Hi folks.
I am working in a electronic folk project and I am struggling to apply beat patterns, and synth sequences to odd meters such as 6/8, etc.
I wonder if anyone has experience in that field about how to program beats, and sequences in that kind of meters, or can point me towards examples of electronic music created in a non 4/4 enviroment.
As always, thanks so much for your advice and support.

 

Before answering the actual question: How many electronic songs do you know and listen to that use odd meters?

 

Here's a few:

 

@FrankPig Good work homes
My point was to demonstrate that if you decide to make electronica with odd meters you end up in the ballpark of Deadmau5 and Ninja Tune rather than Avicii and David Guetta.

I am not even sure if this is a staple in electronic folk music, so attempting it could leave you with a cross-genre sound regardless of how you approach it.
But as long as you are aware of this fact you should be good to go.

 

Strongly speaking, 6/8 isn't an odd meter. 5/8 or 7/4 are.

There are a lot of info in Internet but I think it hardly can help you to compose music. May be, only really basic info is all what you need. Something like this is more than enough:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_signature
https://hellomusictheory.com/learn/odd-time-signatures/

Which meters exist? What is an accent? What are upbeats and downbetas? Syncopation? Just read a bit of theory and try to understand and memorize it (in a general way).

Meter is a "grid" where notes and other musical events are placed. Where you place them. It usually repeats. So, open your DAW, choose any meter you want, enable metronom and start playing or paint notes. Randomly. And then you'll find something more or less musical, meaningfull and interesting. You should feel specific meter (as you feel music in 2/4 or 4/4), you souldn't think about it. First you should be able to clap it by your hands. Or reprodice it by your voice. Or dance it (even if this dance is weird and strange).

Practice and practice, there is no another way.

 

Last edited: Jan 6, 2023

Find MIDI files, especially drums, for 'weird' time signatures. Play them in your DAW with any sampler or drum synth. Listen. Try to improvise. Etc.

EDIT: In any big drumstation (Groove Agent, Addictive Drums, EZDrummer, Superior Drummer) there are plenty of grooves in 'odd' meters.

 

Last edited: Jan 6, 2023

6/8 time signature is far to be weird.
It's very common in folk and classical music, also in many African traditional musics.
It's easy to feel it, as it have its own groove feeling, that's why it have been so often used.

Here is a webpage with an explanation and different "modern" popular songs using 6/8 from Queen to Tears for Fears, and the Beatles.
https://www.betamonkey.com/popular-examples-music-written-68/

First thing you can do to impregnate yourself of this groove and how to program it, is to look at different lessons about 6/8 for drummers, because they show different variations of 6/8 grooves, like this one:

The other useful thing you can do is to use a drum vst that already include different grooves and fills at 6/8 and listen to them, also you can arrange them.
XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2 comes with a good library of grooves, that you can also copy in your daw, which will help you see and analyze them.

Remember to "tell" your DAW that your are using this time signature. Usually, you can chose the time signature in the midi editor of each track.

I hope this helps

 

@FrankPig .Pretty good examples thanks indeed!
@Valnar I appreciate your point. I am just trying to apply some ideas from one genre to another, and experiment a bit
@lbnv Thank you. My mistake. I meant "odd" in the sense of not predominantly used in a particular style. For sure 6/8 is not odd in some rock,blues or folk styles, as well as 5,7,9, or 11 meters are common and definitely not "odd" to balkan music.I understand and have studied what is accent, syncopations, etc...in my years of musical training.

Thanks so much to all for your valuable inputs. What I was refering to is to try to find out experiencies or tips about(for instance) programming arpeggiators out of 16 steps, beat sequences, etc.
Thanks again to you all

 

Thanks @Olymoon

Thanks @Olymoon I was just answering the thread at the same time as you. Refer to my last post on this thread (before yours). Thanks for your input mate

 

Meters with 5, 7, 11 sometimes is called 'odd' as they contain number of beats that are not divisible by 2 and 3. This is correct. In Balkan music all such metric structures is considered as succession of groups of 2s and 3s where first notes are accented (for example, 2+3+3+3=11).

If you undestand it why not just to try playng and improvising? This is the most obvious way

 

if you have real trouble getting the hang of it
get yourself stylus rmx
with its groove lock feature, could be helpfull

but anyways one thing to remember is that:
od or straight, without the melody, its just a tool

here melody is king

here concept is king

hope i could help

 

Last edited: Jan 6, 2023