Hi, I’ve got a part for bass drum which I want the score to show as A in the bass clef, however my VST note for this sound is C2. How do I get it so the playback is the sound from C2 but the score appears as A2 for a real player?
Hi @sunny16 to make this you define in the percussion map the note that in your library corresponds to the desired sound (look at Nr. 3 in the page of the Percussion Maps dialog in the Manual, in the second link here below):
If you see the Yamaha XG Percussion Map for example, the Bass Drum is already assigned to C2, or you can create a new Percussion Map for your library.
And then you set your desired position on the 5-lines view:
- after creating, in Setup Mode, a percussion kit where your bass drum will live (you can create a Player holding the Bass Drum first, and then “combine” it into a kit, as I show in the Video, or create an empty kit for the player, with right click inside the expanded blue area of the Player, and then edit the kit, clicking on the three dots near the green kit name, and load the Bass Drum inside the Edit kit window, clicking on the +),
- set, in Layout Options/Players/Percussion, the 5-lines view.
- You can also show the percussion legend for sounding instrument selecting the note, then with right click choose Percussion/Legend for sounding instruments.
[sorry, in my video I set the bass drum on “C” instead of “A”(idealizing a bass clef)…]
Very thorough answer and very helpful since C is the most common MIDI note for kick drum. Thank you!
Thank you @konradh
But I just pointed out that I wrote the Bass Drum on the C position instead of the A position (as desired by the OP) by “distraction” . Even if there are not universal rules on where to position the instruments in a kit, it seems indeed that the A position for a Kick Drum would be the “standard” one, as in this document of MIT:
By the way, can someone tell me if Bass Drum (normally intended as Orchestral Instrument) and Kick Drum (as in a Drum Set) are sometimes intended as interchangeable names indicating the same instrument?
Hey, buddy. I may have miscommunicated, but I understand and appreciate all your help.
Thank you @konradh
My experience is that those are never the same instrument. Bass drum (or gran cassa or grosse caisse) used in orchestral music is much larger than the kick drum used in a drum kit.
Speaking as a long-time studio player, I would say that in a trap kit, “kick drum” is the slang name for the kit’s bass drum; but, as correctly stated above, an orchestral (or marching band) bass drum is not the same as the kick/bass drum in a kit in size or sound. The depth and ring of an orchestral bass drum would be an engineer’s nightmare on a pop or jazz record.