A newbie's view of MDrummer's drumsets and components

[jneudorf]

Some notes on drums; I'm not a drummer, and I just got MDrummer this weekend. Therefore, I'm fresh enough to know what's confusing. People who are experienced won't have my frustrations.

Mdrummer is 3 things; a sequencer, an instrument, and an effects rack.

To play it as an instrument, your midi device needs to be on channel 10; channels 1-9 are used to control the sequencer.

The 5 main views of MDrummer are Quick Setup, Mixer, Song, Drumset Editor, Rhythm Editor, and Rhythm Generator. The mixer and drumset editor control what sounds get made. The song, rhythm editor, and rhythm generator are used by the sequencer.

There are conflicting notations for what "C4" is. MDrummer uses the ISO standard, scientific pitch notation (SPN). Also known as American Standard Pitch Notation. Middle C is C4, midi note 60, and the lowest note possible is C-1 (midi note 0). Some software use obsolete conventions--Yamaha, garageband, and Logic use C3 for middle C. Beware.

Sounds that can be played using MDrummer are called "drums" even if they're things like triangles or bells.

The default preset has drums mapped from C1 to A4; this is (mostly) a subset of general midi 1 (GM1). It does not contain the general midi notes from 1999 (GM2), such as 87 (open surdo) or 27 (High Q), and B1 (acoustic bass) is undefined. There are two cowbells; "cowbell hi" is mapped to A5, which GM1 reserves for an open triangle, but otherwise the default preset itself appears compatible. "Tom 1" is mapped to both C3 and D3 (Hi-mid tom and hi tom according to general midi).

To view it in more detail, you can go into the drumset editor. The drum list shows available instruments, and can be shown as a list which shows names, or in overview mode, which shows icons. The overview shows 24 tracks mapped. The lowest is C2 (36), an electric bass drum. If you select a drum such as "Bass Drum 1", you can open the "advanced" pane which shows where that drum is mapped in red.

== Creating A Drumset

Generally, if you want to add a drumset you know about to your current set, you can navigate and merge it within the quick setup tab, by going to "selector", selecting an alternate drumset, and clicking "load & join".

Initial tutorial videos are good at showing how to create and browse random drumsets. That won't be covered here.

Within the Drumset Editor tab (selected at the top), there is a drum list. Within the drum list you can add and remove instruments from your drum kit.

For example, you can duplicate the default "bass drum 1" using the "stacked sheets" icon. You can rename the duplicate within the "Drum" tab". If you change its type within the "Drum" tab, the midi note associated with it in the "advanced" tab will also change. The "minus" icon in a solid circle (in the drum list) will allow it to be deleted. The "plus" icon allows new drums (instruments) to be added.

If you add a drum, you are given a choice of 69 types of drum types, each by default associated with a (mostly unique) midi key. Except for some reason handclap and ride bell 2 both map to D#2. The midi key can be re-assigned in the "advanced" tab, so if you have many bass drums, you can assign them individual midi notes there. For each drum in the drumlist, multiple layers of sound can be produced using the multisampler, sampler, scratcher, subsamplesynth, or synthesizer4nn instruments, in any combination, either at random, controlled by Midi CC, or velocity. If you know already know where the sound is that you want to make, you can navigate to it within the "layer source" window. Or drag-and-drop a .WAV file into the MDrummer window, with that drum *layer* selected.

Multiple drums can be assigned to the same midi note for layering. If there is overlap, it can be detected in the "advanced" tab found beneath the drum list (laboriously--go to each drum, change its midi note, and see if that midi note is still in use).

Once you have added drums to your drum list, you can save this drumset. If all of the drums are the (basically the same) type, it is reasonable to save them in a subdirectory of the "component" section of the drum library (the button is in the drumset toolbar).

The sample library import function by default places the components it automatically generates in "Imported" subdirectories of the default components.

Drumsets are distinct from presets.

=== Components

Within Quick Setup -> Drumset -> Designer, there is a list of categories (components) partially corresponding to the subdirectories within the component directory of the drum library. It's not 100% though, since there is a "bass drum 2" and "snare drum 2", where the library only has "bass drum 1" and "snare drum 1" directories.

