how to use the drums?

[ryansanders]

ok. i have tried for 2 days to learn how to use the drums.

I have Sonar 7 with Session Drummer 2. I figured out how to map out drum beats.. but do you have to make each transition yourself? I am also trying to figure out how to loop it.. its hard. Is it usually this hard to do drum beats? I figured there might be a way to hotkey certain sounds (highhat, etc) to certain keys on my keyboard and record and let me play that way. Maybe I should learn how to mic real drums and get a friend over here.

[Nick98338]

You are right, session drummer does not make things easy. There are easier ways to produce drum tracks. I finally decided to use a softsynth and a soundfont player that is triggered by pads on a midi controller. It takes more time to produce a completed drum track, but it is easy, and it gives me complete control over every aspect of the production. PC Drummer is another program I've tried. It's pretty easy. And EZ Drummer is quite a powerful program that is easy to use. Expensive, though.

[mikemorgan]

Originally Posted by ryansanders

ok. i have tried for 2 days to learn how to use the drums.

I have Sonar 7 with Session Drummer 2. I figured out how to map out drum beats.. but do you have to make each transition yourself? I am also trying to figure out how to loop it.. its hard. Is it usually this hard to do drum beats? I figured there might be a way to hotkey certain sounds (highhat, etc) to certain keys on my keyboard and record and let me play that way. Maybe I should learn how to mic real drums and get a friend over here.

or just read the manual's chapter on Session Drummer, shouldn't take two days to get through.

[IloveJesus]

Oh, man. This is right up my alley.

Go to Drumsondemand.com and get some of their products. The quality is unreal, and it's set up so that you can build your entire drum track in minutes. Just drag and drop loops into the edit view of your recording software. You are using the edit view, right? The mix view is more for setting levels and mixing/mastering. The edit view is for analyzing your sound, cutting and pasting, etc.

I use cakewalk software, and I can pull in loops and link them together in minutes. I'm thrilled, because drumming is my biggest weakness. I stink at it, and I stink at programming.

[Radiohead0709]

I use session drummer 2 with Sonar 7 quite a bit lately. You have to insert the Session drummer 2 soft synth into your project with a midi track that controls the beats. When session drummer first pops open you can choose what beats you want, and then drag and drop them into your midi track that is attached to the session drummer 2 soft synth. You drag and drop by clicking and holding on the midi drag and drop + sign on the session drummer 2 interface. From there you can simply slip edit to expand or contract the length of the beat because the tracks are formulated as groove clips.