Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
'Drumless' composition. Do you do it? What's your process?
I pretty much use a 4 on the floor basic drum pattern to get me started when noodling, but I'd like to have a go at creating 'drumless' instrumentals.
I imagine the main aim is to use 'percussive' synth lines ala Berlin School, but do you have any tips before I dive in?
Any examples?
I got some credit on my Bandcamp a/c so if you create music this way, share a link and I'll take a listen. 
Cheers
Comments
If I were to do it I would use a very faint drum track with a groove I like as a click track then mute it at the end. Boom!
Metronome works well, have the volume on it very low.
This is an interesting question, as most of my work starts with atmosphere and subtle melodies...i always add drums/percussive elements at the end for some reason...if i add them at all.
I’ve recently been on a bit of a binge with Electribe Wave, and i think a majority of my tracks are drumless...though there are definitely some percussive arps/elements in there.
I guess i always start from the perspective of a feeling or mood that I’m going for and just allow it to evolve over time. Most of my stuff is improvisational so i may not be the right type of person to ask about constructing a proper composition.
You can hear stuff here specifically if interested...it will either be your cup of tea or not 🤓🤪
Sample track
Playlist:
https://soundcloud.com/policarpo-wood/sets/korg-electribe-wave
@echoopera Funnily enough, I was checking out some of your stuff today and is the partly reason for my post. I was interested in yours and others approach to starting a track like these.
I'm usually attracted to writing catchy/melodic poppy type tunes. Wanting to indulge in something more ambient/ atmospheric but I'm addicted to a 4/4 bass & snare drum start and trying to ween myself off.
Love this guy's work too...
Ehsan Gelsi... This album is great. A few tracks with live drums but majority without. Think he used the OB-6 a lot on it too. It's so good!
https://eeeeee.bandcamp.com/album/a-very-long-week
Interesting question - I could only find one of my tracks that has no drums, which was done as a demo of Quanta sounds I had made rather than a complete track. I often have the drums coming in part way through a song though, it gives a real kick (pun intended!) when they come in. Here is the Quanta track.
Drumless with a pulse I use an arp or sequencer
Often I just like to play with no click/rhythm to guide me.
@SpookyZoo too cool. Glad i could help spawn a new exploration for you.
@SpookyZoo there are few drums in the back end of the mind. Write a memory down, preferably something unpleasant and slow. Illustrate it with noise.
Just get a nice arp going and have fun shaping the sound as it handles the notes and inherent rhythm for you. Don't be afraid to use explorations like this to play with extreme tempos too. Often not having the obvious drums present means you can crank things really high or low and get unexpected textures that still sound very musical and interesting.
Here's my last go at doing something like this:
Went to watch the video on YouTube and found that I had already given it a thumbs up!
So you’re using the onboard apps/sequences there as there’s no midi connection. Is that an arp that you programmed and saved into a patch previously?
Good stuff.
Ha, good point.
Unpleasant memory huh? I guess that’s the Major key out of the window then.
Cool. Still interested in hearing examples of these as the process of starting the track drumless is on topic. Throw up another link, cheers.
Sounds good. Do you have anything up on Soundcloud/Bandcamp?
Here are a couple that have drums coming in part way through. As has been mentioned, you can use the metronome up to that point to keep things in time (if indeed that is what you want) or some other rhythmic but non-drum track.
Good stuff. I forgot how lovely that DrumJam Hang sounds!
I rarely use drums when jamming (mostly because I'm to lazy to program patterns), often there sequences going but at times I can't even manage that and just hop from synth to synth improvising, using hold pedals, long delays, reverbs etc.. to keep things going while switching instruments.
You probably can't see that much but heres one of those
Bit jealous of those beautiful synths! Nice job.
Personally I found getting away from a step sequencer helped me go drumless on some more soundscapey ambient tracks. My top two apps for that would be SoundScaper and SpaceCraft.
Sometimes I’ll still make another mix with with beats anyways because I can’t resist, especially since SpaceCraft added bpm sync.
piano with various effects. mostly delays (prefer Dahlia, RE-1, Zero Reverb and F16 Filter) lot of looping, over dubbing. Kronecker is a good starting place for rhythmic patches minus drums for me as well. Spacecraft is also a safe bet. another go to for me is any synth sustained with perferator or envolver.
i dj also so a lot of the time when im producing its sans drums and more about experimentation and improv. no quantization, or grids.
Dahlia has a fantastic warble parameter that really makes piano really interesting.
Unless it is very droney, I pretty well want something making the groove clear whether there will be drums or not. (By "groove" I mean a more complex and variable pattern of beats swinging forward or back) I rarely write anything that is strictly simple even sized beats. Even if it is more 'ambient' I probably want some accents on the beats to adhere to the groove template.
So often, I put a guitar track down, simply because that is my main instrument. I might remove it later.
Yeah, I pre-program randomish arps into all my default presets on the OB. That way I can just grab it and start having fun shaping sound without having to worry about needing a midi controller or external sequencer.
V.Cool. Enviable gear too!
Some really interesting replies here. Thanks for posting everyone.
Cool playlist. Some lovely tracks on there.
Echo effects are a good way to get a pulse going without it sounding too obvious and you can play slightly early or late and it will adjust to you.
Or you can just play to your own internal rhythm, it’s not too hard with slow or ambient leaning stuff. Any glaring timing errors in overdubs can be adjusted in the DAW.
It’s actually quite hard to play music without subconciously creating some sort of pulse.
This was recorded free of any kind of rhythmic influence, click, etc, other than a bit of delay. I just played along to the recorded SpaceCraft improv whenever it felt good to do so and added other parts in the same way.
https://choon.co/tracks/0l7ic9az6sh/forest-of-rusting-spires/
The only important point to remember is not to use repeating rhythmic percussion patterns...
Most of my tracks start with a drum track, really just to keep things in time, but usually end up staying on the finished song. This one though, I edited out the drums (plus the arp in the first half, though it all comes back in at the end) in the final mix. Some of my ambient tracks were rockers to start with, but have the drum and bass turned down to zero. Sounds weird, but it keeps it all together:
https://horsegas.bandcamp.com/track/gossamer-wings
i always start with a beat and end up fussing with it till it is claustrophobic and cluttered. i like the idea of rhythm with no percussion. i do love the ear candy side of soft tones and bass as a beat.
This is great stuff man !!!! I wanna follow your work on Instagram if you're in there, I think I found ya but only shows one post
I do a lot without drums, but I can't go to long without them, I need those beats here are there, even if they are obscure, to keep me awake...or some kinda percussive / arp to keep it moving...i love very slow tempo music and that's what I create...
I usually start with a pad and get a 8 to 16 bar loop going with it, making sure it loops without being obvious, delay / reverb automation on the tail of the loop can help with that if needed...
Then I start to layer on top of that loop and often keep making it longer as the track evolves, then go back to the original pad loop and add automation, mutes etc
Start with something you're feeling and layer it up !
Or like mentioned, create the track with drums then just mute em out at the end hehe