How do YOU make the drums?

[dasilvasings]

Hi to all,

A question I supose it affects all. How do you program/ record drums?

Besides singing, drums are my worst nightmare.

I usually try to find a suitable drum pattern from to BR600, then I record the song without changing the pattern. Eventually in the end, I may change the patterns (intro/ fills, etc.) while bouncing the tracks, to make it more interesting.

More recently I bought cakewalk's virtual drum kit, however the problem is still there. I never find the proper drums - weird as it seems, it is mostly because the drum patterns are always sophisticated and I can't find the plain simple patterns.

Does anyone actually records their own drums? Do you use drum pads? Electronic drums? Acoustic drums? Drum machines? Cat and dog?

Indulge us! Share your experiences!

[Geir]

I almost exclusively use the MicroBR drums. I do experiment a bit, using FX on the drums, combining two different drum-kits, use the fills as the main drums etc. .... It IS a limitation, so I did buy a drum-machine .. I just haven't used it yet .... The up-coming Zappa-fest will be a challenge tho ! I do believe I will have to look outside the mbr to be able to do some of the songs I hope to do.

[Vanncad]

Ah yes - a topic that is near and dear to my heart.

I use the BR Rhythm Editor (free download from Roland web site). You can use this with your BR600 (but unfortunately not with the MBR).

I usually just start with a tempo that I like, and then play along to the click while keping an eye on the Rhythm editor screen. I keep a notepad handy and write down the number of the measures where the intro, verse,chorus, lead, etc, go. I then go back and "fill" these measures with the appropriate patterns.

I used to write all my own patterns, but lately, I have been bastardizing presets to suit my needs.
It is by far the most time-consuming part of any song composition for me.

I find that if you mix up the patterns by changing drum hit velocities, and adding slight variations on cymbal hits, etc. you can get some decent results.
I have recently been using around 10 different patterns per song, but this can vary.

Get your arrangement together,and then throw some reverb and delay on the rhythm track, and you're good to go.

I have been looking at some Roland E-Kits (TD4 and TD9), but I recently ran into a dude who said I could borrow his Yamahas to record with so I am planning on maybe trying them on my next project.

I have a friend who is an amazing drummer, but he lives out of town, and I just can't seem to find the time to get together with him. Not to mention properly micing a kit does take a fair amount of time too.
One thing that does intrigue me is the BR600's ability to sample drum sounds. Using this technique you can record acoustic drum hits and make your own kit. This might be worth a try, but I think the cymbals might be hard to get a decent sustain. Check out this vid that explains how to do it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94L3ZOg4Ufg

Anyways - that's what I do for now, but if I am going to keep recording songs, an electronic kit is definitley gonna be my next major purchase.

P.S. - If you are into screwing around with cover tunes, you can download drum tab and program the patterns into the BR Rhythm Editor too. I programmed ZZ Top drum tab for a  parody I did called "Cheap Tech Writer". It took a while, but I think it turned out okay.

Good luck man!

[dasilvasings]

I did try to import wavs from the vltone, but there was some kind of weird mismatch between the wavs accepted by the BR600 and mine. I did try to save with audacity with other formats, but it was of no use. I will leave it for the time being. I'll get the BR800 as soon as possible and I don't want (don't need) to invest more time with importing wavs for the BR600 drums.

Your comments are interesting. I've noticed that a lot of the songcrafters here mix different patterns. I did not think changes in drum hit velocities could be so important (I lack sensitivity, so I always choose the fixed velocity), but it makes sense. I'll give it a try, but through programming, not actually hitting the pads.

I'm tempted to buy (wishlist) a e-kit too, but a smaller one, pad like (like yamaha dd65), but I'm not sure yet.

[Tony W]

I almost exclusively use the MicroBR drums. I do experiment a bit, using FX on the drums, combining two different drum-kits, use the fills as the main drums etc. .... It IS a limitation, so I did buy a drum-machine .. I just haven't used it yet .... The up-coming Zappa-fest will be a challenge tho ! I do believe I will have to look outside the mbr to be able to do some of the songs I hope to do.

I seem to recall you going quite a bit outside the box on this Geir

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=5906.msg73885#msg73885

[peterp]

I try to make use of Hydrogen .
Advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux. I does have a windows installer if you use windows.

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

[T.C. Elliott]

Tim Fatchen just posted this over at the new 50/90 site:

My Rock Band drums were bought from Kmart for $20 ($15 US), as no one seems to buy them. I now have them running as midi input. THey're limited in that theyre not velocity sensitive, but I can tweak that easily in my sequencer.

I DON'T possess a playstation, xbox, Wii. Just the drums which come with a USB cable.

Here is the How-to article with links.

http://benjefferies.com/2008/03/18/using-rock-band-drum-kit-as-midi-cont...

Guitar Hero drums I gather can also be used but I haven't tried that.
http://drop.io/360mididrummer

I use MidiYoke, having had some problems with LoopBe

And on the reaper forums there is a link to some free drum samples and I've found a bunch in a few other places. If someone wants I can find the links and post them as well.

[mr2kewl]

i've been using DrumSite since i'm not a drummer and would most likely be arrested if i started. great inexpensive ($60 US) drum progam.

http://www.drums.sk/

also, i've been using Soundplant 26.1 until i just found 39 while posting this reply.

http://soundplant.org

Soundplant turns your computer keyboard into a sound trigger. you can assign whatever sound you want to whatever key you want. so, i use Soundplant as a trigger pad for the .WAV files from DrumSite to give myself a realtime feel to my drums.

check em out.

[Gu Djin]

Drums are a pain.  I've tried free-handing using a midi keyboard, but I stink.  I've tried Instant Drummer with Riffworks, which sorts out my timing issues,but I find too inflexible for what I like to do.  Recently I've been using samples in Acid Pro7,  Thats not too bad and Acid enables me to change the swing and timing etc.  But it is so time consuming trying to get it right - I forget what I wanted it for in the first place.
 

[cuthbert]

Give me Ringo in a box, and all my drum problems will be solved.