Completely baffled by Drums! Tips needed

[ABHouston]

Howdy.

Background:
Complete Metro newbie posting here, concerning help with drums.

I recently got a Digitech GNX3, which allowed me to record a song I've had in my head for years. I played the guitar, bass, and keyboard parts (no MIDI) which were all recorded on a Smartmedia card. Because my girlfriend works at home on a Mac, I bought Metro 6 SE so that we'd be all set in OSX (an OS9 version of Metro came free with the Digitech stuff). Confused by Metro, we did all the editing and mixing in Final Cut Pro (she uses that program for her career), and we're all done, except for drums, which I thought we'd figure out in Metro.

I went to the online tutorial and printed EVERYTHING with drums in the title. And I'm lost. I read through everything there, trying to get started, but to no avail. So I figured I'd post for help.


Here's what I have, and what I want:
I have a multi-track, non-MIDI recording (which could easily be compressed into one track), that goes from 120 tempo to 110 (bridge), then right back to 120.

I want to finish this song by adding drums to the whole thing. I know the drum tempos and sounds that I want, but I'm baffled as to what to do in Metro.

ANY help would earn my eternal gratitude.
Thanks in advance.

[Scoot]

Although you said a lot in your message it is still a little vague.

I assume you want the drums to be a midi track so you can refine their placement, get everything right and then add them into the rest of the composition as audio.

What device are you getting the sounds from? A drum machine or sampler or are you relying on quicktime instrument drums?

scoot.

[cornutt]

Hmmm... I'll start with some basics; apologies if this is stuff you already know...

Most of the drum boxes and drum soundfonts and so on that I've ever seen work by mapping individual MIDI note numbers to individual drum sounds. For example, the low tom might be mapped to middle C, the high tom to C#, the kick to D, the snare to E, and so on. Typically, all of the drum parts are on one MIDI channel (it's a quasi-standard to use channel 10).

Metro has a facility specifically to accommodate this: the Drums view in the editor window. You can define a "drum kit" which is basically an association of drum names to notes. Once you have defined a drum kit, you can set up a track to be your drum track, with the correct port/instrument name, and then put that track into the Drums view in the graphic editor by selecting Drums from the views pop-up menu (the one that says Notes, Controller, and so on).

You can control which drums you see in the Drums view, and what order they are displayed in. You can tell it to add all of the drums that are defined, or just the ones you want if you aren't going to need the whole defined kit. Each drum will occupy one horizontal line in the graphic editor, and it will display some funny little symbols to represent the drum strikes. (The funny little symbols represent generally the velocity range of the hits.) You can drag the symbols to move the hits, or shift-click them to edit their parameters. You can use the pencil tool to draw in drum hits or delete existing ones, and you can use all of the normal select, copy, cut and paste things that you can use in the other views.

For acutally composing the drum parts, there are a couple of techniques that I use. If the song requires a continuous drum part, I usually start by making a 2- or 4-bar pattern and setting that track to loop. Then I can work on the song with some notion of what the drum part will basically sound like with the other parts. Later, when I know what I want to do with the drum part, I turn the loop off, copy the drum part, and do a "Paste And..." giving it enough repeats to extend the drum part though the whole song. Then I can embellish the part, put in fills and so forth.

[Jerm]

Cornutt wrote " Later, when I know what I want to do with the drum part, I turn the loop off, copy the drum part, and do a "Paste And..." giving it enough repeats to extend the drum part though the whole song. Then I can embellish the part, put in fills and so forth."

Tip: Of course 'paste and' is very powerful, but did you know that you can now also use 'expand loops' to expand even basic loops?

[cornutt]

Tip: Of course 'paste and' is very powerful, but did you know that you can now also use 'expand loops' to expand even basic loops?

I didn't realize that. I'll have to play with it as soon as my Metro 6 setup is fully up and running (still waiting on that MIDI interface to be shipped ).

[ABHouston]

First, thanks to all who replied. I printed everything up, and will attempt to follow your directions when I sit down at the Metro computer.

Scooterman:
I already recorded all of the music (except drums). This entailed me plugging my guitar into the Digitech GNX3, then the bass, then the keyboard. The end result is a set of multiple tracks, saved as .wav or .aiff. They are all timed to each other, because I used a click track for recording (hence I know the tempos), but left the click track silent when I transfered the tracks to disk & then to the computer.

I thought I could get all drums (and drum sounds) entirely from Metro, so I don't have a drum machine or sampler. So, to answer your question, I'm not getting drum sounds from any external device or sampler, but am instead trying to create them from scratch in Metro (and I'm very confused about how to go about it).

Concerning your other question (that I want MIDI drums, to add to the rest of the non-MIDI composition as audio), I guess the answer is yes. I don't know, because all of the non-percussion music is NOT MIDI. As this is my first experience with Metro, I don't know if I'm trying to mix apples and oranges or not. But your basic assumption--that I want to create drums, refine their placement, and add them as audio to my song--is correct. I hope I've provided enough clarity for you to provide your own tips as to how I should get started going about this.

Thanks in advance

[sseaton]

ABHouston,

Use a SoundFont for your drums. If you use a SoundFont GM bank, you'll have to use MIDI channel 10. You can download uncompressed SounFonts from: "http://www.thesoundsite.net/SoundFontUnCompressedCat.tml" The SoundFonts will have the extension ".sf2"

First, go to Special and choose Modify Instruments and Busses... Allocate 1 stereo aux bus on built in audio controller (at the bottom of the window) and click OK. You should now have an aux 1 fader next to your master fader in the instruments window.

