Bass Drum Only drum pattern?

[launched]

I see watcha mean - I'll try that.

M

[drutgat]

One of the biggest limitations - for me - is not being able to edit the rhythms on the BR. Sometimes I just want a cymbal or bass drum sound too. I don't think it's possible - unless 64 guitars knows a sneaky workaround solution. Otherwise it might be a case of importing a drum track that covers what you need. Does the Kas do rhythms like that?

Yes, this is a huge limitation for me, too, in this otherwise excellent machine.

I used to have a Zoom PS-04 on which one was able to edit the drums, and do other things that the MBR can't do. A great machine which had a huge limitation in that it recorded on cards that are no longer made (can't remember which - XD?) and that also had a much smaller capacity when recording 4 tracks than the MBR.

If only Boss would make those drums editable.

[Ted]

This can be done with some clever bouncing, editing, and looping--all on the MBR.

It's definitely not a user-friendly proposition (even 64Guitars probably wouldn't touch this one) but the attached MP3 is proof that it can be done.  Here's how:

[I updated this to make it even easier.  Ignore any parts with strikethrough.]

• Build your drum arrangement using a pattern that is close to what you want or just using PT:327 BREAK to reserve a place for the pattern that is unavailable on the MBR.
• Bounce the drum arrangement to two paired tracks.
• Then find a pattern that approximates what you want.  If necessary, adjust the tempo, and bounce a few repetitions of it to another pair of tracks.  I'll call these the "RM Tracks" (short for Raw Material)
• Turn Rhythm off now, because your drums are now recorded on your tracks--just like old-school recording.
• Edit (i.e. copy and delete) portions of the RM tracks until you have the pattern the way you want it.
• Copy measures of the RM Tracks onto the main track into the measures you had reserved for them.

Easy as pie!  Actually, it was a pain in the ass.

Here are the particulars, which may help you, Ferryman.  (And you seriously owe me a beer.)

My drum arrangement is at 150 bpm.

I found a pattern with four kicks in a row--actually it's seven kicks in a row: PT:057 HdRc4-f1.  However, the five kicks are actually a sixteenth-note quintuplet as far as I can tell.  So I had to slow the tempo down to 30 bpm--one-fifth the temp of my drum track on order to get those bass drums to match up with my quarter notes.

You would have to do likewise: Divide your tempo by five, and you can extract quarter-note bass drum kicks out of HdRc4-f1.

Once I had the math figured out, the rest was fairly easy.

The dialogue you hear is taken from Llamas with Hats.  And that's me blowing into a beer bottle--the one Ferryman needs to replace.

[Ted]

• Bounce the drum arrangement to two paired tracks.

It occurred to me that this step is unnecessary, as long as you leave a break (PT:327) in the drum arrangement where you will insert the doctored patterns. This would be preferable because (a) it's less work, (b) it would allow cymbal sounds to sustain into the break pattern, and (c) in some cases (such as when the doctored pattern is simply four bass drum kicks) only one track would be necessary, and not a stereo pair.

If nobody responds soon to my having solved this problem, I'm going to start to feel like a crackpot ranting about having achieved cold fusion.

[Ferryman]

It's great, it's great, I love you, will you have my baby and also do this in 120 and 95 BPM to save me having to?

Seriously, thanks Ted, this is a really clever way to solve the problem, thanks so much. And as for Llamas With Hats, that's another new discovery!!

Cheers,

Nigel

[Ted]

[W]ill you...do this in 120 and 95 BPM to save me having to?

Bummer.  For your particular case, I can't do this.  You want four bass drum beats in a row, and I'm using pattern 057 HdRc4-f1, which has the peculiarity of five beats in a quintuplet.  In order to convert the quintuplet into 4/4 quarter notes, I need to be able to divide the desired tempo by five--but the result can't be less than 25 bpm, which is the MBR's minimum tempo.

     120 bpm
     --------  = 24 bpm
        5


     95 bpm/5
     ---------  = 19 bpm
        5

If your 120 bpm song could be sped up to 125 bpm, we could use this technique with pattern 057, because...

     125 bpm
     --------  = 25 bpm
        5

This technique on the MBR will work in many situations, but apparently not this one because of the tempo limitation.

Y'know, in your case it might be easier to just record those four bass drum beats off a keyboard with drum sounds.  If you don't have one of those, try banging on a cardboard box.

[Ferryman]

Darn. I hadn't realised the MBR didn't go so low on BPM. I had happily worked out that both my songs were divisible by 5 (good thing) but had not tried it. So cardboard box it is then. Nevertheless, it's still a very useful technique and one to keep up the sleeve. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

Nigel

[64Guitars]

I assumed you were looking for a built-in pattern you could use in an arrangement. But, as you seem to be willing to work with the pattern as audio, here is a wav file from my BR-864 containing the bass drum from the STD 1 drum kit at 120 bpm and 95 bpm. You can cut it up in Audacity and import it to your Micro BR.

[Ferryman]

Thanks 64G, that helps.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Ted]

Thanks 64G, that helps.

I was kind of looking forward to hearing your cardboard box.