Need help with velocity issues

[DrummerDude]

Hi,
My goal is acheiving realistic sounding drums (for rock music). I am a total newbie, so I rely on your help, people.
I know that no matter what drum sampler you are using, you will have to change the velocity of the drum tracks in MIDI. Normally a drum track has hundreds if not thousands of hits in it - snare, kick, hats, etc. It would be a real pain in the butt to change the velocity of each one of them separately, so my qestion is:
What programs are good for automated velocity randomization of MIDI drum loops? Any tutorial on the velocity randomization subject?
Thanks!

[realmarco]

what sampler and what drumkit are you using...also what Sequencer are you using ?

[DrummerDude]

Hi realmarco, thaks for the reply. Now straight to the point:
I just started using Cubase SX 2.2. My drum sampler is Battery 2.0
I am using it for playing the samples from the Drumkit From Hell multi format CD. I also have the NS_Kit for Battery.
I read several Battery tutorials and learned that for getting realistic sound I have to change the velocity of the drum notes in the MIDI file.
I am looking for a way to do this without the need of editing every single note. Can Cubase SX do this automatically?
I have Jammer too but everything there looks kinda confusing for a newbie like me.

[DrummerDude]

Hmm... Second post and second no answer...

[Sascha Franck]

I think (too lazy - and too late - to check right now) that Cubase's Logical Editor offers some velocity randomization features.

But anyways, I'd try to get the velocities right from the moment you're programming your beats.
Actually recording them instead of drawing in notes helps big time!

[realmarco]

well it depnds on what you would like to ahieve

you could try doing it the way he said but you would end up with just that Random Drums...they won't have a performance in them it will be just loud soft soft loud medium soft loud etc just random

you should probably do like he said with the recording them with your midi keyboard

also once the notes are recorded you can use the X tools for the velocity. that tool make a line as if you where doing a photoshop edit...so just click drag at an angle and click again you should then have a ascending or descending velocity thinggy... just do that its really fast plus you have control of what its gonna sound like

[mojogigolo]

if youve got battery 2, you can just as easily apply a level of randomization via the matrix.

[gravehill]

If you're going for realistic sounding drums I would recommend the dreaded editing approach. It takes time when you edit every note by hand but you can get much better results than via any randomization, IMHO.

Just remember that the key to success here is to exaggerate the velocity differences between consecutive notes somewhat.

[butter]

i use the logical editor for that and it works pretty good.

[sjm]

If it's standard rock with a verse / chorus / bridge structure:
Create a basic drum beat for the various parts of the song; maybe a 4 bar loop.

Make sure that you spend a certain amount of time editing this loop, until it sounds natural; i.e. set velocities intelligently (e.g. accent on beats 1 and 3 etc.), don't try to play too many things at once (a drummer has only 2 arms and legs)
Try and keep the patterns fairly simple (i.e. no drum fills and rolls yet).

Take the basic pattern, and copy it so that you have filled up all the corresponding sections in the song (chorus/verse/bridge)

Now vary the patterns you copied by removing a hit here and there, changing the velocities slightly, adding an extra hit, changing open hi-hats to closed etc.
If you really want to go the whole hog; create various kick, snare and hat patterns and vary the permutations (i.e. first {K1, S1, H1} together, then {K3, S1, H2} and so forth)
lots of variation without too much effort.

Luckily in standard rock, the basic beat won't change much within a verse.

Create a few drum rolls and fills (on separate patterns) and add them to the correct parts of the song. Once again you can use a basic pattern and then add variation... Don't forget to alternate between crashes etc.

I generally find this is the quickest way to create a drum track that contains enough variation without having to manually edit every single hit (you do it for a short loop, and then fine edit that loop for variation).

Once you're song is up and running, you will notice that certain hits need to be tinkered to fit with the song - but you no longer should need to edit every single one.

Another trick is to create drum patterns that are of a different length to the normal structure of the song; standard rock will generally be divided into groups of 4 bars. If you make the drum track 3 bars long, and repeat it, you will end up moving the emphasis at a different speed to the rest of the song - which can create variation without needing to put in THAT much effort.

You'll still want to polish everything at the end though (i.e. edit individual notes and add variation).

And yes, playing the drum track live can make ALL the difference (if you have a sense of rhythm that is)

[DrummerDude]

Thanks to all of you guys, ! will try your tricks and i am sure that they all work.
The topic is open for new posts, of course