Drum Programming/Sequencing

[AndrewYap]

Hi Everyone,

Ok, I'm not exactly a newbie to recording. Not that I'm really good at it though. But I have now found the need to learn something else. Here's the story. I'm in Dublin, Ireland and my band is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We are sort of attempting to work on an album because we were recently noticed by someone important in our music scene in Malaysia.

For reasons that are too long to explain, I'm now here in Ireland. I'm a drummer. My band has written loads of new material that requires my input on the "Drumming" side of the picture. I need to record the tracks here in Dublin itself, but I first must convey the ideas to them by programming what I'm saying into musical information. I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PROGRAM DRUMS. I need some guidance oh great ones...

1. What software?

I don't really need anything complicated. Just simple stuff for conveying ideas. Drums will be recorded professionally later. Can any demo programs/cheap programs get the job done?

2. Compatibility?

For now I only have access to a IBook (Mac) laptop.

3. Technique?

I've heard from a friend that there are programs that allow actually "Playing" of the drums by tapping keys to a metronome. e.g. Spacebar - Hi-hat, Enter - Snare and so on. Then multitrack it and create more layers of different percussion. Is there such a thing? If there is it would be much easier for me, since I'm not doing this for recording or anything. (I don't need perfection).

I'm a total newbie to doing something like this. I've always lived in the amazing world of playing acoustic drums so I hope someone can help me out. Thanks beforehand to anyone who replies... Cheers...

[Phyl]

I can tell you how I started out, maybe it will help you decide what will work best in your situation.

I bought fruity loops first. When you open the program you see a bunch of blank rows and columns. Each row can be assigned a different instrument (hi-hat, kick, etc), and the columns are marked off in 1/4 note, 1/8 note, etc graduations. You assign an instrument to each row and then enter the notes by dragging/dropping. Pros - extrememly easy to use. Cons - Fidelity of sounds not terrible, but not great either. I dumped fruity loops after about a month.

Next I bought a sound module (roland XV5050) and hooked it up to my keyboard and computer running SONAR. Now I can play drum sounds on the keyboard with my fingers and have SONAR record my notes and timing. Afterwards, if I screwed up, I can go back into SONAR and slide the notes around, add notes, change instruments, it's way cool.

Finally, I bought some drum pads and hooked them up to the sound module and computer. Now I can play drums more intuitively by using little drum sticks and hitting the pads. Later, I can edit the performance as mentioned above.

[Stealthtech]

Sounds like you need to do midi sequences to be played back on a drum machine elsewhere ?

Most multitrack software is fully capable of doing this, even the cheapest of programs.

[dwillis45]

You might take a look at a loop-based editing program. I think your best option for I-Book would be Ableton Live. You would also have to buy a drum loops or drum samples CD or download free samples over the net. If you are interested, you can download the demo and see if it meets your needs.

http://www.ableton.com/index.php?main=downloads

[AndrewYap]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I owe you guys big...

1. Does Fruity Loops have a Mac version? I've lots about this software and what it does so I might want to try it out. But it doesn't seem to be Mac compatible.

2. I've never done MIDI sequencing in my life (Stealthtech, thanks for helping me out again!). Perhaps you could tell me more? Is n-Track capable of doing this? Is n-Track Mac compatible at all?

3. I had a look at Ableton. Looks like a steep learning curve. I might give it a shot though...

Cheers everyone... Thanks again...

[Phyl]

I've no idea if Fruity Loops is made for the MAC. I don't even remember who manufactures it.

[Resonator]

Fruity Loops is my first choice for creating drums and sampling !Check out http://www.flstudio.com. Unfortunately no Mac version.