Synching the Drums

[SickNote]

Picked up the BR recently and love it.

One problem though, whenever I create a few tracks with a drum pattern and save then turn off the BR, the drums are NEVER in time with the guitars when the BR is turned back on.

What am I doing wrong?

Cheers,

[Pedro]

Hello!

That's an old problem of Micro BR, it doesn't save the tempo automatically. You set a tempo and then when you turn it Off and then turn it On again the tempo resets to 120. Follow this tutorial,  http://microrecorders.org/articles/how_to_change_tempo_bossmicrobr.html and apply it on your song. See if it solves the problem.

[SickNote]

Nice one - I'll give it a try!

Thanks,

[Oldrottenhead]

i find when i start a song tempo is usually set at 120bpm, but when i turn it off and back on again tempo goes up to 130bpm.
so i usually hit the cursor till its under the bpm then hit the - value to bring it back down to 120bpm, it is a pain in the arse but a small gripe considering what the micro br can do.

saying that i prefer now to make midi drum tracks with cubase on the pc,convert it to a wav file then add reverb or other effects then record to the micro br via the line in as a stereo mix to tracks 1 and 2.
anyone that can master using the microbr's drum machine to build up a song please post a guide as i cant follow the user guide that boss provide with the microbr on how to do this. it hurts my brain, am sure its dead easy when you know how.

[Pedro]

saying that i prefer now to make midi drum tracks with cubase on the pc,convert it to a wav file then add reverb or other effects then record to the micro br via the line in as a stereo mix to tracks 1 and 2.
anyone that can master using the microbr's drum machine to build up a song please post a guide as i cant follow the user guide that boss provide with the microbr on how to do this. it hurts my brain, am sure its dead easy when you know how.

That's a good idea to record drums on Micro BR.

The onboard drums are quite complicated and take some time to program but one can learn how to do it and then with practice create some good sounding drum sequences. I will try to come up with a simple guide.

[Oldrottenhead]

a guide would be cool cos the micro has some great patterns and drum kits.

[SickNote]

Is it easy to record the drums? They just seem to play, even when I attempt to record them on a track.

[Oldrottenhead]

when you bounce your recording to virtual tracks and the drums are playing they will be recorded.

[Pedro]

Hello,

Well, the article about using onboard drums is online, on http://microrecorders.org/articles/create_a_simple_drum_sequence.html.

Hope it helps!

Please, any errors or suggestions are welcome.

 

[64Guitars]

I've read many complaints from Micro BR users in various forums about the tempo not being saved with the song. This is not unique to the Micro BR and it's not a flaw. All of the BR series recorders behave the same way. The tempo displayed in the Play screen is only meant for previewing patterns or casual jamming in Pattern Mode. Pattern Mode is not suitable for recording as the drum track in your final mix. Aside from the fact that a single pattern is pretty boring, there is no way to end it other than pressing [STOP]. And many songs change tempo throughout the song, perhaps slowing down for the bridge, or speeding up for the ending. So there wouldn't be much point in saving a single tempo setting with the song. Instead, Arrangement Mode is used to specify the tempo and pattern for each section of the song.

You should create a drum arrangement for every song in which you intend to include the BR's drum patterns in the final mix. This is quite easy to do and the arrangement doesn't have to be very long. You merely specify the pattern and tempo to use for each step of the arrangement. If you only want to use one pattern for the whole song, then you only need one step in the arrangement. However, it's usually a good idea to add at least one more step consisting of pattern P327 (BREAK). Pattern P327 is silent, so it effectively ends the drum arrangement. The arrangement is saved with the song, including the tempo of each step.

The length of each step in an arrangement is determined by the Starting Measure which you specify when editing the step. Step 1 always starts at measure 1 (you can't change it). If you set the starting measure of step 2 to 5, then the pattern in step 1 will play for four measures.

Here's an extremely simple arrangement that can be used for any new song you create:

Step	Starting Meas.	Pattern	Tempo
1	1	P314 (metronome)	120.0
2	121	P327 (break)	120.0

This will play the metronome pattern in 4/4 time at 120 beats per minute for 120 measures, which works out to 4 minutes. Of course, you can change the pattern and tempo of step 1, and the starting measure of step 2 to suit the length and style of your song. Once you've created a few songs using this simple drum arrangement, you'll see how easy it is to create drum arrangements and you can venture into adding more steps to the arrangement to make it more interesting. In the meantime, you'll find this very simple arrangement far more suitable for recording than simply playing a pattern in pattern mode. And you'll never have to worry about the tempo changing because it's saved in each step of the arrangement with the song.

Is it easy to record the drums? They just seem to play, even when I attempt to record them on a track.

The drums are not an input source like a guitar or microphone, so they can't be recorded directly to a track. They are more like a 5th track that's dedicated to drums and, like any track, the only way to record the drum track on another track is to bounce it. However, there's usually no good reason to do this, as the drums will be included when you bounce all of your tracks down to two v-tracks for the final mix. Until then, there's no need to worry about recording the drums. In fact, if you do any intermediate bounces to free up tracks, it's important to lower the level of the drum track so that it doesn't get included in the bounce. You should only include the drums in the mix when you're doing your final bounce down to two tracks.