I imported a midi drum track from Drum Studio. Worked like a charm, but the hihats and cymbals were too loud, way louder than in DS (relative to the rest of the drums). I lowered the volume of the hihats in DS, and did a new midi export, but they are still as loud in Cubasis.
Lowering the volume/velocity of each hit one by one in Cubasis is a pain, so I wonder if there is a way to change the volume of all hits of one instrument at once? Or if I dare to dream… split them into separate tracks…
Hi,
you can choose SELECT from the top menu and mark all the specific HiHat MIDI notes and then lower the velocity at once.
Thanks!
RG
Thanks for your reply. I tried that already… that’s a loooot of tiny notes to tap, over 90 bars. Is there no way to select them all in one tap?
For the purpose of better mix options, you may want to consider multiple tracks of the same kit. Then assign the midi note data for different drum parts to different physical tracks of the same the same kit. This will allow for far more detailed mixing, as in separate audio mix channels and FX for certain sounds. I tend to use four instances of the same kit. This allows for separate kick, snare, hats and the rest as a stereo.
This of course will increase CPU usage. But the kits are really very low CPU sample playback devices, and don’t consume too much.
Maybe one day we will see something like VSTi implemented within Cubasis, and the associated routing and sub mix options. This would be awesome for routing individual outs, of say a kit or multi timbal synth to separate mix channels, while only using one instance of the instrument.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Dave.
Oops, forgot to post this in the thread above.
Here is an example of the process I described. Although this is only a short soloed drum section from a song mix. It may give you an idea of the type of separation I am talking about, with different EQ and FX on various parts of the kit.
http://www.DavidHarry.com/CUBASIS_STUFF/CUBASIS_SPLIT_KIT_EXAMPLE.wav
Cheers,
Dave.
Yes, this sounds exactly like what I need. So, here’s the stupid question… How do I assign the midi for each drum part to different tracks? Is there a quick way to do this, or do I have to create multiple midi tracks with the full kit and delete from them?
Thanks
Carlsson
Hi Carlsson.
Here is how I would do it.
To keep it simple let’s say we just have a kick and snare pattern.
Create two different MIDI tracks that use the same instances of the kit you want.
Paste the MIDI data to both tracks. You will now have two identical tracks of the same drum kit with the exact same MIDI data in both.
Now, let’s say you want the kick only in your first track and the snare only in the second.
Double click the first and open the note editor. Select all the snare events on the track and delete them. Just use the select tool and drag it to highlight the events you don’t want, and delete. Now go to track two and do the same by removing all the kick events from that track.
Now you have two tracks of drums, one is all your kicks the other is all your snares that can be effected and mixed independently with the Cubasis mixer.
In your case just do this as many times as you need to separate and isolate certain elements of the kit.
Although it may sound a bit boring and long winded, it is really quick and easy to do. It’s well worth it if you want to mix your kits properly in Cubasis.
If you are playing the drum parts directly into Cubasis, it’s a bit easier, as you just create and add new instances of the kit/tracks as you play in the different elements of the kit. I usually play in the kick and snare on one track, and then split them up as mentioned above. Then add a new track for the hats and play them in. After that I tend to find that a fourth track will do as a stereo mix of the other parts of the kit. Although you can carry on splitting the kit to separate your metal work and toms, if you like.
You basically end up with something that would look like a traditional drum mix on an external desk.
Cheers,
Dave.
ok, thanks. I’ll give this a try.
I’m not too worried about cpu usage, I’ll just freeze the tracks.
Ran into this problem as well. While my recording was only 10 bars I was able to select the hats after a few tries - runaway horizontal scrolling - when I went to lower the velocities I had to be careful to find an instance with nothing else on the beat or accidentally lower a kick as well. I’d like to be able to just tap select, tap a note on the piano roll and have all instances of that note selected.
The problem with this method, is that you don’t proportionately lower the volume off each event. If you increase your lowest velocity event, anything that is higher will hit 127 (full velocity) and then any velocity dynamics will be lost. Also, if any samples use velocity cross fades, which I am not sure if they do. Then you would also alter the cross over point, thereby altering the event sample from one sample to another.
It may not be very easy, but using multiple instances if a kit, or using different instruments from different kits assigned to different tracks, thereby assigning different mixer channels. Will give you a lot more options and flexibility in the mix, for things such as volume as opposed velocity, and FX etc.
Cheers,
Dave.
Agree. But… It’s not always necessary to change the velocity, sometimes it’s enough to just change the volume, like when mixing.
I started splitting the drums into different tracks, but that turned to be not so easy either (could be done of course), since some of the different instruments in the drum kit are next to eachother (toms and HH for example).
What I would really like to see is a way to quickly split drum tracks into individual tracks, maybe already when importing a midi file.
Yes, like I said earlier, more control like that found in a VSTi would give at least fundamental volume mixing per instrument, and maybe the option to assign instruments to their own mixer channels. Maybe something for the future of Cubasis.
As for splitting the midi information to different tracks. This is pretty much the same pain as it is in most sequencers.
For now at least. The methods I mentioned earlier, will do the jobs you need.
Cheers,
Dave.