House Music Production : Cymbals and percussion

The spice of the rhythmic snack: cymbals and percussion bring flavor to the groove

Crash

Crash cymbals are used like sonic energy bursts to emphasize key points in a track, or to soften transitions into new sections of a song, like the breakdown or chorus.

Crashes can be live samples or synthesized. They contain mostly high-end frequencies and are therefore easily produced on a synth with a white noise oscillator and high-pass filter. Crashes usually sit on the first beat of a new bar and can be repeated every 16, 32 or 64 bars, when new parts come in and out. The classic crash trick is to reverse the sound so that it creeps in slowly. Position it so the suck finishes just as the first beat of the next bar drops. Crashes sound great in wide stereo. Use a stereo widener with delays and reverb to give them additional depth and character.

Ride

The acoustic ride cymbal has to distinctive tones depending on where it is hit. Striking the edge gives a smooth, jazzy sound with a long decay, while tapping the central belt produces a shorter, defined pitch in the form of a metallic 'klang'. the controls of the ride on an analogue beat box are designed to produce one or other of these tones. When programming, ride patterns can take the part usually assigned to the closed hat (1/8ths or 1/16ths), or they can cut across the groove like cowbells. Melodic deep house and jazzy house make use of loosely-programmed lines to give a relaxed, a lazy feel to the beat. A long, sustained ride sound with a simple 8th note downbeat pattern is also prime material for pairing with heavy side chain impression for classic sucking effects.

Percussion

Don't underestimate the power of the less significant percussive sounds. When used right, they can become the focus of a groove. In some styles they are essential.

Every drum machine has its variation of toms, usually offered at a high, medium and low pitches. These are based on a deep, warm sample that can be tuned to the key of the track. If they are tuned low enough, synthetic toms can be programmed to play the baseline. This type of programming is common in both minimal and deep house.

The sounds of Brazil and Africa are both excellent sources for drum and percussion loops, specially hand drums like congas and bongos. Latin and disco house often feature conga and bongo loops, bringing an irresistible live, funky feel to the beat, while fallen tradition rhythms have enjoyed a decent resurgence among tribal producers.

Original percussive patterns can be analyzed and recreated using Midi programming. Note that when bongos and congas are played by percussionists the sounds vary according to the hype of hit made by the palm, generating a variety of open slapped and muted hits. Load up the different sound variants into a sampler and use velocity changes and mute groups for a more realistic feel. When programming percussive parts it can also be useful to tap them in live.

Easier than generating an authentic loop with Midi is using a live percussion loop. These can be sourced from any number of sample collections or old records. The important thing when using a loop in this way is to maintain as much control over it as you can to ensure it sits comfortably in the groove you've got rolling. You can do this in a number of ways.

The first method is the 'old-school' way, cutting up different hits using scissors in the arrange page and then nudging the cut samples back and forth until they are in time with the groove. It's tedious but can be very effective. A second method is to leave the loop as a single Wav and then re-groove it using realtime tools such as Logic's Grooveshifter

The third -and most powerful- option is to use tools that intelligently chop a loop into it's constituent parts and then map these parts to different sample zones. This allows you to totally change a loop's construction and alter its groove to fit the track. Rex files are ideal for this. 

Overview: What is?

Conga:  Tall, narrow Cuban drum with African origins, typically played in sets of two. Each drum can be played with five different strokes - including open, slap and touch.

Bongos: Pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other, played by striking drumheads with fingers and palms. Produce relatively high-pitched sounds.

Cowbell: Hand-held percussive instrument. Brings definition when struck along with snare. Popular in Latin house. 

Claves: Pair of short, traditionally wooden, sticks that produce a bright clicking noise. Used in Afro-Cuban music.

Tom (or tom-tom): Tunable drum commonly used in Western music most frequently during drum fills. Modern drum kits typically feature three different toms.

You can read about the kick drum with more detail in Sample Magic's book "The secrets of house music production".