In the above video, a companion to our Mentored course, Beat Making in Ableton Live, electronic artist and educator Dan Freeman shares his somewhat polemical argument that a preset drum beat on the Maestro Rhythm King MRK-2 is the “most influential drum machine beat of all time.” Now, a statement like this is highly subjective and open to debate,…
Welcome back to our new series on Flypaper, Album Histories Monthly, which brings you the story of a single album each month, in the month that it was originally released. Last month, we covered Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock. This month: The Buggles – The Age Of Plastic Release Date: January 10, 1980 The Buggles became forever associated with MTV when their music video…
Welcome back to our new series on Flypaper, Album Histories Monthly, which brings you the story of a single album each month, in the month that it was originally released. Last month, we covered Joan Jett’s I Love Rock ‘n Roll. This month: Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock Release Date: December 1, 1986 “Back then there was no such…
+ Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. Disclaimer: Before all you purists out there start typing up angry comments about how Auto-Tune is killing music, just hear us out. By now, I think we can…
Everyone knows that Jeff Mills shreds on a TR-909, that Egyptian Lover shakes up a room with his TR-808, and that legendary percussionist Sheila E (who worked with Prince, Marvin Gaye, Beyoncé, Diana Ross, and more) makes magic happen with a Linn LM-1. There’s no doubt that these drum machines — and the artists that made them iconic — changed…
Let’s face it: It’s basically impossible to keep up with the pace of trade shows through the late winter and early spring. Between the flurry of announcements about monitors, synths, modules, mixing desks, and the endless stream of video demos pouring out, merely paying attention can feel overwhelming, let alone taking meticulous notes on what’s…
Becoming comfortable with playing electronic percussion is a vital skill for the modern drummer, especially when playing contemporary, digital-heavy genres such as trap, neo-soul, and pop-rock. Contemporary music production has a tendency to involve a combination of very specific drum sounds and completely electronic sounds that cannot be easily emulated by acoustic drums, and as a…
Ah, that classic beat, marching ever onward, familiar as the beat of our own hearts. But the beats we’re so consumed with, the sounds that so commonly drive our daily lives, are not only not the sound of a beating heart (a robot heart, maybe), they’re not organic sounds at all. Yes, yes, whether you like it or…
By Harvey Grant As musicians, we can spend so long trying to improve our technique in terms of scales and “speed” that we bypass one of the most important factors in the success of a piece: timing. Sure, you may say that Glenn Gould didn’t stick precisely to the given measures of Bach’s Goldberg Variations,…
