# Stupid question about programming blastbeats



## WarriorOfMetal (Apr 9, 2008)

your typical death metal blast beat has snare, kick, and whatever cymbal is being played, all played at the same time, right? like straight 8ths or 16ths of everything, together. is this correct?


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## Matt Crooks (Apr 9, 2008)

I think it's cymbal and kick together with snare in between. Really, really, stupidly, fast.


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## WarriorOfMetal (Apr 9, 2008)

sounds good, i'll try that...thanks


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## Groff (Apr 9, 2008)

Do whichever sounds better. The typical blast beat is bass on the downbeat with snares in between. And sometimes the snare is on the downbeat.


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## stuh84 (Apr 9, 2008)

When I do blast beats, its along the following lines

B = Bass
S = Snare
C = Crash, China or Splash cymbal
R = Ride cymbal


C---R---R---R---C---R---R---R 

--S---S---S---S---S---S---S---S 
B---B---B---B---B---B---B---B 


All in 16th/semi-quavers. Its the most authentic sound I've found anyway.


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## Nick (Apr 9, 2008)

indeed i tend to do (s)nare (kick) (ride)

--r---r----r--------------
s---s---s----------------
--k---k---k-------------- etc

you can also put double bass under that for extra br00talz! woo

your also better to start wit the snare every time IMO


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## TomAwesome (Apr 9, 2008)

I think "traditionally" the snare is on the upbeats, but it's a lot easier to follow when it's on the downbeat.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Apr 9, 2008)

The European blast is alternating bass/cymbal and snare. The Suffocation blast is bass/snare/cymbal at the same time.


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## DaveCarter (Apr 9, 2008)

JJ Rodriguez said:


> The European blast is alternating bass/cymbal and snare. The Suffocation blast is bass/snare/cymbal at the same time.



truth

Mike Smith sure knows a lil bout blastin


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## JJ Rodriguez (Apr 9, 2008)

Yeah, and there's different kinds as well, the Cannibal blast is a European blast but with double bass, gravity blasts are general Suffo blasts but doing gravity blasting on the snare, and most guys use double bass with that. I mean, you can do whatever the fuck you want, its music, play around with it, lots of guys mix and match in the same song.


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## DaveCarter (Apr 9, 2008)

ive heard a few variations but the one constant seems to be the snare: always in 8ths. bass might be doubles or singles, cymbals can be in different places bu its gotta have that snare.


...oh, and triggered kicks of course


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## neon_black88 (Apr 10, 2008)

The blast at the start of stabwound and Ignominous and Pale is this is the bass + cymbal, snare, bass + cymbal, snare right? Im pretty sure theres nothing more remarkable about it than that, it must be something to do with the sound of his drums but those blasts just sound like.... wooooosshhh


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## HANIAK (Apr 11, 2008)

Matt Crooks said:


> I think it's cymbal and kick together with snare in between. Really, really, stupidly, fast.




yep, that's it! but it's really hard to reproduce a cool blast beat on programmed drums... you need some dynamics (the intensity on the snare beat is not constant, it's more like a wave), which are hard to get...


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## WarriorOfMetal (Apr 11, 2008)

i guess i should show you guys what i ended up doing with it....i didn't spend much time on this at all, was trying to do a quick-ish, rough approximation of what the drummer in my band plays for parts of this song we're working on. i didn't bother to do much in the way of fills at all, but that wasn't really the point of this recording anyway:

http://www.netmusicians.org/files/26-Cadaveric Organ Donation demo.mp3


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## kristallin (Apr 11, 2008)

One thing I'd always do is slightly change the pitch on the kick sounds - visualize the part being played on two kicks, and raise the pitch on the "left foot", together with some slight panning (+1, -1) it adds great definition and avoids muddiness in the mix.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Apr 12, 2008)

Real men blast with one foot though


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## kristallin (Apr 12, 2008)

JJ Rodriguez said:


> Real men blast with one foot though



We can't all be JoJo Mayer, though...


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## Nick (Apr 12, 2008)

JJ Rodriguez said:


> Real men blast with one foot though



not if your gravity blasting with 16's on double bass under it at 230


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## ZeroSignal (Apr 12, 2008)

kristallin said:


> We can't all be JoJo Mayer, though...



I can.


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## Nick (Apr 12, 2008)

HANIAK said:


> yep, that's it! but it's really hard to reproduce a cool blast beat on programmed drums... you need some dynamics (the intensity on the snare beat is not constant, it's more like a wave), which are hard to get...



Not if youv got a multi sample of the same snare like on dfh you can just randomise and it sounds pretty authentic.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Apr 12, 2008)

Nick said:


> not if your gravity blasting with 16's on double bass under it at 230



That's different. Real men do STANDARD blast beats with one foot


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## kristallin (Apr 12, 2008)

ZeroSignal said:


> I can.



I  you.



HANIAK said:


> yep, that's it! but it's really hard to reproduce a cool blast beat on programmed drums... you need some dynamics (the intensity on the snare beat is not constant, it's more like a wave), which are hard to get...




Just vary the velocity, I use Logic's Humanize feature to randomize the velocity of certain notes within a certain dynamic range, and that adds a lot of dynamics. I also go in and nudge entire parts back or forward by about a 1/192nd note, and then vary individual notes from there. I've programmed "mistakes" in a lot of drum parts to keep up the authenticity.


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## Ancestor (Apr 20, 2008)

JJ Rodriguez said:


> The European blast is alternating bass/cymbal and snare. The Suffocation blast is bass/snare/cymbal at the same time.



I asked a drummer I know about this and he said the same thing. I don't think that there is a "correct" way to do it. It's all about what you want to hear. 

Perfect reply, J.


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## Napalm (Jun 4, 2008)

Ancestor said:


> I asked a drummer I know about this and he said the same thing. I don't think that there is a "correct" way to do it. It's all about what you want to hear.
> 
> Perfect reply, J.



Yes but what he pointed out is that there is several different styles of blast i.e. gravity,one foot,heel toe (JoJo) Cannibal, Suffocation and host of other ones. " Its music mess around with it" or something to that effect. Your friend also has a really good way if looking at it as well.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Jun 5, 2008)

I perfer the Suffocation style to the alternating style. Sounds sooo much heavier (to me anyway). The alternate kind has a wierd grooviness to it, which might be useful for certain stuff but it's not my favorite.

When your programming the blasts, try some untraditional stuff. Like I did a bass/china cymbal/low tom one that sounded pretty cool. Also, just for kicks I did a bass/ride/cowbell blast!!


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## newamerikangospel (Jun 17, 2008)

For my little input, I prefer the "bomb" or "european" blast on the ride bell


```
RB-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
SN--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
KI-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
```

And the more standard blasts on the high hat


```
HH-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
SN-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
KI-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

HH-0-------0-------
SN-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
KI-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

HH-0-------0--------
SN-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
KI-0000000000000000
```

These are two quarter notes (half a bar). Just incase you didn't catch it. HH-Highhat, RB-Ride Bell, SN-Snare, KI-kick
ect


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