I don't know how to use drum software

[goatwad]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum, I have used the search feature a tad but didn't get much luck so I thought I'd try here. I've spent the best part of the afternoon and evening trying to work out how to use drum software (I use sequbeat, which I've heard is one of the easier drum programs to use) to add drums to my recordings and am still completely lost.

I've been writing songs for quite a while now and this is the first time I've attempted to record anything, so excuse how newbyish this sounds. I use cool edit pro 2.1 to record and mix and have succesfully recorded the guitar, bass, vocal and even some experimental noise parts to a lot of my songs but I do not know how to add drums to them.

Sequbeat is really new to me so I find it really confusing. Do I need to make the drum parts first and then do the songs around the drums? I seem to run out of space on the sequbeat 'grid' and I only seem to be able to save the butchered mess of drums (despite some pretty cool samples) as .sng files, which cool edit pro seems to have a problem accepting.

If you guys could help out or give me a link to help out with this sort of stuff I'd really appreciate this as I've worked really hard on the demo and don't want to resort to just banging on pots and pans, haha.

 

[oretez]

Not a user of sequbeat but it appears to be a fairly common pattern programer

you build the percussion patterns on a grid by indicating which instruments are to be sounded @ which time location typically these patterns are equivalent to one or two bars

the patterns are then combined (in CEP for example) to support a particular song

essentially you create intros, verses, fills, turns, bridge fills, outros as individual patterns then mix and match for particular songs

you can create generic patterns, (e.g. kck/hihat, snare, kck/hihat, snare; 8th note tambourine; etc.) as something of a metronome independently of any specific song. or you can create song specific patterns after the rest of the song is recorded . . . approach is dependent on how you work

to import them into CEP they have to be saved from sequbeat as 'wav' files

once in CEP they can be turned into 'cel' files that function a bit like the acidized files . .. the individual patterns can be time manipulated to match other elements of the song

learning to build effective patterns with this approach is something that only comes with considerable practice. Rather obviously the more you understand about percussion in general the easier it is

 

[goatwad]

K... Gotcha. Thanks

The only problem is that sequbeat only seems to be able to save the beats as .sng files. I've looked all over for a .sng to .wav converter but couldn't find a thing, so I guess I need a new program.

Any reccomendations? Everybody seems to love fruity loops but it's awfully complicated.

 

[oretez]

you have to register/pay for it for the export function to work

 

[therage!]

Sequbeat is really new to me so I find it really confusing. Do I need to make the drum parts first and then do the songs around the drums?

If you guys could help out or give me a link to help out with this sort of stuff I'd really appreciate this as I've worked really hard on the demo and don't want to resort to just banging on pots and pans, haha.

Have you thought about using drum loops which are created by real drummers and some of them have great sound quality?

I use a lot of loops and I nail down drum parts early on, forget about adding drums after you have put down your tracks, that's nothing but a big headache.

Drum loops usually have the tempo (in beats per minute) listed right on the file. As you start creating a song nail get an idea what tempo you are going to be playing in. Sometimes I have an idea but may have to change it some so I can use a certain loop. Any DAW software allows you to change tempo's but try not to deviate off the original tempo too much.

There are loops all over the net so you should be able to get some just to try it out. If you get serious about it you will want to buy some decent one's done by pro drummers.