DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
The Basement
HTML https://thebasement.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Percussion
*****************************************************
#Post#: 6121--------------------------------------------------
Programming drums is a bitch
By: AJ Date: November 15, 2020, 8:43 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
...That's all I got . it drives me nuts, I'm never happy with
them. I wish the fuck I knew a drummer.
#Post#: 6122--------------------------------------------------
Re: Programming drums is a bitch
By: The Dudely Lama Date: November 16, 2020, 7:10 am
---------------------------------------------------------
you know a drummer.
#Post#: 6123--------------------------------------------------
Re: Programming drums is a bitch
By: AJ Date: November 16, 2020, 10:50 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=The Dudely Lama link=topic=680.msg6122#msg6122
date=1605532252]
you know a drummer.
[/quote]
That’s true! Hmmm.....
#Post#: 6126--------------------------------------------------
Re: Programming drums is a bitch
By: dinkleburg Date: November 17, 2020, 4:36 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I never could come up with a satisfactory drum track, either.
That's why I let Band In A Box or my aging PSR-3000 do the heavy
lifting for me.
It's a bit more limiting than actually putting your own track
together, but it's a compromise I can live with most of the
time.
Especially when I compare the results to what I can do on my
own. ;D
#Post#: 6127--------------------------------------------------
Re: Programming drums is a bitch
By: AJ Date: November 17, 2020, 8:09 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=dinkleburg link=topic=680.msg6126#msg6126
date=1605652570]
I never could come up with a satisfactory drum track, either.
That's why I let Band In A Box or my aging PSR-3000 do the heavy
lifting for me.
It's a bit more limiting than actually putting your own track
together, but it's a compromise I can live with most of the
time.
Especially when I compare the results to what I can do on my
own. ;D
[/quote]
The BIB stuff you put together is great man. You have command
over that software. I have it too and I was just hoping to get
some good drum tracks with it. It’s not intuitive though. And I
don’t have enough musical training to really understand even
what I want it to do I guess. The only decent drum tracks I ever
made were just me punching the pads on a drum machine and
recording them in real time. Guess I could dust off
My old Alesis HR-16, if it even works anymore. Problem with
punching in drums like that has been latency as far as hitting
the pads and the lag between that action, the milliseconds
involved on the sound being triggered and getting onto the
medium you are recording to. Of course that was when i was going
to tape and perhaps it won't be as bad going to digital, but I
have my doubts.
I mean, how do you program the fills on your BIB drums?? Is
there something I'm missing? Anyway you could give me some
pointers on that? What I want is a template for like 2 1/2 to 3
minute songs. Ballads, and rockers. Some templates for spacier 4
to 5 minute dreamscape type stuff.
Any pointers or simple flow charts would be immensely helpful.
#Post#: 6129--------------------------------------------------
Re: Programming drums is a bitch
By: dinkleburg Date: November 19, 2020, 10:15 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=AJ link=topic=680.msg6127#msg6127 date=1605665365]
[quote author=dinkleburg link=topic=680.msg6126#msg6126
date=1605652570]
I never could come up with a satisfactory drum track, either.
That's why I let Band In A Box or my aging PSR-3000 do the heavy
lifting for me.
It's a bit more limiting than actually putting your own track
together, but it's a compromise I can live with most of the
time.
Especially when I compare the results to what I can do on my
own. ;D
[/quote]
The BIB stuff you put together is great man. You have command
over that software. I have it too and I was just hoping to get
some good drum tracks with it. It’s not intuitive though. And I
don’t have enough musical training to really understand even
what I want it to do I guess. The only decent drum tracks I ever
made were just me punching the pads on a drum machine and
recording them in real time. Guess I could dust off
My old Alesis HR-16, if it even works anymore. Problem with
punching in drums like that has been latency as far as hitting
the pads and the lag between that action, the milliseconds
involved on the sound being triggered and getting onto the
medium you are recording to. Of course that was when i was going
to tape and perhaps it won't be as bad going to digital, but I
have my doubts.
I mean, how do you program the fills on your BIB drums?? Is
there something I'm missing? Anyway you could give me some
pointers on that? What I want is a template for like 2 1/2 to 3
minute songs. Ballads, and rockers. Some templates for spacier 4
to 5 minute dreamscape type stuff.
Any pointers or simple flow charts would be immensely helpful.
[/quote]
BiaB is basically a spreadsheet for chords. Each square is one
measure, and you can input up to one chord change per beat. It
also has the provision to do repeats and coda's, but frankly,
it's easier to just lay out the whole song in one big
spreadsheet rather than mess around with repeats and such. This
method also allows for a little more control over what you're
doing, imo.
Each style (accompaniment or rhythm) has at least two different
variations. Some styles have more, but most of them have two.
You don't actually program in a drum fill, you just tell BiaB
where you want the fill and it will do the rest. To trigger a
fill you use the part markers. Part markers are the blue and
green boxes at the beginning of a measure with a number and
either the letter "a" or "b" (or some other letter depending on
the number of variations for that particular style) in it. The
number denotes the bar number, and the letter denotes which
variation of the style will be used in that measure and the
measures following it. It also signals BiaB to do a fill in the
measure leading up to said part marker.
