For those of you that program drums

[EADGC]

In Fruityloops, Reason etc

How do you go about mixing them?


In the program's mixer then export?

export each drum to separate tracks?

attach to a DAW (in Rewire for example)?



just wondering

[Moseph]

I don't generally program drums (recording them live is my favorite method), but I've been exploring alternatives to find a good soft-drum solution.

The method I've used most recently has been recording MIDI data from a digital drum module, and then feeding that data into a drum VSTi. I prefer multiple output VSTi's, because the breakout options allow me to use the mixer in the DAW programs I use most (Sonar and Cubase) to have an experience very similar to a kit captured with microphones. In theory, this also gives me greater flexibility, since I can edit the MIDI data as necessary. In practice, I've never done a lot of MIDI editing, so it's an option that has always been unexploited.

Regarding the programming aspect of it, I've struggled to find a decent drum programming option. Step sequencer plugins are generally geared toward electronic music and/or are exclusive to 4/4 time signatures. The few step sequencer plugins I've found that aren't tend to be heavily cumbersome or criminally inefficient.

I've never been a fan of Reason via ReWire (I've got Reason Adapted from an M-Audio card I purchased a couple years ago). I never found it intuitive compared to other options out there.

Lately, I've been intending to experiment with the higher-level functionality of DrumTrack (http://www.supercoldmilk.com/drumtrack/) to see how I might be albe to replicate some of the more comfortable aspects of drum mixing I'm used to, or potentially feed MIDI to it to generate said tracks. Regardless of the high-level functionality, DrumTrack is the best independent and freeware drum program I've found on Windows. Hydrogen is probably comparable (possibly superior) on Linux, but the Windows version has given me a lot of problems (that might be alleviated by a higher-end machine).

[ares]

I used program my drums in Logic Studio then use an EXS instrument, sampled from my own drum kit, but now since I've gotten an e-kit I just record the midi from that into my computer and play it back through the software instrument.

I have the EXS instrument set up to output each group of drums (kick, snare, toms, HH/Ride, Crashes) to a different stereo output so that I can mix them/apply effects/eq them separately.

[Aaron]

I guess I'm old fashioned, but generally I chart what I want onto manuscript [ie a beat with certain aspects etc etc] then play it through physically on my accoustic kit or Roland TD9KX [I use this more] a number of times and grab the best sample and cut that as a separate WAV file. Then I can use that for looping in a number of programs. I like this better than tracking whole tracks as the file sizes are smaller, and processing it [EQ, compression, etc] takes less time and memory. I can have 5 versions of the same sample with different processes on them, and not have to keep working on it each time I want it [ie 8-bar loop, one file with a lot of compression, another file with none, a version of file-A with EQ setting-1, a version of file-A with EQ setting-2, etc etc]. If you're good at keeping track of different files, then it's a good system.