Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[21_tones]

I want a groove like John Bonham's on "When the Levee Breaks" which is quarter notes on open hats and snare on 3 in each bar with syncopated kick variations.
Is there a starting point for this amongst the styles or do I need to create my own groove?
Using 8th rock on half-time sounds really weird but I guess I could delete the unneeded hats in each bar

Thanks

[Ralph [RZ]]

Here is how I approach something like that:

I listen to the original and determine that it is a two-bar halftime rock pattern. Hihat and snare are standard rock stuff so I use the 'Custom Rock' style to start off with. The kick is a unique two-bar pattern so I edit that myself in an empty part and save the bars. Now I disable the kicks in 'Custom Style' (or move their sliders to zero) and then I add a 'groove importer' via the add function of the brain menu. I select my saved kick groove. The groove is now complete.

The quarter hihats are not open in the original. They are just hard played 15" hats and the 8th notes in between are much quieter. You do that by raising the 'Main Hats' power and lowering the '8th hats'.

Finally, I select the 'John' model, of course and the 'Big&Fat' BonzoPak kit. I couldn't match the snare sound but approximated it by tuning the snare up a bit.

Here is a demo of the result:

Audio Demo

and here is a screenshot of the brain:

_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[21_tones]

Ralph
Thankyou so much for doing this. I haven't tried creating my own grooves yet as I've been so impressed with Jamstix styles and, in particular, the fills that the brain produces.
I'd said quarter notes on (semi-open) hats as that's what a drummer friend's drum transcription said!
I thought that sounded right but my ears, and knowledge of the drums is not as good as yours. I still can't hear the 8th note pattern on the original but thanks for explaining how to get the different emphases on the hi-hats.
I haven't got the Bonzo pack yet (but will). Your kick drum sounds quite slack.
I read in an interview with Jimmy Page that the drum sound on Levee was from using one overhead mic hung from a balcony in a stately home and the drums were set up in the large entrance hall.

Towards the end of Levee Bonzo plays a fill which (according to the drum transcription) is a snare roll comprising four sixtuplets across a bar.
How would that sort of fast roll be programmed in Jamstix given the 16 slots in a bar?
So far, I have been setting fills to complex and double hits in trying to get faster rolls in slower songs.
Thanks again for the demo - much appreciated.
As so many posts have said your customer support is unbelievable. It helps non-drummers make even more convincing drum parts than Jamstix would do automatically anyway.
The drummer in my live band couldn't believe it wasn't a real drummer playing when I played him the first song I did with Jamstix. It was a Stones style groove (think Tumbling Dice) with relatively simple playing from the Charlie model (not surprisingly!)

[Ralph [RZ]]

[21_tones]

Ralph
Okay thanks. I'll try the fill stuff next. I'd just got in from work and read your demo post. Went straight to my DAW and altered the kick complexity, removed kick triplets to get a smoother pattern and the hi-hat power variation gets what I called the quarter note type sound. Lots of hall reverb on the whole kit and its sounding great!
I hadn't even used a custom kick pattern otherwise I would have ended up mimicking the Levee kick pattern, but the resulting Jamstix Bonzo pattern sounds good!
Must get something to eat - its been a 12 hour day. Then I'll see if I can get the faster fills

Thanks again

[Sheppol_A]

One of the most iconic intros and drum sounds of all time IMHO.

"When the Levee Breaks" is one of my all time favourite tracks and the drum sounds from the intro when the 1st samplers came out were the most sampled Snare and Bass drum sounds of all time.They can still be heard in modern program samples

Note:The original drums were recorded using a pair of stereo mics in Headley Grange a remote Victorian house in East Hampshire, England.
John Bonham played on the inner balcony of the House whilst the rest of the band were in another room with the engineer to get the ambient effect on the drums