Second, go to Windows and choose Plugins. Drag the Apple: DLSMusicDevice plugin on top of the words "Aux 1" below the fader. This will pop up a new window.

Third, click on the word "none" next to the words SoundBank File and locate your downloaded SoundFont. Click on Open and the soundfont will load. Close this window and the plugins window.

Fourth, Double-click one of the port names in the instruments window below a fader and choose Apple: DLSMusicDevice in the drop box after the word Port and click OK. (You will have to select channel 10 if this is a GM bank, rather than just a drum SoundFont.)

Fifth, In the tracks window choose a track to record-enable and under the heading named "instruments" chose the same name (port) as you did in the instruments window.

Sixth, you can now select the bank and program in the tracks window. Make sure you choose the "dls2" bank to use the drum sounds in a GM bank.

You need to make sure to select Automatic MIDI Thru under the Switches menu to hear your drum sounds as you play them.

This is how I am able to record, and I have had no problems. Although sometimes I have to choose the bank and program again in the tracks window after I open the file.

I hope this helps, and I would be happy to help you out further via private messages if it is necessary.

Jerm or anyone else... please reply to this if you find any inaccuracies or tips.

Thanks,
Sean

[jonrandall]

Jerm or anyone else... please reply to this if you find any inaccuracies or tips.

Are you kiddin'? If I had read this instead of the manual I would have done lots more tracking--but wouldn't have gotten as much beauty sleep.

Great walk-through of exactly what I've asked in the Effect/Plus section.

The only thing funky I haven't figured out now is why when I switch SoundFonts there is suddenly no audio unless I go through a ritual that even I haven't nailed down yet. The first time I followed your instructions (and thought they didn't work), I suddenly noticed that somehow the Master fader was all the way down. Then I changed SoundFonts through the Effects window, got no audio output (though the meters in the track window were reacting to my hitting the keys on the keyboard), so I went through and changed the routings in the Instrument window and the Tracks window, then changed them back to the Apple thingy, and suddenly had audio again. Then I switched to yet another SoundFont, and no audio (but meter action). This time, after the ritual, after resetting everything, I discovered that inexplicably the Aux 1 fader was all the way down. The Ghost Engineer strikes again.



But it works.

[Jerm]

I believe all of the ghost engineer problems are gone in 6.0.7.

After switching soundfonts it is imperative to send a bank and program change to the plug-in to load the correct sound from the soundfont.

[jonrandall]

I believe all of the ghost engineer problems are gone in 6.0.7.

That's good to hear. If I start using it, though, I can't go back, right, on any projects I start in it?

After switching soundfonts it is imperative to send a bank and program change to the plug-in to load the correct sound from the soundfont.

This is a bit confusing to me, since the generic window for the Apple DLSMusicDevice says "SoundBank file=" next to the browse button for accomplishing said SoundFonts switching, and in the custom "Edit" window supplied by Apple, it says "Sound Bank:" next to the (greyed/unselectable) drop-down menu for selecting a SoundFont/DLS. So if browsing and selecting a SoundFont using Metro's provided "SoundBank file=" browse button is not, itself, the act of sending a bank change, what is, how is it done, and where is it documented? (But, really, why isn't it the act of sending a bank change?)

As for a program change, the SoundFonts I have worked with so far have been drum kits, which only have one preset: the drum kit. Therefore, in Metro's generic window for the DLSMusicDevice, there are no options available for sending a program change; there is only "Untitled" showing in the (unlabled, unidentified) drop-down in the upper right of Metro's generic window for the DLSMusicDevice, and if that drop-down is selected, it only shows "Save Preset As... ." Apple's "custom" edit window shows no options at all for program change. If there are options for this somewhere else, where are they, how is it done, and where is it documented? Also, how are program changes handled by Metro when there is only one preset in a SoundFont?

I'm happy to do things that are deemed imperative as long as a method is provided for doing them.

[Jerm]

Well, perhaps "imperative" is the wrong word. I should have said "recommended".

Program changes (and bank changes for that matter) are sent to the plug-in the same way they would be sent to an external MIDI device, via the graphic or track editors or even in the instruments window.

The reverb button may be new to 6.0.6 or 6.0.7 I do not remember, although it is moot since we are talking about the internal (quicktime) synth anyway.

To find out when the reverb button first appeared check the release notes in announcements on this forum.

[Scoot]

Program changes.......if you only use drums I wouldn't worry about it.
Like you say there is only one setting for them. Then again you could have an array of drums to choose from.......as in standard kit, room, classical etc.

If you want to use different program numbers in a track or you find metro always reverting back to an old instrument rather than the one you have selected, its probably because somewhere in the track is a program change and metro is carrying out it's function and changing instruments on you as it thinks that's what you wanted. Dam computers!

I use a soundfont called realfont 2.1 which gives me a GM array of instruments or pretty close.

In the graphic editor.....
If I go to the first bank (dls) and then choose a bass guitar (pgm #36) I have a bass guitar setup.
If I then go to the popup where Notes is selected and choose Program Change from the list, I get the track's information for program changes. On the left the numbering is 0 to 128 and I should see a line at 36 going across the track. At the start of the line is a little circle.
Click on it and you can perform program changes from here.
If you click on the 36 here, up appears all the other programs available.

This is the information metro is using to know which instrument to play.
hope this helps.



scoot.