MDrummer - how to create random loops using instruments from Drum List only?

[chazmuso11]

Hello,

So I've set up my Drum List under Drumset Editor - in this case, all the high end sounds, to make mixing easier later on (I'll do low end separately)

First of all, I want to use my Drum List in the Loop Editor, without manually putting it all in. Is this possible? After that, I want to randomly generate a rhythm, without losing the instruments I put in the Loop Editor.

Are these 2 things possible? At the moment I have to manually put in my instruments in the Loop Editor, and avoid the randomisation button like the plague, in case I lose it all again.

So, to recap - 1) use Drum List only inside Loop Editor. 2)Randomising rhythm without losing instruments previously entered.

What am I doing wrong? Am I using this back to front? I get the concept of the separation between the conductor and the instruments, as per the manual, but I'm still at a loss as to how this is helping me to get creative in an original way.

Thanks
Chaz

[goldglob]

Your questions are interesting and the answers are complex.
Firstly, just to make things easier to discuss, could you tell us the specific drumtypes that you've set up in your Drum list.

[chazmuso11]

Thanks for engaging with this (I've been using MDrummer in drum pad mode for way too long)... I'm remembering already something about the sound types, but I'm hazy over it.

So for the sake of setting it up/experimentation (as I really require high end percussion and low end percussion to be entirely separate instances), I've created a Drum List consisting of the following:

Ride Cymbal 1 -> Sampler -> Synth -> Cymbals -> Ride -> Synth -> ride synth 03.wav
Splash Cymbal 2 -> Sampler -> Synth -> Cymbals -> Splash -> splash noise.wav
Crash Cymbal 1 -> Sampler -> Synth -> Cymbals -> Crash -> Crash 007.wav

I've purposely selected all 3 from Sampler, as I seem to remember something about different sounds from different sound source samplers not playing together well in different scenarios (?)

In an ideal world, now I can use this Drum List in the Rhythm Editor -> Loop Editor as per original query, also making use of Rhythm Generator....

I can see I'm walking through a minefield here...

[goldglob]

Ok, I've set up your Drumlist. Yes, you have to manually put the Drumtypes into the loop editor.

To generate Rhythms, MD needs already defined loops to work with. If you eventually want to generate variations without losing your particular drumtypes, you'll have to first (laboriously) create a repository of loops that use those drumtypes. (Part of what defines a loop is the Drumtypes used).

In Rhythm Generator you won't find pre-defined loops for your particular combination of Drum types.

So for what you want it's probably best to work in the Rhythm Editor. You'll be doing what Melda (Vojtech) actually did to create the factory loops (although I think he has said that he mainly recorded the loops rather than writing them in). After setting up your loops and saving your Rhythms you can look at Rhythm Editor/ Rhythm Processing/ Globals/ Generate from template.... and save/load multiple loops.

It's pretty tedious to get those 3 cymbals into all the loopboxes in the Rhythm Editor, but a way to speed this up is to create your skeleton loop as the Essential Beat in Rhythm Generator, save it into MD's loop directory, then in settings select only it in all the columns, then Generate all. Back in Rhythm Editor all your loopboxes will at least be populated with your drumtypes.

Yes, it's all pretty complicated...the thing is, once you've set all this up, the loops you've created are now available to MD's whole generating engine.

Another approach would be to start with the factory base rhythms...choose a base rhythm with cymbals that is possibly close to what you want, you can adjust the drumtypes to what you want (keeping the patterns), or/and edit the patterns.. and you can merge other base rhythms...yep, bloody complex...love it.

Hope this helps...just a start really...things to scratch your head about!

[chazmuso11]

Massively helpful thanks! I've read through the manual a couple of times through the years, but for some reason it never really stuck that a loop is dependent on drum type, though I vaguely remembered something along those lines. I do get the reason for this logically, in terms of musicality and musical genres, but for the gnarly job of mixing appropriately, high and low end instruments stuck together on the same track, is a problem.