Captain Pikant

Deltron 3030 - Mastermind (Drum Pattern No. 67)

This pattern was recommended by your fellow Patron Binuts. It's a perfect fit for the Humanizing Hi-Hats episode since this is an unquantized beat and it needs lots of humanizing - not only on the Hi-Hat. The beat also plays with the amount of swing on the even Kick Drum steps, which is why I thought it best not to transcribe any swing at all, but to indicate everything via microtiming. I've included quantized...

How to humanize Hi-Hats on any Drum Machine (variation techniques)

I can't believe it but it's finally here ;) Originally planned as a short segment in the "Axel F" episode - "Humanizing Hi-Hats" grew steadily and it soon became clear that it needed its own episode. The results of the recent poll also reinforced our decision to rewrite and reshoot the scenes to include a more diverse set of drum machines. There should be something in there for everybody and the different concepts are good to know regardless of which machines you have :)

I'm really prou...

The Cars - I'm Not the One (Drum Pattern No. 66)

Thanks to Aram Hamper for suggesting this dreamy 808-based guitar/synth pop track! The additional difficulty point is because you have to layer a second Hi-Hat track on top of the pattern. Oh and there seem to be two versions of the song, one with regular snares and one with a very prominent reverse reverb...

Difficulty rating: 🐇🐇
Listen to the original 🎧 

LL Cool J - Going Back to Cali (Drum Pattern No. 65)

Update 2023/08/24: Minor corrections, optimized layout

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "LL Cool J - Going Back to Cali". Get your kalimba ready and detune your 808 Cowbell! Thanks Craig M. for suggesting this drum pattern :)

Difficulty rating: 🐇🐇
Listen to the original 🎧

Beastie Boys - Paul Revere (Drum Pattern No. 64)

Update 2023/08/20: Added accents, optimized layout

This 808 beat may be simple, but it has a very unique twist: The recording was reversed in post (which was actually inspired by Jimi Hendrix). Only then will you hear those vacuum cleaner Kicks, the swelling Cymbals, and Closed Hats that almost sound like Shakers. The Kicks need to be a bit more mellow than usual, so reduce the attack. I included a full runthrough of the normal and the reversed version.

Difficulty rating:...

Happy 808 day everyone :)

We hope you're all well! If you've followed the results of the latest poll it's pretty obvious which pattern I prepared for today. But wait... there's more! 🐇🥁 A triple treat is coming your way - the patterns will be published in the next few minutes.

If you're up for a feature-length documentary on the Roland TR-808 you should take a look at "808" by Alexander Dunn. And since The Intern is still b...

Nine Inch Nails - Only (Drum Pattern No. 63)

The NIN wiki says that this is the same drum machine as used on "Fur-Lined" from Trent Reznor's side-project "How To Destroy Angels" (i.e. the Sequential Circuits DrumTraks), but I have to disagree with that. The two drum patterns certainly share the same vibe, but I believe these are entirely different sounds. I couldn't find out any details, so I just used Addictive Drums 2 to create the sound example.

I actually saw Nine Inch Nails perform this song live about 15 years ago. I vividly...

Poll: What drum machines do you use?

Hello everyone! This poll is about which drum machines you want us to use in our videos. We want the examples and tutorials to be as useful to you as possible, so let us know which drum machines you use yourself! If yours is not on the list just post it in the comments. You can check multiple boxes ;)

What happens when you try to align two voice tracks?

Some nonsense from between all the drum machines and synthesizers. It turns out I like Star Wars a lot more than The Intern does... I'm also really good at making Wookie noises, but very much like listening to the musical works of Phil Collins, this activity is now also prohibited at Beatbunny Studio.

If you want to recreate the Darth Vader voice effect, you can use a very clean delay set to 6-7 ms (Reaper's ReaDelay works pretty well). Play around with the delay feedback to get more of...

Marshall Jefferson - Move Your Body / House Music Anthem (Drum Pattern No. 62)

Update: Thanks to our Patron DJ 312 we were able to make an improved version of the transcription. If it was too unclear for you before then you should give this one another shot!

Thanks to our patron Chad for pointing us towards Marshall Jefferson and "Move Your Body", one of the classic Chicago House tracks featuring the TR-707. I'm not kidding, these Tambourine parts were among the trickiest things I've ever transcribed. The Tambourine sound is partially masked by t...

Trent Reznor / How to Destroy Angels - Fur Lined (Drum Pattern No. 61)

Quite a few of you asked for Nine Inch Nails / Trent Reznor patterns and I'm happy to oblige. Here's one from his side project "How to Destroy Angels". More to come soon :)

The drum machine featured on this song is the Sequential Circuits DrumTraks from 1984 (some of you might recognize it from Daft Punk's "Short Circuit"). It has per step pitch and volume automation features, so Trent probably programme...

tom_atom - Dusky Sky (Drum Pattern No. 60)

tom_atom is a musician from Japan who creates a lot of wonderful chiptune and video game themed songs. Even if that isn't your cup of tea you should take a look at this pattern - it's a great collection of drum phrases and variations. The suggestion came from your fellow Patron Jaelights, who also uses this track as the intro to his podcast Null Point...

