https://soundcloud.com/th...4-come-ride-the-cosmic
 
Going a bit old school here. With this piece, I attempted to answer the question, "can you groove slow in 17/16 time?" Hopefully the answer is yes. I started with a 17/16 metronome loop @ 60bpm and layed down a simple bassline over it. I then tracked the live drums and put the organ and rhodes on top of it, trying to "jam" with myself by matching up the drum riffs. I think it works in some spots... some spots not so much. It's not perfect, but I think it's a cool moody piece, and gives me a bit of a Return To Forever vibe when I listen to it.
 
Recorded w/ X3d Producer - everything tracked live (short of the bass guitar riff, which was looped)
 
Instrumentation:
Live (real) drums
NI Scarbee bass VSTi
VB2 organ VSTi
Korg Kronos "PurgatoryCreek MV Fusion" Rhodes patch

I can genuinely say that this song is above my pay level.  Parts of it worked real well and carried me away with it, but some parts were stickier than others.  I would think that this kind of time signature requires an advanced level of counting because I couldn't quite get the meter, but playing this is best felt than counted, anyway.  I commend you for thinking out of the box.

oh totally - I definitely relied on feel. That's part of the reason why the bass part is so simple - I think it (relatively) breaks the measures to where they aren't too disjointed. I basically counted it as two 2/4 measures with an extra 16th note in between (or sometimes at the end) to flip the feel around. Sometimes I just played over the barline to make things equal out in the end. Once I worked up the metronome pattern and played the bassline, I just looped 16 measures inside Sonar and jammed on it until it felt natural. I'm definitely no Jeff Porcaro, but I think I managed to not make it sound as mechanical as it could have been. I suppose some of this comes a bit natural to me after 20+ years of jamming along with Zappa, Rush, and Dream Theater songs.
 
The unison figures were actually felt as well. I only had to count them out when it came time to play the other parts on top of it.
 
Thanks for checking it out!

To illustrate, this is what I built as my click track - it's just a simple drum part. It's played @ 60bpm, so it's really slow.
 

Yeah ok, I think it works. I'm not sure I have enough in me to just feel it. I had to count it out just to keep up, and the only way I could achieve that was to count 8 then 9, so I could hear what you were trying to achieve. Are you sure it's 17/16 and not 17/8? I felt a half note groove. Maybe the beat is just so slow that it comes across as a half note timing.
Having said that, I just couldn't help myself, I had to loop it and jam along.

heh - yea, it's kinda catchy once you get into it, isn't it? ;) Once I was able to make it click in my brain and just feel it, I jammed along to it for about 20 minutes. Twas quite fun.
 
The bassline  is following the kick drum and gives it (to me) a slow, slinky groove. I actually originally tried to approach it with a slow 1/2 time shuffle, but I couldn't really make it feel right.
 
Yea, I probably could (or should) have written it as 17/8, but once I got to the point of having the basic framework down, I'd already done everything like this @ 60bpm.

Played smoothly and easy enough to play , drums sound nice the way they were recorded . The music sounded good , it did sound alittle bit repetitive me . I understand its that type of music your playing drums to and I enjoyed listening to it .
 
James

my brain hurts!
Very well played/recorded and relaxing to a point :)

i got lost in time (signature), but thanks for the ride! I would love to hear some spaced out vocals here

Very cool Brian! I used to listen to a lot of Chick Corea and Jean-Luc Ponty, so I get the vibe here. Love your drums, by the way. It seemed like there were only a few spots where things sort of fell apart. If you can tighten those up, I think it would be great if you added a soaring guitar solo somewhere in there, then break out to a more "standard" beat to wrap up. Just my two cents...
 
Regards,
Dan