Drum map management questions

I don’t generally use Drum Maps instead using the internal Groove Editor in BFD3. However BFD3 does not correctly name bar numbers if you switch time signatures during the project. So I thought I’d try using the Cubase Drum Editor.

Yesterday I used the function to “Create Drum Map from Instrument” which worked fine (although today that option is grayed out :question: ) It named this map “BFD - BFD3 [1]” One issue I had with this map is that it was sorted by note number (as I’d expect) and the articulations for the same drum were scattered all over the place. So I dragged all the entries around so all the snare articulations would be next to each other, and likewise with the other drums. I then renamed the map to “BFD3 - sorted” and saved it as a drum map file. I spent the rest of the day building drum parts using this map.

Today I intended to build the remaining drum parts. When I opened the Drum Editor I noticed the the entries were again sorted by note number and the name of the tracks drum map was “BFD - BFD3 [1]” and not my sorted map. So I went into the Drum Map Setup, removed the entry for “BFD - BFD3 [1]” and loaded my drum map for “BFD3 - sorted” which I then set as the track’s Drum Map. As you can see in the image below.


As soon as I did that the name of the Drum Map changed to “BFD - BFD3 [1]” which had been previously removed and not shown anywhere in the project; and the map was once again sorted by note number and not drum type.

So my questions are:

  1. What the heck is happening.
  2. How do I properly set up a map so the articulations for the same drum are visually close to each other.
  3. Why is “Create Drum Map from Instrument” grayed out.
  4. In a newly created or GM map I can edit things like the Instrument name and I-note etc. but not so in the one derived from BFD3.

would like some reason to this sorting problem also…
spent long time making a logical drum map and saved it. when loaded afterwards, everything is all over the place… veery frustrating.

Sorry I can’t answer your questions.

I have much simpler questions such as why you can’t even delete a track or move more than one track at a time in the drum editor.

I don’t think Steinberg has devoted very much time to drum editor improvements in years.

Good luck!

I don’t have BFD, but I use Geist (also by Fxpansion), and found that it’s important to change to the midi channel that Fxpansion recommends for your set-up (map to trigger patterns, or engines, or scenes, or hits, and so on.) before you initiate the “create map from instrument” command. Then save the map, etc. I do occasionally have to re-load maps - but at least they’re unadulterated when I do this.

raino thank you for this post - it saves me having to do it.

I tend to use the Cubase Drum Editor as I use the arranger track a lot and often feel that I am under the influence of mind altering substance when I try to alter the BFD editor to match.

I too have had this annoying problem. Especially so when I spent a good deal of time converting a NI Studio Drummer map to Cubase and then on re-load it was 1. fracked up 2. not the name I had saved it under.

Actually this happened under 7 so it is not a bug just a badly sorted Drum Editor. Steinberg should do something about this if they want to justify the use of the word PRO.

vespesian thank you for sharing - I will try that.

What I would like to see:
1 Being able to hide lanes or tracks to reduce the editor to a manageable size.
2 A hide unused lanes function.
3 Memory settings for Maps within the drum editor window, perhaps as a drop down menu at the top - to allow you to change a drum machine and keep the same editor going.
4 A lane/track quantise function - and a move forward or back command with a space to enter the degree of movement. Sometimes you only want to alter the snare.
5 The ability to use colour on the lanes.
6 A solo/mute function for the lanes.

I’m not quite sure I understand your recommendation. BFD’s by default (and I haven’t changed it) midi-in channel is set to omni and midi-out to channel 1, which is what my Instrument Track was set to when I created the map. If I use “create map from instrument” I can save and recall that map fine. But when I modify the order of the map so it is logically organized and save that under a different name. Then when I attempt to use this second map it reverts to being unsorted and also has its name change back to the map name of the first map I’d saved after creating the initial map.

Sorry, I wasn’t very clear - I was responding to the second part of your original post. Basically what I found was that any drum map I made with Geist via the “create from instrument command” would not persist - even after I saved it - unless I switched to the midi channel that Fxpansion specified (in order, in my case, to trigger hits for all 8 engines -irc, it was midi channel 10) before creating the drum map. Otherwise, I’d end up, like you, with some map named "Geist [1], which did not have the slots/layout I wanted, even if the project was saved as such.

OK, got it. But BFD doesn’t seem to have a preference for any midi channel. However since the days of hardware midi, channel 10 was typically reserved for drums. So maybe it isn’t so much that 10 is what Geist wants but what Cubase expects. I’ll play around with that when I’m at my DAW.

Are you sure BFD isn’t required to use a certain Midi channel for drum maps? I knew about the traditional ch.10/drum map arrangement - but subsequently found in the owner’s manual that Fxpansion also actually specifies it for using all engines (other set-ups include ch. 1-9 for individual engines, ch.11 for scenes, ch.16 for current engine and scenes, etc.). I know BFD is a different product - but Fxpansion is fairly consistent in offering lots of (somewhat fiddly) midi options for it’s products. Hope this helps!

Looking at the manual it doesn’t seem like there is any midi channel preference. Most everything is set to omni by default. Also, BFD only has one engine, so it is likely pretty different from Geist under the hood (or bonnet as they’d say in SOS).

However I did realize that the easiest workaround is to create an internal BFD Key Map that has things in the order I’d like to see them. Then when Cubase creates its Drum Map it will end up like I want. Ah the joys of busy work.