What is the future of MDrummer?

[edkilp]

Hi, this is mainly for Vojtech, because he's the only one who really knows. The question is: Where is MDrummer going from here? Do you have plans for future major updates? More sounds? More snares? Kicks, etc? Is there anything in the works as of now? I remember reading a post you made here a while back, and you stated that MD was already almost the perfect drummer. That made me wonder if you feel that it's complete. Or nearly complete. Do you plan to keep growing MD and letting it evolve to even more than it is now? I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to know. And since MD has pretty much become my go-to drum program, I'm very interested to know what the future holds. I'm not asking you to give away big secrets (if there are any!), just curious to know if there are still plans for it. Thanks!

[MeldaProduction]

Hi, well, nothing "miraculous" planned, there's not much to do really. Of course the banks of sounds & rhythms could always be "bigger", but there are no resources now really, but we'll see . I thought about releasing the MMultiSampleGenerator though - it's the tool used to process the studio recordings and get multisamples from it... But it can easily be exploited by competition, so it's not really very advantageous .

[Simon Posford]

Yep you should release it included on MD, you have give me this Tools years ago and i had maid a kit with loops it was very impressive!

[MeldaProduction]

Hmmm, I'll think about it .

[Burzukh_Studios]

MMultiSampleGenerator :

Yessss please...the multi sample drum kit pieces are harder to manage in the current MD ..but the intelligent importing is astep in the right direction. I know you dont like round robin samples but please could you implement that too. So we can import a snare with maybe 16 velocity layers and 3 round robin samples per layer (which is the norm these days).


Song Tab :

Again, I know that you prefer the MIDI method, but the inbuilt song arranger could be a waaay more advanced tool . Currently it is slightly clunky (odd time line cursor behaviour, lack of fast song structure implementation* etc).. I know many would prefer drafting their drum track in the song arranger itself.

*Fast song structure implementation would mean defining quickly your song quickly based on either

Verse - V
Chorus - C

where checkboxes allows "include short breaks","include long breaks".

or

Intro - I
Beat - B
Short break - SB
Long break - LB
Outro - O

In either case it would be super fast and easy if we could just type in the letters in sequence and it would create the structure fopr us to tweak further.

This idea has already been implemented by some of your competitors but I know in mdrummer it would leave them all in the dust

[MeldaProduction]

MMultiSampleGenerator is a tool to process multi-microphone recordings of drums, that's not something for everyone really .

About the idea - you mean keyboard shortcuts or what is it all about??

[edkilp]

I think he's referring to the method Jamstix uses for song construction.

[Burzukh_Studios]

Yeah edklip that is one of the software though i try not to name them

A simple popup window where you type in either I,V,C,E etc
where checkboxes allows "include short breaks","include long breaks".

Press ok and it generates the complete structure as defined by your letters. The seeds / loop boxes are random and can be later tweaked to taste. Super fast and efficient and actually ties in with the general philosophy of mdrummer.

[Burzukh_Studios]

MMultiSampleGenerator is a tool to process multi-microphone recordings of drums, that's not something for everyone really .

I have a lot of acoustic drum samples (WAV files) which I really like and use, and I'm sure this is the case for many.

A really common scenario for how samples are laid out is , for example :

SNARE

Articulations :

Center
Edge
Rimshot

Each of which will have --> 16 velocity layers and each layer will have 3 round robins.

Some will even have multi-mic samples for each of these.
So the whole structure above may be repeated for close , room and overhead mics.

The auto-intelligent import functionality in mdrummer 5 makes it very hard to do this in its current form. It works only for velocity layers without multiple articulations or round robins.

I normally use mdrummer to drive my favourite sampler (tx16wx or rs5k) where its easier to map out such so many drum samples, but it would be nicer to to do it in the box .

[MeldaProduction]

Ok so about the "keys" - I don't like that idea at all. Forcing someone to learn keystrokes is kind of outdated, especially nowdays when so many are using touchscreens. But I guess a set of buttons for "add verse"... could be useful. But there's a problem - there is no selection - while other drum machines have just one track, MDrummer has 9... we'll see... Adding to to-do list, low-priority.

About the samples - the tool would NOT help you at all. It's designed for creating these samples (not the samples actually, rather the multisamples, but still it's for processing recordings). How is it done in your "favourite sampler"?

[dark-i]

I was gong to ask about touchscreen. I have been using your plugins with touchscreen for a while now. I have sold my hardware controllers and am using 2 ipads over an ahoc network. One for the mixer and the other for fx and instruments. (no mapping )
Mostly they work great, but there are a few issues and was wondering if this was somthing that you would be looking at in the future?
I think MDrummer could benefit a lot in this area.
Sitting on the couch writing a drum loops or doing a bit of mixing is very enjoyable

[Burzukh_Studios]

Ok so about the "keys" - I don't like that idea at all. Forcing someone to learn keystrokes is kind of outdated, especially nowdays when so many are using touchscreens. But I guess a set of buttons for "add verse"... could be useful. But there's a problem - there is no selection - while other drum machines have just one track, MDrummer has 9... we'll see... Adding to to-do list, low-priority.

It would ideally be a simple pop up window for each of the 9 drum channels / drum machines :
"Enter song structure" and an area for your to type.

Then you type something like IVVVCCVVCCCE, press ok and then it creates this structure in that channel.

Please ignore if it seems impractical.

[MeldaProduction]

I really don't think this is very practical, more like "Linux" style , sorry muslimpunk.

dark-i: Issues? Tell me .

[Burzukh_Studios]

I really don't think this is very practical, more like "Linux" style , sorry muslimpunk.

Ok thanks for discussing it.

Btw, this is from the latest version of jamstix manual, just so you know that this workflow goes beyond Linux :

8.1 SONG BUILDER
The Song Builder is a fast way to create a complex song arrangement in Jamstix. Never before
has it been so easy to get a complete drum track with verse, chorus, bridge etc. (even drum
solos!) in just a few seconds.

Here is how it works: Jamstix wants you to specify the sequence of the parts of your song by
chaining letters together:
I=Intro
V=Verse
P=Pre-Chorus
C=Chorus
B=Bridge
E=Ending
D=Drum Solo
S=Solo (other instrument)
For example, you may enter IVVCVVCBCCE as you song. Now select the desired style,
drummer and kit and specify the length of your verse and chorus (non-repeat length). That’s
it. Click ‘Create Song’ and Jamstix will build the parts based on your input. It will chose
lengths and repetitions for parts other than verse and chorus that are most likely appropriate.
It will also adjust drummer settings to match the character of the part (i.e. Power hand for
chorus).
All you have to do is listen to it and then make any additional detail changes you desire in
individual parts.

[MeldaProduction]

I understand, but the fact they did this in jamstix (which is imho the worst drum machine...especially when it comes to workflow) doesn't really mean it's a good thing. Sorry, I just cannot agree with this.