Drum sequencing software

Stompbox

(Not even sure if 'sequencing' is the right word to use but it sure does look mighty fine!)

Basically, I'm one of the songwriters in our band, and as a drummer myself, sometimes I like to construct all the dynamics of my songs in my head before I present them to the guys. However, I find it pretty tough to communicate to our drummer the drum pattern I had envisioned for certain songs; I can often find this quite frustrating as (even though the drum part that our drummer eventually crafts for the song is good) I can feel disappointed that the song deviates from the sound I had initially intended.

What I use to do before I started playing in a band was to 'score' the drum beats using Guitar Pro and record them directly onto my recorder which invariably led to the drums sounding rather... well, ****. I'm keen to use a similar approach in recording my demos but I'd like to upgrade from Guitar Pro. Does anyone know of any drum software that would be suitable?

(BTW, I should add that I'm not some drumbeat nazi who forces our drummer to don a gimp costume and stuffs him into an amplifier flight case (pierced in the side three times with a Philips head screwdriver for ventilation) for 23 hours a day; the only respite being the daily hour-long window within which I apply antiseptic to the skin breakages where his ankle-tops meet the impossibly tight contours of his shackles, shovel out the collected faecal matter from the inside of the case and dictate polyrhythms with a Cat O' Nine Tails.

...He suggested the gimp suit himself.)

Sofaspud

I use Reaper with Independence Free for general messing about and practicing as well as writing. Reaper's a handy free DAW and Independence Free is good for basic VST's. It's all free and takes a few minutes to set up, there's a good few youtube tutorials for it all too.

ham_n_mustard

Toontrack Superior drummer is grand but you'll pay for it. i use it with cubase and "draw" the drum patterns using the midi editor, takes a bit of time but you can get exactly what you want.


plus you dont have to shovel poo after it

rcaz

Sofaspud wrote: »

I use Reaper with Independence Free for general messing about and practicing as well as writing. Reaper's a handy free DAW and Independence Free is good for basic VST's. It's all free and takes a few minutes to set up, there's a good few youtube tutorials for it all too.

Should be noted that Reaper isn't actually free, you're supposed to buy it after a trial period, it just doesn't stop working fully if you don't. There's a 5 second nag screen. If you like it, it's stupid cheap for how good it is, think about buying it. the guys who do Reaper are some of the really good guys in this industry...


Stompbox, I do all my music making with Ableton Live, as far as I've seen it's the best DAW for handling both audio and MIDI together, and being able to 'jam' on things (it's useful for both arranging and producing full songs, and for being set up as a really responsive instrument in itself). I use Live and a Novation Launchpad and you can do some really cool stuff all within Live itself.

I was in exactly your situation a while ago actually, writing whole songs on my laptop and then trying to get our drummer to play the parts I wanted in the songs... My solution was, have the drummer emigrate when he finished college and get a new line up with two laptops instead of a drum kit. Sorted

Malice

I would definitely go with Toontrack's Superior Drummer. It is a fantastic piece of software. Sure it's comparatively expensive but the sound quality is unrivaled and it's amazingly customisable.

pinksoir

Or EZ Drummer - http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=7

€120. It's not as versatile, but it's still very very good and more than enough to do what the OP wants. Superior is very much for doing proper recording with its control of mic bleeds etc. For jotting down ideas EZ would do the job comfortably. Some very decent add on packs too. Also, EZ Drummer add ons can be used in Superior Drummer if you decide to upgrade later.

Malice

pinksoir wrote: »

Or EZ Drummer - http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=7

€120. It's not as versatile, but it's still very very good. More than enough to do what the OP wants. Some very decent add on packs too. Also, EZ Drummer add ons can be used in Superior Drummer if you decide to upgrade.

One crucial difference is that the EZDrummer samples are pre-processed so if you want fine-grained control over how your drums sound then you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

pinksoir

Good point. I use superior myself and I do tinker with drums envelopes and such quite a bit. Obviously Superior is, well, far superior. If money's a problem EZDrummer will get him a good part of the way there though; good sounding kits well sampled, plenty of add ons, easy to use. I thought it was worth him considering it. It sounds like he wants to get ideas down and then bring them to the drummer. EZ would be perfect to make patterns for reference. If he was looking to replace the drummer or use the software for proper recording I'd recommend Superior.

Malice

You're right pinksoir, as a starter or if money's tight then it's grand. Personally I regarded it as a bit of a waste of money once I bought Superior. One problem with Superior though is that it can be an enormous time sink. I got it and Metal Foundry together and ended up spending more or less an entire weekend putting together my dream drumkit (must have cowbell ) and tinkering with the eq.

rcaz

Malice wrote: »

more or less an entire weekend putting together my dream drumkit (must have cowbell ) and tinkering with the eq.

Only the one weekend?? :pac:

That's what production is. Getting a sound in your head and giving all the time you have to making it perfect... It's a huge time sink but then when you get it right, it's so worth it...

One problem I have with programs like EZ Drummer and Superior Drummer and things like it are that they only (as far as I know...) make drum sounds... With something like Ableton Live, you can take any sound you want, chop it up, process it however you like, and make it your percussion track.

Here's a demo of a track I'm working on. Those first percussion sounds you hear are a synthesiser patch I programmed, sampled back into a drum machine, and then controlled by some random operations I programmed into Live. The second percussion sound to come in, on the off beats in place of where a 'normal' hihat would usually be, is a sample I took from a recording of my friend lighting a cigarette... Lots of fun :pac:

Malice

rcaz wrote:

One problem I have with programs like EZ Drummer and Superior Drummer and things like it are that they only (as far as I know...) make drum sounds... With something like Ableton Live, you can take any sound you want, chop it up, process it however you like, and make it your percussion track.

But they're not the same thing. EZ Drummer is a VST that runs inside Ableton or other DAWs. If you want to start messing with a beat then it takes seconds to capture it as a WAV file and import the WAV file into a beat slicer or even just its own mixer track packed with flanger, reverb and distortion.

rcaz

Malice wrote: »

But they're not the same thing. EZ Drummer is a VST that runs inside Ableton or other DAWs. If you want to start messing with a beat then it takes seconds to capture it as a WAV file and import the WAV file into a beat slicer or even just its own mixer track packed with flanger, reverb and distortion.

But they're made to just sound like drum kits, right? Unless I'm mistaken on this one... Why limit your percussion sounds down to only drums?

pinksoir

It is a time sink. I wrote that but deleted it before posting. Basically, anything that takes away from the inspiration of creativity is a bit of a bummer. I do find myself spending a lot of time getting things just so. I do get absorbed by it and enjoy that though. But you can lose focus on the bigger picture quite easily.

rcaz, Superior is pretty much limited to drum sounds. There is a Twisted Kit that's made up of loads of different stuff though. For MPC style or chopping/slicing/whatever I'd go elsewhere. As a drum kit VST it is exceptional. What it does it does very well. One of the best things is he quality of the recorded sounds and rooms, and mics used. Most affordable studios wouldn't sound as good for tracked drums so great quality drums are pretty much available to anyone. And obviously everything can be mixed/compressed/effected just as they were a real drum take. I guess it would really come alive played via V-drums as it's difficult to get a really realistic feel from playing through midi or programming in an editor. You can get pretty close mind you, but, for me anyway, the tiny nuances of a real drummer can't be replicated.

Malice

rcaz wrote: »

But they're made to just sound like drum kits, right?

Yes but your comparison was with Ableton itself, not other VSTs. Either way it seems like a bit of an odd problem to have. A drum VST that only does drum sounds? Perish the thought .