Polyrhythms..

[stanhope]

just listen to a lot of jungle and idm

[steevio]

i'm passionate about polyrhythms, and i'd love to get into more banter about it, but i think i said everything that i know about it in the thread last year, and i'm ultra busy right now.

one thing i will say is that the main reason why anything other than the usual 3/4 rhythms are quite rare in minimal techno/house, is that they are hard work to get right and most people just give up on it and scurry off back to the safety of 4/4.

there is some truth in the 'feeling it' issue, one of the reasons why i tend to use a sequencer more than playing notes and rhythms in by hand is because i have a natural tendency to always play 6/8 rhythms in without realising it, which isnt too useful in a genre dominated by 4/4.

http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ... innovative

thanks for the kind words oblioblioblio !!

[Atheory]

yeah i read through all of that topic before and it was very beneficial and explains the subject very clearly. everyone should read it if they get a chance and they have the time of course.

[AVX23]

That post is a good read, I remember it from when it was first discussed.

I think a simple way of thinking about polyrythms is simply as the secondary rythym, you have a predominant rythym, which might say just be a 44 kick goign bom bom bom at regular intervals.

A polyrythym would be like ghost notes from the kick, not hitting right on the kick - either through being directly placed as a distinct note or through subtle syncopation.

So to give a real life example as regards writing techno , you'd have say a 44 kick on one channel, then some clicks and lighter cicks and perhaps some claves on another channel which weren't following the beat, but providing an extra rythym.

One way I try to make interesting polyrythms is to write really long patterns and then increment the length down and up until it puts is into a different timing, can make for nice interesting - seemingly never ending loops.

Anyway - that's my self taught understanding of it, I don't know if it would pass me a music exam (probably not).

[AK]

yeah i read through all of that topic before and it was very beneficial and explains the subject very clearly. everyone should read it if they get a chance and they have the time of course.

I'll have a good look at that when I get home. Never really been one for experimenting with stuff like that. That said, I have done stuff without realising it's polyrhythmic at the time. Simply by chaining drum machines and having say a kick, snare hat routine over 16 steps in 4/4 time on one of them, then something like a 14 step pattern on another playing percussion yeilds an interesting sequence over say 8 bars. I guess that's polyrhythmic?

[oblioblioblio]

I think a simple way of thinking about polyrythms is simply as the secondary rythym, you have a predominant rythym, which might say just be a 44 kick goign bom bom bom at regular intervals.

A polyrythym would be like ghost notes from the kick, not hitting right on the kick - either through being directly placed as a distinct note or through subtle syncopation.

So to give a real life example as regards writing techno , you'd have say a 44 kick on one channel, then some clicks and lighter cicks and perhaps some claves on another channel which weren't following the beat, but providing an extra rythym.
.

I dunno man. obviously everyone knows what works for them, but I think the dominant versus sub dominant thing is pretty constraining.

The are some tracks (especially ones that combine interesting pitches within rhythms) that aren't just 1 rhythm rubbing against another but turn the whole vertical and horizontal structure into a beautiful kalaidoscope.

I think the 1 against another approach is probably useful as a starting point (otherwise you end up with tracks that make you feel seasick... like mine ). But definitely I think there is much more territory that can be explored.

(Probably though we're talking from the same page and I'm nitpicking your wording rather than your meaning.)

[sologroove]

Anyone fully understand and use these?

Can you recommend me a website that talks about these? Been looking into it, but i am really getting very confused.

this is my way ..
i set my beat to 6/4 or 6/8 -not 4/4 or 4/8-
then i set the instrument which should sound polyrhytmic to each 4 beat -12/8 or 8 beat -6/8- in pattern..thats it ..yeah.but i'm in fl studio...

this is an example of using polyrhythms in 4/4 beat or 4/8


but these doesn't sound so continuously like in 6/8 or 6/4 beat..see the red marks...

[Opuswerk]

this was very well presented thanks!!