Week 4 Blog

80's Music and Digital Drumming

Class Notes 

Late 1970's: Disco music was popular 

1980's: Punk, Hip Hop, and R&B became popular. 

- Sex Pistols, Michael Jackson, Run DMC, Sugar Hill Gang 

New Wave Style

- Paired punk elements with dance music using digital drumkits. 

- Phil Collins, Genesis, Peter Gabriel 

Use of drum machines to create beats

- sets of sounds are played or programmed

History of Drum Machines

- Rhythmicon: world's first "rhythm machine"

- Ace Tone Rhythm Ace: early playback device       

- Linn LM-1 Drum Computer (1980)

- Akai MPC-60

- Roland TR series

- Yamaha RX and RY series 

- Dr. Beat 

Drum Machine Software

- Logic

- Audiotool 

Digital drumsets or percussion instruments

- First electronic drum kit solo recording: Graeme Edge's Moody Blues 

- Pollard Syndrum (1976) one of the earliest digital drums used to expand sounds in a traditional kit

- Simmons SDS-V (1981): Hexagonal pads, hard plastic surface 

Common digital drumsets today

- Simmons SD5K

- Alesis DM5 Pro

- Yamaha

- Roland 

Pad Controllers:

- Alesis Pad Controller

- Alternate Mode Drum Kat

- Alternate Mode MalletKat

- Roland Handsonic

- Alternate Mode PanKat

Mixers

- Mix different sound sources together and output them to an amplifier, and then the speakers or a recording capturing device. 

Class Projects 

AudioTool

- Using mixer and amplifier

- Individual channel strips: Signal travels from the top down 

- First knob: Gain (volume control) 

- Equalizer settings (EQ): Treble/bass controls- high, medium, low

- Auxiliary sends and returns: reverb

- Pan: ability to control the amount of signal between left and right speaker 

- Slider: last volume control (set to a static position and adjust volume from gain knob) 

- M button mutes channel

- S button solos channel (mutes all other channels) 

-Using TR808 drummaker

- Click on knob or labels to hear particular sounds

- Buttons below represent 16th notes on drum pattern

- Select instrument and select button to engage instrument to play on 

-Using Tb303 Synthesizer

- Choose note location and type. 

-Publish and add to soundtrap.

Reflection

Although I've only had light experience with digital drumming, and mixing, this class opened up a lot more insight into these topics for me. I enjoy the wide variety of brands and equipment that was provided so if a student, colleague, or I want to explore more of this area, I can begin with finding the right set up through this resource. I think that the wide variety of tools that are in the audiotool software can open up limitless opportunities for students to compose with. They don't even need to be real knowledgeable or experienced with music notation, which can also make it easier and more encouraging for them. I also like exploring how these sounds were originated and used in the 80's and how influences are still present in digital drum making today.