drum solution cubasis

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hrchris

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I am using Cubasis as it came with the e-mu 1212m pci soundcard. I now need a solution for creating drum tracks. I have an old Kawai R-50 drum machine. There are three reasons I am not wanting to use this:

1. I have lost the power adaptor for the Yamaha MDF1 (midi data filer) which I was using to save drum "songs" (incl. patterns). So, I have no way to back up drum patterns/songs - this is a problem as the R-50 only has 50 programmable patterns - one song pretty much uses that up.

2. Programming a drum machine is too tedious and unmusical.

3. They don't make the QuickDisks (for the MDF1) anymore, and I haven't been able t make the MDF1 cassette save function work - again, this means I can't save drum "songs".

I could buy the Roland physical drum pad kit (TD-9) but it's 1700 bucks that I don't have. I'm not a drummer anyway, so what I'd come up with would be tasteful but always technically and creatively limited.

I think a better solution would be a drum program/plug-in that I could use to drag 'n' drop patterns onto a Cubasis track and edit (when necessary). Is there such an animal for Cubasis or have I now officially outgrown Cubasis and need to move to a Cubase that I need to actually buy? If so, are we talking hundreds or thousands. Then how much would the drum plug-in be? And is there such a thing?

Chris
 
Providing cubasis supports VST plug ins then you will be fine.

There are many apps that do it for you.

These include reason (with the reason drum kits 2.0 refill), in order to get this working cubasis has to have rewire capability.

ez drummer
drum kit from hell


best thing to do is to check this site

http://www.dv247.com/icat/Virtual+Drums+/+Percussion/3034/

loads of stuff there you could always employ a drummer hehe

(i am a drummer so i want people to use a real drummer, bring on the EZ guitarist thatl wipe the smirk off their faces!!! hehe)

happy hunting

Dave
 
Upgrade, if your PC can stand it.
You can get Cubase 4 Essential for $149 http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Steinberg-Cubase-Essential-4?sku=703191
It comes with a built in synth.
Now, all you need is MIDI loops, to build your songs. I got a set from www.smartloops.com for $39. That's every single MIDI loop in their library, and will do everything you need.
So, for under $200, you can come out of the dark ages, and into the box, with every plugin you'll likely ever need to boot.

Peace!

~Shawn
 
Shawn,

Buying Cubase 4 sounds good. Why does the topic of MIDI come up whenever drum machine tracks are discussed? Do I have to get into MIDI to make drum tracks? I fooled around a little (a very little) with MIDI twenty years ago on my JX3P. I'd like to not be forced to use MIDI - I have enough projects. Isn't there a program that you can just cut & paste drum loops onto a drum track? Or is this really a mID process underneath?

Chris
 
hrchris said:
Shawn,

Buying Cubase 4 sounds good. Why does the topic of MIDI come up whenever drum machine tracks are discussed? Do I have to get into MIDI to make drum tracks? I fooled around a little (a very little) with MIDI twenty years ago on my JX3P. I'd like to not be forced to use MIDI - I have enough projects. Isn't there a program that you can just cut & paste drum loops onto a drum track? Or is this really a mID process underneath?

Chris
Click to expand...

Chris,

I am suggesting that Cubase is your program... and yes, anything else is just a "face," a "GUI," a graphical user interface, with MIDI under it. If you buy Cubase, it will come with a a synth, which will include drum sounds. Drum sounds which will sound light years better than your drum machine, most likely.
OK.... MIDI.... lets talk about that for a moment. What is it? It's a communications protocol; a way of 2 devices speaking to each other. Now, it doesn't matter if these devices are "real" or virtual, OK? So, the synth you get with Cubase will be virtual. In other words, it will exist only within your computer. But, this is really no different than having an outboard synth, because that's just another.... computer..... in a smaller box, that can't do as much.
Ok... so.... to get a better understanding, think of your sound samples as a player piano. Now, think of a MIDI file as the scroll that you put into the player piano. The scroll just tells the piano what notes to play, and when to play them. That's just what MIDI files do.
Now, when you get some MIDI drum loops, most of them will be just one bar long. You copy, or drag and drop, the loop into cubase, and the program plays the MIDI file into your synth. You can repeat that one bar as many times as you want. Copying and pasting is as simple as copy and pasting into a word-processor file. Very reasy... highlight what you want to copy, press ctrl and c at the same time... then pasting is as simple as ctrl and x at the same time. It's much the same as dealing with audio.
So, Cubase will certainly be your program to copy and paste drum tracks, just like you want. It's not as hard as you think. The cool thing is being able to do it all in one program.

Peace!

~Shawn
 
if you want pre made loops try and track down a selection of REX or REX 2 loops.
The beauty with this is that you can move the slices to any arrangment you want and have it at any different tempo you wish.

However i don't know if you could do it in cubasis?

Cheers

Dave
 
dave_major said:
if you want pre made loops try and track down a selection of REX or REX 2 loops.
The beauty with this is that you can move the slices to any arrangment you want and have it at any different tempo you wish.

However i don't know if you could do it in cubasis?

Cheers

Dave
Click to expand...

Cubasis is very very very very basic. I couldn't actually trigger any GM sounds with it via my midi controller. I upgraded to SE.
 
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