The Fake Drums Tone Thread

Rayc, did the upgrade to BIAB include a greater variety of styles in the RealDrums part? I bought the program a couple of years back thinking it might be useful in songwriting, but haven't used it much. What I found was that the stock drum patterns didn't offer much variety. For example, the Country Rock pattern was based on even eight notes, no swing, and the snare hits were right on the beat.

But the kit did sound good.

In your arrangement above, the kick and snare could come up. They need to speak with more authority to keep the other instruments tight.
 
Robus,
I bought some styles I was interested in though each set has something different in it.
PG Music - Band-in-a-Box for Windows - All RealDrums Sets
The link will take you to the page where they are set out & explained - there're also in mix demos though I don't think much of the mixes.
I bought the DVD version but that also allowed me to download the sets so I didn't have to wait.
It worked out reasonably well though there's an awful lot to learn to milk the program for best results. I'm interested in getting some "Real" B3 organ on a song soon.
Oh, the variety of the drums is actually there in the box but one has to learn how to call it up with markers for substyles etc in the chord section or by building the drums in PowerTracksr, (I found a vid regarding that last night. It's their DAW but allows one to construct a drum track in sections)

These help a little...PG Music - Support - Video Tutorials
 
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Ray: Those drums sound good to me....I looked into BIAB, but opted out because there's no way to control each kit piece individually...If it wasn't for that, I might've sprung for it...Sounds good man...


andru: At first I thought that was the great big expansion they sell, which comes on a USB stick, but it's not. The one I was thinking of is "Progressive Foundry" or something like that. It's also like 63GB....:eek:
Still should be a good expansion though, I like to mix/match different pieces from different kits/expansions myself...
 
Miner, I'm using EZ Drummer and I'm wondering if there is any way to increase the speed of my cymbal choke? I want to choke it really quickly so it lasts no more than half a beat. Do you know if there is a way of doing that?
 
JDOD said:
Miner, I'm using EZ Drummer and I'm wondering if there is any way to increase the speed of my cymbal choke? I want to choke it really quickly so it lasts no more than half a beat. Do you know if there is a way of doing that?
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Try playing with the velocity of the choke up/down. I've noticed some cymbals reactions to this are different, so you may wanna try different cymbals too Jdod....
 
JDOD said:
Miner, I'm using EZ Drummer and I'm wondering if there is any way to increase the speed of my cymbal choke? I want to choke it really quickly so it lasts no more than half a beat. Do you know if there is a way of doing that?
Click to expand...

Best way I found is to render the cymbal track and cut each hit off where you want them. A touch of reverb for desired effect.
 
Mr Clean said:
Best way I found is to render the cymbal track and cut each hit off where you want them. A touch of reverb for desired effect.
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Cheers, that's a pain in the arse. I have some other cymbals to work with too. One of my tracks is gonna prove very tricky to work on with EZ Drummer. I've got all of the main bunch done now, bar 1
 
Mr Clean said:
Best way I found is to render the cymbal track and cut each hit off where you want them. A touch of reverb for desired effect.
Click to expand...

Would you necessarily have a cymbal track though? I have no issues with putting volume envelopes on unrendered tracks that the VSTI creates from the master MIDI track - like to up the snare in noisy bits for instance - but not sure I'd be bothered creating a special track for a cymbal and do it to that, or I'd have to take the cymbal out of the OH or else it wouldn't match. I guess I could, but never really approached it that way.

JDOD, are you talking the amount of time it takes to choke once it gets to the choke command, or the amount of time it takes to get to the choke command? Am confused, and haven't really played around with the chokes on my various drum packages.
 
Armistice said:
JDOD, are you talking the amount of time it takes to choke once it gets to the choke command, or the amount of time it takes to get to the choke command? Am confused, and haven't really played around with the chokes on my various drum packages.
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Choke command? Is there one in EZ Drummer?

I just seem to have a 2 versions of the cymbal hit, a normal ringing hit and a hit with a choke on it. In the track I am using it for the choke is too slow so the cymbal rings on on for about a beat longer than I want it too so just sounds shit and weird. I've had a good look around EZD for some sort of choke command and done a bit of googling - couldn't find anything like that. I'd just like to move the choke so it chokes on the beat where I want it and how I would actually do it if I still had a drum kit! (a decade to practice, a way of recording, a space to record, a natural sense of rhythm and any drumming talent)
 
JDOD said:
Choke command? Is there one in EZ Drummer?

I just seem to have a 2 versions of the cymbal hit, a normal ringing hit and a hit with a choke on it. In the track I am using it for the choke is too slow so the cymbal rings on on for about a beat longer than I want it too so just sounds shit and weird. I've had a good look around EZD for some sort of choke command and done a bit of googling - couldn't find anything like that. I'd just like to move the choke so it chokes on the beat where I want it and how I would actually do it if I still had a drum kit! (a decade to practice, a way of recording, a space to record, a natural sense of rhythm and any drumming talent)
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Ah, don't know EZD alas. Firstly, which cymbal are we talking? Hi hat?

