite kind of video
The segment where you run the three versions--accent on the downbeat, static, accent on the upbeat--genius demonstration. Entire chapter of music theory in less than a minute. 2:44
Grids and an extra Euclidean sequencer, driving a bunch of drum modules, using step sequencers to give a different pattern length cv sequence, modulating the drum modules. Patch it up, hit go, and just ride the dials for fun jamz
Dude, it's always such a joy to watch you jam and experiment. Simple, yet groovy. Inspirational stuff!
Superb . Thanks 😊
Tryna get my electron cycles and samples around to my work again. Great to stop for a while with that video, appreciate your work!
Well your wizardry worked! I am now a first time proud owner of the Digitakt. Why I waited so long is beyond me, but here I am. I am now watching this video again with it in my hands. Now I understand the hype, and why you always seems to have so much fun on this device. Can't explain it, but dang it is truly enjoyable taping those little squares.
Micro-timing is another one. Worth experimenting with pushing or pulling some hits, whether certain sounds (snare, toms) or even accents, aside from general swing. When it works can be very interesting, and stands out from the crowd, but can sound very right if you feel it. Accents on weak beats for syncopation, common in Jazz but also Latin, and African percussion. Also that tension from layering loops while experimenting with slightly different swings can be interesting too. Lots of House built from sampled loops has that slight friction, where some percussion still remains in a sampled bass loop fights against the main drums. Or the flam effects you get in sampled breakbeat driven music like hip-hop, hardcore, jungle. Overusing/abusing sidechain compression or expansion can give interesting breathing effects, like you can use signals to control the sidechain that aren't in the mix (ghost sidechain).
Hey, thanks for the insights. As a jokey question: Is ghost sidechain just a fancy way of saying LFO?
@@CatFish107 no, it's not my term. It's when you use the side chain heavily but then suddenly cruelly drop all contact without explanation, block it and run off with a multiband compressor instead. (it's when the control signal of the side chain isn't heard in the actual mix - say a secondary kick drum playing a different pattern to the actual, that's muted in the main mix but the side chain is made to breathe with it)
This was great, thanks.
Definetly overbridge is a game changer for this kind of recording such small changes on a pattern and get endless pattern combinations. I struggle at the moment to transfer this kind of groovy patterns when playing around with my drumboxes to a recorded track. As stopping and having to record every track separately completely breaks the flow.
Is this a real RickyTinez channel or is it rather some kind of weird scam bot?
masterful teaching on display here
nice one ricky!
Thanks 🙏🏼 your content has gotten even better !! 🖤
this one is probably my favorite of urs. together with the sp404 one. thanx hermano
Sp404 workflow is absolute trash. Sounds good but not for me….
Always learning from ya, much appreciated!
Bro! Your energy, and enthusiasm while teaching is so amazing. I don't own one piece of Electron gear, but a video like this inspires me to want one really bad. The nuances of what you cover in the music making process is really second to none. As a former New Yorker myself. I hope to meet you some day.
The marketing works
What energy you have! I feel motivated every time I watch your videos. New ideas for sure; but I watch for that creative energy that you send out man!
god i miss my digitakt, i sold it after getting my octa, but theres just something about the straight get up an go nature of the digi that i miss
Man, I can't be more thankful for your videos, they are so inspirational to me! Specially since you mess with the Digi, and that makes me also to mess with it to create unique stuff!! Thanks!
very cool! been dabbling with house-y stuff after making mostly junk break beats/gabber stuff for years.
Damn the delivery is very well received and, like a lot of folks here, gets me thinking about my music definitely. Simple and effective. Thanks
Loving this types of videos! I'm learning so much! time to make some music!
Effortlessly dope…❤
It should be pretty fundamental drum learning, but it's definitely easy to forget often. I find my head is often trying to come up with complex ideas with synths and harmonies, and then just lose focus on the lower level stuff like this. Another good one is to combine this with odd step number LFOs, and the polyrhythms/meters. velocity, decay/other envelopes, slight detuning, whatever.
simplicity is key
Man great content 👏
ad velocity - great thing is you can control up to additionsl 4 different params by velocity on dt/dn/st wich add insane amount of possibilities
Well, that was some masterclass! Thanks for this, maybe a bit basic for most, but I’m a guitarist and my Octatrack is in a totally different league from me, beats-wise... You cleared up how it is that some things I occasionally get sounding ok, though I didn’t understand why or how to repeat it... Never stop learning... Thanks again!
Very useful tips on this one. Gracias Enrique!
Good tip, thanks!
eyy i have a Pearl Drum-X! familiar weird sounds!
Adjusting velocities is crucial when it comes to programming beats. What many people consider the "magic" or "groove" of the TR-808 really boils down to using the Accent (which was the only way to adjust velocity on that machine). Sure, there's some jitter with the sequencers of the original TR machines, but the jitter doesn't make anything better.
You and EZBOT are my favourite teachers. Thanks, Ricky. Much love.
its cool to set LFOs to random on these same points and really fun to do it on the OT on scenes
Great lesson! Really enjoy learning techniques that make the most of 1 bar patterns
Classic Ricky knowledge drop into making great grooves with a collection of simple ideas/variations 🙏🙏🙏
I always add velocity changes to HH using LFO.
Brillante. Ricky, es increíble la cantidad de ideas por minuto para un solo dispositivo. Muchas gracias por ayudarnos a disfrutar aún más nuestros Digitakts.
Had to write this in Spanish because my English is not good enough to express my gratitude for so many amazing videos. Thank you very much!
