can i have drums without actual drums?

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jimmyjames9

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is there anyway i could put drums on a track without drums or a drum kit? is there a program or something?
 
If you want my two cents I'd check out a program called Fruity Loops. Check it out at
www.fruityloops.com

You can download a demo version which has some restrictions but gives you the idea of what it's all about... incredibly simple to use and works like a treat. Registering for the full version is pretty cheap... it's well worth it in my opinion, I'll be registering it next week :)
 
Another pretty good drum package is PC Drummer, you can download the demo version of this ZDNET is probably the place place to have a look for it.
 
Allow me to ask a stupid question(humor me guys). Fruity loops appears to be an excellant option but what if you are analog only. How do I get the signal from my computer to my TASCAM without busting my budget?
 
Elementary my dear Snowdog, I too am analog only, however by sticking a cable that has a 1/8" stereo jack into the line out of your soundcard and the other end with two 1/4" jacks into one (or two if you want the drums to be stereo) of your inputs on your 4 track you can thru the wonders of technology record on your 4 track what you are hearing out of those cheesey computer speakers :)




[This message has been edited by Cooperman (edited 01-17-2000).]
 
I'll second c7sus's opinion on the DR770. I bought one last October and love it. If you're going the drum machine route I'd say it's worth spending the extra $50-$100 to get this one instead of some of the lower end ones. There's a lot of capability built into it for the price, the instruments sounds VERY good (at least the ones I use), and editing is pretty easy.
 
Thanks for trying to help Cooperman but I can't even get a Fruityloops downloaded demo to work(keep getting error message) even after downloading the latest directX and Media Player so I guess I better forget about that option, Thanks anyhow!
 
mmm... that's weird, I wonder what the problem is? I only downloaded the demo last week and it works fine for me. You sure you got DirectX 6.0 or above?

Either way good luck. I've worked with a drummer before and I can tell you I actually prefer working with sequenced drums - they are always there when you want them, you can do the drums YOUR way and the sequencer never talks back!!!! :)
 
I have no upgraded sound card in my computer,could that be it? I have DirectX 7 and have down loaded the latest Mediaplayer as yesterday. Is there something I'm overlooking? If not ,is there a program that can be purchased over the counter that does the same thing? The unit I use now sounds decent enough but I have a two fold problem. #1)A faint high pitched tone is audible(drives me nuts) unless I record the Drums a such a low level they lose their punch. #2) I obviously can't program in stops, Fills,Time breaks etc. Help!!!
 
Snowdog, I don't know if there is an over the counter program you can get - I'm kinda new to all this my self... maybe someone else know the answer to this. What error message are you getting and where are you getting it? Have you been able to install the Fruity Loops demo? Do you have the following system requirements;

P133MHz or above
Windows 95 or 98
32 Mb RAM
 
Cooperman, Yes to all the system requirements. i've actually been able to download the Synth drum demo. However,the Kick and snare sound indentical, kinda like a dull splat and I don't see how to program a passage. On the surface this looks exactly what I need! But as is apparent,I am no computer whiz and would really like to think I know what I'm doing before I spend the money. Just as a side note, I was told by SamAsh music last week the TASCAM 414 is being phased out by Tascam. No reason given
 
Hey Snowdog... you downloaded the Drumsynth demo? I don't really know what this is because I haven't downloaded it myself. What you actually need is the actual Fruity Loops demo. Go to the downloads page at www.fruityloops.com and download the Fruity Loops demo - it'll be like 3 Mb... this is what you want. Let me know how you go!!!
 
After three tries It finally downloaded in its entirety. Seems awful low in volume but easy too use. The basic version with only 4 tracks was a little bit of a let down. I'm curious as to the differance between it and the pro version. Do you have it? Is the low volume a inherited tendency with the demo version ??
 
Snowdog:

Coop's right about FruityLoops. It's easy to use and allows much flexibility. If you download the song under dmc's latest mix in the mp3 mixing clinic, you'll hear what even simple sequencing using the full version of this software and mediocre samples can yield. It's also really easy to transport loops into a software multitracker, if you decide to ever go that route. You can just save as a .wav file and drop the file onto a track.

dmc
 
Snowdog... I didn'tnotice it to be particularly quiet. Check the volume settings for your soundcard - the speaker icon in your taskbar. You can also increase the volume of each sample by the dials near the sample name. Yes the demo is limited in what you can do... but after all it is only a demo. I just the other day sent my money off to register for the Pro version... I'll let you know how it works out.

As far as I know the BIG BONUSES you get with the Pro version is that you obviously get to use as many samples as you like and you have a LOT more control over manipulating samples.
 
one of the features of the pro version is that u get a 303 kinda analog thingie built in and I think u get use of the keyboeard also it is really a great piece of code.
I just mainly use it to get my ideas out.As fast as my ideas come and go I need an easy to use program version 2.0 is the greatest u can record realtime movement of most of the knobs and such wooowooo
I did notice it to be really quiet
I am doing some experimenting with some vst plugins to remedy this problem (maybe it is my soundcard though (ensoniq/creative pci)cool edit is waaaay louder and defined :-/
later
 
I thought I'd see what the FruityLoops fuss was about, so I downloaded it. I was impressed at how easy it was to use and the options it gave you to change the sound around.

However I was most unimpressed by the samples they had - sounded terrible. So hooked my keyboard up to the computer with a guitar lead and big/small adapter thing at the comp. end and recorded the drum samples using the ordinary windows "sound recorder" thing and used them to replace the FruityLoops samples it sounded MUCH better. I guess it also wouldn't be hard to find digital samples floating around on the net to use instead.

However if I was going to register I'd first want to be guaranteed that the registered version had ways to move around the song structure. I worked out 30 bars worth for the 1st verse and chorus and then couldn't copy it for the second verse and chorus. As far as I can work out you can only copy one bar at a time, which for a whole song of 100 bars can be quite painful.
 
Christian:

Maybe I didn't understand you correctly but why are you copying individual bars? Did you use the loop playlist to graph your song? It seems much easier to use it (loop playlist), then to do what I think you said you did.

dmc
 
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