So, if you want a fill on measure 12 of your song, click on the
beginning of measure 13 and a blue box will appear with a "13a"
in it. Biab will now play a drum fill at the end of bar 12 and
then continue on with variation "a" of the style. Note: this
assumes that variation "a" was the variation playing in bar 1.
You can easily check this by looking at the beginning of bar one
and seeing the blue box with a "1a" in it. I use this in my
example because this is the default variation choice at the
beginning of a song.
If you want to trigger a fill and then move up to variation "b",
just click on the blue box once more, and it will turn green
with a "13b" in it. Now you will still get your drum fill in bar
12, but the variation will change to variation "b" in bar 13.
The variations tend to get busier as the letters increase. In
most of the rock and blues styles the drummer will typically go
to the ride cymbal in variation "b", and the rest of the
instruments will change what they're doing to reflect this as
well.
Keep in mind that when you make changes to your arrangement, you
will need to regenerate the arrangement. This is accomplished by
clicking on not the play button, but the one beside it with the
"+" next to it. Just clicking on play may not incorporate your
changes.
That's kind of a crash course on fills, and there are lots more
options and choices available to you, but hopefully this will
get you started. Experiment, curse, yell and get frustrated. I
do it all the time ;D. If you do play around with it some you
will start to get more comfortable with it and, hopefully, it
will start making more sense.
#Post#: 6131--------------------------------------------------
Re: Programming drums is a bitch
By: dinkleburg Date: November 19, 2020, 12:31 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
If you have 5 minutes to spare this fellow does a better job of
explaining it, methinks. He talks about fills at 2:50.
HTML https://youtu.be/bmcbwJDl1oA
I found this page quite helpful, too. Scroll down to the
"Beginner" section.
HTML https://www.pgmusic.com/videos.bbwin.htm
#Post#: 6132--------------------------------------------------
Re: Programming drums is a bitch
By: AJ Date: November 19, 2020, 7:44 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=dinkleburg link=topic=680.msg6129#msg6129
date=1605802530]
BiaB is basically a spreadsheet for chords. Each square is one
measure, and you can input up to one chord change per beat. It
also has the provision to do repeats and coda's, but frankly,
it's easier to just lay out the whole song in one big
spreadsheet rather than mess around with repeats and such. This
method also allows for a little more control over what you're
doing, imo.
Each style (accompaniment or rhythm) has at least two different
variations. Some styles have more, but most of them have two.
You don't actually program in a drum fill, you just tell BiaB
where you want the fill and it will do the rest. To trigger a
fill you use the part markers. Part markers are the blue and
green boxes at the beginning of a measure with a number and
either the letter "a" or "b" (or some other letter depending on
the number of variations for that particular style) in it. The
number denotes the bar number, and the letter denotes which
variation of the style will be used in that measure and the
measures following it. It also signals BiaB to do a fill in the
measure leading up to said part marker.
So, if you want a fill on measure 12 of your song, click on the
beginning of measure 13 and a blue box will appear with a "13a"
in it. Biab will now play a drum fill at the end of bar 12 and
then continue on with variation "a" of the style. Note: this
assumes that variation "a" was the variation playing in bar 1.
You can easily check this by looking at the beginning of bar one
and seeing the blue box with a "1a" in it. I use this in my
example because this is the default variation choice at the
beginning of a song.
If you want to trigger a fill and then move up to variation "b",
just click on the blue box once more, and it will turn green
with a "13b" in it. Now you will still get your drum fill in bar
12, but the variation will change to variation "b" in bar 13.
The variations tend to get busier as the letters increase. In
most of the rock and blues styles the drummer will typically go
to the ride cymbal in variation "b", and the rest of the
instruments will change what they're doing to reflect this as
well.
Keep in mind that when you make changes to your arrangement, you
will need to regenerate the arrangement. This is accomplished by
clicking on not the play button, but the one beside it with the
"+" next to it. Just clicking on play may not incorporate your
changes.
That's kind of a crash course on fills, and there are lots more
options and choices available to you, but hopefully this will
get you started. Experiment, curse, yell and get frustrated. I
do it all the time ;D. If you do play around with it some you
will start to get more comfortable with it and, hopefully, it
will start making more sense.
[/quote]
Thank you SO much DAN! I really appreciate this! I hope I don't
overdraw the well of your wisdom asking for pointers but I just
may!
;D
I bookmarked that page of help videos. Will woodshed on those
this weekend.
#Post#: 6133--------------------------------------------------
Re: Programming drums is a bitch
By: dinkleburg Date: November 20, 2020, 8:02 am
---------------------------------------------------------
It's no problem, Jim.
Ask away if you get stuck, and I'll try my best not to confuse
you. ;D
I'm far from a power user, but I'll do what I can.
#Post#: 6208--------------------------------------------------
Re: Programming drums is a bitch
By: AJ Date: December 8, 2020, 9:21 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=dinkleburg link=topic=680.msg6133#msg6133
date=1605880973]
It's no problem, Jim.
Ask away if you get stuck, and I'll try my best not to confuse
you. ;D
I'm far from a power user, but I'll do what I can.
[/quote]
Just saw this.
All the stuff you've got out there sounds professionally
produced to my ears Dan.
*****************************************************