Jazz rap: before and after
You said Jazz rap should be jazz music with rap drums and a warm synth bass, on pianos, keys and jazz instruments, nothing cheesy. Until today it took every kit and every bass from the jazz side: a brushed snare and an upright or bass guitar in 100 tracks of 100.
What changed
| Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|
| Drums | Four jazz kits: an open jazz kick and a brushed snare in every track | Four rap kits made for this style: a dusty or punchy kick, a fat, tight or crushed snare, tight or foot hats. A quiet ride is kept behind them for colour |
| Who keeps time | The ride played more than the hats in 45 bars of 100 | The hats keep time. The ride plays more in 2 bars of 100, and those are bars where Auto has muted the hats for a moment |
| Bass | Fretless, fingered or upright bass. A synth bass in 0 tracks of 100 | Four warm synth basses, all among the softest at the top of the 84 in the library: Velvet, Pillow, Triangle sub, Click sub. The upright is gone from this style |
| Chords | Any of eight keyboards, bright ones among them (Reed piano most often, Glass keys too) | Electric piano, Felt piano, Dream piano, Grand piano, Vibraphone, Tremolo keys |
| Top line | Fourteen sounds, with Bright piano, Glass keys, Marimba and Clarinet among them | Alto flute, Solo flute, Soft sax, Muted trumpet, Vibraphone, Electric piano, Dream piano, Grand piano |
| Kept as it was | The speed (84 to 98), the swing, the chords, the bass lines and the kick and snare patterns | |
Taken out of Jazz rap as out of place: Glass keys, Bright piano, Tine piano, Reed piano, Marimba and Clarinet. That marking is by measure (the brightest ones), not by ear. Say if one of them should come back, or if another should go.
Your track, Cipher Nights
As you heard it
The 8 bars up to your tap, played back from the note you sent.
Chords on the Electric piano and the upright bass from bar 1, the brushed kit from bar 5. The top line was silent for all 8 bars.
The same 8 bars with every part in
The notes are the same in all three. Only the kit, the bass and the keyboards differ. The first pair is the clear one: listen to the drums and the bass. The third differs from the second only in the top line.
Late set kit (brushed snare), Upright bass, top line on the Country piano
Jazz rap knock kit, Pillow bass. The drums read 6 dB further forward than the brushed kit. Top line still on the Country piano
The same again with the top line on the Electric piano
Two more Jazz rap tracks
The first 40 seconds of two tracks Auto writes from the same starting number, on the copy before and the copy that is live. I picked these two because their beats were the ones where the ride used to carry the time. The notes are not the same before and after here: a new list of sounds changes what the dice land on.
Track one, the Stroll beat at 86
Dusty jazz kit, Fingered bass, chords on the Felt piano, Soft sax on top
Jazz rap dusty kit, Triangle sub, chords on the Felt piano, Soft sax on top
Track two, the Midnight beat at 84
Brushes kit, Fretless bass (it comes in part way through), chords on the Reed piano
Jazz rap knock kit, Click sub (it comes in part way through), chords on the Dream piano
How far the fix reached
Your note was read as one example of a fault: a mixed style that takes its drums and its bass from only one of its two parents. The same count was made for the other mixed styles, 100 tracks each.
| Style | What the count found | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| Jazz rap | A brushed snare in 100 of 100, no synth bass in any | Mended, live now |
| Hip hop and boom bap | A brushed snare kit in 27 of 100 | Next, as its own small piece |
| Lo fi | A brushed snare kit in 52 of 100 | Raised, with another builder |
| Trip hop | A brushed snare kit in 17 of 100 | Counted and left alone for now |
| Jazz house, Acid jazz, Deep house | Drums and bass from both parents | Nothing to mend |
| Every style, after a country track | The country band stayed on the parts in 50 starts of 50 | Next, as its own piece |
One saved song changes: your kept copy of Cipher Nights plays five of its 30 bars (25 to 27, 29 and 30) with the hats and the ride changed over, on its old kit. No other saved song is touched, and every other style plays note for note as before.