LyMaker

Version 0.3

Another important track is the drum line. It can be controlled by the parameter drummode:

• 0 (offbeat) = a random drum line consisting of snare, high-hat and bass drum. It uses a lot of high-hat. Basically, the bass drum can play between the downbeats and the upbeats and the snare in the rest of the bar. The high-hat can play throughout. The last sixteenth before a downbeat is always played by the bass drum.

• 1 (offbeat)= like 0 but with less high-hat use.

• 0,1,4 (onbeat) = backbeat¹ as used in rock music (in 4/4 times). More generally speaking, it generates a drum line with bass drum on the downbeats and snare on the upbeats. The high-hats are only playing on the downbeats and between the downbeat and the upbeat (Charlie Watts's style).

• 2 = high-hat only.

• 3 = same as 0 but without bass drum.

• 4 (offbeat) - same as 0 but with funky feel, no snare on the first upbeat. Snare is shifted to the second downbeat instead and plays there together with the bass drum.

• 5 = drumpattern. A pattern is created according to the downbeats of the song. Arguably, you wouldn't need a generator to do this but it is there for completeness. Onbeat drumlines are not the preferred output from this program. The program is really designed to produce random drum- and basslines.

• 99 mutes the drums.

The drum line is always treated as a grid of 16th notes by the generator. It has a lower voice for the snare and the bass drum and a upper voice for the high-hats. This is done for convenience. You might decide to use only cymbals in one part while working on the lilypond source. The decision not to use a bass drum is a more general decision on the other hand.