Infinite Player Content News: Drum Masters 1.5, FX Tron and Cinema Sessions

[eDrummist]

Squids, the 1.5 Drum Masters update will have round robin (and related extra samples) and V-Drums mapping (okay, my personal interest is for the TD-10), correct? I'm asking because of your answer to another posters concern of not having to download the entire file made me uncertain if the update includes these extra samples. I know back in December when you promised these features, a lot of us who purchased based on the upcoming functionality didn't mind re-downloading the entire file at all. That remains how I feel. I don't mind re-downloading anything to get the promised functionality.

On another Drum Masters related note, when looking through eSoundz.com, I couldn't find the drum kits with roto toms. I think it was one of Nick's kits. Is this no longer available? If so, could you link me to it?

Thanks,
eDrummist

We're making esoundz a little less cluttered with individual kits and grooves so they were moved to www.downloadablesoundz.com in the instruments section (just click on the Drum Masters banner and then instruments and you'll find them). The Roto kit should still be there.

Thanks Squids (although I still was not able to find the kit with the roto toms), but could you please clarify about the extra samples?

When I and some others purchased the Drum Masters group buy in December and January based on the promised updates, you stated they would include extra samples for round robin programming as well as the V-Drums mapping. Your post above does not mention these extra samples -- maybe they are the extra samples from the I-MAP version? If you could please clarify.

Thanks.

[Squids]

I think you may have misunderstood me possibly. The extra samples for round robin are still taken from within the original NKXs. They are unused articulations in GM or e-Drum maps that can be put into a round robin scheme by the user (and we'll have presets that do it automatically too). The promises were that we'd have scripts with round robin and mapping capability for e-drums which it will. But these are patch updates with new scripts not new sample updates. I am sure I didn't say that we were going to use new additional samples to achieve this because it would require NI making new NKXs and we don't have extra samples to do that anyway. It was always the extra samples from the original set being used differently. The bulk of the work that has taken all this time are some very sophisticated scripts that do much MORE than what was promised such as discrete mic mixing per kit piece, built-in effects and the custom groove menu maps.

We DO also have new samples coming for the Drum Masters series as well but those are whole separate drum kits and kit pieces. I don't think there are any additional samples for the original kits that weren't already used (apart from extra alternate snare off versions and things like that). There may be ways to enhance it further digging inside and moving around velocities, tweaking various parameters and such besides the new scripts that we'll also do in a few areas when it makes sense. It all depends on how it reacts to various e-Drum kits. Obviously specific support for each e-Drum kit out there will take some time but the capability will instantly be there to do it with fast midi learn which is a start... and certainly nice as a free update I think.

[Squids]

Here's the Roto and Timbale kit: http://www.downloadablesoundz.com/detai ... uctID=2405 For some reason it was inactive. Available now!

[eDrummist]

Here's the Roto and Timbale kit: http://www.downloadablesoundz.com/detai ... uctID=2405 For some reason it was inactive. Available now!

Yep, that is the roto tom kit. Thanks for answering my question. So, yes, I think that is what you said originally, that you would probably pull the extra samples for the GM/V-Drums round robin from the I-Map kit, so I suppose it makes sense we don't need to download additional samples.

All of the Drum Masters are going to mapped for V-Drums and feature round robin programming? Specifically, I mean, is the roto tom kit going to be?

Thanks,
eDrummist

[Squids]

Here's the Roto and Timbale kit: http://www.downloadablesoundz.com/detai ... uctID=2405 For some reason it was inactive. Available now!

Yep, that is the roto tom kit. Thanks for answering my question. So, yes, I think that is what you said originally, that you would probably pull the extra samples for the GM/V-Drums round robin from the I-Map kit, so I suppose it makes sense we don't need to download additional samples.

All of the Drum Masters are going to mapped for V-Drums and feature round robin programming? Specifically, I mean, is the roto tom kit going to be?

Thanks,
eDrummist

Yeah, all of the kits will be including the Roto and Timbale kits. It's a good time to show you guys a bit so here we go. Be back in a sec with some screen shots and deeper explanation of what's coming.

[Squids]

Okay! So there are new "panels" in the 1.5 patches as well as new graphics that are more fun and sharp looking. One of my favorites is the John Blackwell "pin stripe" kit (like his suit). That was Mike's idea (one of the programmers here).

Anyway, so the new Volume and Pan panels have discrete mixing for every mic instead of just offsets like in the last version. Now, in 1.5 Multitrack kits and grooves you can mix discretely both at each NKI/Instrument as well as in the output section.

Here's what the Volume panel looks like:



You also have envelope control which is oddly enough a rare feature in drum plug-ins but I really like having it discretely per kit piece:



Now we have built-in effects like EQ, Compression, Limiting and some other nice effects including some lofi/distortion type effects for Hard Rock, Hip Hop etc.





There's also a velocity panel that lets you adjust both the velocity to amp as well as velocity to pitch which is nice especially for toms... I like to add just a touch of that personal to enhance the effect of toms going up in pitch the harder you hit them. The multiple velocities will do this anyway because they were sampled originally that way but if you wanted to make it sound even more drastic (such as the effect if the heads were looser and had more range) then you can now do that which is cool... even if used in a subtle way.

