Finger dumbing

[BOOMBAP Bodega]

Keep all your samples on gate and play beats with one hand. It starts off really tough especially on pick up notes and rolls to get them to hit even.
But after a few days to a week it'll be easy.

One pattern that is a nice challenge for this is the song top billin. Just a kick and a snare played with only one hand.

[janglesoul]

Because the pads on the 404 are a little clunky, I feel like "leaning" on them instead of tapping and letting go makes me more accurate when resampling.

Agreed 100%. Coming from my MPC, I wasn't doing enough "leaning".
Now, all I do is lean. I'm almost sideways as I type this.

@Arizona - Not to be douchey but there is a sweet key called "return" or "enter" that will break up your text. It's pretty sweet and the workflow is rad.

Noted and edited

Hey Arizona, some nice tips there!

[BLAXMYTH]

Because the pads on the 404 are a little clunky, I feel like "leaning" on them instead of tapping and letting go makes me more accurate when resampling.

this just f^cked my whole Sh!t up.
yeah, the 404's pads are almost like Riesens chocolate chews.
But, this "leaning", do you mean, get double styrofoam cups, ice, sprite and codeine and sip while in the sp session

Kidding of course, but I take it you mean, press the pads more than strike them.
Like, eliminating the space between my fingertips and the pads, thus eliminating time taken to strike the pads?
Either way, I definitely never considered this.
Thanks, Kel

[BLAXMYTH]

4rizona4l
Heavy load, but I definitely see what your saying.
Takes me back to clarinet practice. Always used the old obelisk/pyramid type metronome.
I feel like one of my drum machines should suffice for working with different timings. Now I just need to commit to practice. I get too anxious with my free time and just wanna turn up and make the beat.

Anyhow, all these suggestions have come together to give me an ideal approach to my "problem" and I think I am a better person for it...yeahee yeaheee!

Thanks my droogs!

HA! I'm starting to repeat myself...

[Unfolding]

Keep all your samples on gate and play beats with one hand. It starts off really tough especially on pick up notes and rolls to get them to hit even.
But after a few days to a week it'll be easy.

This.

Another thing that helps to get smoother rolls is to copy the same drum sample to 2 pads. If I'm chopping a break on the 404, it goes to across pads 1 through 8. 9 through 12 get duplicates so no need to lean (I always hit too early when leaning on the pads). That way I can trigger the same sound repeatedly with no gaps.

Playing the pads also sounds smoother with one hand than two. But that's probably because I'm unco.

[ATLS]

it might be a little late to reply but if you're trying to play all the drums at once, hi hat, kick, snare, that might be a little too hard to manage on an sp, as the pads aren't very sensitive (they're more like buttons) you have to put a lot of effort forth into pressing them and can really be overwhelming when trying to play a rhythm with swing or trying to be on point. My suggestion is to add them separate like the kicks first then the hi hat then the snare. My only warning is with the kicks you should restart the recording process, it tends to be off when waiting for the pattern to loop to place the first kick.


never mind you aren't on sp, sorry I didn't realize but I hope some of this advice is relevant, I'm pretty sure even dilla didn't add all the drums at once and with proof from that big tune interview neither does the dollarllama.