MDrummer Song Tab Question

[edkilp]

Hi Vojtech. I wasn't offended. I think our language difference leaves some holes. Hahaha. Anyway, yes the standalone version is quite useful for me when I'm working out a new song. I just let it loop and do it's thing while I try different chord changes. Obviously, I can open Reaper and start a new project to accomplish the same thing, but it's somehow less hassle to just open MD and get at it.

As far as the song tab, I can find other ways to work, and my ideas may not matter now, because I see the bar count only goes to 32 in the song tab. Why is that? At 120bpm, that's just over one minute. Short song, huh? Hehe. I guess it's ok if the song tab was never intended to be used as a serious tool for writing and structuring a complete song.

I suppose I'm just asking you to look at the possibility of making the song tab more powerful. Yes, MIDI commands are genius, and I do use them very much. But there are indeed users out there who want the control of being able to edit every aspect of their drum tracks. If the song tab was able to be used in this way, it would just make MD even more versatile. Not everyone will use MIDI commands, and I'm sure there are some, if not many, who would like to generate a MIDI file that they selected the breaks and intros and outros for.

I perfectly understand the main goal of MD, and I believe that's to make it as much like a real drummer as possible. Select your notes, and if you're using random loops and automatic breaks, you don't know what's coming next, just like a real drummer. That's fine if you're mainly jamming with MD. But if someone is using MD for a tool to compose, more control can only be a good thing!

One option I did find is to use MD to drive Superior Drummer, and record the MIDI output on the Superior track. That gives me a pure MIDI drum track that I can edit, so the final result is fully tweakable, but I was looking at it from the earlier stages, when the song is being created. Thanks for your time, sorry these posts are getting longer!

[MeldaProduction]

Hi edkilp,

ok, I understand the use of standalone version, so it won't be removed . As for the bar count, 32 limit indeed isn't that high! You can always put there more parts, but obviously that's not ideal, so the maximum will be higher in the next version! We'll see about free moving, I don't want to promise anything at this moment.

One question here - are you aware that you can disable the random loops, right? Just responding to the 4th paragraph.

[edkilp]

Hi Vojtech

Yes, I am aware that I can disable random loops. Sometimes if I'm just jamming, it's fun to leave them on just to see what's coming!

Thanks for any consideration you may give to my ideas and requests. Perhaps if you have time to think about the song tab from a different perspective, you will see how powerful and handy it could be as a pattern-based arranger. I would give no thought to the patterns themselves. They would still be generated by the beat generator as always. MIDI commands are awesome, but at the same time, cumbersome to keep moving my notes and changing velocities. In fact, I also was wondering if it would be a major inconvenience to have some way to actually audition the loops and breaks, etc, after they are created. Perhaps some sort of browser that would show the trigger velocities and allow us to hear them, as opposed to trial and error. Just a thought.

At any rate, recording the MIDI output gives me the editing option I was wanting, though I still think dropping the patterns into the song tab and moving them around would be a better way to accomplish this task.

Thanks for your time!

[MeldaProduction]

My pleasure enkilp,

I'll check all of it. Now to the loop auditioning - you can do that in rhythm editor and in the title of the loop editor the approximate velocity is displayed .

[edkilp]

I suppose I can audition the loops right there. What do I check or un-check to make one loop or break play and then stop? Seems like it always wants to keep going. I'm sure I'm missing something simple. Thanks

[MeldaProduction]

Well, that one is actually a little trickier - it cannot stop after a break. But it can stay on the break - click Additional in Settings panel and disable Sequencer mode. This way MDrummer becomes kind of dumb , it won't switch loops and stuff.

[edkilp]

Yep...that will work just fine. Always learning something new about this beast! Thank you.

[goldglob]

.....ok, I understand the use of standalone version, so it won't be removed ...

Phew, that's good; when utterly fatigued after a long day there's not much I like doing more than just firing up the standalone and grooving into oblivion.

[edkilp]

And to think he was gonna ditch it if it weren't for me! Hahahaha! Yes I use it quite a bit. Excellent for messing with new song ideas when I really don't wanna open my DAW and start a new project. Or when I have no intention of recording anything...just wanna jam some.

[goldglob]

...Excellent for messing with new song ideas when I really don't wanna open my DAW and start a new project. Or when I have no intention of recording anything...just wanna jam some.

Exactly...and Vojtech, just to be sure, you must sit in the corner and write a thousand times "I will not ditch the standalone".
By the way, great to read the recent MD discussion.

[elassi]

While we're at it... I think I found a minor bug in the song tab.

a) press "Enable" in the song tab (while host is stopped). The "song" starts.
b) press "Enable" again. Song stops, but the loop(s) keeps on running.
c) one can only stop the sound by pressing "play" (or going to the rhythm edit tab and stop it there)

I suspect that this may be the reason for another strange thing I've found. When I run the song mode in a host some flanging occurs after a while (4-5 bars). It sounds like the loops are doubled, maybe played by the song and the rhythm editor at the same time. Don't know if that's technically possible but at least it sounds like this.

[edkilp]

I noticed that flanging effect too. But I was on my way out to work and didn't have time to investigate it. Maybe tomorrow I will if it happens again.

[MeldaProduction]

Ok, so the "minor bug with stopping playback" - that's correct. The enable button doesn't change playback, it just enables or disables the song structures. Whether it is good or not, that's a question of course . But when you for example play with MIDI commands and accidentaly click the song enable, find out it's now doing weird thing, because the arranger is messing with the MIDI commands, so you disable, you'd probably don't want to stop the playback.

Flanging - that looks like double notes indeed, but I checked and it seems fine. If it happens, please send me a project containing it. I have 2 ideas - first you may be merging drumsets and after a few bars a chorus starts, which contains ride cymbals and these are often problematic when duplicated (after merging there are 2 rides playing at once). Or, it may be a problematic rhythm containing doubles - there you can easily fix it by choosing Edit panel / Advanced / Normalize.

[elassi]

I have 2 ideas - first you may be merging drumsets and after a few bars a chorus starts, which contains ride cymbals and these are often problematic when duplicated (after merging there are 2 rides playing at once). Or, it may be a problematic rhythm containing doubles - there you can easily fix it by choosing Edit panel / Advanced / Normalize.

Ok, going to check it. A problematic project is at hand, too. Will send it if the suggestions don't work.

[elassi]

Ok, seems that the problem persists.

So here's an attachment. I you can't use FLS-files I'll provide one using Reaper.

Just start the host. It'll jump back to the start after 4 bars. When reaching the third iteration MD starts doubling notes. The rhythm is a generated one, no own editing. Drumset is the standard set.