MIDI - 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc. Notes

adam79

New member
I've been messing around with replacing kick recording with kick samples from the XPand 2 plugin in Pro Tools. I've noticed that you can choose between 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, etc. notes when adding the sample. What's the difference between these note types (I don't have much music theory)? I've been using thre 1/8th notes for my kick samples, just because a guy in a tutorial video I watched chose 1/8th notes , although he was replacing snare samples. Some of my kick beats/patterns are right on top of eachother. Should I be making the intitial kick a 1/16 note and leaving the second kick 1/8th (on the patterns that are on top of eachother)? Thanks.
 
Hi,
Do you mean the duration of the note you're drawing in?
If the sample is shorter than the duration of a 16th note, which is most likely is, then the duration of note you choose has no impact other than the potential visual overlap you mentioned.

If you were working with a cymbal sample or something with a longer duration then you'd have to use a note duration long enough to see the sample out.
 
I was going to explain, but I really can't do it justice.

I suggest looking up time signatures and divisions.

Mainly for drums, the time divisions, 1/4, 1/8, 16th are when you want the drum to hit relative to the beat for one. Second how many times do you want it to hit during a measure (in this case, 4/4 mean one measure is 4 beats, each beat on the quarter. 1,2,3,4 is the beat, foot hits the floor every time you say a number. If you divide further, on 8ths, and you use and, 1/4 note when your foot hits the floor, 8th not when you say and. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. That is the basics.

From there you can use the timing in MIDI to know when you want emphasis put on a part, when you want a particular drum to lead (say by a 32nd) or lag. You could have a kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, etc. after that, while it is simple, it can be complex depending on what you are trying to do.

I wish I could make it simpler. The truth is, a little investigation into time and the divisions would really help you a lot.
 
Hi,
Do you mean the duration of the note you're drawing in?
If the sample is shorter than the duration of a 16th note, which is most likely is, then the duration of note you choose has no impact other than the potential visual overlap you mentioned.

If you were working with a cymbal sample or something with a longer duration then you'd have to use a note duration long enough to see the sample out.

In Pro Tools you can select the note type in the "Grid" and "Nudge" (to the left of the Time Code display) drop down menu. I've been using the "Grid" drop down menu to select the note type...just because that's what the guy in the video I mentioned above used. I have no idea what the difference between the two is. Also, is there a standard note type for the kick? Like I also mentioned above, the guy in the video was replacing the snare hits with 1/8th note snare samples; I'm not sure if this translates to the kick. Is there a website that explains all this info so you don't have to waste your time repeating anything? Unless, of course, you have some tips that aren't mentioned anywhere else.

Thanks a bunch,
-Adam
 
I use Battery for drums in Reaper.

It doesn't matter what length note you use to trigger a drum sample. The drum sample goes for as long as it lasts once it has been triggered. Using a quarter note for a kick doesn't make the kick go longer than using a 16th.

So just use whatever is easiest for you.
 
What's the difference between the Grid and Nudge? Does it make a difference when selecting the note types from either of these?
 
As Gecko says - i drum programming, the length of the midi event makes no practical difference - apart from in editing screens. I use Cubase, and the drum editor grid has lines where each note can be placed. For simple stuff, thump-cracl-thump-crack, then having 8 places in the bar, means more bars on screen and simple placement of each note, but when you need flamms, and those tom duh-duh-duh-duh's the gap between them might need the grid changing to 32ths. Practically, that's it - the note length is simply chosen to let you get the notes in quickly - too short means you put them in the wrong place.
 
I think he is trying to quantize to a grid and is asking if he should quantize to the nearest 1/8 note or 16th note.

If you quantize to 1/8 notes and a bunch of them land on top of each other, then you might need to go to 1/16 or 1/32 notes, depending on the tempo you have in the daw and how fast the song is.

If you are going to be making music, you should probably take an hour to find out the very basics of it, especially rhythm notation. Otherwise you will be completely lost when trying to fix drums and count out rhythms. (I'm not trying to be snarky, but it will make your life a lot easier and it's pretty straight forward)

I can't believe they aren't teaching this stuff in grade school anymore.
 
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