I've got Addictive and SSD4 - using the latter lately - it has an actual "choke" "hit" for crashes / ride / splash / china - so you put the hit where you want it and you put the choke where you want it and it sounds just like your little artificial drumber reached out and grabbed the cymbal

For the hi hats you can either choose one of 5 openness settings (shut/quarter/half/three quarter/open) + a "clamp" which shuts the open hat as a drummer would - with their foot - and sounds like it - just put the various "hits" where you need them .... OR ... you can use the "Hi hat CC note on" "hit" and the MIDI CC4 settings (I only discovered this last night on the basis of a Tadpui post) to draw in (in Reaper anyway) the type of hit and what and when happens afterwards by way of ending it.

Now if EZD, being the base offering, only has the open and close options as hits, then working out how to use the MIDI CC4 is probably the way to go. I found this thread that says it's possible, but unless you're using Reaper, I can't really tell you much more.

Also, there's usually a way to edit the volume envelope IN the VSTI interface so that it goes on for longer or shorter - I'm always doing it to reduce the ring on toms, and I have it for hi hats as well, so that might work.

Anyway, some things to think of - you might need to get a bit further under the hood to work it out. :D I'm still doing that myself.
 
Crash cymbals I'm having problems with. I actually don't think that EZD has the functionality you're talking about where you can just decide how far behind the hit you want the choke to be.

As I get better at programming drums over the next few months I might upgrade - miner gets some excellent results with Superior Drummer.
 
andrushkiwt said:
Did you try different velocities? I think the lower ones ring longer, and higher vel's ring shorter...so the choke might work that way too.
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I did have a fiddle with them and didn't notice anything particular happening - this song is definitely in last place on the re-tracking at the moment by virtue of the fact its gonna be a twat to re-drum it.
 
Here's what you need to do for your cymbal chokes Jdude...

Open the piano roll/midi editor...
Find where you want/need your cymbal choked at...
At the bottom of the piano roll, click the "+" sign to add a midi cc lane, & select "channel pressure"...
Double-click in the "channel pressure" lane to add a single note, then adjust it how/where you want it (you may need to play around with this note up/down & back/forth to get it how you want)....

Here's a pic for refrence:




This is just a quick work-around I figured out, but it does work, the only issue (for me) would be forgetting about the cc lane & having cymbal chokes where I wouldn't want 'em, but again, this does work...

FWIW, the "choke" notes you use in EZD2 are adjusted by velocity (as we mentioned before). The higher the velocity, the faster it'll choke, the lower the velocity, the longer it rings out. AFAIK, this is the only "stock" adjustment for the choke notes themselves. The little work-around should give you way more control over your cymbal chokes...
 
Greg_L said:
I just reach up and grab the cymbal. :D
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Lol...I had that typed out myself, & changed it dude....

JDOD said:
Thanks miner, I'll give it a go in the week.
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Fuck no man, you open your daw & fix that shit right now, ain't no waitin' to give it a go in the week....:)

Btw, I'm just wondering how you're gonna remember all this shit dude??? Do you write any of it down for future reference, or just try to remember it...Just wondering....
 
I don't know if this works any more. But back when I used to use MIDI and program my drums for some of the same reasons as everyone else: No money for mics, living in apartments, etc....

The way I'd get a "choked" cymbal was to program the same cymbal right after the one I want to choke. I would then turn the velocity (or volume, can't remember) of the second cymbal to 0. That would essentially choke the first cymbal because every drum machine/program I ever worked with doesn't allow the first cymbal to continue sustaining if you add the same cymbal right after it.

Try it and let me know.
 
RAMI said:
I don't know if this works any more. But back when I used to use MIDI and program my drums for some of the same reasons as everyone else: No money for mics, living in apartments, etc....

The way I'd get a "choked" cymbal was to program the same cymbal right after the one I want to choke. I would then turn the velocity (or volume, can't remember) of the second cymbal to 0. That would essentially choke the first cymbal because every drum machine/program I ever worked with doesn't allow the first cymbal to continue sustaining if you add the same cymbal right after it.

Try it and let me know.
Click to expand...

Yeah dude, it works with some drum programs, but I actually tried it using Superior right before I posted the screenshot/info for Jdod, & it wouldn't work for me with Superior. But, SD has it's own separate midi notes for it's chokes, & again, it will work with other programs...

I'm just trying to give back here, as a lot of you guys have taught me a lot of things about these fake drums, so I'm trying to pass along what I know about 'em...:)
 
minerman said:
Btw, I'm just wondering how you're gonna remember all this shit dude??? Do you write any of it down for future reference, or just try to remember it...Just wondering....
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I'll remember that this thread is here and that there's something for me to try to get it to work.

I have a note book with all my songs in an and "to do" list for each one. e.g. *re-track rhythm guitars, *lyrics for last verse etc. One track has "sort out drum MIDI, inc cymbal chokes"

RAMI, I tried that technique you suggested and it didn't work.
 
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