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How to Follow a Drummer

drummate.app

31–37 of 37 posts

Re: How to Follow a Drummer

#31
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I weird for not wanting to see this same discussion and variations of it in most every thread including in ones that it has no place? I don't see it having any effect on the trend which only seems to be increasing, but I do see an effect on the quality of the discussion.

I'll keep saying it until people understand how immediately recognisable and offputting stock LLM writing is. I do agree with the sibling commenters, if writing this wasn't a good enough use of your time, why would reading it be a good use of mine? Just paste me the bullet points and I'll read those.

>Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

>Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.

>Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead.

>Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting.

It is fine if you don't like LLM writing but it is not particularly interesting, why should I care? why would I want to read the same sentiments over an over? What use is this knowledge to me or anyone else? Your blog is a more suitable place for such things.

Re: How to Follow a Drummer

#32

This is why most modern music is played with a click track.

It's not. You're putting the cart before the horse (or attributing the horse to the cart?).

Contemporary music began using a click track because it makes techniques like sequencing, non-linear editing in a DAW, and tempo-synced effects far easier to incorporate. Click tracks and rock-solid tempo are also an aesthetic choice.

It's far more difficult to sync these techniques to a wavering tempo, so the trend has been for bands and records to conform to the click as the central authority for the pulse in order to unlock the benefits of the above-mentioned techniques.

The author's product allows users to slave the click track to the drummer's playing (which may now waver). This opens the door to real-time tempo-following by the click. The band can now push/pull the tempo AND use all of cool synchronized techniques in real time.

Re: How to Follow a Drummer

#34
The main LLM tell -- both from the instructor/prompt side and the model side -- is:

a) how much of the text describes the solutioning, vs

b) text that describes the actual problem and real world cases where this was an issue (One anecdote from the author??)

As a lifelong drummer, programmer, and music producer -- following a drummer across varying tempo isn't a real problem. Any good drummer who is being relied upon to conduct the tempo will be well-trained enough to hold the tempo. Any great drummer who uses polyrhythms will keep accurate tempo regardless of the subdivisions of the beat -- otherwise the subdivisions would not land in place or sound correct. For songs that have intentional tempo variance, solutions already exist.

An app for a virtual band to follow a drummer who can't hold tempo... is a toy for amateur drummers who want to be the lead. Lead drummers are rare (Don Henley, Phil Collins, Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak) but they all know how to nail a tempo. And any good drummer plays with syncopation and time signatures far beyond what this toy tempo estimating app can deduce.

DJ/production software (Serato, Ableton) has industry-leading tempo estimation which still only reaches 1/10th of a bpm, which is ~3-10x fatter [0] than what the human ear and good drummers can hold time to [1]. There is no way that this app beats Serato, Ableton, and gets anywhere near to 6ms of human accuracy (transients etc make this hard... I have worked on BPM software).

[0] 0.1 bpm at 120 bpm = 50ms

[1] Typically ~6-10ms, see e.g. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309706298_Effect_of...

Re: How to Follow a Drummer

#35
post #4

Am I weird for not wanting to read Claude-generated text any more? I tried to figure out what this app is about, but all the Claude verbal tics in the text turned me off and I stopped.

Not once did this pop on my radar as AI-generated. And if it is that’s fine, because it reads extremely clear and coherent to me. Larger point: I am so sick of HN comment sections filling up with obligatory comments speculating about whether a post is AI-written. At this point I don’t care. People now write with AI. If the writing is deficient in some way, then comment on that. At least that way the “writer” can stee…

It has become an even more pernicious form of the old grammar nazi.

At least the grammar nazi was performing a type of service.

The LLM nazi is adding absolutely nothing.

Re: How to Follow a Drummer

#37
post #23
post #2

[flagged]

I’m curious if you compared this against Ableton’s “Tempo Follower” and had any algorithmic (or subjective) observations.

i've heard of it but never actually used it, so i can't really compare properly.

my inspiration was actually this jojo mayer video: https://youtu.be/URkxEAvavhw?t=248

My drummer half thought it would be fun so we decided to create DrumMate, and it ended up too good not to share.

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