After the ticky doings of Explode/Implode comes something much more fun. The process I call Rhythm Mouth is the fastest, most intuitive way I've found to add fills, flourishes and percolation to static beat tracks when working almost exclusively in the realm of digital edits.

I use an inexpensive Plantronics USB mic/headset combo and let the track I'm working on run while I literally mouth bits and pieces of rhythm and record it to a new take.

While processed vocal rhythms can sound incredibly strange, especially when layered with more regular percussion, the new "mouth" track is mainly a guide for aligning existing drum sounds. Rather than try to capture ideas two or three steps beyond the generating machine in my head, I'm cutting out as many middlemen as possible. Brain to tongue to audio, the question becomes "Which existing rhythm sound should I replace these mouth parts with, to best perform these fill patterns?" Since the tracks of musician-speak are not meant for actual production, I can use this process anywhere without worrying about sound quality.

Bonus: the looks on faces as people pass while I'm beat-boxing into my laptop.

Related: Explode/Implode, Make Sense, Event Horizon(tal)