BR UTILITY ENDS AT OVER COMPLICATED DRUM PROGRAM

[simonbath]

 
new to forum. while the br machine is great for getting demos down, i find i only use one drum sound the whole song. why?
coz the alternative dream, of mixing patterns up to sculpt a song full of rhythmic variety is TOO DAMN DIFFICULT.
i regret the way such a facility has been designed, and fear i will never be able to get my ears round a complete head body and tail drum track for my songs.
with fear of repeating an old theme, can anyone make it any easier?
(seems like the booklet is rather coldly instructional in this area, like a badly translated 2nd hand piece of information).

[Ferryman_1957]

It's not that bad, but you've got to overcome some idiosyncracies and get used to the difference between steps and measures. 64Guitars is the expert here and there's a good helpful thread here:

http://microrecorders.org/community/getting-started/drum-help!-i'm-begging/0/

I actually find it quicker to get drum arrangements together on the BR now than on my Alesis SR18. It is limited but you can actually do a lot with what's in there before you really hit the limitations.

Cheers,

Nigel

[simonbath]

ok thanks, but it seems like a lot of work to me. i suspect these tips are laid on by people concerned professionally with promoting the machine, but i may be wrong. shall get back to you on results.

[Tangled Wires]

I found the drums tricky in the early days, and would play along with one drum pattern. What i tend to do, is to record my guitar parts along to one drum track at the required BPM of the song (assuming that the tempo will remain the same during the songs entirity), and then go back and create a drum arrangement at the end. That way  the tempo of your song will match the drum pattern that you have been playing along to when recording, and you can then add in fills, changes in pattern etc at the end.

I find that this works best for me, and after you have done one arrangement you will soon get the hang of it despite it appearing daunting at first.

[simonbath]

things are already looking up thanks to this useful and friendly forum. i have managed to string some diff beats together.
i take your point about crafting the drum track after the song has been written.
how do you save the complete bespoke drum track once finished? by that i mean, how is it melded to the mastertake?
ta in advance

[64Guitars]

how do you save the complete bespoke drum track once finished? by that i mean, how is it melded to the mastertake?

For the purpose of mixing your tracks, you can think of the drum track as a fifth track (fifth and sixth really, as the drums are stereo). The drums have their own level control (page 31 "Rhy Level") and level meter, and they'll play in sync with the other tracks every time you press the [PLAY] button. When you create your final 2-track mix of your tracks in mastering mode or bounce mode, the drum track will be included. Until then, you don't need to record it, and you shouldn't. Once the drums are recorded, they can't be easily changed. But, until then, you're free to change the patterns used in your arrangement, add or delete steps, or change the length of a step (by changing the Starting Measure of the following step).

[Ferryman_1957]

Be careful if you do any bouncing though, ie intermediate recording of multiple tracks onto a stereo pair. If you have the rhythm playing while you are bouncing, this will be recorded in teh same way as mastering. This caught me out when I first started bouncing - make sure to turn the rhythm off.

Cheers,

Nigel

[simonbath]

thanks to all who replied. i am now happily using my drum pattern arranger mode.
the next thing though is production, i just master what i think sounds good, ie levels on my tracks/bounced tracks. what else am i missing out on with this little machine re production?
thanks in advance.

[Ferryman_1957]

Glad you've got into the drums - check out the tutorial posted by our resident drum wizard!

When you start out with mastering, just use the mastering effect that sounds best for your song. I think they are all pretty good. Just cycle through them while you are playing in mastering mode (with the record button off) to see which sounds best. When you get more used to the different masterin stylesg, you can explore the individaul settings (especially things like the EQ), but in reality I have never had to do that with a final mix. The delivered ones are all pretty good and really give a punchy feel to the finished work.

I do use mastering effects on intermediate recordings to do things like thicken up the vocals or change the eq of instruments (I find this helpful on bass), that gets you more familiar with teh individual combinations of stuff in the mastering toolkit.

Cheers,

Nigel

[simonbath]

thanks nigel, i shall try it and report back...had never put thing through different mastering sounds to be honest, hadnt realised it was possible, i always went straight through to master only to get the tracks fixed for mp3 conversion. hadnt realised that while on master i could 'cycle' through a range of finishes, varnishes, call them what you will. in any case, the production side is opening up more in this fantastic little gizmo. on a separate point, i love how, with a little planning, you can utilize the virtual tracks to turn this thing into a 24 track capability machine.