Drum Tracks: GT Pro vs. HS 2002

[Bill Colbert]

I have Music Creator and I am looking to upgrade either to GT Pro or HS
2002; either way it's $49.00. The deciding factor for me is the ease of
laying down drum tracks. Although I successfully created drum tracks with
the virtual keyboard, I never really got the hang of mixing down MIDI drum
tracks to wave files in Music Creator before I burned to CD.

Apparently, in HS 2002, I could use MIDI to trigger DXi synth generated drum
tones and I would not have to mix down MIDI to wave; is this correct? Can I
still use the virtual keyboard that came with Music Creator?

If I buy GS Pro, if I understand Fruity Loops and Acid, I would just drag
drum loops to the appropriate clips one at a time to compose a drum track
for the song. Are these clips wave files or do I have to convert them in
some way before I burn to CD? Basically, I am looking for the least painful
way to get sparse but tasty drum tracks, usually a brush kit into my
acoustic singer/songwriter projects. Can anyone offer some advice and
input on which product you think would work best for this setup?

 

[brzilian]

I have Music Creator and I am looking to upgrade either to GT Pro or HS
2002; either way it's $49.00. The deciding factor for me is the ease of
laying down drum tracks. Although I successfully created drum tracks with
the virtual keyboard, I never really got the hang of mixing down MIDI drum
tracks to wave files in Music Creator before I burned to CD.

Apparently, in HS 2002, I could use MIDI to trigger DXi synth generated drum
tones and I would not have to mix down MIDI to wave; is this correct? Can I
still use the virtual keyboard that came with Music Creator?

You still need to bounce a DXi synth down to an audio track for your final MIX. When you are using a DXi, it actually makes use of 2 tracks - one MIDI and one audio. The DXi synth is assigned as an FX to your audio track and you then route the output of the MIDI track ot the DXi plugin (it will appear as an option in your output ports). You then need to bounce these two down to another audio track to be able to hear the DXi plug in in your final Wav file.

Yes you can use the virtual keyboard, but it doesn't seem to work in 2000 or XP.


If I buy GS Pro, if I understand Fruity Loops and Acid, I would just drag
drum loops to the appropriate clips one at a time to compose a drum track
for the song. Are these clips wave files or do I have to convert them in
some way before I burn to CD? Basically, I am looking for the least painful
way to get sparse but tasty drum tracks, usually a brush kit into my
acoustic singer/songwriter projects. Can anyone offer some advice and
input on which product you think would work best for this setup?

HS2002 lets you work with ACID drum loops as well. The only difference between ACID Wave files and regular WAV's is that the prior have additional info attached to them so they can be maniplated to change their tempo or key. No conversion is necessary for the final mix.

I'd say go for HS2002. It is the most feature filled app only second to Sonar. I've had if for almost a year now - its a very nice program.


Regardless of which program you choose, you should know they will perform much better if you are using WDM drivers for your soundcard. Only Windows 2000 and XP truly support WDM drivers. DXi plug in performance will suffer if you don't use WDM. It would be good to tell us what OS and sound card you are using.

 

[Emmett]

If you decide to go with GT Pro be advised, fruity loops has some trouble exporting ACIDized files to Guitar Tracks. After consulting Cakewalk about this they told me to try exporting non-ACIDized, which seems to work so far you just have to make sure you have the right tempo selected in GT before importing the fruity loops wav file. Anyway, you're probably better off with HS 2002. After only a month of using GT PRO I'm thinkin of switching to HS myself.