Experiences using the BR800 Rhythm Editor (may work for 600/900)

[Ferryman]

I think I have finally got to grips with the BR800 rhythm editor (which I can run on Windows 10 on the PC). So I thought I'd share a few things I found that might help others.

I like the drum patterns provided with the BR 800. There's a lot of usable patterns and I find them quite easy to stitch together into good drum tracks. However, I have two big issues with the preset kits. I find the snare too loud compared to the other drums, the cymbal sounds are poor (hi-hats included), and I'm not a fan of the toms either. After persevering with the editor, I found out how to fix these.

First, next to the time signature is a velocity value. This allows you to set the volume of each drum very precisely so you can get the balance of drums in your kit exactly how you want it. You can either key in the value or use the mouse wheel when you click on a drum in the grid.

Second, loading new drum sounds is easy. You will need 16 bit samples, which limits your choice a bit, but once you find some, just click on any drum/cymbal in the drum kit graphic, then click the "Tone Load" button and choose your file. I found lots of usable free samples here: https://freewavesamples.com/sample-type/drums.

The way I work is to create a rough drum track using preset drum patterns to get the feel and the tempo set. Once I know which patterns will form the core of my track, I then create copies so that I can tweak the velocities to change the individual drum balance how I want it. First, I'll create my song kit and load any new sounds to replace the existing ones. Then I tweak the velocities in each copy pattern so that the drums sound how I want them. This is a bit tedious as you have to edit every individual value. I then make some copies of the copies (with the tweaked velocities) and make some pattern changes, maybe adding a few extra tom hits or changing a few drums around, so that I have more variants of the core patterns.

I rarely create completely new patterns, I generally tweak a preset because they are pretty good and have some nice touches in them.   

[64Guitars]

I rarely create completely new patterns, I generally tweak a preset because they are pretty good and have some nice touches in them.

You can also import standard MIDI files of drum patterns into the BR Rhythm Editor. There are lots of free MIDI files available on the web. They can provide a good starting point from which you can tweak them to your own tastes and write them out, then use them in your drum arrangements.

Here are a few pages with free MIDI drum patterns to check out. You can find more with your favourite search page.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:MIDI_files_of_drum_patterns

http://fivepinpress.com/drum_patterns.html

https://groovemonkee.com/products/drum-freebie-pak-gm

https://mididrumfiles.com/free-samples/

http://www.prosonic-studios.com/midi-drum-beats/blues-and-rock-n-roll#free-drum-loops

A common complaint with BR drums is that all of the presets are in 4/4. But by using the SMF Import feature, you can import free drum patterns in 3/4 or other time signatures. Of course, you can also create your own patterns from scratch in 3/4 or some other time signature, but importing free SMF drum patterns makes it a bit easier, even if you only use them as a starting point and modify them to your liking.

Also, you can import standard MIDI files of complete songs which may contain more than just the drums. The BR Rhythm Editor will ignore everything except MIDI channel 10 which is normally the drums. This is handy for doing covers as you can usually find a free MIDI file of the song on the internet and import it into the BR Rhythm Editor for an instant drum track. But if anyone uses this cheat for songs they post on Songcrafters, please say so in your post as it's unfair and just plain wrong to let people assume that you programmed the drums yourself. You can also use complete MIDI songs as a source of drum patterns. Just import the whole song, then delete what you don't want and write out the remaining pattern to use in your drum arrangements. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any way to select a range of notes and delete them in the BR Rhythm Editor. You can only delete one note at a time. And you can't move a group of notes either. So if the pattern you want starts at bar 5, for example, there's no way to move it to bar 1. If the pattern you want happens to start in bar 1, then you can delete the unwanted bars by changing the pattern length. For example, if you only want bars 1 and 2, then setting the pattern length to 2 will delete all of the remaining bars. But the best way to extract a pattern from a downloaded MIDI file is to load it into a DAW or MIDI sequencer on your computer and edit it there, then export the pattern as a standard MIDI file and import it into the BR Rhythm Editor.

[64Guitars]

Experiences using the BR800 Rhythm Editor (may work for 600/900)

Yes, the BR Rhythm Editor works with the BR-800, BR-600, BR-900CD and BR-864.

[Ferryman]

Thanks. I haven't tried importing MIDI files, I will give that a go.

As the BR800 is still a key part of my workflow I think the rhythm editor is very useful. It's so easy to tweak arrangements as the song develops.

[WarpCanada]

The importing a song midi and using it to make the drum track sounds like a great idea.

I am gonna spend some time with this Rhythm Editor this weekend.

[Ferryman]

I uploaded one of the free midi files that 64G provided links to and it was easy. It's definitely an easy way of adding to the preset patterns in the BR. I think they will all need tweaking, but I find it much easier to edit/tweak an existing pattern rather than write something from scratch.