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Subject:Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Posted by: [r]Evolution
Date:4/12/2006 4:54:56 PM

What do you guys use to make your Drum Beats?
Orion? Guru? Reason? What?

Do you usually ReWire or Make/Render your Beats?

Do you route each Kit item to a different track?
ie... Kick to T1 - Snare to T2 - Tom to T3 - etc

Or do you usually just use Acid Loops?


Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: SHTUNOT
Date:4/12/2006 5:08:36 PM

BFD 1.5.39
BFD XFL...Deluxe packs
Maudio Trigger finger.
Groove monkey grooves.
Bfd groups usually used.
Reason 3.0 rewired more for the orchestral "strings" refill which I love.
With the MM working so well I can access loops as fast as I can type their name. I'll never get sick of loops.

I'm experimenting with Ni absynth 3 right now with ways of creating a "beat". The tutorial DvD is coming in next week.I'll dig deeper when I wrap my head around all these options. Really cool stuff.

Ed.

Message last edited on4/12/2006 5:09:14 PM bySHTUNOT.
Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: GLYPTICminority
Date:4/13/2006 7:12:41 AM

Used to do it that way, render my own. Now I use Battery a lot. It's easier to make big changes in midi vs. one hit sample tracks.

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: zendar
Date:4/14/2006 5:14:08 AM

mpc60/sp1200

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:4/14/2006 5:25:34 AM

I just use ACID Loops. That is primarily what drove me to ACID in the first place. I was making beats with a drum machine and then later with MIDI and they sounded like a non-drummer trying to make drum beats. ;-) ACID Loops gives me the nuances that only a real drummer playing real drums can give.

Right now SmartLoops Pro Drum Works Volume I is my main “go to” drum kit. I haven’t picked up volume II yet but I’m sure they are awesome as well.

I guess it depends on the style of music you do. I do mostly rock so live drums are mandatory. If you do dance music I’d say a drum machine is mandatory. So it all depends on what you’re doing.

~jr

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: spinweb
Date:4/14/2006 6:51:25 AM

<<Right now SmartLoops Pro Drum Works Volume I is my main “go to” drum kit.>>

Do you have a link to this handy?

:)

Rick

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: GLYPTICminority
Date:4/14/2006 7:12:31 AM

I guess JohnnyRoy has a good point about drum programming. I have several years experience as a drummer, so programming my own drums came natural. If you don't have that ability, then loops are the way to go.

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: drbam
Date:4/14/2006 7:30:43 AM

"I have several years experience as a drummer, so programming my own drums came natural. If you don't have that ability, then loops are the way to go."

LOL!! I also have "several" years of experience as a drummer (lets say more than 40), and I can't think of anything that's more UN-natural for me than programming! So this leads me to conclude that some other part of the brain is responsible for the programming ease than the "drumming part." Either that, or mine simply got left out at birth!

drbam

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: thenoizzbox
Date:4/14/2006 9:33:38 AM

When i started playing music (I won't say how long ago... ;-) I played both guitar and drums for 6 or 7 years then concentrated on guitar. I also prefer to program my own drums even if the process is rather tedious because loops are never exactly what I want. I use loops to beef up programmed drums and for effects but rarely as the primary rytnmic element.

I'm always looking for good drum kit samples (I usually use SoundFonts) and trigger them with sfz (the free version for now). In Sonar 4 PE I usually had the whole kit on one track but with Acid Pro 6 I can now separate the kick, snare and the rest of the kit on three different busses which sounds a lot better. Acid can deal with that without a hitch on my aging computer while Sonar would stutter, pop and crackle a lot of the times.

The main SoundFont I use is Sonic Implants' "Blue Jay Small Ambient II" kit which sounds very natural. I have to EQ the kick rather heavily as it lacks a little bottom end (there are two different kits in the soundfont actually) but it works well for my purposes.

As for programming the actual MIDI tracks, I'm now experimenting with a process that mixes directly entering hits on the timeline and playing certain parts on my controller keyboard. I sometimes also use my trusty old Boss DR-5 to program whole songs and record the whole thing in real time. That should work even better in AP6 than it did in Sonar. I like the DR-5 because I'm used to it and it works in patterns. In my former band it was my primary tool for sketching songs and it even became our drummer for a while at the end when the band dwindled down to me, the keyboard player and the singer. Now that I work alone it serves as a drums/bass sketching pad from which I get the raw material (Midi tracks). It really sounds like crap by today's standards but I don't use its sonic output anymore so I don't care about that.

So to sum it up, using Midi tracks triggering sfz and drums SoundFonts works great for me and gives me more natural sounding drum tracks, even when heavily quantized. I'll start experimenting with Grooves and see how that works for me too.

Message last edited on4/14/2006 9:38:15 AM bythenoizzbox.
Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:4/14/2006 11:17:15 AM

> Do you have a link to this handy?

Sure Rick, Smart Loops Pro Drum Works. They now sell the kits separately. So you can buy the Acoustic kit of volumes I & II (1.84GB download!) for only $89. That’s a great deal for 6000+ loops. Or you can get just the Acoustic Kit for Volume I for $49.

~jr

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: Weevil
Date:4/14/2006 2:25:37 PM

BFD Deluxe is superb. Very, very hard to beat if you are after real sounding drums.

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: Laurence
Date:4/15/2006 2:51:32 AM

I have no problem programming drums, but getting natural hihat and ride cymbals programmed without using loops is pretty much impossible IMHO. A single hit sequenced just doesn't make it IMHO.

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:4/17/2006 12:41:09 PM

I use kick and snare One-shots painted on the timeline or coupled with Kompakt. I may mangle other types of percussion along in the process.

Iacobus

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Date:4/17/2006 12:53:50 PM

I use the Akai/Emu cd-rom sound library; converted to Reason NNXT format with Akai cdxtract and Translator by chickensys.
I also create my own and also use rex files/refills libraries (chemical beats, wired elements of trance etc....) and re-drum all of the drums in rex. I LOVE REX FILES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reason 3 really gives me the Mpc experience with my m-audio trigger finger and the nnxt, redrum and rex player.

It's all about the samples and how you alter them (filter, pitch, layer etc....)

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: Weevil
Date:4/17/2006 1:34:10 PM

> I have no problem programming drums, but getting natural hihat and ride cymbals programmed without using loops is pretty much impossible IMHO. A single hit sequenced just doesn't make it IMHO.

I gotta say BFD allows you to program very natural sounding hats and rides. It really is in another league when it comes to this stuff.

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: GLYPTICminority
Date:4/18/2006 7:38:22 PM

'I can't think of anything that's more UN-natural for me than programming! So this leads me to conclude that some other part of the brain is responsible for the programming ease than the "drumming part."'

Some people are more right/left brained than others. I think with the right mind and background a drummer can be incredibly effective at programming drum beats. It is sometimes easier to play the beat in my head than it is to program it. But I can get the job done either way.

Subject:RE: Drums? - Beats? - DrumMachines?
Reply by: gjn
Date:4/19/2006 12:41:00 AM

DRUM CORE IS GREAT DRUM with ACID.
http://www.drumcore.com/TemplateHome.aspx?contentId=1

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