Lessons

Lesson Info

Writing Fills

Now let's show you guys real quick how the phils work in the grooves 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 group's 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 many pack which is phil's on lee for the most part let's see here he was pick something you gotta fills you'll notice the's air pretty short but there's extra material added onto them like in reality all you might want is that they have done at the end but they give you the rest of the beat and why did 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 grooves you'll notice that there's always a little bit of a beat ahead...

of time use it or don't use it I usually don't but all you do is you pull it in well let's let's find a phil within this song that work a cool place for phil so we'll change that phil that's next speed cool halftime let's do something better because I have two and a half time that in and 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 field, but for the purpose of this situation we're gonna find a phil I'm inclined to think that you just want something simple, simple and easy not too flashy because the next part 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 cruz that's just much different library way go that might be better so dragging that in I've got a mini tracked down here I'm just putting that right there I don't want to be that's attached to it just the phil I insert that right there and let's see no, I think rhythmically it's fine, I just personally would change what drums air being hit and their velocities well, I think this tom is too high, so I'm gonna go to a lower tom and I don't like how varied these velocities are like I think that that's too all over the place I would rather have them closer together so manually doing it and mind you this is not a metal track so it's not important that 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 the transition that's how I would use a groove find one that kind of works paste it in alter it a little chance the velocity maybe changed what tom's it's on and you're going to go now starting from scratch you delete this like I said earlier, I kind of thought that no phil was the best filled for this part but that said I think to myself so what were one of my favorite drummers do right here? What would dave girl do and something like that? He probably do something simple like but do it don't do it that 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 nationally floor tom I think that also better now you know is when I copied stuff over these velocities air ridiculous so that is about to change putting the velocity the 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 times you leave so I'm going to move these guys over just a little bit a little bit of flam action happening see here can you just explain what you mean by that for someone with a flam is yeah okay a flam is when you have two drums or two body parts hitting a same time basically but off by just a hair like they're going in at the same time but their landing separately so instead of his so you hear that a lot in 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 fills where is floor tom kick for snare for talking at the same time like put up with that kind of stuff uh there's some flam and going on between the floor time of the 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 and so how how exactly are you creating that here? Just writing enough to great ability just dragging 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 the velocity of the first based on hand the next part should be high so and I feel like that feels like it needs a crash at the end of it that's what that's what I would do why did I do that? Because I know what types of phil's I like that is so first thing I would think to myself there is like a did well with 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 what air? Some cool well known dave roll fills 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 I just try that see what happens that's all the thinking was 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 phil it's not very loud turn it up turn of the toms hair that's a quickie on how to do that I like it good to see you my new go to sam what would they rolled it, what they will do? It's it's a good question asked stay here all right going back to the metal song yeah, I mean, ask yourself that with any drummer that I mean every single musician that's walking around on the earth now is influenced by other musicians and 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 tio say all right, 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 this question from michael glide as a guitarist, I sometimes find myself writing drums to the riff. Do you have any advice as a guitar's yourself getting into a drummer state of mind? Yeah learned some drum part I'm serious also be I was being serious, but one of the things that you want to think about is not the notes that the guitarists plane, but the feel that you're trying to establish. So where do you want to bob your head? I you want to bob your head frequently or infrequently? Where like, how do you want the crowd to move? Like 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 tio hammer this point in one more time. A good way to get that to an instinctual level is to learn drumbeats 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 or who are your favorite breakdown drummers who don't match the riff every single time that would be a kn interesting one to find out not too many their young my favorite breakdown drummers superior drummer um come pretty tight a couple of we've got a couple questions about this which were kind of along the same lines um one person is asking about bringing in mideast from guitar pro and making those feel human eyes or feel more natural joe guard also asks how do you unquantifiable a selection or all punched in beats so basically they're asking the same thing like how do you take this? Uh you know, pure mechanical many data and make it sound humanized you covered velocities what about dragging off the grid and stuff like that? Uh I mean, why don't you just start from scratch that's what I would do if I got a project and guitar probe, which is all many drums and I thought that it just sounded like drum mission 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 created for months we have a part in the in that metallica movie or lars asked this dad like so what do you think are deleted 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 there's some sort like and beat detective um when we're editing drums for instance in the conform option there's you see or hear their strength and 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 mittie so yes you can just run that but it's just like the randomizer that I showed for velocities it's an algorithm it's not a human being I would advise use that guitar pro midi as kind of like a template like a kind of like a demo and go from scratch sorry that's that's what I would do they came to me to record I would I would start from scratch I'm not going to fix their crafting many all right do you want to go and do more films or do you want take another question uh take another question while getting rolled you right now I don't know take another question yeah question okay I left on the inside thanks appreciate that vin okay uh codex said they'll do you find yourself varying bpm level in a session say like one hundred twenty two beats per minute for verses and then speed up two or three beats per minute for the courses to make it feel like a real drummer I've noticed when programming ringel star grooves changing the temples will achieve that real drummer feel however my question is how would you do it and what is the fastest way? Absolutely um there is no fast way because it's got repercussions down the line uh whereas if time is a factor in your session like say you only have two weeks or three weeks into the whole album and you have three courses in every single song the same well uh guess what if you're changing your temples a lot there could be a problem like or if you have a rift that comes in one point of the song but it's three bpm faster and other points on guess what? You got to redo it there's no copy paste I mean definitely of the choruses air all one twenty five cool than you copy paste those and you're 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 drummers naturally will speed up and slow down by a few bpm depending on the section of the song ah 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 video the time do it just remember it really we'll 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 sprinkle filled the beginning of this trying to find a spot where physical phil would be cooler than what we did. I think all the notes are already used up in the song sorry they are so 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 liked you right here seems suddenly turned and have done too 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 I 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 way in my first my first instinct so donor intent intent intent to say I can't really do it because I'm not that skilled but come on we love it doesn't want to cooperate there's only one wear around this which is tio go from scratch doesn't want it doesn't want to dry and fills that's fine I will try I'll trick the machine yes sometimes you have to trick 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 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 almost got it again I'm just trying to kind of foreshadow is coming up and I'm making some decisions something along those lines now those velocities air jacked because they're way too high but because I did a phil there and it goes into a tom part, I'm going to change how the town part starts to head maybe a double china on the first hit we'll see you gotta find the china first it was the first step e seems to me like something a drummer might play cool so played from here once again all of it was really doing is doing something kind of in the style of what's coming next that's not crazy flashy because the heat that is not there's no room for that there's 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 trying to get from point a to point b in a way that makes sense there you go on and I'll note also that that phil I just did which I could still tweak further obviously with time is a factor right now not only is it foreshadowing the tom's but 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 what's the kick cool