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Now that I've
elaborated a little bit on the
"riddim concept", and
provided a link to a great resource
site on it, I would like to livicate a
few chapters on what I call the
"RIDDIM CONCEPT". As I said
before, when you have a good riddim,
half of the work to get a good DUB is
done. I will tell you a bit about the
basics of Reggae Music, and how
to program and play it.
But before you can
create a reggae track from scratch,
you have to decide at what speed you
want to have it in. Ofcourse, you can
change it later, as your track
progresses and your moods might
change, but in order to make a concept
and to keep this series of articles a
bit logic, I will start with the
tempo.
Reggae Music can be
very slow, or even very quick, and
everything in between. To every rule
there is an exception, but basically
the speed in BPM of a reggae track
can be anything in between 110 to 190
BPM. Ah, I see a few people raising
their eyebrows. Aren't these speeds
very fast? Isn't many popular music
not over 120 BPM? At speeds above 160
BPM, don't you make Gabber House, or
Hardcore Techno? Not at all.
Reggae is very easy
music, even when it's played fast. The
way a measure is filled in in reggae,
is totaly different then in popular
music. Let's take the popular 4/4
format, this is also the format in
which reggae music is played. Below
you'll see a picture of the popular
way to fill in a 4/4 Drum Measure in a
sequencer:
LISTEN: EXAMPLE0001.MP3
| EXAMPLE0001.MID
If you want to know
how the above rhythm sounds at 140
BPM, I have providied a midifile as
well as a lofi mp3 file in which you
can hear the sound (EXAMPLE 0001). Now
that doesn't sound like a reggaebeat,
then why di I say reggae is between
110 and 190 BPM? Because, in
reggae, you do only half of what is
done in popular music per measure. A
correct way of filling in a reggae
drum rhythm at 140 BPM is shown in the
picture below:
LISTEN: EXAMPLE0002.MP3
| EXAMPLE0002.MID
As you can see, the
rhytm is "halved" so to
speak. And if you listen (EXAMPLE
0002), you will hear, it also sounds
like example 1 is played at half
speed. And ofcourse, you can also slow
down your sequencer to 70 BPM and
you'll have the same beat. The
problems arise later on, when you want
to fill in your drum rhythm with some
more detailed hits. |
