On the surface, a lot of alternative rock grooves can sound seemingly basic. If you start scrutinizing them, however, you’ll realize there is a lot going on. In fact, for a genre where musical prowess often is downplayed in favor of artistic expression, there is much to be attributed to the players. Essentially, keeping it simple is hard – especially when it comes to the drums. “When researching this MIDI pack and digging through a virtually bottomless well of songs of the genre, what I realized was how much the smallest details actually add to the bigger picture.

Even though subtle, every ghost note and accent play a pivotal role in each groove. As a drummer, coming up with ideas for this package was a real eye-opener,” says drummer Paul Szlachta. The Alt-Rock Grooves MIDI pack presents a comprehensive collection of fundamental beats and fills inspired by some of the most influential artists of the genre: Nirvana, Soundgarden, PJ Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins and many others. The material is based around basic and staple-type grooves but with a clear emphasis on detail, variation and dynamics. While the dramaturgy of dynamics is vital in any kind of music, perhaps it’s most blatantly so in alternative rock. The soft-hard formula of a laid back verse leading into an explosive chorus has proven a winning concept in not many, but numerous groundbreaking tracks.

“While recording this collection of grooves, I’ve come to reevaluate my take on the profound role that the drums play in seemingly simple alt-rock compositions,” says producer Michael Sanfilipp. If you’re looking for an inspiring take on rock grooves where dynamics, detail and variation are front and center, the Alt-Rock Grooves MIDI pack is your perfect match. When and how did you realize your passion for music?

Clone the repo; $ python main_lstM_etallica.py to get generated drum track in text file; text->midi: $ python main_post_process.py - this is when you need. Aleksandr vorobjev ognennij molot 40. 460 individually played files. Anthrax, Metallica and Pantera. For the mid-to-fast: Megadeth, Fear Factory and a bit of Defleshed. We have drum MIDI.

– I realized it when I was about 5. My brother was already 5 years older and took a liking to playing guitar. So I would set up chairs and tape things to the ceiling as cymbals and beat along to the radio and him practicing. My favorite bands at the time being born in 84 and really growing up through MTV and the 90’s, were Metallica, Motley Crue, Wrathchild America, and bands like that.

How come you ended up behind the kit? – Well beating on chairs in the house my drums got bigger and bigger, to a point where I beat all the cushioning out from all the seats in the house. My father had nowhere to seat company and figured it was time for real drums.

A couple years down the road I finally got a real set. Everybody played bass and guitars, we always needed someone to play drums, and it just felt really comfortable and natural to me.

Growing up, what style did you start out aspiring to play? – I began playing 90’s rock from Damn Yankees to Pantera.

Whatever Headbangers Ball was playing is what I wanted to learn. Wrathchild America’s 3D was a really big influence to me, like I knew that record from front to back at a young age, it was almost a ritual to practice to that record. When putting this collection of grooves together, what were you trying to capture? – I was trying to capture the building blocks of those rhythm tracks in that era of music.