Using Polymeter in iZotope BreakTweaker
This tutorial uses iZotope BreakTweaker to show how complex rhythms can easily be made. A ten day free trial can be downloaded from izotope.com.
Sometimes it can be hard to come up with new rhythms and break out of your usual way of composing.
One way of getting round this is to use multiple time signatures other than 4/4. Stacking up time signatures like this is called Polymeter and are often found in Arabian and African music. Unexpected timing, which can keep your track moving can happen when you use this technique.
You can try this in any DAW but iZotope’s BreakTweaker makes working this way really simple.
Polymeter is when music is composed of parts with varying time signatures but at the same tempo.
In the illusatration above, I have one part playing in 4/4 and a second playing in 3/4. To hear what it sounds like, I have used a HiHat for the part in 4/4 and a Djembe in 3/4. Each part is playing on a quarter note beat and I have emphasised the start of the bar:
http://www.producertech.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Simple-Example-1.mp3
This is what it looks like in BreakTweaker’s sequencer:
Simple Polymeter in BreakTweaker
You may have noticed the slider underneath the sequencer’s cells. This is what is used to set the meter of the part.
BreakTweaker isn’t limited to creating one bar loops. BreakTweaker works by holding down a note to activate the sequencer. As long as the note is sustained, the polymeter patterns will continuously loop.
In this video, I’ve set up a four bar loop in Logic. When Logic loops, BreakTweaker’s patterns are retriggered from the start:
http://www.producertech.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ScreenFlow.mp4
Returning to the earlier illustration, here’s what’s actually going on in the four bar loop:
Extended four bar polymeter
For my last example, I’ve created a full drum loop. You will see that each part varies in meter with only the Kick drum acting as the back bone in 4/4 and each bar has a different rhythm. Check it out:
http://www.producertech.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BreakTweaker2.mp4
I really like programming beats like this as I find myself shifting parts around a lot more freely than when I’m thinking in straight 4/4.
Although I’ve made the loop four bars long, I also like to make longer loops – 8, 16 or 32 bars etc. Doing this lets the beat evolve further and I will often export the beat to find may favourite parts and then chop and arrange them further.
As I’m not a drummer, I’m always looking for ways to create complex rhythms and BreakTweaker really does make this easy. Sometimes I will stumble into a cool sounding break or back beat without really meaning too.
If you haven’t tried BreakTweaker, you really should. It’s an incredibly powerful drum machine which has synthesis as well as sample based sound sources. Although I haven’t covered it here, it can also create amazing glitch effects and has multiple outputs to further manipulate your parts.
A 10 day free demo is available from izotope.com where it is also available to purchase for $249. For more information, check out the BreakTweaker webpage.
Using Polymeter in iZotope BreakTweaker was originally published on producertech.me