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Bonus: EZDrummer - Writing Fills

Now we'll show you guys real quick how the films work in the groups and then I'm going to show you guys how to go from scratch because they're both worthy and I don't think we talked about phil's even for the groves too much so low one thing that you should know about the films that come with gru's is that except for this monster fills medi pack which is phil's on ly for the most part let's see here he was pick something you gotta phil's who'll notice theo these air pretty short but there's extra material added onto them like in reality all you might want is the president at the end but they give you the rest of the beat and why do they give you the rest of the beat will because phil is all about the context like I was saying before phil is all about getting from point a to point b so there has to be some context and how you're going to get there or else it's just a random phil there's no point to it so on these gru's you'll notice that there's always a little bit of a beat ahead of ti...

me use it or don't use it I usually don't but all you do is pull it in well let's let's find a fill within this song that would work a cool place for phil so we'll change that phil next beat cool halftime do something better because I have two and a half time okay? That in of itself actually sounds kind of cool having the pause as something something you guys should consider is that sometimes no phil is the best phil, but for the purpose of this situation we're going to find a phil I'm inclined to think that you just want something simple, simple and easy not too flashy because the next part it has the faster high hats, so to do something really flashing on the drums we'll take away from the next part so you just want something that kind of says this part's over this is coming up and that might even be too much I'm going to a different set of groups that's just much I'm gonna go a different library wei go that might be better so dragging that in got a midi tracked down here I'm just putting that right there I don't want the beat that's attached to it just the fill and start that right there and let's see no, I think rhythmically it's fun I just personally would change what drums are being hit and their velocities I think this tom is too high so I'm gonna go lower tom and I don't like how varied these velocities are like I think that that's too all over the place I'd rather have them closer together so manually doing it and mind you this is not a metal track so it's not important the phil is like uh absolutely completely defined like you would hear in a definite song every last hit this purely about the feel of a transition that's how I would use the crew find one that kind of work just pace it in alter it a little chance of velocity maybe change what tom's it's on and you're good to go now starting from scratch I'm gonna delete this like I said earlier I kind of thought that no phil was the best feel for this part but that said I think to myself so what would one of my favorite drummers do right here what would dave girl do and something like that you probably do something simple like dot toto into the part something like that so how would I make that work let's see almost got it how explain my thinking in a second national floor tom that'll sound better now who knows when I copied stuff over these velocities air ridiculous so that is about to change putting the velocity of snare underneath the velocity of the tom and then one thing I do know about when drummers play simple feels like that is that they're usually flam ing the snare and the time silly so I'm going to move these guys over just a little bit yeah a little bit of flam action happening here can you just explain what you mean by that for someone of clam is okay a flam is when you have two drums or two body parts hitting a tte the same time basically but off by just a hair like they're going in at the same time but they're landing separately so instead of his so you hear that a lot and rock um it's the best way I can describe it it's like that's a flam instead of so when you hear lots of those rock and roll fils where is floor tom kick for snare for time at the same time like what kind of stuff there's some flam and going on between the floor time of this snare so just another one of those slight little variations yeah and that's something you need to listen for when you're emulating your favorite drummers listen for when they're flaming stuff so how how exactly are you creating that here just right you know it's a great ability just drying them off from each other that's all nothing nothing crazy and now I feel like this last bass drum hit the velocity is good with it being low but that velocity of the first based on hand the next part should be high and I feel like that feels like it needs a crash at the end of it theo ah that's what that's what I would do why did I do that? Because I know what types of pills I like that is so first thing I would think to myself there is like I did what would dave girl do uh or what do I think he would do I think he would just play something simple like that to get you to the next part nothing crazy uh what air some cool well known dave roll fellas well there's that one at the beginning of smells like teen spirit that's kind of like that um it's kind of a signature so when I just try that see what happens that's all the thinking wass and nothing deeper I'm going to load up the metal song though and do some crazy phil's right now I think this probably good idea and well it's loading up we could do some q and a but let me uh let me just play this unsold load with that filth ah it's not very loud turn it up turn of the tom's here that's a quickie on how to do that I like it that's my new go too well with a role do what they do it's a good question as see here alright going back to the metal song yeah I mean ask yourself that with any drummer the I mean every single musician that's walking around on the earth now is influenced by other musicians in his basic basically a collective of uh all his influence is so anybody who who denies that or says that there completely original just has some sort of mental problem admitting the truth so it's just good teo say alright what would this awesome person do try it out and that's how you'll develop your own style of you emulate enough different awesome people I like it well that leads us to our this question from michael goliath as a guitarist I sometimes find myself writing drums to the riff do you have any advice as a guitarist yourself um getting into a drummer state of mind yeah learned some drum part I'm serious also being I was being serious but one of the things that you want to think about is not the notes at the guitarist plane but the feel that you're trying to establish so where do you want to bob your head I know you want to bob your head frequently or infrequently where like how do you want the crowd to move what what's it supposed to do rhythmically the program the drones accordingly to that don't worry about the guitar notes that's what I would do but just teo hammer this point in one more time a good wayto get that to an instinctual level is toe learn drum beats