Drum "patterns" not sounds!

[mugsey]

I've been writing and recording music since the 1960's. My first tape recorder was a Radio Shack two track reel to reel. In the 70's I got a four track Akai and my first drummer, which was called a "rhythm ace". In the 80's I moved up to a tascam 688 eight track cassette and a Roland tr505 drum machine. For the past year I've been using Cubase SE on a Dell XPS 400 with a Presonus Firepod 8 and an Alesis SR-16 for drums. Sorry to be so long winded, but I feel I've got to give you a little background about me. After hearing some of my sons friends demos, that were done on Garage Band, I thought, man I gotta do something about my drums. So about a year ago I went to the local Guitar Center, told the guy what I wanted and he suggested M-Audio Drum and Bass Rig. I bought it, took it home, and low and behold alot of sounds, kits, and what ever but no patterns i.e. Rock 1, Rock Ballad, etc. So I didn't use it. Last week I went back to GC and TRIED to explain what I was looking for and the guy sold me the M-Audio Trigger Finger and Battery3 bundle, and once again a whole lot of sounds but no patterns. Maybe you can help me.
What I want is:
A software program which allows me to write (drag and drop) 1,2, or 4 bar patterns to create a drum track. Then import it into a project in Cubase. I don't want to use a drum editor to a enter note by note drum sounds or use my midi keyboard to enter the data. I'm not a drummer. I don't care if it writes midi files or not either. I guess I want a computer based drum machine. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your patience.

 

[Carter]

You are looking for a program like Reasons, in this program it comes with the loops (patterns) that you speak of. There are other programs out there but I cant think of them off the top of my head, I think Acid is the same way Maybe someone else will chime in.

 

[zed32]

try EZ Drummer!

 

[Carter]

try EZ Drummer!

Thats the one I was trying to think of!

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Mugsey: [You ever in the Dead End Kids movies?]

Suggestion:

Go back to the vendor and ask to listen to a Boss 880 drum machine.

Scroll through some/all of the 400 choices and see if those patches are what you are looking for. i.e. There is FUNK, & ROCK [many choices] Latin [many choices]

You can also use the bass line with each patch or just shut it off and use the drums and do your own bass line.

And, if you want to get into it, you can program your own drum patterns. I've done that but it takes too much time; however, you can come up with some interesting loops.

Happy New Year
Green Hornet

 

[mixmkr]

so... EZ drummer gives you some loops and patterns then?

I am in the same situation, imo. I can get the drums to sound ok, but not being a drummer, all my drum tracks sound so quantized, artificial and rigid. And yeah..I know how to ease up on the quantize, etc. I'm just a constant newbie trying to create drum patterns. I listen to even mediocre live drummers, and I go..."wow...wish I could even program some simple patterns like that." That being said, I don't really have much interest in trying to analyze real drum tracks, or whatever. I guess that might be the ticket however. I just thought in 2007, you could just be a guitar player and have all the rest done by the computer!

Trying to put HH hits outside the downbeats etc, etc...is outside of my box.

I am coming to realize, it aint the sound, it's the programming/part that is more important.

 

[TelePaul]

I was bowled over by the loops that come with garage band, so don't be surprised if your sons demos sound great in the drum department. If you're looking for pre-rolled beats as opposed to triggers, maybe try drums on demand. ( www.drumsondemand.com )

They won't be as flexible as flexible as a drum machine (though they are fully acidized) because Cubase LE doesn't support acidized .wavs. I'm expecting mine to be delivered any day and will post results.

