Programming drums w/ n-Track results...

[Slackmaster2K]

Welp, I got it to work. I used a VSTi sampler in conjunction with the n-Track piano roll editor to program some drums.

Yes, it is possible to do drums right in n-Track using this method. However, the n-Track piano roll editor is a piece of crap when it comes to this sort of thing. It has all the right features; BPM definition, time signature, snap to grid, etc. The problem is that the editor itself is buggy...the snap to grid feature is poorly implemented, note lengths are sometimes misdrawn which doesn't effect the sound but makes things hard to read, and it crashes from time to time.

Damn!

This has considerably more potential than fruity loops, because a) edits are realtime b) you're not limited to 16bit drum samples and c) time signature changes would be possible. Oh well.

Slackmaster 2000

[Gidge]

Slack,

could you do the programming in another sequencer with a crappy synth, import it into N-Track and play it back with a VST synth using your own samples?...

sorry for my stupidity...im totally ignorant on VST instruments....

also what sampler did u use?....

[Gidge]

If i can get this to work id be doing ok...im wanting to use 24 bit samples myself...i was wondering if the SB Audigy could do 24 bit SoundFonts since it can playback 24 bit files, and thought about getting the cheapy version.....

[Slackmaster2K]

Well, you can get VST plugs that will load soundfonts. In fact now that fruity supports buzz machines, I've been using a buzz machine soundfont loader in fruity with some success. Also, I've got some software that will split soundfont files into wave files which is cool. Of course you lose the presets but...

Using a third party app to do the programming would be just as painful as using fruity. In fact I could use fruity to export MIDI tracks. What I wanted to do was use the n-Track piano roll editor and edit drum tracks in real time. Like I said, it works, but n-Track sucks in this respect.

The sampler I used was called the 3S (shiny sampler or something). It's ok. I used a couple different ones actually. All the samplers I used were great, it's just that editing in n-Track was no fun.

VST instruments are great. You can basically just use a MIDI piano roll editor to play the instruments. Very easy. You can of course use a MIDI keyboard with them if you want...although then you'd have latency to worry about.

VSTi drum samplers are likewise very simple. You assign a drum to a note number, then use a piano roll editor to trigger your various drums. It's a lot like using Drums! which no longer exists to my knowledge. A lot of samplers are also velocity sensitive so you could have multiple shots of the same drum at different velocities, and program your tracks as such (instead of just making certain hit "quieter", you actually have a *real* softer hit).

Slackmaster 2000