The Friday Fillip

Me, I always wanted to be the bass player. Not the bouncy Macca sort, mind you, but the guy who slouches around at the back of the band almost too cool to breathe. But lots of other folks would have preferred to be the drummer: even further back, maybe, but… well, louder. And having a whole lot more gear. So this fillip is for them. It’s about drumming and the beat.

Go to Audio Playground’s Virtual Drum Machines‘ site. You’ll find an incredible cornucopia of drum machines from the past all lovingly recreated by Joseph Rivers thanks to the magic of Shockwave and midi. Here’s the Rhythm Box RB-1 Tronixfrom the 70s, the Oberheim DX Virtual Drum Machine Ver. 1.0 from 1983, the Boss DR220 from 1986, and a couple of dozen more. You’ve got rim shots, high hats, snares and hand claps, gongs, star chimes and steel pans, not to mention all manner of toms and bass drums. So find the noise-maker you like, and then download it to have on your own machine — just the thing to irk a mate or coworker, or to add that punch to the otherwise lackluster PowerPoint presentation.

Then take a listen to Nate Harrison on YouTube talk about “the world’s most important 6-second drum loop.” He takes you on a 40-year trip to follow the fate of what’s known as the “Amen break,” that six-second break from a 1969 song, Amen Brother, by the funk and soul group, the Winstons. This is a modern tale of sampling and re-mixing (and re-re-mixing) that ends, as too many modern tales will, in a copyright problem.

Ready to cut a drum break yourself now? Head on over to the Online Drum Set and pound those tubs.