KVR Audio

D.Wako · Post by **D.Wako** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:20 pm

BertKoor wrote:
D.Wako wrote:
nahnou wrote:Hi,

The MIRACLE is a very nice free groove machine, it has very nice grooves and it is easy to use.
You can find it (with other free vst instruments and effects) here:

http://studio.musicscreen.be

Hope this can help.
Are you sure it's free? cause it's says it's payware here if i search in plugin databass in KVR? 99$ it says. And find it anywhere BTW?
See http://www.powerfx.com/plugins/miracle
It appears there's a free version http://www.powerfx.com/files/MiracleFREE.exe and a pay version ("add to cart" link)

Got it!

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:37 pm

Aaah .... it's a Vst, not a standalone.

I did go down the route of trying Vsts with savihost, but no matter how good, they fail at the first hurdle ... ie. they cannot be start/stopped with the spacebar.

So Beatcraft still rules?

D.Wako · Post by **D.Wako** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:47 pm

tattiemannie wrote:Aaah .... it's a Vst, not a standalone.

I did go down the route of trying Vsts with savihost, but no matter how good, they fail at the first hurdle ... ie. they cannot be start/stopped with the spacebar.

So Beatcraft still rules?

Maybe you should try Chainer. They have a free working version here. Really worth a try IMO.

http://www.xlutop.com/html/products.html

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 3:16 pm

OK, I downloaded chainer, but I cannot for the life of me see how it runs as a standalone drum machine/sequencer.

Just to entertain the possibility that anything is gonna come along to challenge Beatcraft, Hydrogen, Leafdrums, Moonfish ....

I'll restate the intended purpose/criteria............

It is for Live use, working from a laptop. Must be turn off/on-able by the spacebar.

Must be standalone .... not Vst.

Good fx an advantage, but not a must. Capacity to host/use vst fx would be superb!

Basic editing of the sounds would be good ... ( Individual track Vol + Eq at least )

Must either have good drum sounds installed, or be able to accept wav samples.

Most importantly, it MUST be as straightforward as possible .... this is for a beginner! .... I dont want to spend a lifetime finding hidden features and having to explain too much to my colleague, ... I want to see right away where everything is and how it works... I at least want to see a play button so I can hear it working while I suss out everything else.

So there we go!

.... are there really any more????

allofdrab · Post by **allofdrab** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:32 pm

Well, it doesn't have the spacebar control you're after, but if you're up for checking out one more, I recommend trying SawCutter 1.
It's not strictly a drum machine, but it is my favorite sequencer/instrument/sampler to show beginners.
It's free, versatile, and has all the controls in one easy to read window.

For drums, your choices are to sculpt the sounds yourself by drawing or adjusting the waveform, applying noise, effects, and shaping envelopes,
or you can simply import your own (wav) drum (or otherwise) sample files.
It's great for not only learning about sequencing, but also for learning about sound, and how one can shape it.

The spacebar does not start/stop it.
Instead it cycles through the 4 available scenes/instruments.

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/SawCutter/

BTW, ignore the comment by the first poster on the site.
He's an idiot.

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:40 pm

Well, that sounds interesting to me, but I doubt if its suitable for the stated purpose .... my colleague basically wants to have a drum machine, and not interested at this point in time in getting any further into programming/using digital music systems .... Were looking for a drummer for a punk band!

.... to be controlled by the singer

I'll certainly try it out tho, and feed back my comments

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:42 pm

Keep em comin tho guys, its good to try out new stuff, no doubt I will again be asked to help someone out with starter level gear, so the more i try, the more I'll be able to help

D.Wako · Post by **D.Wako** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:31 pm

D.Wako wrote:
tattiemannie wrote:Aaah .... it's a Vst, not a standalone.

I did go down the route of trying Vsts with savihost, but no matter how good, they fail at the first hurdle ... ie. they cannot be start/stopped with the spacebar.

So Beatcraft still rules?
Maybe you should try Chainer. They have a free working version here. Really worth a try IMO.

http://www.xlutop.com/html/products.html

Just so you know, this VSTi here also work as standalone. meaning you start it, select your midi input ans sound card and then load you VSTi drum machine as a VSTi. You can add effects of course and you can record the output.

lucknow13 · Post by **lucknow13** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:42 pm

Space Bar I don't know if Hotstepper does that but I think that its a very good machine. Just got Hydrogen but if I try to do some things it crashes. By the way how does one load ones own samples into it.Also won't download the drum kits from online.Like how it looks and potential but problems with various crashes, but will keep trying.

