Drum programming

Cubasis
#1

Hi, new guy here, so forgive me if this is already discussed in another thread (couldn’t find one).

When I program drums I usually start with just a very basic beat, record some of the other tracks, and then tweak the drums as I go along, adding fills, stops etc. I guess the opposite would be to finish the drums first, maybe in a separate drum maschine/app, and then continue with the other tracks. To me, my preferred way just feels more “natural”. To each his own I guess.

I’m very new to this whole DAW thing, so I really don’t have much experience in doing this, but I’ve played a bit with it in Cubasis and Garageband. In GB I can create a drum loop of for example 2 bars, and go back and edit it (record stuff using the pads) whenever I want to, and everything I do is recorded into the same “event”. When I do this in Cubasis it works as long as I loop the event and keep recording, but if I stop and start the recording it creates a new “layer” on top of the existing event. Is there any way to merge these, or change it so that what I record goes into the existing event?

I guess a workaround would be to do the drums in a separate app, like DM1, but then I have to record it back to Cubasis everytime I do a change, and I really prefer to be able to work directly “in the song”.

Sorry for the long post…

#2

hey Carlsson,

to merge MidiEvents, simply enable the SELECT tool in the toolbar, select the events you want to merge by tapping next to an event and then swiping over the designated one’s and then hit GLUE.

Hope that helps.

cheers
Ludwig

#3

For me, glue doesn’t work with the recorded layers of notes in a midi drum track!

the only solution is to draw a new empty track next to the record layers, to select both, and then glue will be possible. That’s not elegant, but a solution for now.

#4

Glue works on the stacked midi event layers. You must highlight the Select Tool first then drag a select box on the top layer, then Glue.

Here’ s where I went through this a couple of months ago.

http://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=183&t=44781

#5

Thanks, works just like you described.

Now, next question…

I want to “dub” a drum track with a different drum kit, so I created a new midi track, set it to the second drum kit, and copied a few bars from the original drum track, but it uses the original drum kit in the second track anyway.

Example; I have drum track 1 with “AM Pop Kit 1”. I then create a new track (2) that uses “AM Rock Kit 1”. I then copy an event from track 1 to track 2, but also in track 2 the event is played using “AM Pop Kit 1”.

Is there a way to just copy the midi notes, so they are played using another kit?

#6

hey Carlsson,

can you provide a step by step repro? Because Cubasis does only copy midi-notes and not the instrument. So not quite sure which issue you’re experiencing…

kind regards
Ludwig

#7

Sure. Maybe I’m doing something wrong… this is what I did:

  1. Create a midi track, select instrument “AM Pop Kit 1”.
  2. Record 2 bars of drum beat.
  3. Create a second midi track, select instrument “AM Rock Kit 1”
  4. Copy the 2 bars from the first track and paste into the second track

What I wanted was the drum beat from the first track, played note by note, in the second track, using the sounds of “AM Rock Kit 1”, but instead it used “AM Pop Kit 1”, same as in the first track.

#8

hi again,

now I got it. The midi notes are being copied regardingless of which instrument they were assigned to in the first place. Only the name of the midi event stays the same.
So if you mute one of the tracks after copying the event you should be able to hear the difference. To rename an event simply touch the name to the topleft in the midi editor.

cheers
Ludwig

#9

Thank you,

I will try again.