Drum Grid Recording

Drum Grid recording within the Graphic Editor window is much like havingmultiple tracks displayed within a single track. However, these tracks are optimized for thedisplay of drum data. Within the Drum Grid display, Drum Names representindividual drum sounds; you can Mute and Solo Drum Names just like you can Mute andSolo individual tracks within a Section. Click a Drum Name to select its contents across a track. A Drum Grid is toa track what a track is to a Section.

For more information on the Drum Grid display, see Working with Drum Sets.

Now let's record and loop a drum track:

  1. Within the Tracks window, click and drag the Output pop-up on track 1 and assign it to channel 10 of your General MIDI compatible sound module. Channel 10 denotes the drum channel onGM-compatible sound modules.

  2. Double-click the empty name field of track 1 to open it within the GraphicEditor window.

  3. Within the Graphic Editor, choose Drums from the track display popup in the track's titlebar, or press the d. This changes the track display from Notes to Drums.

  4. Option-click the Track name in the track titlebar of the Graphic Editor window in order to name it. Type the name 'MIDI Drums' and press the Return key.

  5. Choose Set Selection from the Edit menu.

  6. In the Set Selection dialog box, enter a Start time of 1 Bar, 1 Beat and 0Clocks, and an End Time of 3 Bars, 1 Beat and 0 Clocks, then click OK.

This sets a 2 bar selection across measures 1 and 2.

  1. Press Option-R to begin recording.

The Record Loop dialog box appears.

  1. After a 4 beat count off, Metro begins to loop record for a length of 2 bars.Play drum patterns and begin to build a rhythmic loop. You may wish to beginwith a kick drum pattern, then add snare, high-hat and then furtherembellishments.

  2. Click the Pause Recording button in the Record Loop dialog box in order toexperiment with parts over the existing loop without recording them to a track. Press the Record button in the dialog box in order to dropback into recording.

Notice how the Drum Names stack up across the Drum Grid display after eachrecord loop pass. You can even edit the drum sounds without having to stoprecording.

  1. Press the spacebar once you're happy with the content of your loop.

    note02.gif

  1. In track 2's titlebar of the Graphic Editor window, just to the right of the S button, click to select the Loop icon, and type 2 bars as the track length in the field just to the right of the Loop icon.

You have loop-recorded a short drum track and set it to loop on play-back.

The next step in this tutorial is Drum Grid Editing.
Drum Grid Recording