by your favorite drummers when what would they do on the kind of part you're tryingto put across if you're trying to do a breakdown well who are your favorite breakdown drummers what are your favorite breakdowns what do they do you know are who are your favorite breakdown drummers who don't match the riff every single time that would be uninterested want to find out not too many there go my favorite breakdown drummers superior drummer um a couple tight a couple uh we've got a couple questions about this which are kind of along the same lines one person is asking about bringing in mideast from guitar pro and making those feel humanized or feel more natural joe guard also asks how do you unquantifiable a selection or all punched in beat so basically they're asking the same thing like how do you take this you know pure mechanical midi data and make it sound humanized you covered velocities what about dragging off the grid and stuff like that? Well I mean why don't you just start from scratch that's what I would do if I got a project in guitar probe which is on maybe drums and I thought that it just sounded like drum machine crap I would delete it and start from scratch uh I don't personally I don't believe in fixing crap I believe in starting with something that's great or creates reminds me of the part in that metallica movie or lars asked his dad like so what do you think or delete it? Yeah hey I mean I'm I'm sure that's not the answer that that guy's looking for he probably wants me to say well you can see there's some sort like and beat detective um when we're editing drums for instance in the conform option there's you sirrah here their strength percentage so like when we make the drums conform we can say eighty one percent and so it will be eighty one percent to the grid as opposed to one hundred percent to the grid and every dog has similar functions humanized functions for midi so yes you can we just run that but it's just like the randomizer that I showed for velocities it's an algorithm that's not a human being I would advise use that guitar pro midi as kind of like a template like kind of like a demo and go from scratch sorry that's that's what I would do if they came to me to record I would I would start from scratch I'm not going to fix their crafty midi do you want to go and do more phils or you wanna take another question take another question while getting rolled right now I don't know take another question yeah taking a question okay I laughed on the inside thanks I appreciate that. Okay? Codex said l do you find yourself varying bpm level in a session say like one hundred twenty two beats per minute for vs and then speed up two or three beats per minute for the chorus is to make it feel like a real drummer I've noticed when programming ringo starr grooves changing the temples will achieve that real drummer field. However, my question is how would you do it and what is the fastest way? Absolutely there is no fast way because it's got repercussions down the line whereas if time is a factor in your session like say you only have two weeks or three weeks to do the whole album and you have three courses and every single song the same well, uh guess what if you're changing your tempo is a lot there could be a problem like or if you have a riff that comes in one point of the song but it's three bpm faster and other when the sun gets what you had to redo it there's no copy paste I mean definitely of the courses are all one twenty five cool then you copy paste those in your fine but has realized that when you go down that path you're opening up a whole new amount of work that could be more than you ever anticipated and that could throw your project back. However that said, I think it's amazing to that stuff and I would do it on every single record if I had the time to do it and I have done it whenever I possibly can because I think that drummer's naturally will speed up and slow down by a few b p m depending on the section of the song halftime part down by like two to five bpm double time part by two or three just those small little changes make all the difference in the world so yes if you khun b of the time do it just remember it really will come back to bite you in the ass later when you're tracking everything else so be sure that you have the time to follow through so let's see pretty cool filled the beginning of this trying to find a spot where cool phil would be cooler than what we did I think all the notes are already used up in the song sorry they are I'm gonna I'm gonna redo this one all right? So I'm trying to think uh again like what? What would a drummer that I like tio right here seems suddenly had turned them to turn to something like that which is kind of a precursor to what's coming up next in the toms in the setting of the tone part so this is the top and the world of ah books which is something that do exist is called foreshadowing so I would ah I would do a foreshadowing kind of fill at least that would be my first my first instinct so dinner in ten ten, ten, ten, ten, ten I can't really do it because I'm not that skilled but come on it doesn't want to cooperate there's only one wear around us which is tau go from scratch doesn't want it don't want to draw in phil's that's fine I'll try uh I'll trick the machine sometimes you have to check the machine okay let's see the machine is willing to be tricked now all right see you later and here's a hit we can start with so what I was singing in my head I believe we'll see would be this pattern I think ah basically what I'm doing is with thinking of a pattern now reality is and a lot of people need to understand this what they hear in their head isn't necessarily what's actually happening in the world saying that test everything well people don't get this and I counted us in the studio a lot like but I heard it in my head a certain way what's going on it's like, well, your head's not accurate so you got have to test your theories if you want gentle bedside manner this's not your guy sorry ah almost got yeah I'm just trying to kind of foreshadow was coming up and I'm making some decisions. Ah, something along those lines now those velocities are jacked because they're way too high ah but because I did a fill there and it goes into a tom part I can't change how the tom part starts to add maybe a double china on the first hit we'll see you gotta find the china first is the first step. Ah seems to me like something a drummer, my play ah cool so played from here once again, all I was really doing is doing something kind of in the style of what's coming next. That's not crazy flashy because the beat that is not there's, no room for that there is enough information going on. The tempo of the song is not very high and we already did a crazy, flashy philip the beginning of the song, so doing too much of that just turns the brain off, so they're trying to get from point a to point b in a way that makes sense. There you go on dh. I'll note also that that phil I just did, which I could still tweak further. Obviously, time is a factor right now. Not only is it foreshadowing the toms, but it is also based on the kick pattern that's going on. So it's, based on the song, is not just some random drum hits. I was in the way, cool.