I needed this tip. Thank you sir! 🙏🏾✌🏾
You’re quite literally a genius this is so helpful
Superb!
I'm pretty new to electronic music making. The velocity tip was my biggest level up a few months back, I have a feeling the poly rhythm technique might be my next breakthrough
I wonder what Ricky's work day at Elektron is like... cue dream sequence harp music
Nice one brother, great stuff as always!
All so simple but vital! And wow what a great jam!
that pattern length stuff was awesome to understand, why haven't i played with that before like that? Great video!
Great stuff. Simple but powerful concepts. Can’t wait to go make some beats now!
Always Be Recording. ❤❤❤ Fantastic tips my friend (like always)
Really great channel Ricky. Appreciate your calm and encouraging personality while making these little lessons fun!
Share the love 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾🤙🏾🤙🏾🤙🏾🤙🏾
Love the enthusiasm for creating music and sharing your knowledge. Thank you man
Good tips. Great grooves.
Thanks
Technique #02: polymeter not polyrhythm - still nice :)
Ooh grey FN button!
Awesome vid, tried it out immediately! Do you also nudge the samples back or forward to create different feels?
Nice. I never really tried velocity... much.
Im gonna use it more NOW. Thanks
Why doesn’t the swing from digitakt work on ableton/OB
Ricky I know it might be a little basic but would you able to show us how you record separate tracks with the digitakt into ableton while keeping the effects on their own tracks? How do you set up in the Digi settings and Ableton settings.
Thank you! Fire beat at the end!
Is there a workaround (with or without LFOs) to modulate velocity?
This video is fucking amazing haha truly inspiring
@rickytinez I’m debating getting a digitakt and I’m totally new to groove boxes. I can make a mean track on Ableton. Would you recommend seriously pairing the digitakt with a digitone for full live show mobility or making songs while traveling? I’m looking to build a dawless setup that’s portable under 2k. Just moved out of LA to. Chicago wish I saw your channel years ago! Keep up the awesome work.
Very cool as always, 8:56 "your favorite" how do you do it?
on the Digitakt. when in step record mode. hold FUNC+Left arrow or right arrow to SHIFT the entire pattern a step forward.
So what I did was I changed my pattern from steps 1-5-9-13 to steps 4-8-12-16.
I have to know where you got that cabinet where you keep your synths in the back! With the rolling shelves - I need one!
Custom built by a friend of his. Its in one of Ricky's most recent videos.
@@poco_a_poco_music brilliant! Thanks for the reply!
Ok, but we also already have this in workstations and DAW's.
I already consider this more a matter of composing and editing in the studio, the studio and recording techniques are also what reveal how to make these productions more pumped and with a sensation of movement.
I think it depends much more on the person than on the machine.
I have been using these techniques since the 90s, but I do them with limiters and compressors for transient manipulation, on individual tracks.
Accent was also included for that purpose in Roland TRs, to make some areas of a full rhythm sound more pumped and others less.
The Roland Boutique TR-09 compressor allows me to use the internal compressor with the accent to do these very things, for full effect on the final sound.
I have digitakt and I usually manage a lot of the automation of the sound volume and filter to do these things as well.
The result is the same that you get on old house music records in the 90s, stuff from New York house music, Detroit house music, French house, you can hear this effect all the time.
Thank you for these reviews, the video is nice and great.
Aren't the ride patterns the Ricky is using as examples in the first part of the video recorded extremely low... or am I losing the top end of my hearing?
honestly cant hear a single difference in those first examples, is the audio mashed or something
cool, man
I tend to "forget" to hit record way too many times. 😂 That’s why I started using Rewind (by monkey(c), no ties here). It’s just there when I fire up my Mac … and it already saved me a lot of times - and recorded lots of happy accidents. 😊
Apart from that: Thank you so much for this video! Those sure are things to remember and (even more important) practice (aka mess with)! 🎉
Did you use your DT the func button turned grey?!?!
Hmm... polyrhythm? Or, polymeter?
Aren't those polymeters you're talking about? I think a polyrhythm would be if there were a different number of beats in the same time. You're changing the length of each pattern, but the length of the individual beats remains the same.
Awesome stuff anyways!
You're right on that, the two commonly get mixed up, same way as the terms "tremolo" and "vibrato" do.
can someone recommend a sample pack with sounds like the last jam in this vid? 👽
@rickytinez Are you going to knobcon this year?
I wish, I'll be skipping it this year
You’re gonna make me buy a digitakt to go with the syntakt aren’t you. Ugh.
Good advertisement
hmm i like your vids, but that one is kinda "banal" not sure if that translates well into english... the feeling is the most important thing. that's it. you can fiddle velo, pitch, pan, whatever. feel and do the stuff. that's the thing. but ok. if there is no feeling, the head will appreciate it, i think. cheers! 😅
Ricky, would be Amazing see you use perkons by erica synth 😂😅😮😮😮
what is the difference between velocity and volume?
I know on some samplers it will play a completely different sample depending on which velocity is used. Think about hitting a crash cymbal. It sounds much different if you hit it really hard verses lightly tapping it.
Abrupt cut as soon as you found the bass! 😞
polymeter, not polyrhythm ;)
Really great video Ricky. As usual :D Gotta look up how to do this stuff on my boxes :D
More peak videos please :D Love your patches / knowledge.
Love your vibe! I even prefer often the loops of the jams over your released tracks 🥸. New Design on the hats is great
Thank you!
Didn’t you also work for Novation? Two of the best. No need to excuse where you work…. Unless it’s walmart!!!
Here’s a more serious question: how do you get the studio dust free?? Dust free and cool?!
Cheers!