Drum suggestion with Sonar 3 ???

[bloozguy]

Ordered Sonar 3 to update for a recording studio we have built and getting underway at our high school.

I have Cakewalk 9.0 and will be upgrading at home, but here is my question not having yet loaded it in and had time over the holidays to take a good look at it.

It appears right off that unlike the 9.0 Cakewalk version, there is no Session Drummer...and that at best without ordering loops or buying a drum machine, that any percussion has to be plotted out on a drum map. Correct?

Next, I'd be curious what suggestions you good folks have for laying down decent drum tracks.

For myself and my own interests, I write/play and perform more folk and blues in a coffeehouse style format (okay, okay...yes I am older, and yes...the coffeehouse seems to be what happens to us old time rockers! I was part of the big hair 80's era, and was a frontman. So...hahahah...you got me)

I was looking at the Smart Loops offerings of the dry drum kit loops, and also see that Cakewalk has this drumatic thing of their own...

Is this route to be recommended, a temporary thing 'till one gets perhaps a drum machine unit???

Thanks in advance for your opinions. If you can advise a drum machine for around $200 or less to get us off and going, that might be good as well.

bloozguy

 

[AlChuck]

A drum machine is no better than the stuff you can do on thye computer, and the computer offers much finer control than the LCD windows and scrolling up-down buttons on a drum machine. Some people need the tactile feel of the pads to create their beats, but I think a better choice is to get some sort of pad crontroller with larger pads that you can hit with a stick and use the MIDI interface ont he computer to record the MIDI data into SONAR.

The Session Drummer tool is great to get some stylistically appropriate beats, though its user interface impementation is a bit clumsy. There are other tools like Band In the Box or Jammer that will create pretty darn good, stylistically appropriate MIDI drum parts with fills etc. (and bass parts and keyboard and guitar parts as well).

Using drum loop CDs is another way, you can get great-sounding and great-feeling drum parts this way, but you have much less control over them than you do with MIDI sequences. With good drum voices in a softsynth or external module, well-played MIDI parts can sound nearly as good as a well-miked drum kit, with far less effort.

Before I sign off, one more nice thing about a drum machine is that you can plug it into a PA system and not have to worry about bringing a computer to the gig... as long as the drum machine has enough memory to hold all the patterns and songs you need.

 

[mishappen]

If you have PA9 are you not able to install the session drummer, and have S3 Access it?

Also the easiest way that I have found to do drums is musiclab.com "Slicey drummer". Slicey can make the track for you like session. Only easier i think.
They have a fully functional 15 day trail version.
And for just $119., you can get both the slicey drummer and fill-in drummer.

Another cool program is fxpansion's DR-008. (This program comes with smartloops dry drum kit. Which is awesome, imo). It you can get this program set up with a midi keyboard or something you can tap out your own tracks.

dana

 

[bloozguy]

If you have PA9 are you not able to install the session drummer, and have S3 Access it?

Also the easiest way that I have found to do drums is musiclab.com "Slicey drummer". Slicey can make the track for you like session. Only easier i think.
They have a fully functional 15 day trail version.
And for just $119., you can get both the slicey drummer and fill-in drummer.

Another cool program is fxpansion's DR-008. (This program comes with smartloops dry drum kit. Which is awesome, imo). It you can get this program set up with a midi keyboard or something you can tap out your own tracks.

dana

thanks...
I have PA9 at home on my system, and do have Session Drummer already. This is why I am familiar with it. As of yet, I haven't loaded the new Sonar 3 into the new system at school which has no prior Cakewalk system on it.

I'm a bit confused at this point, because reading Cakewalk's forum, it appears as if Sonar 3 does come with a version of Session Drummer on it. Are you folks aware of it being there or not?

Thanks for the heads up on hte slicey drummer and fill-in. I'll have to keep those in mind.
peace

bloozguy

 

[mishappen]

bloozguy

Your in luck!
I just reinstalled S3Producer, and it does have session drummer listed in the midi fx list.

If you like session drummer, I think you would like slicey as well.

dana

 

[bloozguy]

bloozguy

Your in luck!
I just reinstalled S3Producer, and it does have session drummer listed in the midi fx list.

If you like session drummer, I think you would like slicey as well.

dana

'course "Producer" is the $200 higher stepped up version of regular Sonar 3...so, perhaps that is a distinction owners of Producer now enjoy.

I was glad though to get your suggestions, and checking out the web pages of those products I get a feeling in time I'll be settin' the system up to offer some cool options in the rhythm department.

take care

bloozguy