Poll: Which pattern for 808 day?

Hello everyone! Last week you sent us your pattern suggestions for 808 day via comments and PMs. Now it's your turn to decide :) And watch out for the next few patterns, there are some pretty good ones coming up!

Your pattern suggestions for 808 day

Hello everyone! To prepare for 808 day next month we'd like to reel in your suggestions :) What are your favourite 808 patterns that we haven't transcribed yet? Or maybe a non-808 pattern I should make an 808 version of? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Joe Smooth - Promised Land (Drum Pattern No. 59)

Happy 707 day everyone :) I didn't know this track before, so thanks to our Patron Romain Dargelosse for suggesting it! This pattern needs a trio of drum machine sounds: 707 for the rhythm groundwork, 727 for the Conga sounds and 808 for the electronic Conga + Cowbell part. Don't forget to put the High Conga and Muted High Conga into a choke group. All in all a very interesting layer cake of rhythms - I'd love to make an end jam out of this!

I actually mapped out the entire song for the...

INXS - Need You Tonight (Drum Pattern No. 58)

One of the few mainstream TR-707 patterns I know of - and only 6 instruments, so it's a perfect fit for the TR-6S. If you have any favourite songs made with the 707 (or 727) leave them in the comments, we're looking for another one to include in the TR-6S review :)

Difficulty rating: 🐇
Listen to the original 🎧

Status Update

Hello everyone! Next month The Intern will be very busy working on her thesis, which is why I will concentrate on transcribing patterns as well as writing Cheat Sheets and scripts for new episodes. But we hope we can still put out a short surprise video in July ;)

We weren't entirely happy with the way the Hi-Hat humanization episode turned out, which is why we did some rewrites. We'll now be using a wider array of drum machines. We think this will be more helpful to people compared to ...

Syntakt project file from the workarounds video

You can load this project file into your Syntakt by using the Elektron Transfer app. The following patterns are included:

• A1: Arpeggio from "The Great Giana Sisters" intro by Chris Huelsbeck
• A2: Captain Pikant sidechain example
• A3: Captain Pikant Hi-Hat choking example
• A4: Captain Pikant Sna...
  2022-06-25 07:51:14 +0000 UTC View Post

The Best Workarounds for Syntakt + Digitakt + Digitone

Hello everyone! We made a video on the most important hacks/tips/workarounds for the Elektron Syntakt, Digitakt and Digitone. We use these all the time and we hope they're useful to you as well. And there are also some easter eggs from my youth with the Commodore 64 in there ;) Let us know if there's anything else you want to see covered in future videos.

Since the project files from the Syntakt review were so well received, we'll also make the ones from this episode available for downl...

Cameo - Word Up (Drum Pattern No. 57)

Thanks to defjeff for suggesting this pattern! Brings back really fond memories for me because back when I still played the electric guitar in a band we covered this song 😄

Cameo made heavy use of stereo panning here, which gives the LinnDrum sounds a lot more life. The arrangement is quite complex with a lot of variations. These variations are mosty recombinations of various recurring elements though, which is why this time I decided to create a pattern construction kit for you (ins...

Mantronix - In Full Effect (Drum Pattern No. 56)

Thanks to our Patron Graeme Whitehouse for recommending this one! Once again there's more to this than you might think. This is the first pattern we encountered here in which the Closed and Open Hat don't choke each other. It was most likely created on a sampler and features some 808 sounds. I took that opportunity to make it an all-808 version (surprise). The pattern contains lots of variations, substeps, a kick with varying decay and a mute on the Open Hats.

Difficulty rating: 🐇�...

acidlab Drumatix Cheat Sheet

You know that when I get my hands on a drum machine, I have to make a Cheat Sheet for it. Contrary to the statements of one retailer a few months ago, acidlab is still in business and I was able to order their classic Drumatix drum machine directly from them. The Drumatix is based on the 606, but the sound set is greatly expanded by a lot more controls and more instruments: an 808-style kick, an 808-style snare (so two kicks and two snares in total - which is more useful than you'd think) as ...

All Syntakt presets (+ project file) from the review example patterns

Update 2022/05/27: Due to even more popular demand, here are the 40 sound presets from the example patterns as well as the project file that we used for the review. It contains the following patterns (spread across different banks):

• Oxygène (Minipops)
• Idiotheque
• XTAL
• Copyshop
• The Bells
• Egypt Egypt
• Don't Lose My Number
• Captain Pikant Theme
• Captain Pikant Fills

Update 2022/0...