Develop a groove - Remix, Hip Hop and electronic song writing
- Using triggered sounds in the composition of a cumulative groove

We can expand on the concept of the cumulative groove by not only using triggered drum sounds but any unique sound triggered in a rhythmic manner. These triggered samples may include the human voice, car horns, animals or just about anything that can be recorded. We can use these sounds as is or manipulate their timbres using studio effects.

This first example uses white noise (static) to replicate a snare drum.

When I considered how I would vocalise the sound of a snare drum, I came to the conclusion I would most probably say 'ker'.

Then I considered how I would vocalise the sound of static, coming to the conclusion of saying 'keeeeeer'.

They both use the same letter sounds the difference is the latter has a longer duration. So I recorded some white noise then reduced its duration and decay to emulate that of a snare drum.

I tried doing the same thing with the kick drum using white noise with a perceived lower pitch, but this experiment just produced a low frequency hiss with none of the attack or definition of a kick drum. So instead I manipulated the timbre of a sampled kick drum by adding distortion.

Considering how to use sampled drum loops with these new single hit samples, I investigated the process of cutting up sampled drum loops and reassembling them. Rather than having the sampled drum loop play for the duration of the cumulative groove I experimented by using only parts of the loop backed by the new single hits sounds.

Develop a groove - Remix, Hip Hop and electronic song writing - Using triggered sounds in the composition of a cumulative groove

Develop a groove - Remix, Hip Hop and electronic song writing
- Using triggered sounds in the composition of a cumulative groove