Why do I NEED Drum Maps for working on drums in PRV inside SONAR ?

Hey gang.
Excuse what may be a basic question, but after looking thru my books on SONAR and scanning the Forum I can't find an exact answer for this question.
In the past I have always recorded real drummers recording audio,  or programmed standalone drum machines like the Yamaha RY30.

I have never worked with drum software like EZ Drummer, BFD Eco and MIDI programming inside PRV.

I keep hearing about DRUM MAPS, but I am not clear on why I really need these.

From my drumming software I can route the various instruments to different channels for processing.
Inside PRV where you normally just see a piano keyboard on the left, you have the option to right click and have Sonar show alternate note names.

I have done this and selected one of the General Drum MIDI and this changes the piano keys on the left to names of drums like ......... Snare, Bass, Tom Hi, Tom Mid, Crash 1, Crash 2, etc.....

These correspond perfectly with the "notes" being sent from the drum software.
And this also allows me to easily work across the measures either step programming the songs (and/or drag and dropping midi grooves and editing them).

So my question is ........ what does a DRUM MAP do for me that I am missing ?

Thanks

You don't NEED a drum map, but they do provide the odd function that is impossible or harder to achieve other ways.

For example one thing I use them for is to mute and solo individual drums from my external drum machines. It's just easier to do that, especially on the fly, via a drum map.

Thanks for the feedback gang.

Yes, I just went in and pulled up a simple Drum map (I used Session Drummer 2).

I now see the biggest advantage in my mind .......  it reduces the PRV down to only the instruments you have available via that Drum Kit which makes it MUCH easier to work on "step by step" programming drum patterns.

Kind of like programming the older drum machines in this PRV view (with Map).

So instead of seeing (and ignoring) dozens of default MIDI assignments that are not being used by your Drum software ........ you see just the 26 or so instruments you are really working with in your selected drum kit

You can zoom to have your full drum kit visible on the page at one time.

There may be other benefits -- but this is enough to make me happy since I have drumming experience and years of step by step drum machine programming experience under my belt.

So after building the STRUCTURE of the song with the "Drag and Drop" features of something like EZDRUMMER or BFD ECO,    it is now easier to go in and make the changes to the various "patterns" (groove clips) and Fills as needed to fit the song properly.

I am leaning towards either ........

Toontracks EZDRUMMER with the Drums From Hell expansion pack.

or

Fxpansion  BFD ECO

I write and record primarily rock and hard rock, so I don't need 300+ drum sounds ............... just 2-3 good realistic sounding classic acoustic drum kits like ....

DW Drums
Pearl Signature
Yamaha Maple

BFD2 is awesome. Worth every penny. As you've noted, even the Eco version is very impressive. The full thing is astounding, and once you get to grips with how to use it well, you can get fantastic results. I've been asked who the drummer was and could I pass on his number on stuff I made with BFD.

Myself, I'd always rather have a real drummer recorded in a good room whenever I can. But BFD beats the hell out of most other compromises you could make, AND gives the real drummer in a good room a serious run for their money.

I've only dabbled with EZDrumer, so can't really compare the two.

However, regarding cymbals and hi hats in BFD2, I think they're excellent. There are two factors at play here; partly they're just very well recorded. The other factor is that BFD has excellent mixing capabilities, whether you use the internal mixer, or whether you route each virtual mic (including direct, room, overheads and ambient mics) out to your DAW. You can even set amounts of bleed between the mics, which can really glue things together.

I find that BFD, mixing-wise, is almost exactly like mixing a real drum kit, and almost entirely unlike mixing a bunch of samples.If you're at all used to messing with real kit recordings to get them sounding smooth and agreeable, you'll be right at home.

I just installed BFD ECO
I was able to get everything to work EXCEPT  Drum Map
None of the existing drum maps work for BFD Eco Dry DW Kit

They have all types of BFD2 drum maps, but when I try them I lose all sound ----- so apparently the full BFD2 is mapped different than BFD Eco

Any ideas
Thanks

Mike,
 You probably need to set the output ports for your the maps that aren't making sound.

 Look at the bottom of this page in the Drum Map Manager section:

 http://www.harmoniccycle....13-drum_maps_SONAR.htm

 best regards,
mike

You can also use the same, single drum map to control more than one drum synth, if you're that way inclined.

John
Old thread alert!

Haha yes!  I was looking up stuff on Drum Maps and felt the need to add my 2 cents lol.  
 
And they STILL haven't improved drum maps :(