21st Century Beats

Creating rhythm tracks has never been simpler, but it’s easy to lose any sense of originality unless you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Mark Cousins explains.

We wouldn’t be exaggerating if we said that the rise of popular music over the last 60 years had been defined by its use of rhythm, from the opening refrains of Bill Haley’s Rock Around The Clock to the relentless four-to-the-floor beats of modern dance music. Given this importance, it comes as little surprise to see the virtual tools of rhythm creation – whether a drum machine, ReCycled drum loop or one of the multi-GB acoustic drum libraries – in such plentiful supply, and so well-loved by the multitude of musicians who use them. Indeed, one could even argue that whole genres can be categorised by their use of rhythm technology – as in the prominent use of one-shot drum samples triggered by an MPC drum machine in the case of hip hop, or the glitchy beat slicing of cutting-edge electronica.

This feature first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 47
Filed under General Features

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