Reaper Strategies for non-drummers?

[Shoulderpain]

I've been collecting drum hit samples, single strikes on different drums from various kits. I want to start creating drum tracks... is there a VST (or strategy) that anyone could recommend that would make building the rhythm track easier for a non-drummer?

Thanks

[DrewPeterson7]

I do most of my drum programming in Fruity Loops with a "kit" of individual hits I've assembled. I'll sequence a loop, export it as a wave, and then use that in Reaper.

For maximum flexibility, though, try breaking out each part of the kit like you would if you were recording a real drum set - a track for the kick, a track for the snare, a track for your hats, and then I'll usally past in individual crash hits where needed. This not only gives you more options in the mix, it also makes it easier to create fills by deleting, adding, or shifting individual hits around, etc.

There are probably other ways to go (you could sequence an entire track this way, rather than a loop), but this is the quickest I've found and it's fairly good (though, no substitute for a live drummer).

[Aaron Cheney]

If you're going the VST route, why not EZDrummer of Addictive Drums? I have AD, and it is amazing...and so much simpler that what you seem to be suggesting.

[d.bop]

Oh now this is something I love!

Ok you have your collection of samples and you want to build your own drumkit. There's a few ways that I use..

Shortcircuit: an AMAZING sampler plugin that's highly customizable. I use this to build multi-velocity drum kits, which can be mapped to any note on a keyboard. There's a great tutorial on the REAPER forums on how to set this up. It's a lot of fun! You'll probably want to stick with v1 as that's what the tutorial is written for.

AM VirtuaDrum: this works great as an electronic drum sampler as it had no velocity layers. You load your sample into one of the strips. You can then customize attack, decay, pitch, etc.. I use multiple instances of this with my padKontrol. One for kicks, one for snares, hats, claps, etc.. And have each instance on seperate tracks and midi channels. Then I set each pad on the padKontrol to different channels. By cycling through the notes, I can then build my drumkit on the fly.

If you don't have a keyboard or other midi instrument, you could go with one of the previously mentioned programs and use the midi editor to load keymaps and program drums.

You might also want to look into getting a step sequencer if you go that route.

Hope that helps!

[joeclark]

Here's a link to the tutorial that was mentioned.(I already had it bookmarked )

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=31282

I'm still pretty new to programming but that really helped get me started.

[Shoulderpain]

That was just the kind of advice I was looking for. Thank you.

[hardwire666]

I feel robbed. When I started with recording I had two options. "Hammerhead Rhythm Station", or Manually moving one shots around in ACID 2. I always ended up doing it the hard way with one shots because I just couldn't get used to Hammerhead. Oh woes me (sigh) the wasted hours of my life I will never get back all be cause I was n00b sauce.

[DarkFriend]

I completely recommend EZDrummer and S2.0 from Toontrack. Unbelievably easy to get incredible sounding drums. And Reaper makes it simple to tweak to the nth degree. Very professional sounding results.

[pipelineaudio]

I'm not good with midi so I usually just put timing stick sounds in and then drumagog em. You can download Drum ReaPlacer free from the Reaper forum which will do similar to drumagog too.

[RRokkenAudio]

I usually just use EZDrummer or Addictive drums and replace the kick/snare with samples using Drumagog. EZdrummer has some nice included midi files, just drag and drop.

~Rob.

[FunkDaddy]

Originally Posted by DarkFriend

I completely recommend EZDrummer and S2.0 from Toontrack. Unbelievably easy to get incredible sounding drums. And Reaper makes it simple to tweak to the nth degree. Very professional sounding results.

Can you expand a bit upon how Reaper makes it easy to tweak EZD and SD2.0? I'd love to know if I'm missing out on something that could be making my drum tracks a little sweeter I'm not getting what I would say are "professional sounding results", any tips? I have no problem creating a good drumtrack, performance wise, but I seem to fail a bit at tuning in a great drum sound.

[pipelineaudio]

the trouble for me with EZ is when machinegun or typewriter fx happen, but that app seems to make it less than many others.

Messing with each track separately by making it a multi out can really help in getting the sound you are after.

[FunkDaddy]

Originally Posted by pipelineaudio

the trouble for me with EZ is when machinegun or typewriter fx happen, but that app seems to make it less than many others.

Messing with each track separately by making it a multi out can really help in getting the sound you are after.

I'll have to try that, I seem to dial in what I think is a good drum sound but once it's all mixed down it just doesn't sit right with me. Might just be my monitoring situation too.

[DarkFriend]

Originally Posted by FunkDaddy

Can you expand a bit upon how Reaper makes it easy to tweak EZD and SD2.0? I'd love to know if I'm missing out on something that could be making my drum tracks a little sweeter I'm not getting what I would say are "professional sounding results", any tips? I have no problem creating a good drumtrack, performance wise, but I seem to fail a bit at tuning in a great drum sound.

First, the sample quality in EZD and especially in SD2.0 is incredible. Real, quality, expensive drum hardware recorded in renowned studios with top vintage microphones on nice gear. Additionally, they have notable studio drummers play the drums. What's most important, is the total number of samples per drum. So on the snare for example, you've got 127 velocity levels in midi and in S2.0 I believe multiple hits per velocity level. So if you hit the snare at velocity 100, you will randomly get different snare hits at that level playing. This eliminates the "shotgun effect". Also, they record both left and right hands hitting the drum for more variation. Same with all of the other instruments. Finally, they've got for the snare for example, hitting in the center of the drum, hitting on the rim, hitting with sticks, hitting with brushes, hitting with the bottom snare on or off, flams, rolls, drop sticks, etc.

Of course, its all about how you program the midi that controls S2.0 too. In Reaper's midi editor, you can zoom in and place every single drum hit exactly where you want it and change the velocity along the way. If you add ghost notes, flams, and accents like a real drummer, it sounds even more realistic. The toontrack.com website has some good examples. I use S2.0 on all my tracks now and love it.

[FunkDaddy]

Lol thanks for the sales pitch but as I said, I have no problem creating a great drumtrack in SD2.0, but when I get it all together in the mix it just seems to lose a lot of presence, a lot of "oomph".

Do you mix in SD or do you do the multi-out thing? Any tips to share in that regard?

Edit: Just realized my original post might sound like I'm thinking of buying SD2.0 to improve my sound, I already have it and love it

[DarkFriend]

Originally Posted by FunkDaddy

Lol thanks for the sales pitch but as I said, I have no problem creating a great drumtrack in SD2.0, but when I get it all together in the mix it just seems to lose a lot of presence, a lot of "oomph".

Do you mix in SD or do you do the multi-out thing? Any tips to share in that regard?

Edit: Just realized my original post might sound like I'm thinking of buying SD2.0 to improve my sound, I already have it and love it

Okay, sorry for the sales pitch. It sounded like you didn't have it yet so I was touting its virtues. I mix in 2.0 but often export kick and snare and blend it in with the main midi track.

Since the results are essentially the same (or better) as if you recorded the drums yourself, I'd have to assume the issues you are having come from mixing. Wouldn't you just mix your S2.0 tracks the same as if you recorded multiple tracks of live drums? Reaper itself doesn't do anything to improve the drum tracks other than allow for precise note editing.