Linn4days said:

Replica said:

Linn4days said:

My study of it..

I'll try to make it even closer. The kicks snare and claps are the easiest parts. The open hihat and crash are the second easiest. A detailed hihat pattern is the most difficult to get right. And that's where I can hear you're struggling the most too.

I gave up!!!! hahaha Yeah..It is difficult to get right. I feel better about my 1999-study or D.Parker..

This track snip is from 6 years ago..I found more fun making some original stuff though... I almost bought a Linn too... Can't totally re-create the conditions from those moments..

It makes me no $, or I'll be sued..

***I noticed**** The cymbal-play must have inspired Prince's guitar play on the track.

[Edited 4/18/16 7:24am]

JudasLChrist said:

Linn4days said:

Replica said:

I also believe the quantizer on the Linn lm-1 was slightly "off"in a way that it had a bit of swing ish or live feel to it that no later drum machine or software copies has been able to duplicate. Can somebody tell my if I'm wrong?

Isn't it a combination of programming and live playing?

JudasLChrist said:

Militant said:

paulludvig said:

Replica said:

DreZone said:

Replica said:

I also believe the quantizer on the Linn lm-1 was slightly "off"in a way that it had a bit of swing ish or live feel to it that no later drum machine or software copies has been able to duplicate. Can somebody tell my if I'm wrong?

Not far off,the snare drum has a bit of a delay (around 1ms, but don't quote me), so it gives it that kinda 'drag'. But what makes the LM1 unique is the hi hat.. it's a sample that's continuously played so when it is actually pressed, it doesn't always start from the beginning all, so each press will always be giving the illusion of varied 'timbre' - kinda like a live drum!

Thanks for the input! Does that mean that you're just holding down the button, kinda like muting and unmuting an ongoing strict 16/16 or 32/32 pattern? The buttons arent pressure sensitive to my knowledge, so it basically means you'll have to adjust and vary the volume knob live to get a dynamic feel of what's being played on each track or channel in the mixer while recording to tape or daw? I'm quite sure it's not possible to automate via midi the volume control.

I wonder why nerdy technical info is not discussed more on the org. When Prince are being so private about everything, we have to do the job ourselves. Finding out how Prince used his technical equipment is a step towards understanding him as a musician as well. A part of finding out is having own experiences with similar or same equipment, and some basic understanding of how different effects work.

Replica said:

DreZone said:

Replica said: Not far off,the snare drum has a bit of a delay (around 1ms, but don't quote me), so it gives it that kinda 'drag'. But what makes the LM1 unique is the hi hat.. it's a sample that's continuously played so when it is actually pressed, it doesn't always start from the beginning all, so each press will always be giving the illusion of varied 'timbre' - kinda like a live drum!

Thanks for the input! Does that mean that you're just holding down the button, kinda like muting and unmuting an ongoing strict 16/16 or 32/32 pattern? The buttons arent pressure sensitive to my knowledge, so it basically means you'll have to adjust and vary the volume knob live to get a dynamic feel of what's being played on each track or channel in the mixer while recording to tape or daw? I'm quite sure it's not possible to automate via midi the volume control.

I wonder why nerdy technical info is not discussed more on the org. When Prince are being so private about everything, we have to do the job ourselves. Finding out how Prince used his technical equipment is a step towards understanding him as a musician as well. A part of finding out is having own experiences with similar or same equipment, and some basic understanding of how different effects work.

I definitely agree, I'm by no means very knowledgeable about the technical side of music at all as I only have a very cursory understanding of theory but this thread has been far more interesting to me than the usual recycled topics that you see popping up here. I probably couldn't really contribute to these hypothetical nerdy discussions in any meaningful way, but man I would love to lurk on more threads like these

[Edited 4/19/16 7:26am]

Replica said:

I also believe the quantizer on the Linn lm-1 was slightly "off"in a way that it had a bit of swing ish or live feel to it that no later drum machine or software copies has been able to duplicate. Can somebody tell my if I'm wrong?

Hummm...............I can't imagine anything that drum machine that old could do, that Logic X and other DAW's couldn't do while powered down.

Graycap23 said:

Replica said:

I also believe the quantizer on the Linn lm-1 was slightly "off"in a way that it had a bit of swing ish or live feel to it that no later drum machine or software copies has been able to duplicate. Can somebody tell my if I'm wrong?

Hummm...............I can't imagine anything that drum machine that old could do, that Logic X and other DAW's couldn't do while powered down.

True. I just believe that you've got to have some knowledge of these things to imitate the bahaviour of that machine. Stuff like the snare sample being 1ms late, how the hihat works etc. Some of these things are standard on that machine, while you'll have to know how to imitate it with a modern daw. Another thing is the sound. Some samples I've used doesn't have the same resolution, and sounds different than the linn machine when pitched down. When you tune the drumsounds in a lower pitch, you'll hear more clearly if the samples are in good quality or not. Also, Prince recorded to tape back in the days. How does the circuits affect the overall sound "straight out of the box"?

Replica said:

Graycap23 said:

Hummm...............I can't imagine anything that drum machine that old could do, that Logic X and other DAW's couldn't do while powered down.

True. I just believe that you've got to have some knowledge of these things to imitate the bahaviour of that machine. Stuff like the snare sample being 1ms late, how the hihat works etc. Some of these things are standard on that machine, while you'll have to know how to imitate it with a modern daw. Another thing is the sound. Some samples I've used doesn't have the same resolution, and sounds different than the linn machine when pitched down. When you tune the drumsounds in a lower pitch, you'll hear more clearly if the samples are in good quality or not. Also, Prince recorded to tape back in the days. How does the circuits affect the overall sound "straight out of the box"?

Prince played a lot of games with detuning, efx, and other lil tricks.

You would be better off sampling his drums one instrument at a time than trying to recreate it.

The Linn Drums in N.I. Kontact are quite different from Prince's Linn as an example. They are close.........but not close enough.

Graycap23 said:

Replica said:

True. I just believe that you've got to have some knowledge of these things to imitate the bahaviour of that machine. Stuff like the snare sample being 1ms late, how the hihat works etc. Some of these things are standard on that machine, while you'll have to know how to imitate it with a modern daw. Another thing is the sound. Some samples I've used doesn't have the same resolution, and sounds different than the linn machine when pitched down. When you tune the drumsounds in a lower pitch, you'll hear more clearly if the samples are in good quality or not. Also, Prince recorded to tape back in the days. How does the circuits affect the overall sound "straight out of the box"?

Prince played a lot of games with detuning, efx, and other lil tricks.

You would be better off sampling his drums one instrument at a time than trying to recreate it.

The Linn Drums in N.I. Kontact are quite different from Prince's Linn as an example. They are close.........but not close enough.

This is is probably the closest we get today. I own the arturia sparkle, but bought this piece from Aly James today.

[/youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36sEaauoV7U[/youtube]

This is CLOSE!

[Edited 4/20/16 6:50am]

Graycap23 said:

[Edited 4/11/16 17:38pm]

[Edited 4/11/16 17:38pm]

Funky, Funky, Funky!!!

Replica said:

steakfinger said:

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have indicated that physically hitting the buttons, (as opposed to programming the fills) is something they all did to add variety, much to the surprise of studio visitors.

Moat producers do both.however even the old drum machines like the linn had a strict quantizer. It forces it to be as mathematically correct as possible.

Using the Quantize funtion is a choice, though. You can easily turn it off, as well as adjust it. That said, playing shit in time on hard plastic drum machine buttons can be a real challenge. Thank the gods for quantize!

JudasLChrist said: