Last week we got into working with the Redrum and became familiar with a very important piece of equipment in modern music production: the drum machine.
Today we're going to take a minute to talk about another piece of equipment, the sampler, and a concept that changed the way music is made: breakbeats.
First, we are going to check out a Powerpoint presentation I made to help explain the history of hip hop production. If you want to refer back to this at any point, you can find the file at:
Media Share>Class Materials>Hip Hop Production_powerpoint.ppt.
As we learned just learned, breakbeats were the parts of old school funk and soul records where all the instruments would drop out except for the drums. This where people would really freak out and go off dancing.
Kool Herc figured out that by having two copies of a record, he could extend the breakbeat for as long as he wanted, playing one record, then the other, then rewinding the break on the first record, etc. Some people would say that this was the real start of hip hop as a new, distinct style of music, using the breakbeat as the backbone of the whole genre.
A few years later, when samplers became affordable and had long enough sampling times, people were able to just record the breaks into the samplers and have them loop automatically for however long they wanted.
Today we're going to get into working with a particularly famous break from a song called "The Funky Drummer", by James Brown.
Let's listen to the original for a second...
Funky Drummer
So now we're going to work on getting the break into our own songs so that we can use it.
But first...
Disclaimer: Sampling other peoples' work without their permission is a violation of copyright laws. If you are merely sampling for your own educational purposes (like we are doing in this class), then you should be fine. BUT if you intend to create and SELL music that incorporates samples of other artists' work, you are legally required to get all necessary permissions from the owners for the use of those samples. Think about it...how would you feel about someone taking your music without your permission and then making money off it?
That said, check it out...
1. First, let's grab the sample you're going to be working with and copy it to your hard drive. Go to Media Share>Class Materials>Samples and find the file called "Funky Drummer_break.wav". Copy that into your folder on your hard drive.
2. Now create a new Reason song called "(your name)_Breakbeat lesson 1.rns".
3. Create an NN19 sampler in your rack and make sure it is connected to the Mixer.
14:2. 4. Click on the Browse Sample button at the top of the NN19. 
5. Load the Funky Drummer_break file into the sampler.
7. So what we've got here is a 1-bar drum break. In order to make it line up with everything else in your song, we've got to make the tempo of the song fit with the tempo of the break, so...first, set your L and R markers so that they are marking off a single bar (put the L on Bar 1 and R on Bar 2).
8. Now hit Shift-Tab on your keyboard to go into the Edit View of your NN19 sequencer track (the part that shows the keyboard and notes).
9. Click on the Pencil Tool.
10. Find key C3 and draw a note that is exactly one bar long.
11. Make sure the Loop On/Off button is lit up, then hit play and listen to the loop. What is happening?
12. Now let's adjust the tempo so that the sample loops perfectly...Lower the tempo until you get down to 101 BPMs. Sounds good, right?
13. OK, so now we've got something that we can work with.
14. Switch over to the Arrange View (hit Shift-Tab).
15. Now we're going to mark this sample loop into a group. Using the Pencil Tool, mark off 1-bar. You should now have a region that you can copy and paste as many times as you want in the song.
From here, you can go ahead and create a Redrum drum machine and start making a beat that can either go over the loop, or switch off parts with it. You might also want to try playing with the Filters on the NN19 and seeing how you can switch up the sound of the loop.
Your assignment:
Create a song that is at least 24-Bars long that incorporates both the drum break and the your own original Redrum drum pattern (32-steps).
Advanced folks - If you want to challenge yourself, have the break play back at a pitch other than its original pitch - meaning a key other than C3. You will have to adjust the tempo to make this work out right. When you're trying to match the tempo, if you hear the loop getting cut off too soon, then the tempo is too fast. If you hear a gap at the end of the loop before it starts playing again, then the tempo is too slow.
But first...
Disclaimer: Sampling other peoples' work without their permission is a violation of copyright laws. If you are merely sampling for your own educational purposes (like we are doing in this class), then you should be fine. BUT if you intend to create and SELL music that incorporates samples of other artists' work, you are legally required to get all necessary permissions from the owners for the use of those samples. Think about it...how would you feel about someone taking your music without your permission and then making money off it?
That said, check it out...
1. First, let's grab the sample you're going to be working with and copy it to your hard drive. Go to Media Share>Class Materials>Samples and find the file called "Funky Drummer_break.wav". Copy that into your folder on your hard drive.
2. Now create a new Reason song called "(your name)_Breakbeat lesson 1.rns".
3. Create an NN19 sampler in your rack and make sure it is connected to the Mixer.
14:2. 4. Click on the Browse Sample button at the top of the NN19. 
5. Load the Funky Drummer_break file into the sampler.
7. So what we've got here is a 1-bar drum break. In order to make it line up with everything else in your song, we've got to make the tempo of the song fit with the tempo of the break, so...first, set your L and R markers so that they are marking off a single bar (put the L on Bar 1 and R on Bar 2).
8. Now hit Shift-Tab on your keyboard to go into the Edit View of your NN19 sequencer track (the part that shows the keyboard and notes).
9. Click on the Pencil Tool.
10. Find key C3 and draw a note that is exactly one bar long.
11. Make sure the Loop On/Off button is lit up, then hit play and listen to the loop. What is happening?
12. Now let's adjust the tempo so that the sample loops perfectly...Lower the tempo until you get down to 101 BPMs. Sounds good, right?
13. OK, so now we've got something that we can work with.
14. Switch over to the Arrange View (hit Shift-Tab).
15. Now we're going to mark this sample loop into a group. Using the Pencil Tool, mark off 1-bar. You should now have a region that you can copy and paste as many times as you want in the song.
From here, you can go ahead and create a Redrum drum machine and start making a beat that can either go over the loop, or switch off parts with it. You might also want to try playing with the Filters on the NN19 and seeing how you can switch up the sound of the loop.
Your assignment:
Create a song that is at least 24-Bars long that incorporates both the drum break and the your own original Redrum drum pattern (32-steps).
Advanced folks - If you want to challenge yourself, have the break play back at a pitch other than its original pitch - meaning a key other than C3. You will have to adjust the tempo to make this work out right. When you're trying to match the tempo, if you hear the loop getting cut off too soon, then the tempo is too fast. If you hear a gap at the end of the loop before it starts playing again, then the tempo is too slow.
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