Arturia just released their new drum machine .. the Drumbrute Impact.
It sounds awesome and I'm so on the verge of buying one. The specs of the drum claim the sequencer is capable of Polyrhythms. Is this the case ? A few of my muso friends argue that the drum does polymeters not polyrhythms. What exactly are polyrhythms and how do they differ from polymeters?
It seems that there is a common misuse of the term PolyRhythm to mean PolyMeter and vice versa.
A few definitions first:
"A PolyMeter is when two or more musical phrases have a different number of beats within DIFFERENT sequence lengths ; each cycles independently & the sequence will complete when each completes the number of bars of the others beat number
e.g 4 beats kick x 5 bars = 5 beats snare x 4 bars"
The beats have a common pulse or tempo .... they fall on the same grid... but have different lengths (different numbers of beats).
A PolyRhythm is when two or more musical phrases have a different number of beats within the
SAME sequence length : eg 3 beats of kick will play in the same time as 5 beats of snare .
The beats have different pulses or tempos but the bars line up to be the same length.
A good example of a polyrhythm can be found in Nine Inch Nails' "La Mer".
Its a beautiful soothing track. At 1:20 the drums start. They play four beats against the three beats of the piano.
A very basic example of a polyrhythm is the "Hemiola" .
It's found in lots of African music, and also in Baroque ... such as in Handels Water Music Suite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEXVKvzYQ6M
It refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats.
This is also known as triplets over duplets.
The Hemiola is a 3:2 polyrhythm.
The polyrhythmic formula is X:Y or X over Y.
Y is the basic pulse.
X is the counter rhythm
A polyrhythm can only occur if there is no number beside 1 that will divide into both.
Thus 3:2 is a polyrhythm. As are 4:3, 5:4, 3:5, or 4:7
-----------------------------------
In comparison, the key to creating polymeters appears to be the ability to change the sequence (or bar or pattern) length (which the Drumbrute can certainly do). The basic example of polymeter used above (4/4 time signature): 4 beats kick x 5 bars = 5 beats snare x 4 bars"
The 4-step loop is juxtaposed with a 5 step loop. As the two loops play it will take 5 repetitions of the 4-step loop, and 4 repetitions of the 5 step loop for both to end up at the same place.
---------------------------------------------------------------
To anyone reading this that has purchased a new drumbrute,..... can you please let me know if the drum is capable of polyrhythms or is it polymetric?
And what other instruments are capable of polyrhythms?
+ MakeNoise tempi --- when in machine programming mode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVUC2UjrvGQ
+ Squarp - Pyramid sequencer
+ Buchla 252e
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7IVvYWT69g&t=84s
+ Abelton
Links:
Muffs: polyrhythms modules
No comments:
Post a Comment