But, the mapping panel - while looking very simple and easy to use - is also VERY powerful so I will talk about it a little and of course we'll a much more detailed tutorial coming. You guys will be able to try a kit out yourself hopefully tomorrow though.



So, what you see here is what key a particular articulation is mapped on which you can choose to remap within certain rules. What rules? The rules of FOUR Mapping Preset types:

1. Performance
2. iMap
3. GM
4. V-Drum (TD20 mainly)
5. User (you define it any way you want)

So... what is Performance? That's new. It is basically a cut down version of the extended iMap (kind of like the original iMap but has a few extras and does round robin now). The purpose of this "Performance" mode/preset is to have a kit that can be played along side two octaves of grooves on the left hand side (instead of just on the right like the previous version which is harder to get to). It sacrifices the left side extra 3 toms (so all Performance kits have 3 toms). It's also good for people who have keyboards that are 61 keys.

iMap, many of you know. There's a good explanation of it here: http://www.sonicreality.com/imap/

Plus, if you're in the mood to watch the iMap channel on Sonic Reality T.V. you can get a sneak peek right now! Here you go: www.sonicreality.net just click on VIDEOS and then iMap on the left side of the Sonic Reality TV player.

GM you all know. The difference here is that this GM (as well as all of the preset modes - imap, Performance, V-Drum etc.) has the ability to have articulations play in round robin groups if it is assigned (by either you selectively or by us making presets). The cool thing is sometimes people want round robin and sometimes they don't! Why they don't? There are cases where one might prefer a very specific sounding sample at a certain velocity and not want it to vary. It all depends and that's why it is nice to have it be something optional.

Now V-Drum... and I am starting to get kind of sleepy so I may have to cut this short and pick up tomorrow. It is late! (1 am...sort of late to be "working"... you can tell I enjoy this can't you?). I'll have to get into this in more detail later but there are specific maps for the V-Drum where it responds to positions of the snare, ride etc.

Now in all of the above preset modes you can't map each articulation ANYWHERE. You can map it into the designated mapping positions of that format. So it's good you can't really mess up the iMap or GM standard just by playing around with it. You can put other things into "allowed" places (for instance you can easily map multiple toms into all 6 "slots" now quite easily. But you can't map a tom to play from a designated snare key from the Imap for example).

So... USER on the other hand lets you pretty much put anything anywhere. So that one is for you to map it to anything you want. You just have to make sure it is how you really want it which can take a bit of time (not too bad with midi learn capability) but it is worth it because once you do it you save back a preset of the whole kit and move on to another one. We'll also allow people to send us their remappings to particular e-Drum kits and/or other controllers and we will share them with anyone who wants them.

Can you see how cool this is getting? I'm very excited about it. I'll tell you more tomorrow.

[mike1k]

ummm...so when exactly is this happening?

[Squids]

ummm...so when exactly is this happening?

We had a bug we had to fix in the script first and then beta patches will be released for Drum Masters 1.5 first. That will be either today or beginning of the week next week.

A bunch of other things are coming in September/October. An ONSLAUGHT of material for Infinite Player in fact.

[alexdlugo]

Has the beta patch for the 1.5 update been released yet? I purchased the drum masters starter pack last night and am very excited about trying this out with my V-Drums... the quality of the sounds are truly excellent. I don't mean to nag... thank you for your great product.

[Squids]

Has the beta patch for the 1.5 update been released yet? I purchased the drum masters starter pack last night and am very excited about trying this out with my V-Drums... the quality of the sounds are truly excellent. I don't mean to nag... thank you for your great product.

A couple of things about that. The beta is pretty darn cool! I've already made some comments to the script programmer about expanding out a few features that e-Drummers will like though based on some conversations I've been posting about. But, currently the beta for V-Drums gets rid of any machine gun effect by doing alternating left/right round robin alts and some subtle velocity to pitch. I haven't made a variety of presets for it yet though and was planning on it before releasing any beta but... I may let some people check it out now if they want to. The beta is just the JB Sonor stereo and multitrack kits for the moment.

I also have a little taste of the groove beta patches as well that I will post for any Drum Masters users that own Drum Masters GOLD or the multitrack grooves of Nick D'Virgilio, Jerry Marotta and John Blackwell. I have to complete some instructions for it though... busy day! The manual isn't ready but you'll need something to know how the custom groove maps work etc.

Oh there is one thing though which is that your Infinite Player's Kontakt Player will need to be updated to Kontakt Player 3.5 which is a FREE update through Native Instruments.

[alexdlugo]

I would love to try out the beta... I have the JB Sonar kit.

[ozmoz2008]

http://www.sonicreality.com/serafine.php

and

http://www.sonicreality.com/cinemasessions.php

That would be a great group buy to do, for me anyway!

[brazilian_samba]

I would love to try out the beta... I have the JB Sonar kit.

+1!

Where we can get the beta kit ?
Cheers.

[Squids]

I would love to try out the beta... I have the JB Sonar kit.

+1!

Where we can get the beta kit ?
Cheers.

I am going to post it later today for you guys. I may do a few extra patches for it first so you can see a little more of what it does. Plus I need to come up with an instruction sheet for both the KIT GUI and the GROOVE GUI and the new features, how they work etc. That's planned for today!

[jensa]

Cool. Way to go.