SLMC

Norris Shepherd

So the hardest part of recording (for me) is the drums. Even with some drum machine type programs, i'm not finding that i'm able to get the drums as good as I'd like.

I've been lucky and had some help from Toby Lancaster with a few tracks, but i'm wondering if there are any drummers, drum programmers, or 'rhythm type' people lurking out there that i haven't met yet.

any drummers out there?

Alazarin · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 130 Location: London

I'm not a drummer although I can thump out a passable backbeat if pushed. I know the drum machine problem only too well and have found a workaround that I use for my own recordings.

1) Select a 'vanilla' drum pattern in the style I want for a particular piece.
2) Record the guitar / keyboards / whats parts.
3) Either play in a bassline or even a 1-note part that exactly follows the rhythm of the part and record it as a MIDI track.
4) Quantise (manually or automatically. I always quantise parts manually) your new rhythm guide track.
5) Transpose your rhythm guide track so that it's either an octave above or below the drum parts.
6) Select both the drum track and the rhythm tracks. You can now use the guide track as a visual template to shape the drum track to fit the recorded parts more closely.

Sometimes I have to go through several iterations of this process before I'm satisfied with the recording.

The above flight-plan is based on the presumption that you have your drum patterns in a computer-based DAW. If not, you'll first need to port all your drum patterns into your DAW and use it to drive your beatbox which will be only used as a sound module.

To port the patterns into your DAW:

1) connect MIDI OUT from your computer to MIDI IN of your beatbox.
2) Connect MIDI OUT from your beatbox to MIDI IN of your computer.
3) Set one as Slave and the other as Master. It really doesn't make any difference. The only purpose is to synchronise the 2 units.
4) Select a pattern on your beatbox. Or, if possible, create a 'song' that includes 1 repeat of each pattern in your beatbox.
5) Select a MIDI track on your DAW, hit record and roll it.
6) Repeat steps 4 & 5 for each pattern in your beatbox.
7) Tidy up / quantise the imported patterns and archive them for reference.
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Norris Shepherd · Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:47 am Post subject:

Thanks Alazarin. That's not an approach i've tried, but would definitely be helpful. The 'drum machine' i use is a vst instrument type, so it's already imbeded in my DAW, and i won't have to route the MIDI stuff (well except for in my DAW), but that's not a bad approach.

Alazarin · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 130 Location: London

Heh, I use the Steinberg LM4 MKII beatbox. It really is a little shop of horrors:
1) apallingly bad installer (nothing new there. Steinberg cannot write an installer to save their lives)
2) a total inability to edit the sounds on the fly as the pads go dead at random
3) BSOD crashes if it accidentally recieves a patch-change command.

I had planned on porting all my LM4 Beatbox setups into Kontakt. But Kontakt has 'showstopper' issues as far as live performance use goes.
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RayW · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 953 Location: Twin Cities, MN

I use Steinberg's Groove Agent 2. Love it. Would love to upgrade to 3 also ... but ...

But, I will admit that auditioning all possible patterns takes a little while. And, I usually have to add a few tweeks here and there, anyway.
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