Update – New Orleans and New Prog Grooves

February 2, 2012 Blog 2 Comments

Here’s a short update from Magnus on what’s cooking in the OddGrooves lab:

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Free New Orleans Drum Loops

January 1, 2012 Blog 1 Comment

new-orleans-drummingSo many music styles have their roots in New Orleans; Ragtime, Dixie, Jazz, Marching Music, Rhythm and Blues, and some Funk to mention a few. Many great New Orleans musicians started off in Marching bands performing music for funerals and they would march through streets in Second line parades in the late 19th century. Those rhythms still live on today and have influenced many musicians in different genres. The Meters, Dr John, Bo Diddley – the list goes on.

And so, we decided to upload a couple of free New Orleans drum loops for your enjoyment. The loops are in standard MIDI format and are arranged for Toontrack, Addictive Drums, Steven Slate 3.5, Sonic Reality I-Map and General MIDI.

Download the free New Orleans Drum Loops here:

Oddgrooves Free New Orleans Grooves

Like these grooves? Feel free to share this page with your friends on Facebook or another social network!

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Magnus Plays Quintuplets

http://www.youtube.com/user/drumod100#p/a/u/1/ioS_hMr_WbE

November 10, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a comment

Here’s a video of drummer Magnus Brandell playing some quintuplets.

 

Looking for polyrhythmic drum loops?

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Customer Sound Clip – Latin

October 7, 2011 Blog Leave a comment

The very talented Adriaan van Niekerk was kind enough to share a short sample of a song he recorded using a couple of grooves from our upcoming Latin Drum Loops Pack. Listen to it here:

SummerBreeze

What do you think? Please share your thoughts!

 

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Latin drumming

October 7, 2011 Articles and Tutorials Leave a comment

A Brief History Of Latin Drumming And The Role It Plays In Music Today

The history of Latin drumming begins with the slave trade. Drums were, and still are, a huge part of the African culture and many tribes in Africa used drums as a way to communicate with one another. They continued to do so even after they lost their freedom. Drums are one of the oldest music instruments in the world, and as slaves were taken and transported to different parts of the world, the captives took their unique style of music with them.

The beat of a drum often symbolized the beat of the human heart. It’s in this rhythm, that many African slaves found comfort and a sense of unity with each other. They would sing, dance, and play their drums whenever they got the chance, as a way to escape the mental and physical tortures of everyday life. Music was something that could not be taken away.

Many slaves, who were stuck on ships for months, would strike wooden pegs together to create a beat. These wooden pegs, eventually became the claves that are used in much of Latin music today.

The music wasn’t just a way to entertain, it was also a way to practice religious rituals and customs. This, was of course, not allowed, so they came up with the idea of throwing parties. At these events, they combined several types of music and dance to come up with what is now known as the samba.

The Surdu is one of the drums that create the distinctive sound of the samba. Three Surdu are usually used to make different notes and rhythms. The Timbal is another drum that’s used in the samba. All drums used in this style of music are made from very lightweight materials so they can be carried easily during carnival festivals.

The playing style used in bossa nova evolved from the samba, but there is less percussion with more harmony in bossa nova. While the samba originated in the shanty towns of Rio, bossa nova got its start in the affluent communities of Rio de Janeiro. Drums are not as important to bossa nova as they are to the samba, but you will hear tapping of rims and eighths on the high-hat performed continuously throughout most bossa nova songs.

Bongos and conga drums are also used frequently in Latin music. The bongos create a high-pitched beat, whereas the congas give off a lower-pitched rhythm. The cajon is basically a crate with a top made of plywood and is another percussion instrument that’s often played by Latin musicians.

The mambo and songo are both fast-paced music styles that are all about feeling the beat and letting yourself go. The drumming styles in Latin music are much different than those used in other kinds of music. Many find it almost impossible to sit still when they hear the energizing beat of the drums.

There is a rich history behind the drums used in Latin music. Many believe that if you can master all of the different types of drums in this genre of music, you will be well on your way to becoming a much better musician.

Buy latin drum loops here!

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Awesome Customer Sound Clip

September 1, 2011 Blog Leave a comment

James Lake – Rosy Okenfold

James Lake

James Lake

I just love it when our customers spontaneously send in songs that they have recorded with OddGrooves MIDI drum loops. Especially when they sound as good as Rosy Okenfold by James Lake. Magnus plays drums on a couple of songs on James’ upcoming album, but the drums on this song were all done using OddGrooves Westcoast Drumming. To quote James: “It was like the beats were made specifically for my song“. And I agree, the loops are right there in the pocket.

James uses Addictive Drums on this clip, and I must say that it sounds pretty amazing. Great playing, arrangement and production.

So, keep an eye out for James Lake’s album. And in the meantime, here’s “Rosy Okenfold”.

James Lake – Rosy Okenfold

Cheers,
Per

P.S. Westcoast Drumming is available here.

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We Want the Funk! Download free funk loops here!

April 3, 2011 Blog Leave a comment

So what about the funk?

I love the funk. I love to play it, listen to it and go to funk concerts. But I wasn’t always a funk fan, and if you read this blog regularly you may remember some of my previous posts about metal and also being a closet reggae fan. I didn’t care much for funk in my teens – it was all about prog, metal and fusion back then.

The key moment for me was the first time I saw Tower of Power in concert. It must have been in 1990 or 91 and the venue was a small club in Stockholm. I was standing less than 10 feet in front of the horn section and was literally blown away what came out of those horns (both in terms of sound and otherwise, yuk!). Since then I have seen them live five or six times, and they have never disappointed me. Rocco Prestia’s pumping 16th-notes, the distinct “BAUPP” sound of Doc Kupka’s baritone sax and of course the accented snare ghost notes by David Garibaldi. I love Tower of Power.

