Hi,

If someone wants to give me a hand with the drums I would be a god send!!

I always have issues with trying to program drums.

I have not got the vocals worked out yet so it will be a day or two before I am ready.

I can send a link to Dropbox and you can download all the stems to put in your DAW.

This is my attempt at Americana so the drum line is not to complex for a drummer.

Thanks,

Billy

Can you offer a little more info about what kind of assistance you expect that you'll need? Timing, Kit Type, Technique, Accents? Some kind of starting point?

Why not just use a RD? IMO, they are excellent and there are plenty that work well with Americana ... although Americana is a BIG tent. FWIW, we’ve had 24 songs licensed and they all us RD’s.

Hi guys,

I looked at the RD selection and have not found what I wanted. Perhaps because I don't know how to use BIAB well enough. What it said was there were no RD's for that style.

I will post a rough draft of the music here in a bit. Then everyone can have an idea of what is needed for drums.

Billy

https://soundcloud.com/planobilly/moony-three

This started off life as a BIAB Demo, MH 3. All the chord structure was changed. Other things were added. ( Campfire-ALLREALTRACKS-Trio2HankAcGuitars,Bass).sgu

The drum track needs to not be very predominate. Sort of in the background. Almost jazz sounding, perhaps with some brushes but obviously country style. The bass line will dictate more or less how it should be constructed.

At any rate take a listen and see what you think. The structure of the song is more or less finished but there are instrument tracks that are just place holders for the moment until a draft of the vocal is done. This persistent chord progression from start to finish is more than little hard to deal with.

Current first draft lyrics.

Starts at Bar 11
A G A G A E (Vocal notes I was going to sing but too simple for you)
Am Am
Moony came to town one day
F F
He said he was from Santa Fe
G G Am Am
Married the local bar room queen

Happiness is just a state of mind
The past rushes up from behind
You wonder if it’s really gona last (ends bar 27)
Sixteen bar solo

Starts at Bar 43
You know things didn’t go that well
In fact it was really hell
Screaming and fighting till the break of day

Happiness is just a state of mind
The past rushes up from behind
You wonder if it’s really gona last

One night a shot rang out
Everyone asking what’s it all about
Moony done shot that woman dead

Moony had to make his get away
Nothing left to do or say
Mexico is where all the outlaws seem to go (Ends Bar 75)
Eight Bar solo
Starts at 83
But Moony wasn’t no body’s fool
He knew he had to play it cool
So he headed up north to Ontario

Happiness is just a state of mind
The past rushes up from behind
You wonder if it’s really gona last

Now Moony is really getting old
And Canada well it’s way too cold
You got to suffer to out run the past (ends Bar 107)
Eight Bar Solo
Starts at 115
Happiness is just a state of mind
The past rushes up from behind
You wonder if it’s really gona last (Ends at 123)
Perhaps repeat last eight measures????


Billy

It might be best to link to a song (on Youtube) that has a drum sound/pattern similar to what you hear in your head. We might be able to match a RealDrum to that for ya...

LOL...Floyd...What I have in my head is so twisted up no one, not even me could understand it...lol...lol

What I have done in the past is to get a drummer friend in Australia to do a live track. Problem is Bob is not around at the moment.

In any event I will go look around on youtube.

Thanks,

Billy

Well...actually there are a lot of drum tracks on youtube that are in general what I had in mind. I had no idea that using brushes on a country song would be so common.

Sound wise if this was toned down a bit it would be in the ball park. The pattern is is out of my skill set to begin with. https://youtu.be/frpaV-gsguk.

I have seen stuff sort of like this in BIAB but don't know just how to find it and make it work. One of the issues with BIAB drums is that everything is on one track so there is no control over separate drums. There is generally not much in the way of roll ups to the changes or complexity. Actually that could be a good thing for this song.

