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Saturday Night Live’s, Shawn Pelton, is back to show us how to layer ‘down n’ dirty’ drum loops in Ableton Live.

I’ve been using two snare drums in my live set-up for the past several years. Typically, I’ll use a smaller, higher pitched drum to the left of my hi hat (usually my 10″ Premier) and a bigger, fuller sounding 14″ snare as my primary drum. This gives me the option to switch up textures from song to song or within the songs themselves. For example, I might use the 10″ snare during the verse section of a song and then move to the 14″ during the chorus to help open things up.

Two snares in London.

I’m definitely not breaking any new ground with my two snare set up. This has been a technique used for years by a variety of touring drummers. Try catching Steve Jordan, Matt “butter is the magic carpet to flavour” Chamberlain or Shawn Pelton in a live setting and odds are that you’ll see more than one snare up on the drum riser.

Loop #35

Today’s loop is a twist on the double snare approach. I used my 14″ brass drum for all of the back beats while using the smaller auxiliary snare for timbale-esque fills.

Preview Here:

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Download the Logic session here. (36MB)

Get the .wav file here.

98 BPM

No loops today but here’s a tour of Shawn Pelton’s (SNL house band) home studio. This video definitely swayed me towards purchasing my M-Audio A/D converter. It also inspired me to pierce my left ear and grow some Mutton Chops.

Part 1


Part 2