Drum programming for Dummies

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Mark in Albany
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2005/08/15 07:38:59 (permalink)

Drum programming for Dummies

Question, With all here about drum programs, which would be the best for someone who is a guitar player who doesn't know drum programming? Which would be easiest to compose out of the box for simplicity and ease of use?
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    slundstrom
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    RE: Drum programming for Dummies 2005/08/15 08:38:00 (permalink)
    I would start by utilizing Sonar's session drummer. It has a bunch of pre-define patterns and fills for quite a few different style. You can also download more from GrooveMonkee.com, I grab there rock package and love it (It also works with session drummer).

    Also once you apply the the session drummer to the midi track, you can view how the beats are layed out and get an idea on how drums are programmed.
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    cjstearns
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    RE: Drum programming for Dummies 2005/08/15 08:54:06 (permalink)
    I use Redrum drum machine in Reason 2.5, its fairly easy to use, and looks like a hardware drum machine (point and click on the buttons), but I mostly use the Drum map in Sonar. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that a drum machine has, but you can work your way around it.

    Cheers
    CJ
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    MysticMizer
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    RE: Drum programming for Dummies 2005/08/15 12:58:35 (permalink)
    Well there are two ways to go sans a live drummer, each has advantages and disadvantages.

    The easiest way is to use canned acidized audio loops. The advantage being it's a plug and play solution. These are typically four or eight bar live samples of a real drummer that have the ability to play in synch with the tempo. Another advantage is that loops tend to give the song a much more "human" feel. The downside is WYHIWYG. You really cant get under the hood and do any tweaking, other tha perhaps some fancy loop slicing. The other downside is sometimes there are royalty issues with canned loops.

    Midi loops offer the advantage of being able to tweak every minute detail of the drums, from velocity, volume, pitch..etc. The advantage of midi loops is maximum flexibility. The downside is midi loops are higher maintenance, especially if you are building them from scratch.

    For what just might be the best of both worlds I'd take a look at BFD. The drums are incredibly realistic sounding...and it's midi based. You can even adjust the microphone placement for each drum.

    Another program you might want to look at is Cakewalk Project 5. This unique program has something called a "Groove Matrix" and actually allows you to layer midi loops over acid loops just by dropping the patterns into cells.

    Both programs are "Re-wire" ready (although you can use BFD as a DXI or VST)

    BFD is pricey $299 but if you are looking for realistic sounding acoustic drums you can't go wrong with it.

    P5 offers a lot more flexibility at a lower price...plus you get a host of other goodies at a little over half the price of BFD.











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    Leighton
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    RE: Drum programming for Dummies 2005/08/15 13:14:07 (permalink)
    Download the free demo of Jamstix by Rayzoon Technologies. It's a really cool program and you don't have to program drums unless you want to. Click here for the link.


    http://myspace.com/suspiciouspackage
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