My friend Bob normally plays everything out on one of his midi drum kits live and sends me the stems on separate tracks. I have tons of drum kits to deal with drum tone/sound issues. I just am not a drummer and don't know how to create the patterns.

Billy

These RealDrums do that:

CountryTrain
CountryTrainBrushes

for something slower..

CountryTrain8

or

TrainBeatBrushes

Thanks Floyd...I will take a look.

Billy

Actually I have kinda figured how to do this in EZDrummer 2.

The DAW is not happy with another 6 or 7 separate drum tracks so I will have to consolidate the tracks and create the drums on a second instance of Studio One.

Well...at least this is less work than tracking live acoustic drums with 10 or 15 microphones and gates on each drum to stop bleed...lol

Drums are always the hardest thing for me to deal with no matter how it is done.

Thanks,

Billy

As a guy who played in bluegrass bands for 35 years but never once played with a drummer I'm not one to offer advice...but filter RD's on roots or Americana and you will find a few. We don't start from styles so I have no idea which ones these might be in.

We've often used:

RockRootsEv
AmericanaRootsEv
NashvilleEv (many multi-genre RD's in the N'ville collection are Americana good)
FunksanfranEv (odd but it works)

Sometimes we include a conga or shaker RD track.
We frequently use 8ths RD's and RT's to have a more minimalist open sound that FWIW we associate with Americana. And for RD's we never use busy RD's or even a ride cymbal as we like for the tune to sound "open" (floyd put us on to that years ago).

While we frequently build our blues tunes around swings and shuffles most Americana tends toward the ev side of things IMO. Again that depends on how big your Americana tent is. When we think Americana the following still performing artists come immediately to mind.

Lucinda
John Hiatt
The Waifs
Kevin Welch
Kevin Gordy
Steve Earle
Son Volt
Wilco
Gillian Welch
Lyle Lovett
Slaid Cleaves

And many, many more. The more time passes the more roots rock, blues, folk rock and even R&B music gets labelled Americana.

Pardon the ramble.

Bud

Thanks Bud,

I guess a lot of things could fall under the term Americana. Lyle Lovett certainly comes to my mind.

I assume Red Dirt is a sub genera of Americana. As I lived in Plano Texas for a while, the Red Dirt music had found it's way south from Oklahoma City. I assume you have listen to Bob Childers who is considered the founder of that style.

I really associate Americana with the sounds coming out of all those redneck beer drinking XXXX kicking country bars in North Texas. The singer with an acoustic guitar and of course a big white cowboy hat. ( black hats are for outlaw country lol )The others in the band all electric.

As for the drums, I will go take another look based on what you said.

If push comes to shove I know a real country drummer in Nashville. He would probably make me drive all the way from Miami just to buy him a beer for doing the work...lol

Thanks,

Billy

Maybe I'm missing something here... but.... weren't there drums in the BB style you selected? You can add or change them if you don;t like what BB offers to you.

Actually the drum track did not play out correctly Guitarhacker.

I've never had it "play out correctly" for me. That's why I've always said that I only use it for practice.

It plays in time and it plays in key, but it never plays what I'd like to hear.

Obviously I've been spoiled by playing with live musicians who can respond to nuances in a live performance.

Don’t forget the RealDrum Quick List. Often one can really change the drum track here even though the style is the same. There are often many varied ways things are done. Sometimes it is better to use one option and then another then in a DAW slice, dice and reassemble the drum track the way you want it.

To open the dialog, right-click on the Drums track button, and select [QuickList] RealDrums in Song from the menu

Just a thought

Tony

Hi Bob,

A discussion about drums from what ever source could go on for ever. I have worked with a lot of drummers and had every problem there is to have I guess.

We use to joke in the band that if we found a really good drummer one of us should marry the drummer on the spot...lol The guys were hoping at least it would be a girl drummer...lol

I most likely just don't know how to use BIAB well enough to get the max out of it.

If I decide I actually like the song in question, I will get the drum issue solved one way or another.

Cheers,

Billy