Mdrummer 2 Small - I'm confused

[birgerg]

Hi,

I'm still searching for my favorite drum tool and
I want to evaluate mdrummer and try to figure out how it works. I'm using the "Midi command mode" in a Samplitude project. Always when I put a note for Intro, Break or so I have a unknown latency for the resulting action. Means, I want to have on the right place a break.

Is it possible to have to different Styles on separate channels in the song structure. I want to have style x on channel 1 (midi on ch 1) and style y on channel 2 (midi on ch 2). I see only the latest style when I switch between the channels ?


Any suggestions ?

Cheers,
Birger

[MeldaProduction]

I'm still searching for my favorite drum tool and
I want to evaluate mdrummer and try to figure out how it works. I'm using the "Midi command mode" in a Samplitude project. Always when I put a note for Intro, Break or so I have a unknown latency for the resulting action. Means, I want to have on the right place a break.

Hi Birgerg, so you are saying, that when you put a MIDI command note to a first quarter, the break or something is played later?

I think this may be the explanation (if not, please correct me ) - you are probably used to MIDI loops, right? This means every loop is exactly one bar long (or multiply, let's keep it simple). Therefore each break must be exactly one bar long. This is VERY limited approach. One great thing about MDrummer is, that it does not follow this rule. This ancient approach is very simple for programmers, but consider the must basic break:

x-xx on the snare drum.

It has only a single quarter! Which means it has to be filled with the beat from the beginning. Therefore when you say "Play break" in the first quarter, it will play it on the 4th anyway, because that is just how this break sounds. And if you say it at 2nd quarter, nothing changes.

Believe me, most real-drummer breaks do not start at 1th quarter. The reason that people are used to it is caused only by the fact, that there were technically no way to deal with breaks not starting at first quarter note (except duplicating the groove which is a sad solution...).
Breaks starting at the first quarternote often sound kind of "machine-like".

And why the "latency" is unknown? Because MDrummer has several breaks to use and each of them starts at different quarter note. You can disable the random breaks (in Rhythm settings/Additional) and use note velocity to "select" the break you want to use. But this way it stops behaving like a virtual drummer and starts to be a slave .

The great thing about MDrummer is that it can give you new ideas by playing something you didn't expect, which may be better than what you wanted (or may not).

Is it possible to have to different Styles on separate channels in the song structure. I want to have style x on channel 1 (midi on ch 1) and style y on channel 2 (midi on ch 2). I see only the latest style when I switch between the channels ?

Well, I'm not sure I understand it very well. There is a song structure for each rhythm. Which means you can let all rhythm channels play at the same time, or switch between them (which is more complicated to do with song structures)...

If you want to switch between rhythms, I suggest you use MIDI command method and simply stop one rhythm and start another. You can edit each structure using Song structures and drag & drop it as MIDI commands to your host. Or now you can even render the block and drag & drop the MIDI.

Hope this helps, please do not hesitate to ask for more

[birgerg]

Hi,

thanks for your answer. Hope I'm not boring with that beginners questions...

I saw the tutorials ... ok maybe I have to do it again.
I'm only interested in the "Midi comand mode" in a DAW. (Samplitude)


Again to the first topic:
Let's take the Intro. Note C-2 is the first. Then I would think the Intro starts at this note (time), but starts later.
Ok maybe I did not understand the system behind that.
How long takes an Intro (how many bars) and when I can start the next action (note) in the bar ?

second topic:
How can I switch between different rhythms in Midi command mode ?

-- Birger

[MeldaProduction]

Let's take the Intro. Note C-2 is the first. Then I would think the Intro starts at this note (time), but starts later.
Ok maybe I did not understand the system behind that.
How long takes an Intro (how many bars) and when I can start the next action (note) in the bar ?

Ouky douky. So the Intro should tak 1 bar as well as break or outro. There are rhythms, where the intro does not start at first quarter note, but most of them does. Please start MDrummer standalone and just press the buttons on the Playback panel (or use external MIDI device to send the commands). This way you can immediately see what it does.

In VST it synchronizes with the host. Which means, that it should be bar aligned. For example, when you put Intro to 2nd quarter, it should still have 1st quarter at the same place where your host does.

Anyway please do this: Just open MDrummer in your project and drag & drop the default song structure from "Song structures" panel to your project to the beginning. And press playback. It should work as stated.

second topic:
How can I switch between different rhythms in Midi command mode ?

There is a tutorial to do that (at least I think ). But this is the principle:
1) Load rhythms to each channel.
2) Create MIDI command track for each channel (MIDI channel equals the rhythm channel)
3) Put whatever you want to each MIDI command track.
4) When you want to switch between both rhythms - e.g. stop R1 and start R2 - put a "Stop!" command to R1 (C3-H3, simply the octave above outro, there is a drummap for samplitude) and just any command to R2, that would make it play (like Beat! or Intro!).
The stop note should be a "little" before the end, because Stop! actually means "Play last note and stop". But you will hear that immediately and know what to do.

We will be adding some more MIDI commands, so I'll try to ensure we will remember the rhythm switching .
Btw. when you want to have just chorus different from verse, you can use "Load chorus" or "Load verse" buttons.


PS.: Beginner questions are the most important ones .

[birgerg]

Thanks - wow ... I can drag the song structure to the samplitude project ? Never realized that ... I will try that today ! Amazing.

Ok - this is a lot of information ... I will come back later.

Thank you - mdrummer rocks !!!

-- Birger

[MeldaProduction]

Thanks!

If any more questions, come with it .

[birgerg]

Hey - back to that ... your comments helped a lot. I stepped forward with mdrummer. Sometimes I'm still confused about these "real drummer" fillings - sometimes it is really surprising.
After all - this is good work and really something new.

Cheerz - Birger

[MeldaProduction]

Yeah, we used rhythm generator to create most of the rhythms included. Therefore there is always possibility, that some breaks do not really "fit" into that in a standard way. But I hope most of it feels good (at least I think so ).

Please keep enjoying .