Components: Bass drum 1/2, Snare drum 1/2, Snare cross-stick 1, Handclap, Toms, HiHat, Ride, Crash 1/2, Splash, Chinese, Cowbell, Woodblock, Bongo, Conga, Timbale, Shakers, Tambourine, Effects. The "2" directories don't exist, so I assume that bass drums, snares, and crashes are not "sets" that you replace as a group; you just have more than one of them.

If you use the "sample library analyzer" function within the main menu, and the only file you have is a "bass drum 2" type, it won't be sorted into a any component. It will however be added as a "bass drum 2" type to a drumset.

If you use the "sample libary analyzer" with a "bass drum 1" and "bass drum 2" type, a drumset will be generated with both, but only the bass1 drum type will be placed in a component directory.

Question: suppose I add a "music 1" drum type within the drumset editor, and save that drumset as "music". Shouldn't I see that "music" within the quick setup drumset designer tab? Answer: Eventually. If you add a new "music" subdirectory under the component directory, it will appear in the quick setup drumset designer tab. The plugin will need to be closed and re-opened first.

The intention seems to be that you can load and save subsets of a drumset independantly; for example, toms are matched to provide contrast and work as a set. You probably don't want to just have 3 random toms, you want a group of toms that work together.

"component" Drumsets saved within the subdirectories of the component directory can be chosen at random to replace other "components" saved in that same sub folder directory. By convention, a component drumset should consist of drums of the type that the directory is named for.

There may be special code that breaks if the unknown conventions are not followed.

Question: what happens to midi if a "bass drum 2" component is selected? When a "bass drum 1" component is selected, it maps to C2, as might be expected. When "bass drum 2" is added, it gets mapped to B1. Perhaps this is hard coded: when browsing in the drumset designer tap, the number of available components shows as the same, so "bass drum 2" components are presumably special.

It seems like it might be dangerous to add a "bass drum 2" subdirectory to components; code might break.

Drum Types: bass 1, bass 2 (no text), snare 1, snare rimshot 1/2, snare swirl 1/2(no text), snare cross-stick, snare 2 (picollo), snare cross-stick 2, (no text), handclap, tom 1/2/3/floor 1/floor 2, hi hat/ pedal/open, ride cymbal 1/2/bell/bell2, crash cymbal 1/2, splash 1/2, chinese cymbal, chinese splash, effect cymbal, gong1/2, orchestral cymbals 1/2, cowbell low/hi, woodblock, jamblock, clave, triangle, bell 1/2, chimes large/small, bongo hi/lo, conga hi/low/quinto, timbale hi/lo, shakers 1/2, tambourine 1/2, guiro short/long, effect 1/2/3/4, scratch 1/2/3/4, music 1/2/3/4. (for a good overview, use "+" in the drum list section).

In most cases, it's obvious which component would have a given instrument, but in the case of some instruments it's not clear (effect cymbal, gong, orchestral, jamblock, clave, triangle, bell, chimes, guiros are not obvously part of any of the components).

When I used the "sample library analyzer" on wav files that had "gong" keywords, they were assigned to drums of the appropriate types, but no components were generated.

Question: is there a way to see which drumsets or components, if any, have a triangle, jamblock, or guiro? I don't think there is.

Bad visual feature: Within the Drum Designer, the "Lock" icon shows locked (when unlocked). When highlighted, it actually is locked.

[EricMendelsohn]

Thank you for that post. Some of the characteristics that you described were familiar to me (a newbie, as specified) and some were a little too esoteric (but will probably make sense in the future) and SOME were JUST RIGHT in that they describe MDrummer behaviors at the bleeding edge of my learning! I appreciate that you took the trouble to accumulate all those notes and organize them into a reference, that is also a bug notice, and that is also a toehold for one's sanity when some configuration detail keeps acting a little, um, unexpectedly.

[Hexspa]

I'm finally coming around to the MDrummer fest. Thanks for this post.

[noizejoy]

Some notes on drums; I'm not a drummer, and I just got MDrummer this weekend. Therefore, I'm fresh enough to know what's confusing. ...

Very cool TL;DR about MDrummer for users more used to other drum machines and beat making hardware and software!

It probably deserves a more permanent home with better SEO than eventually getting buried deep in the bowels of this sub forum.