Technique for Playing Drum Samples in Pattern

[youphoric-nick]

Hey all,

Long time off and on dabbler in Sonic Pi here. I’ve committed to a 2hr seminar for some high school students in March, so time to pro up a bit.

I noticed a drum pattern technique in this DJ Dave performance that I don’t recall seeing before. I’ve read about rings and ticks but never seen a string used as a ring, or used to create drum patterns.

live_loop :met do
  sleep 1
end

define :pattern do |pattern|
  return pattern.ring.tick == "x"
end

live_loop :kick, sync: :met do
  with_fx :bitcrusher do
    sample :drum_heavy_kick if pattern "x--x--x---x--x--"
  end
  sleep 0.25
end

Coming from more of an Ableton background, it resonates with me as a nice way to pattern different drum samples, change them up live, etc. I’m wondering if this technique is documented anywhere? Is it common? Is there a ‘better’ way?

Cheers and Thanks,
Nick

[ethancrawford]

Hey Nick,

I’m wondering if this technique is documented anywhere?

Nope, not really. It works, but it’s not an ‘official’ Sonic Pi technique

Is it common?

There are a bunch of people that use this idea - whether it’s common is harder to answer
I’d say at least that it’s popular with folks that want to work with a more visual style of pattern representation.

Is there a ‘better’ way?

Well, there’s no right or wrong here… it comes down to personal preference!
There are a handful of interesting ways based on the same idea that other folks have used to represent grid patterns - here’s a few more:

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[youphoric-nick]

Thanks for the great links @ethancrawford! Starting to see that a list might be a little easier to manage syntax-wise.

Also a bit inspired by this performance by Jindřich Mynarz:

• Use of spread for drum patterns
• Use of ring and tick to influence the played amp to create rhythms

Lots of ways to skin this. Thanks again!

-Nick

[rothen_s]

Hi,
I liked the idea with the x–x patterns, but I wanted something to influence :amp. I came up with this

use_bpm 60

live_loop :kick do
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed, amp: "600203500909".ring.tick.to_f / 4.5
  sample :drum_cymbal_pedal,  amp: "000700000900".ring.tick.to_f / 4.5
  sample :drum_heavy_kick,    amp: "600009900002".ring.tick.to_f / 4.5
  sleep 0.25
end