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:07 pm

lucknow13 .... yeah, Hotstepper looks good, I've not spent an awful lot of time with it as yet, but did find it a bit limited, particularly the inability to write patterns of 1, 3 and 6 beats long. Its still in the frame as a punk drummer though!
I have had a crash with Hydrogen, but generally it's been reliable.
Loading a sample is not particularly obvious, but heres how.
On the right, under the 'sound library tab', you'll see a tab labelled 'Layers'. If you click on this, it will open up and you will see a 'load layer' tab. if you click on that, you can browse for a sample to replace the current one with.
If you want to add a sample to the existing sample(s) in that instrument, then look under the 'instrument' and 'layers' tabs and you will see a black line with a '1' in the middle, and a light blue field underneath. below that you wil see several other lines/blank fields. click on any of these and it will be bordered in red. If you now click the 'load layer' tab, a browser will open as before, but this time, the sample you choose will be added to the existing sample rather than replace it. You can repeat this action, selecting blank fields and adding samples to the instrument. below the sample fields there gain and pitch controls for each sample .... very nifty!!

D.Wako, Thanks for that, I had another go and managed to follow your advice, but I cant make head nor tail of it ... I assume it needs an external clock/sequencer, and thats not where I want to go at all ... if you could give me detailed info re how to make it simply play a bass drum with nothing other than a sample or one vsti added, then I could probably suss the rest.

tattiemannie · Post by **tattiemannie** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:40 pm

allofdrab, yeah I can see how sawcutter could be a good educational tool, and it would be very handy indeed for a lot of stuff. However, it EATS CPU like nothing I've come across ...except maybe my SM built synth,'Dirtybomb'

. Shame really, its a nice idea!

D.Wako · Post by **D.Wako** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:59 pm

tattiemannie wrote:
D.Wako, Thanks for that, I had another go and managed to follow your advice, but I cant make head nor tail of it ... I assume it needs an external clock/sequencer, and thats not where I want to go at all ... if you could give me detailed info re how to make it simply play a bass drum with nothing other than a sample or one vsti added, then I could probably suss the rest.

It's fairly simple really and you don't need an external clock or sequencer. As i said earlier, just turn it on an go in the system menu/settings and set the midi input and the soundcard you want to use. This you have to one time only of course. Then load you VSTi instrument or drum machine. To do this you have to click on the little arrow on the left of what ever slot you want to use. Then on the same arrow, click on the midi transmit channel option to select witch midi channel you want(select ch. 1 or all). Try loading Drumatic. Or a VSTi drum machine that can load samples like AM Virtual drum. This one comes with multi out or a stereo version. I assume you want the 2 out(stereo version) so load the Virtuadron 1.2 version. You could also try loopaZoid for single sample too. I like DSK mini DRUMZ 2 too.

P.S. Chainer can not play sample it self. You need to load some VSTi drum machine or some kind of sample player.

lucknow13 · Post by **lucknow13** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:34 pm

Thanks for the info on Hydrogen.Minimal is another although a bit limited and Tatapoum which is rather heavy on the cpu. With Hotstepper since you can make more patterns and play as song it passes the limits to not having extended pattern lengths and the pitch setting for each hit is invaluable. Deserves an award IMOP. Good day lk.

pinkjimiphoton · Post by **pinkjimiphoton** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:00 am

aeron wrote:I'll just throw this out there:

http://www.hermannseib.com/english/savihost.htm

He could use this with any vst, literally takes one second to set up, just rename the exe to match the dll... plus it doesn't require any fancy asio

quicker than that even...you don't have to rename it, just drag the .dll onto it.

Cordelia · Post by **Cordelia** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:17 am

allofdrab wrote:Well, it doesn't have the spacebar control you're after, but if you're up for checking out one more, I recommend trying SawCutter 1.

I love Sawcutter! So fun, easy. I make strange beats/basslines whenever I fire it up.

Free standalone drum machine??