Session Drummer

S

Shana

New member
1) Can anyone explain me how this midi effect works, step by step? I followed the help instructions but I dont seem to get it. Can I create a drum track from scratch?
Thanx
Shana

(Sonar)

2) Once I would have the drum track set up and I wanted to record a bass line, how would i go about it? Manually play it (keyboard) and then quantize? Does looping come into play here?


3) I was working on a midi project where i needed to cut and paste the chorus of a song that it would repeat a couple of time and i had the hardest time lining up the tracks. I would get the end of the chorus 1 to go into chorus 2 and then going into chorus 3 there'd be a timing problem. I'm sitting for 2 hours lining up notes, and sliding them over so they start on time. Whats the best way to copy and paste say 5 midi tracks at a time?

Thank you
Shana
 
Well, I've used CWPA9, and if the copy/paste is the same, if you 'paste special', or click a little 'advanced' button that comes up in the paste thing (after you hit CTRL-V, you get a little pop up window asking how many repetitions etc...), you should be able to select an option that says 'align with measure'. I've had this problem before where I record an audio or midi segment thats supposed to last 8 bars, but its 7 bars, 3 beats and 15/16th notes. Then when I copy/paste it 3 more times, the last one would be off by 3 16th notes. 'Align with measure' fixes this.

Again, this tip is for CWPA9. If SONAR is different, well... sorry :)
 
I'll try and give you a start with Session Drummer -

First you need to set up your meter and beats per minute for the project.

Next, take a blank midi track, and in the effects window patch in Session Drummer. (Memory tells me that you might need at least one note of audio or midi in the song. I don't think Session Drummer will work if it's the only thing you have in the project - but I could be wrong about this).

Once Session Drummer opens up you will see 3 windows - Style, Pattern and Song. You start by choosing a Style. Once you have chosen a style, you will see pattern selections for that style appear in the Patterns Window.

If you double click on a Pattern, it will appear in the song window. If at this point you click Sonar's play button, you should be able to hear the pattern. If you only have one pattern selected, it will create a continous loop of that pattern and play it over and over.

Now if you double click on another pattern, it will also appear in the Song window underneath the first one. If you click Sonar's play button now, it should play the first pattern for the number of measures indicated in the Length column, and then it will move on to the second pattern and play that for the number of measures shown in the length column. After that it will go back to the beginning and start over.

There is also a toolbar, which is somewhat self explanatory. It is used to remove a pattern from a song, or to move a particular pattern earlier or later in the song.

After some trial and error you should have a "series" of patterns in the song window. Oftentimes you will want the same pattern repeated. For ex., you want a partucular pattern to play for 21 measures. You can double click on the Loop Count column and increase the number of times a pattern plays. So if you have a 7 measure pattern, you would increase the loop count to 3. When you do this, it should read 21 in the Length Column.

Once you've got something reasonably close to what you want, you can "print" the patterns by highlighting the midid Track and selecting Edit -> Apply Midi Effects. After the pattern is printed, you can go into Piano Roll View and edit the individual drum parts.

It's a pretty neat tool once you get the hang of it. Good luck, and come back if you still have trouble with it.
 
Neat CAL routine

Don't forget about the CAL routine 'SPLITNOT.CAL' that you can run on your drum track which splits it up into many different tracks, each containing just one particular drum instrument (kick drum, snare, etc...). That way, you can play with the levels of each drum, or apply reverb to just one.

I think if you do a Google search for SPLITNOT.CAL you'll find it no problems.
 
followup to session drummer

just a followup on session frummer - you have to click on the actual track number - i.e., the number in the upper left hand corner of the track in track view - to select the track in which to "apply midi effects". Just highlighting the track itself doesn't work, as I found out over, and over, and over again, wondering what I could possibly be doing wrong and why I could hear session drummer playback but no midi data would ever appear.
 
AH! Thank you !

I havent worked it out yet. Its been the hardest thing to do since i bought sonar!

:)
Shana
 
let me start by thanking everyone who's shared their knowledge in this thread as well as all the others. i am new to this board, and have learned SOOOOOOOOOO much by just reading and reading in the past few days.

now for my question:

Can someone please elaborate about this "SLIPNOT.CAL" thing?
Id really like to put each drum on its own track.

Thanks again!
BlackDrum

oh yea...i should tell you that i am using Sonar 1.0 & win2K
 
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