General midi synth questions

[kc0jsj]

Hey all,

For those of you who have read some of my previous questions, I would like to apologize for my lack of clarity in the posts To be frank, (I love that phrase) I didn't know enough of the studio "lingo" to say exactly what I want....anyway!

I am hoping to get at least one of three questions answered here:

1. is there a good VST General Midi synth like the Cakewalk TTS-1 that would work in Cubase SX3? I only need it for the drums. I need something to program drums via midi keyboard that has a similar setup to the TTS-1 (particularly having two bass drum keys - for double bass action)

2. Is there a way that I can take individual drum samples and assign any drum to any key?

3. Is there a way to get DXi instruments to run in Cubase?

Ok. I hope all that made sense...I really appreciate anything you've got!

God Bless!
Michael

 

[Smogger]

Midi

1.) General MIDI is a standard developed so that keyboards across different brands would have a similar set of sounds from board to board...So, if you go to any GM keyboard and type in 00, it will most likely be a piano. I think 28 is Slap Bass or some guitar...SO, what you really want (I believe) is a sample library that you can run as a plug in. There are a ton of these.

2.)Yes

3.)I don't know

Give me a call at the number below. I would be glad to help you further with this. It's my job to help you. Good Luck!

 

[suprstar]

Cubase dropped support for DX plugins. The equivalent is a vsti (virtual studio technology instrument), and there's a million. Cubase comes with one that's not terrible, ezdrummer is a great drum vsti you can buy.. You can certainly assign any key to any drum/sample/sound for any vsti.

 

[I Got Riffs]

I like this thread because this was the first thing I needed to do when I was making the transition from simply recording audio to learning how to use midi, vsti's and such.

I'm really not familiar with Cubase, but I'm sure every DAW has something similar...

I started with FL Studio 8 and used it's default drum vsti "FPC". I'd already had Beta Monkey Double Bass Mania and had been using the loops, but it also came with a bunch of single-hit samples. Great rock and metal drum tones(you mentioned needing double bass). So I picked my favorite samples out of there and put them into FPC and was able to do everything I needed and more.

In addition to assigning the samples to keys on your midi keyboard, you can also use an electronic drum kit the same way. If you're very crafty, look up "diy electronic drums" on Youtube for some cool ideas.

Another cool feature is the multi-layered pads. This means that you can set different samples to the same key that will trigger depending on velocity. A hard hit can trigger a sample of a hard hit and a soft hit will trigger a sample of a soft hit, rather than the same sample at lower volume. You can also set the triggers to cancel each other out. For example, if you have an open hihat on one pad/key, then the closed hihat on another will stop the previous from ringing through - just as it would do naturally.

 

[kcearl]

One thing good about EZ drummer is when you insert it into your DAW ensure you click "All Synth Audio Outputs* (usually 'Mono')" this will automatically insert eight separate tracks into the EZD track folder.

Then to assign these eight tracks to the eight microphones on the EZD kit it's a simple matter of opening EZD's internal mixer and selecting the output to Multichannel.

This gives it way more flexibility than just dropping in midi files which can sound a little flat and obvious..


The initial kit is well sampled and will do most anything but you can buy the expansion packs for $39 just now (I think thats less than half price) and these are very good..especially the Nashville kit which is not stuck to the country genre..also they have just released an electronic kit that looks pretty special

There are free midi files around on the internet..sample packs from groove monkey and oddgrooves...as well as monster packs for around $20 that include rhythm patterns written by professional drummers like Peter Fredlander...although you sound like you want to do all your own programming I sometimes find it easier to use the kick and/or snare from an existing midi file to build a drumbeat on, it certainly saves time and covers my lack of skill there..I'll eventually do them all from scratch fingers crossed


*This is what its called in Sonar..Im not sure how its worded in Cubase)

 

[TimOBrien]

Free:

Cakewalk's FREE soundfont player SFZ: http://www.cakewalk.com/support/project5/sfz.aspx
---if you don't know what a soundfont is, go to www.soundfont.com ----
Along with free GeneralMIDI soundfonts from hammersound.net or sf2midi.com
(I like Unison or Cadenza but there are a jillion out there and you can just get a drum soundfont.)

Or you can use a sampler like the free Shortcircuit:http://vemberaudio.se/shortcircuit.php
It will allow you to use .wav files, soundfonts and other formats.

Both work with Cubase and are FREE.