Electronic musicians have an exciting new tech tool at their fingertips. Created by former Serato CEO Sam Gribben, MELODICS is a new product developed in partnership with iconic artists to teach DJs, producers and musicians the art of pad drumming. “Melodics is part game, part beatmaking software,” says Gribben.
“It’s a fun and addictive app that adapts to your abilities and musical taste to help you get better at pad drumming, faster.” If you’re a fan of electronically-flavoured music, you’ll likely be familiar with the concept of pad drumming, which is also known as finger drumming or cue point drumming. It has become an essential tool for DJs, producers, beatmakers and musicians — in the studio and on stage.
And drum pads are used by everyone from indie-electro band CHVRCHES to pad-drum protege and member of The Roots, Jeremy Ellis. Yet pad drumming is hard to learn, and even harder to perfect. Gribben says Melodics changes all that by taking the musician through step-by-step lessons, starting with simple patterns and building up to more complex structures.
Many of these lessons have been created by industry icons such as Gaslamp Killer and DJ Jazzy Jeff. “The real beauty of Melodics is that it listens to how you play, and gives you instant visual feedback on your timing and accuracy. It also learns as you play, and after going through some of the basics, it suggests lessons to help hone your talents further,” says Gribben.
Grammy winner DJ Jazzy Jeff is working on turning some exclusive tracks into lessons. “Melodics is really dope!” he says. “It’s a cool way to learn to play beats and a great way to sharpen your skills.”
Even the pros are using Melodics to practice. World renowned DJ and producer Gaslamp Killer is going to use Melodics to help him prepare for live shows. “There are parts of my sets that I really want to add cue drumming to,” he says. “But I need to practice in the studio before I’m ready to bring it live. Melodics is such a great way to train.”
As well as Gaslamp Killer and DJ Jazzy Jeff, Melodics is working with a number of other wellknown artists to create lessons, meaning you can learn to play tracks from the likes of Nick Hook, Mark de Clive-Lowe and Jeremy Ellis.
“My family has been teaching and performing music for 100 years, and the idea of continuing that lineage into modern technology has always been a part of what moves me,” says Ellis. “Melodics is a fantastic format for artists and teachers to create amazing lessons that actually feel like games. I can’t wait to get to work making a course for these guys!”
Melodics has teamed up with manufacturers of many of the major brands of pad controllers, and will soon be offering additional exclusive content to owners of select controllers from Ableton, Akai, Korg, Novation, Numark, Pioneer DJ and more.
“Melodics is an amazing product for people who own Push,” says Gerhard Behles, CEO of Ableton. “If you want to really develop your ability to play beats, bass lines and melodies with Push, Melodics is a great way to practice. Musicians know that practice is the key to success, and the magic of Melodics is that you can get lost in it, you’re practicing without even thinking about it. We’re very excited to be in partnership with Melodics.”
For a full list of supported devices, visit www.melodics.com. This list will be continuously added to, and mappings for new hardware can be added manually.