 

[schismatic]

A lot of people often get confused about options they have when it comes to drums, so i'll try and see if i can explain what i think you're looking for. You say you want patterns that last say 1,2 or 4 bars that you can just drag and drop where you want. I would recommend if this is the case that you look at the Beta Monkey range - Beta Monkey Music. Beta Monkey specialise in recording small 1,2 or 4 bar drum loops. They have released a number of cd's that are often specific to a certain genre e.g. if you played Blues stuff, they'll have a load of samples specifically catered to the blues. What's more, on each cd the samples are ordered into folders by their tempo e.g. 120bpm folder, and are named in such a way as you'll have numerous selections for verses, choruses and also fills. You can then drag and drop and mix up the order to your hearts content, as all samples on the cd are recorded to fit together with each other perfectly. Each cd usually has a range of different tempos recorded as well, and not all are straight 4/4, indeed you can pick up one cd that specialises in odd-beat stuff like 5/4 and 7/8. Further more, these samples don't cost the earth, they are reasonably priced. All I can really do is recommend that you go over to their website and check out some samples of the different collections they have - bear in mind that there is a lot, so take some time and check it out fully. I've been thoroughly impressed with them and they've allowed me to make more progress with songs rather than spending days programming drums in Cubase's midi editor and using Battery to trigger samples. This is just plain easier!

 

[RAK]

Cakewalk has a lot of programs that will do what you're looking for. Sonar has a lot of patterns that you can just "paint" in. They also have something called "sessoin drummer" or something like that, I haven't really used it. I'm sure their lighter programs will do this as well.

 

[Rokket]

Acid and FuityLoops work pretty well too. I personally gave up on them because I wanted to record off a digital multitracker, and playing to a click started to suck. So I went with a bargain drum machine (Yamaha DD-50) and collab with a real drummer who has a kick ass set up for recording his drums.



Madz, if you see this, yes. I was talking about you!

 

[travelin travis]

I've been writing and recording music since the 1960's. My first tape recorder was a Radio Shack two track reel to reel. In the 70's I got a four track Akai and my first drummer, which was called a "rhythm ace". In the 80's I moved up to a tascam 688 eight track cassette and a Roland tr505 drum machine. For the past year I've been using Cubase SE on a Dell XPS 400 with a Presonus Firepod 8 and an Alesis SR-16 for drums. Sorry to be so long winded, but I feel I've got to give you a little background about me. After hearing some of my sons friends demos, that were done on Garage Band, I thought, man I gotta do something about my drums. So about a year ago I went to the local Guitar Center, told the guy what I wanted and he suggested M-Audio Drum and Bass Rig. I bought it, took it home, and low and behold alot of sounds, kits, and what ever but no patterns i.e. Rock 1, Rock Ballad, etc. So I didn't use it. Last week I went back to GC and TRIED to explain what I was looking for and the guy sold me the M-Audio Trigger Finger and Battery3 bundle, and once again a whole lot of sounds but no patterns. Maybe you can help me.
What I want is:
A software program which allows me to write (drag and drop) 1,2, or 4 bar patterns to create a drum track. Then import it into a project in Cubase. I don't want to use a drum editor to a enter note by note drum sounds or use my midi keyboard to enter the data. I'm not a drummer. I don't care if it writes midi files or not either. I guess I want a computer based drum machine. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your patience.

You could record your SR-16's internal midi patterns to Cubase to use as a loop library or use the SR-16 to trigger the software you're already running.

As already mentioned, you can purchase midi loop libraries or get something like ezdrummer, jamstix, bfd, dfhs.

 

[rayc]

I'm STILL using my TR505!
But I do have Fruity Loops in case I need a loop in a hurry.

 

[Anfontan]

I'm STILL using my TR505!
But I do have Fruity Loops in case I need a loop in a hurry.

The good old Roland-I have and still use mine too! Its simple and I know what sound to find without looking through a manual or scrolling a menu!

 

[mugsey]

Thanks for the help. Green Hornet, is that you Glimpy? After spending hours and hours reserching all of you're suggestions, I think I've got a plan. I'm either going to get a DR-670 (the DR-880 looks a little complicated) or the EZ DRUMMER (the rock demo on their website sounds great). I think I'll have to upgrade my Cubase SE to SE3, because SE3 allows midi drag and drop, while SE doesn't. Awile ago I tried writting midi files, in Cubase, with the SR-16. It works fine for awile, but then I get a loud sawtooth sound, f# I think, and then the old "program not responding" error message. So I've given up on this. Once I get the hang of working with sotfware vs hardware, I'll try working with the drumsondemand and the beta monkey loops. Once again, thanks for your help.