Drummer looking to make drum tracks on a computer

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jamiemcparland
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Drummer looking to make drum tracks on a computer

Post by jamiemcparland » Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:47 pm

Drummer looking to make drum tracks on a computer.

I'm a drummer and guitar player that recently lost my practice space and moved into an airstream so i have very limited space.

I'm wanting to write songs and work on music with my newfound extra time. I have a Macbook Pro, a m-audio keyboard that has midi/usb on it, DP5 and a toneport. Garageband and logic express.

My ball up is i want to make some good sounding drum tracks to play guitar over.

I'm just a rocker, Basically i know how to use DP as a digital 4 track. I don't know about quantizing, and all that stuff. So I don't really know where to start. I'd be into buying some software i need, but i don't know what i need. I look at software and it starts taking about synths and all this other stuff i don't care about. It's like it's aimed at keyboard guys which i am not

Does anyone have any suggestions on some great drum sequencing software for Mac OSX? Is that even what i need? Is that even what it's called?

I'd like something midi i guess so i can trigger drum sounds (like with the Bun E Carlos sample cd) I don't really know what I'm talking about here.

Also I don't mind using the keyboard for input but some sort of drum pad that i could hit with sticks would be cool. I would think stuff would sound allot more real then.

I'm just so confused argh!
Thanks!
Jamie

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digitaldrummer
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Post by digitaldrummer » Thu Nov 09, 2006 7:09 pm

easiest route would probably to buy a loop library, then piece together a "song" from those as you see fit. If that doesn't spin your beanie, then maybe check out the M-audio "Trigger Finger". A lot of folks are using Fxpansion's BFD for drum triggering/samples. it's got lotsa features and some good samples.

Mike

sonikbliss
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Post by sonikbliss » Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:19 am

You don't need a sequencer since DP already excels at that. What you need is some kind of sound module that has good drum sounds for you to trigger. Whether it's a hardware sound module or a software one is completely up to your preference. Personally I prefer software because (with rewire) it integrates very easily with ProTools. Currently I have BFD, it sounds freaking amazing, but the downside is it is extremely processor intensive so you have to have a great computer. I'm going to look into using Strike, which was just released by Digidesign, which is similar to BFD but hopefully more efficient. I have a friend who has been cutting tracks by having his drummer play a Roland MIDI drum kit that is triggering BFD and he's getting great results. This is the method I would recommend for you since you say you aren't a keyboard guy and you don't get into the software tweaking all that heavily. This will allow you to basically just dial up your sounds and play/record tham just like playing a regular kit, without having to worry about having to quantize and all that to try and get a realistic performance.

indravayu
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Post by indravayu » Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:04 am

I am a guitarist and home recordist who knows very little about drumming - just recently I bought BFD and the Platinum Samples Andy Johns expansion pack and am now able to program very realistic-sounding drum grooves in Sonar 5 PE - I can highly recommend BFD to you.

- Chris

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Post by GooberNumber9 » Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:03 pm

Here's another vote for BFD. Also I can confirm that hooking the Roland drum modules up to BFD works great right out of the box. BFD is actually set up by default to work with the Roland MIDI messages. You could configure it work with others, but why? :)

Todd Wilcox

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jayf
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Post by jayf » Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:37 pm

I'm not a drummer, but use DP. And, I use BFD--it's my preferred tool for creating drum parts right now. And, the sounds are great.

If you have DP 5, check out model 12. I haven't done much with model 12 yet myself, but you might get what you need out of it without needing to buy more software.

The DP drum editor lets you "paint" drum parts--you can use it with model 12 or any other drum synth (I use it with BFD, for example).

I also picked up a used Yamaha DD55 drum pad, which is kind-of toy-like in appearance, but has midi. I play on it and trigger drum sounds in DP and/or BFD. This is fun, and sometimes a way better way to create a drum part than using the drum editor.

There are likely newer / less expensive drum pads out now that you might consider as well.
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