[linux-audio-user] Smack ideas. What else do people want in a drum synth?

[Mark Knecht]

On 3/2/06, Lee Revell <rlrevell at joe-job.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-03-02 at 18:14 -0800, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > On 3/2/06, Loki Davison <loki.davison at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I am searching for ideas for what to add next to smack (
> > > smack.berlios.de ). Any ideas? I.e what drum sounds do you want
> > > synthed that smack doesn't do. Has anyone got ideas for other drum
> > > algos or patches etc? I've got to add something cool to the next
> > > release apart from just neatening it up... ;-)
> > >
> > > Loki
> > >
> >
> > Hi,
> >    I've never used smack so take this with a grain of salt, but give
> > it info about time signature and then add some features to allow smack
> > to jam a bit. Let it add a few beats here and there, semi randomly,
> > but sensibly like a drummer would do. Let it add ghost notes like the
> > stick hitting a second time softly behind the first beat. It adds a
> > lot of realism. There was a program along time ago called (IIRC)
> > Jazz++ that had some sort of drum programming language that could do
> > this sort of stuff. While it sounds crazy I use Groove Agent which
> > does an excellent job of htis sort of thing.
> >
> >    Just some thoughts.
>
> Can't Hydrogen do that (with samples rather than synthesis)?
>
> Lee

No frankly it cannot. Hydrogen cannot add anything on a random basis
to make it sound more real. Hydrogen doesn't know if the snare is
playing on the down beat or the back beat, etc. You could of course
attempt to go find samples of snare hits with ghost notes, and you
could attempt to use them in ways that sound random making lots
patterns and using them at different times. As for me that all takes
so long I continue using Groove Agent because I can get what sounds
like a drummer in about 5 minutes instead of 5 days. But that's just
me...

Anyway, he asked for inputs so he's free to dismiss them if they don't
fit what he wants to do with Smack.

- Mark