Isla House/garage heads on here, are you here? Just came across this in my quest for old school garage/UKG drums. Anyone had any success doing stuff like this on the 2400?
"You notice there’s a groove to Garage even when it’s a really basic drum beat; like a 4/4 kick drum and an open 909 hihat?
It’s essentially in the open hat.
Producers would make limited, single hit drum sounds fuller and longer by looping them (ping pong), so at some point along the decay of the hihat, the sample starts playing in reverse.
You just need to tweak this point, and tweak the amp envelope, so it sustains, decays and cuts off at the right point, and you get this subtle lift on the end of the hat (caused by the reversing hat getting louder) which really pushes the beat along, in the same way as adding a closed hat or a ghost snare (with about 50% shuffle).
And it’s a subtle effect, you can’t really pick out, but it completely changes the groove of the drum pattern. basically the difference between a straight Garage beat and a straight House beat."
Interesting. I have been making House since around 1987 and have never heard of that technique at all. I always got that vibe by ghosting hats, swing, note repeat, etc. Never thought of doing it like that. I wouldn’t say it was a common technique, having worked around a lot of well-known producers and beat programmers in the House Music industry. Certainly not Kenny, Todd, Kerri, Nicky P, etc. Maybe it was more of a UKG, late 90s, or early 2000s thing. I shall try it out on my MPC and see if it grooves for me.
interesting thx for replying. Yeah I hadn’t heard of it but it was interesting. Specifically it was about Tuff Jam etc and the uk garage in to UKG sound rather than the stuff across the pond I think. Either way I’ll wait for your classic garage drums s2400 tutorial
This was/is common practice when sampling breaks for jungle and d&b. Pitching up the samples would shorten the sounds so you loop the tails to fill in the gaps. It helps to keep the groove of the break without sounding choppy. You can use it to change or add groove also of course.
I have heard of this technique being used by Tuff Jam and Todd Edwards but I don’t understand it, and haven’t seen it in action or even heard it properly. Would love to find out more. Those old school producers didn’t give much away did they!
It’s because we didn’t have the internet haha. I would have been quite happy to share my techniques at the time, but I would have had to fax them over or send a VHS lol
Thinking back, I was very secretive about breaks, sounds and samples, and it was easier to keep them hidden because there was no Shazam or WhoSampled. But techniques, I was always happy to share because my mentor made me promise to share them. Pay it forward.
I’ve always had a lot of respect for the art of producing UK garage beats, especially by the likes of Steve Gurley, Ray Hurley, Groove Chronicles, Todd Edwards, New Horizons, Tuff Jam, Anthill Mob, Grant Nelson and loads more OG producers.
I think they probably sampled some of the best US House and Garage and disco beats, from Kerri Chandler, Dennis Ferrer, MAW, DJ Disciple etc etc and heavily processed it.
Tracks started becoming a bit generic from '99 onwards with new producers making some variation of the same beats.
I’d love to have been a fly on the wall in those studios from 95-98.
The 90s were definitely the golden era for this genre IMO. Maybe because I was deeply involved, but I agree, nothing has really moved forward in that genre since 99 (again IMO). I can only speak for myself, but yes, I was sampling the drum sounds from Kerri, MAW, Todd Terry, Mood II Swing, George Morel, KOT, Henry Street, etc. In fact, I still mostly use my SP1200 and MPC3000 samples from that time in my productions now lol. I do however Sample original drum machines, Disco, Funk, Breaks, Freestyle (Todd Terry’s drums were pretty much all from Freestyle tracks) as well, which is pretty much what they did. I remember reading an interview with Todd in the early 90s where he said “Pretty much every House record out at the moment samples my drums”. Perhaps a little arrogant, but probably true. He was certainly a massive influence on my programming and sound choice. I think the biggest influence on the UKG sound was early Kerri, Mood II Swing, Todd Edwards (obviously), Mentalinstrum, 95 North, and MAW. Their records were the records we were playing in clubs like Gas, Limelights, Aquarium, etc, at +8 (hence Speed garage). We were all into US Soulful House and Garage. Just faster lol. Truth be told though, as a UK producer, I didn’t really get involved too much in the UKG scene. I was signed to Strictly Rhythm in the 90s and Defected early 2000s and stuck to the US sound a lot more.
Ah yeah how could I forget 95 North, KoT, Mood II Swing, Todd Terry - also not forgetting the legend MK, his drum production is up there with Kerri Chandler You can hear their influence all over UK scene for sure.
You have an impressive resume, I like your early white label releases, got that old school garage swing!
I was a record collecting teenager in the 90s, got my tunes from Record Basement in Reading, good memories. I much preferred it in the early days when London DJ’s played a mix of US and UK house & garage, the music started to lack soul after that.
You can hear their influence all over UK scene for sure.
except I was in the jungle bit 