ryangruss.com

Well, not for good… but for the next week I’ll be spending the majority of my time sitting here and drinking this. Don’t look for any new loops to be posted on this site, but for some highly insightful, tequila-fueled rants and observations, be sure to keep up with me over on Twitter.

Loop #125

As I pack my bags (and 30 SPF sunblock), I leave you with a loop inspired by this guy:

Funky hair. Funkier Beatz.

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104 BPM

It’s another cold and snowy day in Boston. I love living in New England because I really get to experience all four seasons, but I also hate this time of year. Three months into winter, late February is when I usually start perusing various travel websites, looking for an escape from the daily routine of scraping ice off of my windshield.

I have a rather vivid imagination, so rather than dropping a few grand on a trip to the Caribbean, sometimes I’ll just crank up the heat in my studio to about 95°F, crack open a few Coronas, and play some grooves indigenous to tropical regions. Reggae, calypso, samba… anything to feel like I’m within a 500 mile radius of the equator. My wife doesn’t seem to agree that this is the same as lounging around in a beach chair, somewhere on a white sandy beach. My response to this is usually a snap of the fingers, and a request for more guacamole.

Traditional Soca Dancing - Thanks Google Images!

Loop #124

Today’s “take me away” groove is Soca. An offshoot of Calypso music, Soca originates from the islands of Tobago and Trinidad and is usually based around a heavy drum and percussion ostinato. Some examples of Soca grooves in popular music are Buster Poindexter’s 1987 hit, “Hot, Hot, Hot” and Kevin Lyttle’s “Turn Me On”. This particular loop is a four bar phrase consisting of just kick and snare. With an almost march-like quality, this groove makes for an ideal drum break on any Caribbean dance floor. Look for more Soca grooves in the upcoming and highly anticipated release of Gruss Loops Volume X.

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108 BPM

Such a pun-laden headline could only mean one thing: Another funk loop. And rather than picking up the sticks and burying the VU meters into the red, I decided to to go the subtle route and use brushes to lay down the back beat.

Jim Keltner - Master of brushes, forks and pens.

Loop #119

I’ll admit, I’m not breaking any new ground with today’s groove. Drummers like Steve Jordan, Jim Keltner, and even the guy from G. Love and Special Sauce have been incorporating brushes into funk and pop grooves for years. I am, however, providing you with two measures of pristinely-produced, wide open snare, right hand on the floor tom, brush-based goodness.

Enjoy.

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103 BPM

I had good intentions of recording a rather straight ahead, Gadd-esque linear drum loop. In fact, that’s pretty much what I had… before I reached for the vocoder:

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Old School Vocoder

Loop #111

With a delay set to a dotted eighth note and the EVOC 20 filter (my SIGSALY is in the shop) heavy in the mix, I give you some tripped out, space funk.

The Settings

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102 BPM

After putting my stomach and liver through “The Grinder” (aka Thanksgiving), I figured it would only be fair to do the same with my loops. Digging into some of the other new features in Logic 9, I discovered just what I was looking for: a virtual distortion pedal appropriately named “Grinder”.

Freshly Ground Beats

Loop #110

Today’s loop takes what was once a pristinely recorded, 16th note-heavy funk groove and runs it through the digital equivalent of something you’d find behind your local meat counter. Pending any FDA recalls, this loop should be safe to consume, as long as it’s stored in a cool area and cooked thoroughly before serving.

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109 BPM

Since we’re approaching the holiday season, I figured I’d get in the “giving” frame of mind by rounding up every single loop I’ve ever posted on this site and zip them up into one file for an easy and free download. So, here you go. Everything from country to zeibekiko, 60 to 300 BPM, WAV to AIFF to REX2… it’s all inside this one zip file. Just click the icon below to download:

458 MB of Gruss

Note – These don’t include the 700+ loops that I’ve recorded for my subscribers. If you’re interested in getting in on that action, just click here to sign up.

I can’t tell you how sick I am of hearing tired, canned dance beats. I don’t even like dance music. But if I have to hear it while out in public, away from the safe confines of my iPod, I might as well try to improve the quality of the drum sounds. The world has been overrun by shitty producers with their 808 samples and re-mixed Ableton Live schlock. And don’t even get me started about the kitten DJs who spin said schlock.

Stop the madness.

Loop #108

How does one try to come up with fresh sounding dance loops? Start with something that sounds nothing like a cliché electronica beat. In this case, it’s using brushes to lay down the groove. Chopped up with a touch of gating, peppered with some growly floor toms and sautéd in some extra trashy hi hats, I give you my first dance loop intended to make this genre a little more palatable (especially when served alongside a $14 gin and tonic made by someone like this).

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118 BPM

Loop #94

No trip to Home Depot would be complete without purchasing a big, orange bucket. And no drummer would ever begin using said bucket for its intended purpose until turning it over and playing “Wipe Out” for 10 minutes straight. Instead of filling it full of joint compound and skim coating my dining room walls, I took the bucket into my studio and mic’d it up for some loops.

With a Shure Beta 52A underneath to capture the low end, a Rode NT5 overhead to capture the attack, and one very frustrated wife, I spent the next hour recording a variety of bucket grooves, ranging from samba to hip hop.

Bucket Mic'ing 101

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103 BPM

Loop #89

I’m not done with the cowbell grooves. Like I mentioned before, I think it’s time to bring one of my favorite percussive accessories back into the limelight. Rather than go the straight quarter note, “Don’t Fear the Reaper” route, I’ve went ahead and approached it from a polyrhythmic angle. In this case, a 3 against 4 phrasing over the course of a four bar groove (not to be confused with a hemiola).

To make such an academic rhythm accessible to the masses, I overdubbed some sixteenth note shaker to help keep things flowing on the dance floor. What good is a dance beat if it doesn’t make you want to grind up against a drunken stranger?

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100 BPM

All day long, I’ve been reading news articles and blogs about the untimely death of legendary movie director and writer, John Hughes. Rather than write my own post about how much his movies influenced my early life (along with my entire generation), I decided to honor him musically.

The Donger need loops

Loop #87

I can’t think of a more fitting tribute to the man responsible for movies such as Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club than some full on 80’s loops. In order to achieve this classic, Reagan-era drum sound, I decided to go for a heavily gated-reverb effect on both the kick and snare. I also drank an entire case of New Coke during the recording session. Throw in some Simple Minds, Mel Gaynor type patterns and you’ve got yourself a soundtrack to a party that could only end like this:

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106 BPM