Gavin Harrison
DRUMMERWORLD PRO DRUMMER
Hi Robert Schmidt
If you say 2 days for the parts of "In Exile" (which came out obviously more than amazing!) how many hours (approx. per day) do you mean?
about 2 hours in the morning and 3-4 hours in the afternoon. Most of that time was equally split between playing/experimenting and listening/considering/imagining.
I want to find out the sensitivity of the ear concerning rhythm wherefore I did the following experiment: I programmed two SN-hits (same source); and a BD and a HH (different source) coming at a time. Then I put these two separately exactly above each other (offset of 0 ms) and gradually increased the offset. The question is at what space or offset can I hear two notes.
I can hear the sound change as soon as I apply even 0.5ms as the two identical sounds start to phase against each other. I would say around 4ms I can hear two attacks coming from the sound. A bit harder with two different sounds (bass drum/hi hat) more like 6ms when I start to sense some they have some distance between them but of course the attack on a bass drum and hi hat are completely different.
The next is a simple drum rhythm. A "Polka-Beat" with BD and HH on 1 and SN and HH on 2. The tempo is 135 bpm. A few bars exactly on the beat and then the sort of "worst case scenario", where the 1 is X ms to early and the 2 comes X ms to late and again a few bars of 0 ms after that. Results are: X = 15ms (I think I can hear it, but only because I know it) / X = 20 ms (I can hear it) / X = 30 ms (it sounds quite off).
I had similar results to you - but this is of course a 'programmed experiment' - real human results in playing would be much more varied and organic. Each hit would produce a slightly different sound and the relationship between the hi hat and bass drum would be changing all the time (by a few ms) and so the odd slightly early or late snare would have to be judged in a more general 'overview' sense about if the tempo 'feels' steady and if you can sense that the internal sync between the limbs 'feels' good to you personally. I think what we're talking about here is a 'window of acceptability' and that would vary depending on the listener and how good their ears are at spotting such things.
cheers
Gavin
If you say 2 days for the parts of "In Exile" (which came out obviously more than amazing!) how many hours (approx. per day) do you mean?
about 2 hours in the morning and 3-4 hours in the afternoon. Most of that time was equally split between playing/experimenting and listening/considering/imagining.
I want to find out the sensitivity of the ear concerning rhythm wherefore I did the following experiment: I programmed two SN-hits (same source); and a BD and a HH (different source) coming at a time. Then I put these two separately exactly above each other (offset of 0 ms) and gradually increased the offset. The question is at what space or offset can I hear two notes.
I can hear the sound change as soon as I apply even 0.5ms as the two identical sounds start to phase against each other. I would say around 4ms I can hear two attacks coming from the sound. A bit harder with two different sounds (bass drum/hi hat) more like 6ms when I start to sense some they have some distance between them but of course the attack on a bass drum and hi hat are completely different.
The next is a simple drum rhythm. A "Polka-Beat" with BD and HH on 1 and SN and HH on 2. The tempo is 135 bpm. A few bars exactly on the beat and then the sort of "worst case scenario", where the 1 is X ms to early and the 2 comes X ms to late and again a few bars of 0 ms after that. Results are: X = 15ms (I think I can hear it, but only because I know it) / X = 20 ms (I can hear it) / X = 30 ms (it sounds quite off).
I had similar results to you - but this is of course a 'programmed experiment' - real human results in playing would be much more varied and organic. Each hit would produce a slightly different sound and the relationship between the hi hat and bass drum would be changing all the time (by a few ms) and so the odd slightly early or late snare would have to be judged in a more general 'overview' sense about if the tempo 'feels' steady and if you can sense that the internal sync between the limbs 'feels' good to you personally. I think what we're talking about here is a 'window of acceptability' and that would vary depending on the listener and how good their ears are at spotting such things.
cheers
Gavin