MIDI Drums

earlessdog · 10-25-2009, 01:17 PM

Cn someone enlighten me? Is this something you can just download from the internet that has a bunch of drum tracks you can put in your recordings?
If thats what it is, can you take pieces of different drum tracks and put them together to switch up the drumming in the song?
If someone has a link to free ones, or affordable ones that have fast punk tracks, that would be ideal.

Thanks

earlessdog · 10-25-2009, 01:26 PM

I was just looking on some other forums and I found a link to this program.
Submersible Music DrumCore 3 Synthtopia
It looks like a good one, and it's compatible with garageband. On that demo page, it shows that there are some punk options there.
Does anyone think this would be a good program to purchase?

**Gustin** · 10-26-2009, 03:48 PM

Not totally sure exactly what you're looking for, so I'll give a brief overview of drum loops, midi, and drum synths.

There are three main ways to get a drum sound into a song without having a live drummer play...

The first way is with a drum loop. This is a short piece of audio that you use to loop over and over again. Usually an audio drum loop will come in a set with a couple other loops of the same type for different parts of the song (for instance, a more complex verse loop, a straightforward one for the chorus, and a breakdown for a bridge or ending or something). Example: Groove Rock Drum Loops by Jim Dooley.

Next is with MIDI. MIDI is simply "note-on/off" information. You need a virtual instrument to hear anything from a midi track. For drums you have two options, a synth (where the drum sounds are created inside the program a little more on this in the next section) and a sampler (where the drum sounds are pieces of single hit audio clips). The midi note for a certain track will trigger a corresponding sound. with this, you can program simple loops, or full tracks. This gives you more flexibility than an audio loop as you can add variation and fills as well as changing the sound for sections pretty easily.

The final way sorta overlaps the others.. it uses a drum synth to not only play the sounds, but also easily program midi loops. It allows you to program midi patterns in a step sequencer. You simply would select the kick channel in the synth, and decide where you would want it to hit.. check out this screenshot of a drum synth... ( Sonic Charge - µTonic close-up ). The top portion allows you to program the specific sounds, and the bottom portion allows you to select which hits in a 4 bar measure the drum hits (in that screen shot, the sound triggers on the 1st and 3rd beat of every measure).

Hope this helped clear it up a little.. if not, please respond with some additional questions and I'll gladly help out.

***BillSPrestonEsq*** · 01-20-2010, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gustin

Not totally sure exactly what you're looking for, so I'll give a brief overview of drum loops, midi, and drum synths.

There are three main ways to get a drum sound into a song without having a live drummer play...

The first way is with a drum loop. This is a short piece of audio that you use to loop over and over again. Usually an audio drum loop will come in a set with a couple other loops of the same type for different parts of the song (for instance, a more complex verse loop, a straightforward one for the chorus, and a breakdown for a bridge or ending or something). Example: Groove Rock Drum Loops by Jim Dooley.

Next is with MIDI. MIDI is simply "note-on/off" information. You need a virtual instrument to hear anything from a midi track. For drums you have two options, a synth (where the drum sounds are created inside the program a little more on this in the next section) and a sampler (where the drum sounds are pieces of single hit audio clips). The midi note for a certain track will trigger a corresponding sound. with this, you can program simple loops, or full tracks. This gives you more flexibility than an audio loop as you can add variation and fills as well as changing the sound for sections pretty easily.

The final way sorta overlaps the others.. it uses a drum synth to not only play the sounds, but also easily program midi loops. It allows you to program midi patterns in a step sequencer. You simply would select the kick channel in the synth, and decide where you would want it to hit.. check out this screenshot of a drum synth... ( Sonic Charge - µTonic close-up ). The top portion allows you to program the specific sounds, and the bottom portion allows you to select which hits in a 4 bar measure the drum hits (in that screen shot, the sound triggers on the 1st and 3rd beat of every measure).

Hope this helped clear it up a little.. if not, please respond with some additional questions and I'll gladly help out.

Adobe audition is my usual DAW. I have used loops, but the lack of flexibility has really gotten me. The drum synth seems like the way I would prefer.

Any reccomended drum synths?

**Skeeter** · 01-20-2010, 07:07 PM

I used the extremely basic LM-7 that came packed with my limited version of Cubase on all of my Hooray for Gooba! recordings. I was able to get pretty good results out of it, helped by the awesomeness of Cubase's MIDI editor.

Demon_Hunter · 01-20-2010, 07:14 PM

Alot of people use the products sold by Toontrack music.

The Easy Drummer and Superior Drummer 2.0 are really really excellent midi drummers.

Right now Im using Easy Drummer, and Ive just barely started to scratch the surface of it. [/spam]

*edit*

I dont know about free, but Easy Drummer isnt too expensive. It can sometimes be had for around 100 - 150 bucks (got mine on sale from GC for 100 bucks around Christmas time, and the DFH expansion pack for about 40 bucks). Also, its recommended by the producers that you also purchase their drum tracking software which will allow you to do slightly more advanced editing of your midi drums than just copying and pasting drum grooves into a track.[/morespam]

**Gustin** · 01-20-2010, 09:48 PM

Toontracks EZDummer, and FXPansion's BFD will probably be the easiest to use and set up and they both have a record of being pretty awesome (BFD is about twice the cost of EZDrummer though, and I don't think it would be worth it in my opinion).

Native Instrument's Battery can be had for around the same price as EZDrummer and has some pretty great sounds in it as well

fendeanson · 01-21-2010, 07:57 AM

If you could somehow get your hands on a version of Ableton Live Lite, it would be very easy to take pieces of drum clips and rearrange them. Here's a video on how to do it if you can get it.

http://downloads.ableton.com/movies/creating_beats.mov

LC7rock · 01-21-2010, 09:18 AM

When it comes to free MIDI drum stuff DSK stuff is pretty good. Though I will warn you it eats up your cpu like crazy. So you can't use much else with it. DSK DrumZ AkoustiK is probably what you're looking for. It's okay, but EZ drummer is WAY better, and if you have $100 to spend on it you might as well. If you use Reason 4.0 you can get Reason Drums 2.0, I used a demo of it and loved it!

If you're looking to do electronic music (like hip-hop, techno, electronica, dance, etc.) then DrumZ MachineZ is perfect. Their stuff sounds exactly like most famous drum machines (808's 909's etc.).

**tenwatt** · 03-23-2010, 09:03 AM

EZ Drummer vs. FXpansion BFD vs. Reason 4.0 (w/ Drum Kits)

Does anyone have experience with all three? I have Reason 4.0 with the Drum Kits expasion pack and the Death Cab drum kits expansion but I'm wondering if these are really most diverse and easist to use midi drums out there. What's the best (of these three) when it comes to ease of use and sound?