[Tech] How to Program Drums

Ryan

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Here's a step by step on how to program your own drums.
This is for people using Cubase SX or Nuendo and the EZDrummer + DFH.
A lot of people are having a time getting this junk going. So here goes:

Step 1:

Install your programs. If you dont know how to install these programs on your computer, you should probably give up now. Cause Cubase isn't the most user friendly multitracking software.. hehe

Youre going to want to install EZDrummer first, and then the EZX Expansion. (assuming of course that Cubase is already installed before both of these)

Step 2:

You'll notice that there's no icon or shortcut to open EZDrummer. Thats because EZDrummer is a plugin not a free standing application. When you open Cubase it will act as a "host" for EZDrummer to run in.

Step 3:

Open Cubase.

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After all the loading and junk happens, you will get to a blank interface like so:

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Step 4:

Make a new Project.

Click File. -> New Project.

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And empty one will do just fine.

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Now select and Audio folder for your takes and junk to be stored in.
Hey! Thats private :lol:

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Step 5:

Now you should have a screen that looks something like this...

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So this blank project isnt gonna do you any good just blank. Youre gonna need to Add a MIDI track for your drum track to live in.

Go to Project -> Add Track -> MIDI

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Now your screen should look like this...

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Step 6:

So now you have a project opened, and a MIDI track ready and waiting for some drum loving...

Youre gonna have to bust out your EZDrummer VST now. Press F11 or go Devices-> VST Instruments on the top bar.

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Then you'll see this little guy pop up...

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Click where it says No Instrument to add ezdrummer as a VST.

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Well well well. It's EZDrummer.

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Now if you have the DFH Expansion toss it on by clicking EZX at top of the plugin window and selecting DRUMKIT FROM HELL.

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Now you'll have ths sweetness on your screen :metal:

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But unfortunately, you can work with that junk taking up your entire screen. So hit F11 again and press the little "e" button to hide that junk.

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Step 7:

WOW how our little MIDI track has grown.

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Now we have to prepare our MIDI track for accepting the newly assinged EZDrummer VST by adding our INs and OUTs.

Our INs can stay as ALL MIDI INPUTS.

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And our OUTs should be set to EZDrummer. But Ryan, you say, I dont see this column youre playing with. Then you people should click the little button i circled in red up there.

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Now, this part is different for different people. i dont use a shit load of different kit parts so i can get away with the GM Map. You probably can too. So we'll roll with that now.

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Step 8:

Now we're ready to make our drum beatz! Click the little pencil at the top.

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Click and drag it on the MIDI track youve set up now. It will make a little block which is a piece of your song.

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Switch back to the arrow mouse pointer from the pencil and right click your block. Go MIDI -> Open Drum Editor.

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And here's where you get down and dirty programming your drum beats.

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Step 9:

You have to rename all the little channels on the left hand column as they arent all the right drum sounds. So click them and see what they are and rename them and move them in the order you like them. This is how i did mine:

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Now you can place your hits by using the little drumstick mouse pointer at the top of the screen. And chang the velocity at the top too. Looks something like this:

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Step 10:

After you'vve done all that and your screen is full of beats like this...

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You highlight your finished song by dragging this little thing over the ENTIRE song, and leave some space past the end of it for the cymblas to die out too.

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Then export your WAV.

File -> Export -> Audio Mixdown.

FIN YAY!

Tweaking and mixing your drum sounds in the EZDrummer Plugin interface is easy. It's also something you should do on your own, so your drum dont sound like my drums. Press F11 and click that "e" to pull up EZD again, and click the mixer next to the kit. Theres where you can play with the settings and get a basic drum sound. Hide it all again and look at the VST sub tracks under the main MIDI track. You can add curve EQs and all kinds of verbs/comps to that to make your drums own everyone elses. Enjoy! And post your friggin music when yourre done!

- Ryan
 

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Chris

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Question: Where's the tempo at? Like I have the screen up and all my drums/etc assigned and properly named - how do I determine the actual pacing of the hits?

