PC drum programs

[antisocialworker]

I was just wondering if anyone has ever used Acoustica beatcraft
before, and if anyone knows where i can get the free version?
or any other programs of this kind
heres a little sample of the accoustica beatcraft, its very easy to use.

[64Guitars]

The new BR900CD Rhythm Editor is awesome!

http://www.roland.com/products/en/_support/dld.cfm?iCncd=687&ln=en&SearchBy=RcId&dst=P&iRcId=0000023210&dsp=1

It doesn't work directly with the Micro BR but you can create patterns and arrangements and save them on your computer, then play them back and record them to wave files with a PC audio recorder such as Audacity. Then you can import the wave file into the Micro BR using the BR Wave Converter.

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?dsection=d_downloads&ObjectId=699

[waynesan76]

I used to use a kit called "hydrogen" before I bought a drum machine. It's free, easy to use, and sounds pretty good. You can create entire songs, send your PC's audio-out to the BR and record it directly. Check it out here:

http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

If you have any other questions about the program hit me up.

[guitarron]

I didn't realize it has all the kit sounds in the program I thought it was an interface type thing Tommy's toolbox-
This is truly very useful-but the arrangemt has to use up a track because its a wav file from how you described-
mbr won't play the arrangement?-thats a bummer
I just installed it-i have to play with it some more i guess

The new BR900CD Rhythm Editor is awesome!

http://www.roland.com/products/en/_support/dld.cfm?iCncd=687&ln=en&SearchBy=RcId&dst=P&iRcId=0000023210&dsp=1

It doesn't work directly with the Micro BR but you can create patterns and arrangements and save them on your computer, then play them back and record them to wave files with a PC audio recorder such as Audacity. Then you can import the wave file into the Micro BR using the BR Wave Converter.

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?dsection=d_downloads&ObjectId=699

[64Guitars]

I didn't realize it has all the kit sounds in the program I thought it was an interface type thing Tommy's toolbox-
This is truly very useful-but the arrangemt has to use up a track because its a wav file from how you described-mbr won't play the arrangement?-thats a bummer

Yes, the arrangement file format on the Micro BR is different than the other BRs so you can't edit your Micro BR arrangements directly with the Rhythm Editor. Instead, you have to record the Rhythm Editor arrangement to a wave file which uses up a track (two if you want to keep it in stereo). However, the Rhythm Editor has the big advantage that you can actually create your own patterns. You can't do that with the Micro BR alone or with Tommy's Toolbox. You can also create your own drum kits with the Rhythm Editor using drum samples in wave format or by copying individual drums from other kits. See this page for some sites where you can download drum and cymbal samples:

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Samples.html

You can add a tambourine, conga, bongos, tabla, guiro, gong, or any other drum or cymbal sounds to your drum kits.

You can also import standard midi files into the Rhythm Editor. This is great for doing cover songs as there are thousands of midi files available on the web. You can import the midi file directly into the Rhythm Editor. It will ignore all the midi channels except channel 10 which is normally the drums. This way, you can get an instant drum track by importing a midi file, and add tracks for guitars, bass, vocals, etc. yourself. It's great fun!

To save your patterns, arrangements, and drum kits, you need to create a disk with some BR900 files in it. I'm attaching those files to this message. You can use any drive but I find that a USB flash drive is very handy for this. Just unzip the attached files to the root directory of the drive. This will create a ROLAND folder (must be uppercase) in the root directory of the drive and all of the other files and folders will be inside the ROLAND folder. When you start the Rhythm Editor, it will find this disk with the ROLAND folder in the root directory and it will treat it as if it was a BR-900, so you can save all your patterns, arrangements, and drum kits there.

[Oldrottenhead]

I used to use a kit called "hydrogen" before I bought a drum machine. It's free, easy to use, and sounds pretty good. You can create entire songs, send your PC's audio-out to the BR and record it directly. Check it out here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=hydrogen&filename=hydrogen-0.9.3.tar.gz&use_mirror=superb-east

If you have any other questions about the program hit me up.

hi waynesan76 i downloaded this programme and unzipped it but have not got a clue how to install it. can you advise me. cheers

[64Guitars]

That link for Hydrogen is the source code package. You'd need a C++ compiler to compile the code and create the executable. You probably don't want to do that, so....

Go to the Hydrogen home page instead:

http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

and download the Windows installer (assuming you use Windows).

Hydrogen is a good program but I think you'll like the Boss BR Rhythm Editor better. But try them both and decide for yourself. There's no harm in having both programs installed. Neither will work directly with the Micro BR. You'll have to record the drums from your computer to the Micro BR, or record to a wave file (in Audacity, for example) and import the wave file into the Micro BR using the BR Wave Converter.

[Oldrottenhead]

I used to use a kit called "hydrogen" before I bought a drum machine. It's free, easy to use, and sounds pretty good. You can create entire songs, send your PC's audio-out to the BR and record it directly. Check it out here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=hydrogen&filename=hydrogen-0.9.3.tar.gz&use_mirror=superb-east

If you have any other questions about the program hit me up.

thanks i'll try link i think version i downloaded was for linux os, im on windows xp. i got the br900 drum machine looks interesting, am currently looking for plug ins for cubase sx3 to see if i can create drum tracks usually do this but is so laborious, am gonna talk nice to the missus and see if she'll let me buy a boss dr3 or summit.

[64Guitars]

Yes, having real velocity-sensitive drum pads like those on the DR-3 would be cool. I wish my BR-864 had drum pads like the BR-600 does.

An alternative to a standalone drum machine is a drum pad controller such as the M-Audio Trigger Finger or the Korg padKONTROL:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/maudio_trigger_finger_midi_drumcontroller.htm

http://www.thomann.de/gb/korg_padkontrol.htm

These connect to your computer to trigger the drum sounds. They can also be used with a software DAW to input drum patterns or even control various parameters in the DAW. They have 16 large velocity-sensitive drum pads versus the DR-3's 13 small pads.

The Trigger Finger is about the same price as a DR-3.

http://www.thomann.de/gb/boss_dr3.htm

The padKONTROL is a bit more but it offers some nice features that aren't on the Trigger Finger. Check out this video:

http://www.korg.com/KMplay/NSplay.htm?path=http://video.korgusa.com/km/padKONTROL.wmv

I love the X-Y pad and how you can use it to control rolls and flams.

Here's another video. The drum sounds aren't as good in this one but that's no reflection on the padKONTROL. You can choose any drum sounds you like with it.

http://www.korg.com/KMplay/MSchk.htm?mf=padKONTROL_Overview.wmv

For more info on these controllers, see the manufacturer's website:

http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_prod_no=KPC1&category_id=1

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/TriggerFinger-main.html

[Oldrottenhead]

i think i'll go for a standalone drum machine that i can plug straight into the mbr. i used to have an alesis hr-16 oh how i miss it. dead easy to programme then about two years ago when hr died on me after 20 years good service i bought a zoom drum machine but that was a nightmare to programme, great sounds but a bugger to use, so that went onto ebay for a profit too lol.
drumming is not my forte and am looking for something with lots of pre set patterns i can mess about with to build into songs (i should get a micro br lol) (got one hehe) but is also easy to use to make own patterns and songs. thats why i liked hr16. so all suggestions welcome.