Drums

[sirius]

Im trying to learn the basics of Cubase SX. Ive done music on and off for the last 10 years, but Im only just past novice stage still.

Im used to using Reason, which has drum machines.....and before that I used FruityLoops, and before that I used Cakewalk and Logic and did everything via midi from my brothers keyboard which has an inbuilt 16 channel sequencer.

What I dont get is how to create drum tracks easily in Cubase. Theres the LM9 or whatever drum module, but to be honest its pants. Theres HAlion sampler, but it hardly resembles or works like a drum module.

I cant seem to find a rex player.......but that maybe cos Im not looking hard enough, or perhaps HAlion does it.

I dont like to use prepackaged loops, and I daftly sit there and try and copy something I like, or make up my own on a similar basis, playing everyt hit, kick, hihat, cymbal, snare and bongo lol. It sometimes works out okay, but can sound a bit stale compared to 'pro' tracks.


To any 'producing' artists in our midsts, how do you construct your drum tracks? Do you use sample loops, program your own, if so- how?, what software/vsti's do you use for it, how do you structure it? How do you arrange it in SX (one sound each 'track', lumped together, grouped into similar percussions etc). Are there any tips and tricks to produce drum lines from scratch, variation of the beat techniques, fills, drum rolls......

Imagine youve just opened SX, and you wanna make a track. Youve decided to lay down JUST the drums for your track from start to finish....now, what would you do from there? The software is waiting for genius, its an open blank slate waiting to go.....

......off you go!


Cheers

Sirius.

[ilovepiano]

I use Reason for all my drum samples - individual hits triggered by notes from cubase. What I tend to do is work with 1 bar blocks and build them up as I go along. I also try to split it onto several midi tracks, 1 for the kick, one for the hihats, one for snare rolls etc - it's easier to drop bits in and out when they are seperate like that.

Does that make any sense?

[zoom]

I give up all this about 18 month ago to get into dex lol, strange seeing folk go the other way now. One way i used to get drums loops, especially 808/909 stuff was from my drum machine. I used to get caned & spend a whole night just inputting loops from it to my mates sampler (akai s2000). i still have an old Boss DR660 which has both kits on & programming is piss easy. Should be cheap as chips now on ebay them.

-Zoom

[darkseptember]

Hiya mate - have u thought of Native instruments Battery?

Basically its a drum machine full of drum samples that you can use within a cubase drum map -- sounds far better than LM4 etc.

Used as a vsti - u can triger any drum sample you care to imagine. Do you know it? Giz a shout and ill sort something out for u if your still stuck?

[sirius]

Cheers bud. I heard of Battery waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when it was first a 'beta' version. Never used it though, and infact had forgot all about it.

I will give it a try .

Sirius

[darkseptember]

giz a shout if you nee any help setting it up. I got a couple of decent dance drum kits you can load straight into it.

[Karlos]

What i tend to do in Reason is use both Dr. Rex and the drum machine together to get a good mix of sounds.
A good tip is to load a break into Dr.Rex and then attach the matrix pattern sequencer to it so that you can play individual parts of the break in the order you want.
I also try to route every instrument output from the drum machine through a compressor and into a separate mixing desk channel to give it lots of space and punch.

Thats what i do anyway.

[Dj Britalian]

Sirius,

I use the Steinberg LM4 mk2 drum module, its a piece of p*ss to use mate, all you do is right click over one of the drum pads & import your sample into it. There are also 3 stereo outputs & 6 mono, giving you plenty of channels to route your sounds

Pm us if you need it

[Dj Britalian]

Basically Sirius this is my typical 'creating a new track' consists of:

1. Open Cubase SX
2. File New Project - which then opens a nice new clean project
3. Then i will activate my LM4 mk2 drum module in the vst panel
4. I will then create multiple midi tracks i.e 6 for instance for my drums
- 1 for the kick (sound routed to stereo 1)
- 2 for the clap (sound routed to stereo 2)
- 3 for the open hat (sound routed to stereo 3)
- 4 for the closed hat/ride (sound routed to mono 1)
- 5 for the snare (sound routed to mono 2)
- 6 for the crash (sound routed to mono 3 etc)
- Then i will assign them all to say midi channel 10 & give them the GM drum map option in the user panel (makes it easier than using the piano roll editor)
5. Then i will choose the relevant sounds & load them into the LM4 drum module
6. Then i create my drums, i prefer to have a drum beat going while i bash the keyboard trying to write a track

Soz its a bit brief, i 'd be here all day if i went into depth

I am with you sirius, i love creating my own drum grooves with single hit samples, i get bored just importing in loops.