Steve Catanzaro (stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com)
Thu, 23 Dec 1999 10:26:31 -0700
Don't need to read to know they ain't no live drums on that rekkid.
But now that you mention it, right, mos plays percussion on 1 track and
drums on 1 other; at least, that's what the liner notes say. But, sampling
yourself playing the drums doesn't count as "live drums" however impressive
it might be. It brings up an interesting point, though.
My thang about live drums is not really the "sound" (dry vs. heavily gated
or 'verbd), but rather the groove. True it is hard to get good sounding live
drums, but MMW's shackman was recorded in a shack; all things considered,
that's much better than a drum machine or a bunch of loops.
There are lots of drummers who can lock into the new sounds with solid
grooves. But, drummers have the added advantage of being able to make a
track "grow" by adding nifty trix and even playing with the tempo a little
bit.
People love the samples so much, however, that even rock bands are doing
what Kevin says, i.e., sampling their own live drummer and replaying the
loops.
Question; Do you all find yourself tiring of grooves with sampled beats
faster than joints with real drums? I do. This all came to me while I was
listening to Steely Dan the other day. It's so much fun just to listen to
the drums!
Not a drummer,
Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: KEVIN D. ENGLAND <kengland@mail.jhmi.edu>
To: Steve Catanzaro <stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com>
Cc: ajlist <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 1999 8:22 AM
Subject: Re: Mos Def... More Controversy
>
> Read the liner notes. Mos Def himself played the drums and the bass licks
on
> much of the record. I'm sure he sampled himself as well and worked some
> cut'n'paste magic.... but nevertheless... give the man credit for holdin
down
> the mic and workin' the traps.
>
>
>
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