Drum machines and demise of steel instrumentals

David Doggett · Posted 8 Apr 2003 6:03 am

I was reading that other thread about loud drummers and was reminded of something I've been thinking a lot lately. I started listening to Steel Guitar Radio a couple of weeks ago and listen to it off and on throughout the day through earphones while I'm on my computer at work. I have begun to resent the existence of the guy who invented the drum machine. At first I couldn't pin down what exactly was making so many of the steel instrumentals sound so boring and lackluster and the same. Then I realized it is that @&*$%#& boom-chika drum track plodding on and on - same volume, same too-perfect tempo, same pattern, over and over forever. It's like the &@$ %#&@ Eveready bunny snuck in the station and gave himself a track on dang near every steel instrumental in the place.

I'll never play like those steel players, but if I could I would have a good live drummer or no drummer. Bass, acoustic rhythm guitar and solo steel is a fine minimal combination. Throw in an electric 6-string or a fiddle and you have the country equivalent of a classical string quartet or piano trio, or a great small jazz ensemble. If it's a swing, jazz or rock number that needs a drummer, for me it needs a real one, not a toy machine.

Sorry for the rant. I just hate to hear all those beautiful steel instrumentals wrecked by an insipid drum machine. A couple of weeks on Steel Guitar Radio has given me a much greater appreciation of good drumming, or no drumming.

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

David,

You may have been hearing a drum machine, or the drum track from Band In A Box, or some other sequenced percussion track. But you're right, their big downfall in these things is the lack of the human element. The same snare smack is used for every hit throughout the song, and so it goes for the kick, the toms, the hihat, and so forth (there are exceptions to this, but generally not). Cymbal sounds are shortened to a few seconds rather than the half minute the real thing takes to decay. Timing is utterly perfect. Tempo never gets subtly pushed during the crescendos or slowed during decrescendos.

I've had to deal with all these limitations in the MIDI music I've composed and recorded in my home studio. It's really tough to make this stuff sound like a real person played it. The tricks I've used to humanize the sound are: imperfect quantization (keeping the drum hits ever so slightly off beat in a random way, just like a person would), slight variation in loudness of each hit, minor variations in the timbre of the drums wherever it would be most noticeable, avoiding the exact repeating of rolls and chops throughout the song, salting/peppering the song with a few other percussion instruments to distract the ear from the sameness of the basic drum kit, and so on.

What also bugs me is the use of sampled piano sounds in some of today's country. I know it's easier for the producer and engineer to just call up their favorite perfectly mic'd piano patch on a sampler rather than track the 9' or 11' grand out in the main studio room. But it can be really easy to pick up the fact that a sampled piano was used when single notes are rapidly repeated--the timbre should change with each hit, but not with a sampled note. Or when a roll of adjacent half-steps is played and it becomes obvious that the notes are just pitch-bent versions of the same sampled note.

Maybe I'm too picky.

But I was a piano player long before steel.

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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?

David Doggett · Posted 8 Apr 2003 11:29 am

Bill, I started on piano too. I think that's the best instrument to start kids on. They can see the notes and how they relate, it works both hands (and even the feet!), they learn to read both treble and bass clef, develop an ear for the right notes, and lots of other stuff that makes learning other instruments easier later on. Even now I like to put my PSG copedent in a spreadsheet in the key of C to think about it and plan changes. Also, when I'm thinking in terms of scale and chord numbers (I, IV, V, etc.) in my mind I see it all in the key of C on the piano.

If I had gone further with my complaint about Band in a Box (if that's what it is), the boring piano tracks would have been my next target - kaplunkityplunk. But I guess I haven't noticed some of the irritating sampling nuances you have (I quit piano around 1960 and got involved with rockabilly sax). If you want my idea of creative sampling, listen to that Hot-Tickva number on Jim Cohen's CD. Since he doesn't list a classical guitarist but does list a keyboardist, I assume that fantastic classical guitar track is the keyboardist on synth. playing sampled classical guitar notes. I've been meaning to ask Jim about that. If that's what it is, I got to get me one of those things and start playing keyboards again.

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

I work with two drummers, both fine guys, nice friends.

But I have to defend my Drum Machine, my little studio pal..it has many outstanding features..which many drummers can't compare to.

It doesn't ask for any pay
It does not drink Beer
or Bloody Mary's
It doesn't care what the song title is
It does not fall asleep around 11:30
It does not yell at me for playing too loud..
IT doesn't wine at pack up time
It does not ask for help at pack up time
when it's too loud you turn the knob
if you get tired of it you turn it off
it's very light
it can be hidden out of sight real fast
It doesn't tell dumb jokes
Actually it doesn't tell any jokes
It keeps meter the whole song
it doesn't talk to you during the song
it doesn't tell you you're out of tune
it doesn't laugh when you sing
it doesn't need a monitor
it does'nt need 5 mic's to be heard
it does'nt give you the evil eye during songs

these are just a few..

I'm sure there are more..

tp

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

And a machine probably won't transmit disease to your wife/daughter.

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

Jim,

That guitar track in Hot-Tickva sounds like a patch in the Emu Proteus/1 (or that same sample, anyway). Is that it? I must say it is used with a lot of creative finesse, and is quite convincingly played. Dan Kleiman handled the job well.

Rich Weiss · From: Woodland Hills, CA, USA

I'm not particularly fond of drum machines for the reasons you mentioned, but in my little studio, they're a necessary evil. It IS possible to program patterns to be a little off here and there, making them seem more human.

Some of my favorite Steely Dan songs are done using drum machines.

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

The reason Jim's "guitar" track is aloive is that it was played by a live musician. It doesn't matter that it was a synth. It matters that it was played by hand and not by a computer.

Drum machines, sequencers and programs like band in a box are fine for sketchpads, click tracks, and jam sessions, but for real recordings, nothing beats using live musicians.

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Bill,
I'm afraid I have no clue where Dan got that sound from. I make a deal with Dan: I don't ask him where he gets his sounds, and he doesn't ask me who I stole my licks from!

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

Tony, I'd agree with all you have to say defending a drum machine (except drinking) as I worked with one in a 70's lounge duo. His name was Farley.

Farley sat atop my keyboards and was known to accept Manhattens in a shot glass (he had a small stomach of course.) Over an evening he may have gotten 3 or 4 of these drinks. Now there must have been some kind of Santa Claus magic involved because I never saw him toss them down, yet I'd look up and see the glass empty. One night he had too many and dropped a full glass right on my bass keyboard which immediately quit working. We spent the rest of the night sans the bass, which had apparently passed out.

Farley's gone on now, resistors who could no longer resist the aging process and capacitors who have passed their peak. Pushed out by younger, faster, more agile drum boxes who probably can't recognize the contributions and roots of their great grandfather.

Alas poor Farley, I knew him well.

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

I use the venerable Radel Taalmala for steel gigs sometimes.

Bob

[This message was edited by Bob Hoffnar on 08 April 2003 at 10:38 PM.]

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

What a coincedence, Ken. I also played with Chet and Farley Roland (on bass and drums) in the 70's, in a technobilly duo called The Stringbusters.

I agree that it's really hard to make drum tracks that sound real. It's easier to actually play electronic drums on a keyboard or on something like the Roland Handsonic. Miking real drums in a home studio is nearly impossible, though. That's a task I leave to the pros.

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (C6add9), Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6),
Roland Handsonic, Line 6 Variax

John Kavanagh · From: Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada * R.I.P.

"good drumming, or no drumming"

Words to live by.

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