Another huge influence is of course James Brown, the godfather of soul. He recorded so many great songs that it seems almost silly to mention just one or two of them, but some of my favorites are Get On the Good Foot, Mother Popcorn and Funky Drummer (which features the most sampled drum groove ever, played by the great Clyde Stubblefield). I could go on.

Another funk highlight was seeing Parliament Funkadelic (or P-funk Allstars or whatever George Clinton decides to call the band. Or bands, whatever…). Songs like Red Hot Mama, Super Stupid, Good to Your Earhole, Standing on the Verge of Getting it On, Get off Your Ass and Jam and of course the epic Maggot Brain are regulars in my iPhone.

Then there’s The Meters, Prince, Defunkt, Sly & The Family Stone, Graham Central Station, the fusion funk of The Brecker Brothers and also disco-funk such as The Brothers Johnson and EWF. And the Acid Jazz movement that ocurred in the 90′s. The list goes on.

OddGrooves Funk Drumming sound clips

You may or may not have guessed that this blog post is part of a pre-launch for a new OddGrooves product (Attention: Subtle pitch coming up :-) ) The product is called OddGrooves Funky Drumming and features a selection of funk drum loops played by session drummer Magnus Brandell. It will be released in the first half of April 2011, and you will be the first to know if you either watch this blog closely or subscribe to our newsletter. As always, newsletter subscribers get a discount and if you’re not a subscriber I recommend you enter your name and e-mail address in the green box on the top right side. Here are the sound clips:

138 BPM Funk Fusion
115 BPM Popcorn Funk
112 BPM Funk
111 BPM TOP Funk
95 BPM Funky Magnus
91 BPM Funk
86 BPM Funk Shuffle

Free funk drum loops

Anyway, we got some free funk drum loops for you right here. As with all OddGrooves loops, they are royalty free and may be used in your productions without credit.

Download free funk drum loops here

We would appreciate it very much if you shared this blog post with your friends as we want to get the word out. Please use the Facebook Share or Tweet button.

Do you like the sound clips? Do you like the free loops? Do you like THE FUNK? We’d love to hear about it so please leave a comment below!

Cheers,
Per

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Funk Pack Sound Clips

March 27, 2011 Sound Clips Leave a comment

Funk Sound Clips

Here are a couple of audio demos from the upcoming OddGrooves Funky Drumming drum loop pack.

95 BPM Funky Magnus
138 BPM Funk Fusion
111 BPM TOP Funk
86 BPM Funk Shuffle
115 BPM Popcorn Funk
112 BPM Funk
91 BPM Funk

 

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Shredder Pack FAQ

December 18, 2010 Blog Leave a comment

Frequently Asked Questions

Many people have asked us questions via e-mail and on our Facebook page, and we thought it best to answer them all in one place: Right here on the OddGrooves blog. We will keep adding more questions and answers to this page as soon as they come in.

Feel free to ask a question in the comments section!

Q: Which time signatures are featured in the Shredder Pack?

A: Mostly 4/4, but there are alsosections in 7/4, 9/4 and 5/8

Q: Are there any extreme metal grooves that will work with Black or Death Metal??

A: No, nothing extreme in that sense. If you are into black or death metal Toontrack’s Library of the Extreme would be a better choice.

Q: Do I have to play instrumental music to use the Shredder Pack?

A: No, although we produced it with instrumental music in mind, the shred pack will work really well with vocal music too.

Q: Are the loops long or short?

A: Most of the loops are 8 bars long, but there are plenty of 16-bar loops and some with 4 as well. There are also 1- and 2-bar fills to add variety to your arrangements.

Q: Which sequencers/DAW’s are the loops compatible with?

A: They work with all major DAW’s.

Q: Are the loops audio?

A: No, they are in MIDI format. So you would need a sound source such as Superior Drummer/EZdrummer/Addictive Drums/Steven Slate/Ocean Way etc to get them to play correctly in your audio workstation.

Q: Honestly, what’s in the fine print of your money-back guarantee?

A: There’s no fine print. If you don’t like the grooves we don’t want to keep your money. Simple as that.

Q: Will you send me a download link when I payed?

A: Yes, as soon as payment has cleared with Paypal you are sent to a download page, and we also send you the link via e-mail.

Q: I don’t feel comfortable using my credit card online, do you offer any other payment methods?

A: At the moment we only accept payment via Paypal. All transactions are handled securely with encryption and we never store your credit card info. In fact, we never see your credit card number as it is handled by Paypal.

Buy the Shredder Pack here: [intlink id="761" type="page"]Metal drum loops[/intlink]

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Free Metal Drum Loops – Please Share!

December 14, 2010 Blog 12 Comments

Free Metal Drum LoopsFree metal drum loops

A lot of people have been asking whether there will be any freebies associated with the Shredder Pack launch, and the answer to that is…

Of course there will be freebies!

Hey, this is OddGrooves, and we ALWAYS give away a bunch of high quality free drum loops when we launch a new product.

So, without further delay, go ahead and download the free metal drum loops by right-clicking the link below and choosing Save As. ==>

Free Shredder Grooves

The mappings are EZ/Superior Drummer, Addictive Drums, Sonic Reality I-MAP, Steven Slate Drums and General MIDI and the loops are different variations with hihat, ride or fills in five different tempos.

Sharing the grooves

We want to spread the word about the Shredder Pack, so you are welcome to share these free metal drum loops with your friends, all we ask is that you direct them to this page instead of e-mailing them the midi files. Please use one of the icons below to post to your Facebook profile, tweet or to share on another social network.

And if you enjoy these free metal drum loops, please let us know by leaving a comment below – by either using your Facebook profile or the standard blog comments, whatever works best for you.

Buy [intlink id="761" type="page"]metal drum loops[/intlink]

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