Edit: I think I get it. You make the beat at a default tempo, and adjust it in the actual playback editor, right?


Question 2! :D

I'm here:

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Before I close the program out and lose my uber 4/4 kick/snare beat (hah), how do I save this drum map so I can use the pattern later?
 

Ryan

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Question #1

Click your transport bar where it says "tempo" so that it now says Tempo - Track. Hit Ctrl+T. Thats your tempo track. Move the blue line up or down to control tempo over the amount of time signified by the vertical lines.

Question #2

In the drum editor, beneath all of your channels, click the pulldown menu that says GM Map. Click DrumMap Setup. Save your map ;D
 

Chris

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I'll fart with tempo in a bit, lol. I'm makin' some totally ownage completely horrid beats. :D

More Qs!

- How do I rename the drum patterns? Right now they're all called "MIDI 01".

- How do you do quick double-kicks? Like the beats want to align themselves to the grid, so I get like

kick kick | snare | kick kick kick | snare

I want toss in shit like:

kick kick | snare | kick kick kickkick | snare

Know what I mean? lol
 

h4x5k8

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Wow man, Nice Job!

If I only had this about 6 months ago, I had to figure it all out on my own (and with DFHS which is even more of a bitch). Ill help answer some of the questions, and hopefully learn some new stuff as well.

Btw- This should be the official "Questions about working with cubase drum programming" thread as well.

------------------------------------------------
@Chris
'How do I rename the drum patterns? Right now they're all called "MIDI 01".'
Refer to the first attachment.

The bottom three red circles are all areas where you can double click and input the name (2 for the midi file name, and one for the midi track name). The top two are where you can access your pool where you can re-name it, I could be wrong but I think midi files are included in the pool (not at home computer).


'How do you do quick double-kicks? Like the beats want to align themselves to the grid, so I get like'

Refer to second attachment. Activate the Quantize button and change what note/beat length you want to quantize to, the grid will then change accordingly. Now you can draw your beats with the pencil or record it into the midi track with a controller (keyboard, electric drums, etc.).

Edit- BTW Chris you can turn off the 'Auto-Snap' feature by clicking the button to the left of the Q or 'Quantize" button (one I circled in second pic), this will make it so it doesn't align to the grid and you can place the beats where ever you want. This is also good to turn off when you want to make your drums sound more human, by moving each beat a little (zooming in will help), since no drummer plays in PERFECT time.

Edit2 - I'm PEtarded, I circled the midi track thinking that would rename the drum pattern, ignore that circle.
 

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Chris

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h4: If I click the top left "MIDI 01", it seems to rename the track itself. Clicking it on the actual editing area brings up the drum editor when I click the name.

[action=Chris]feels like such a freakin' newb.[/action]

I still can't figure out how to do kicks that roll into the snare, like dum dum-da-BAP, dum dum-da-BAP, know what I mean? :D

This is fun. :D
 

Ryan

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Try this for renaming:

Click each the box you wanna rename and name it up on the left hand side there:

renameih4.jpg


Turn off the Snap feature to place by hand. I ALWAYS place hits by hand because if not, the beats stack perfectly on top of eachother and they sound like a drum machine. When you turn snap off and place them by hand they sound way more human. And make sure the Humanize setting is ON on the EZDrummer plugin. ;D

snapqn6.jpg
 

irg7620

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this is exactly the tutorial i have been waiting for to read so i have a heads up when i get this stuff. now, can you use drumkit from hell as well?
 

Chris

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this is exactly the tutorial i have been waiting for to read so i have a heads up when i get this stuff. now, can you use drumkit from hell as well?

He is using DFH, DFH is the VST that you send to whatever sequencer you're using (in this case, Cubase).

As a side note, the tutorials from Toontrack (if you're using EZD) are excellent:

http://www.toontrack.com/tutorials.asp
 

irg7620

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oh, i thought he said he was using EZ drummer. which i know is a cheaper version of DFH made by the same people. that's cool anyways. i'll have to try to put some money together and try to get these programs.
 
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