[Tech] How to Program Drums

[h4x5k8]

Ah, i got it now. For some reason the drag bar was red the whole time.

This is a little annoyance that happens to me quite often as well. You had the left locater on the right side, and vice versa.

Yea its still F 11 in nuendo. The thing that made me excited about the program was recording guitar in the program over the drums. Will DKFH work with Cubase? Can I do guitar and drums in Cubase?

Cubase and Nuendo are both multitrack Audio, and Midi recorders. So yes you can track any audio input (Guitar, Mics, DI, Etc.) over your midi drums (DFHS, EZD)

 

[Lenny]

would other versions of cubase be the same? cant find sx3 unless ebay, would SE/LE do same?

 

[h4x5k8]

VST's work with Cubase LE (don't have experience with SE). But there aren't as many features in LE, for instance not as many VST slots, could never get the drum maps to work, and a limited amount of audio/midi tracks available. You can read the differences on the steinberg site.

 

[Nik]

I've got a question:

Once I've done all the stuff listed in the tutorial and I have a MIDI drum track playing through EZDrummer, how can I apply compressor/other Cubase plug-ins to individual drums?

What I've been doing is going to the EZDrummer mixer, and selecting output as 'multi-track'. This creates a separate track for each drum sound, to which I can add EQ. However, in order to use plug-ins like this one free compressor I downloaded, you have to select an actual audio track, and each individual drum track doesn't actually have any audio data on it, so I can't use the compressor. Any tips?

I'm using this free VST compressor:

http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-compressor.php

I really don't want to have to export individual drums as WAVs and import them back into Cubase just for the sake of Compression

 

[Fionn]

Would anyone be interesed in a BFD in Pro Tools version of this thread? I will be able to do this for you all if you like?

 

[Ryan]

We always like info contributions to the site's wealth.

 

[TomAwesome]

I've got a question:

Once I've done all the stuff listed in the tutorial and I have a MIDI drum track playing through EZDrummer, how can I apply compressor/other Cubase plug-ins to individual drums?

What I've been doing is going to the EZDrummer mixer, and selecting output as 'multi-track'. This creates a separate track for each drum sound, to which I can add EQ. However, in order to use plug-ins like this one free compressor I downloaded, you have to select an actual audio track, and each individual drum track doesn't actually have any audio data on it, so I can't use the compressor. Any tips?

I'm using this free VST compressor:

Kjaerhus Audio - Professional Audio Plug-ins

I really don't want to have to export individual drums as WAVs and import them back into Cubase just for the sake of Compression

I'm curious about this, too. Anybody? I like to add EQ, compression, and some other stuff to my drum (and other MIDI VSTi) tracks, and this is probably the main thing that has stopped me from moving over from Fruity Loops (which actually has a really kick ass mixer setup)... that and I can't figure out how to import a MIDI track without making a new file, but that's beside the point.

 

[Fionn]

cool, well i'm going on holiday in a week, but when i get back i'll so a short tutorial.

 

[robe108]

hi, this tutorial is very cool, but how do i use ezdrummer with acid pro 6??

 

[KaLeVaLA]

great tutorial.

Is this a sticky yet? Let's hope so ...so it doesn't dissapear when i get all the programs

 

[Shikaru]

I'm curious about this, too. Anybody? I like to add EQ, compression, and some other stuff to my drum (and other MIDI VSTi) tracks, and this is probably the main thing that has stopped me from moving over from Fruity Loops (which actually has a really kick ass mixer setup)... that and I can't figure out how to import a MIDI track without making a new file, but that's beside the point.

I prefer Fruity Loops over Cubase for midi editing, but maybe that's just because I'm used to it. Also, I don't have access to my recording comp at the moment, but I think in FL under the "File" or some similar drop down menu in the piano roll window there's the option to import a MIDI file just into that pattern. Hope that helps, Tom.

 

[TomAwesome]

I prefer Fruity Loops over Cubase for midi editing, but maybe that's just because I'm used to it. Also, I don't have access to my recording comp at the moment, but I think in FL under the "File" or some similar drop down menu in the piano roll window there's the option to import a MIDI file just into that pattern. Hope that helps, Tom.

Yeah, I can do that in FL no problem. I also prefer using the FL piano roll because 1) I'm used to it, and 2) it seems to be a bit more flexible than Cubase's. The main reason I want to switch to Cubase is that I can use DFH and rename the "notes" so I know what I'm looking at instead of just having a keyboard to look at. FL lets you do that with the FPC, which is what I'm using now with DFH1 samples, but I'd like to use EZD (or DFHS if I can get my hands on it), and I just can't see myself being able to use it efficiently in FL

 

[Shikaru]

Yeah, I can do that in FL no problem. I also prefer using the FL piano roll because 1) I'm used to it, and 2) it seems to be a bit more flexible than Cubase's. The main reason I want to switch to Cubase is that I can use DFH and rename the "notes" so I know what I'm looking at instead of just having a keyboard to look at. FL lets you do that with the FPC, which is what I'm using now with DFH1 samples, but I'd like to use EZD (or DFHS if I can get my hands on it), and I just can't see myself being able to use it efficiently in FL

Yeah that's true, the people at FL said it's a problem with the plugin so they won't do anything about it. I wouldn't worry about the lack of named notes though. I found it a bit confusing at first, but it didn't take long to get used to the general position of things and now I don't have any trouble at all

 

[Leec]

You can download drum maps for EZD and DFHS to use in Sonar and Cubase from the Toontrack website.
If anyone's interested, I've made my own maps for the DFH EZX. I can upload it if people need one.

 

[robe108]

You can download drum maps for EZD and DFHS to use in Sonar and Cubase from the Toontrack website.
If anyone's interested, I've made my own maps for the DFH EZX. I can upload it if people need one.

please do!!!!

 

[Leec]

There's 2 in here. One for the EZD kit and one for the DFH EZX. I can't remember if I made this one for the regular EZD kit or not. I think I may have modified it so things aren't spread all over the place so much. But I definitely made the DFH EZX one.
Hope you find it useful, dude.

 

[Groff]

Quick question: How am I supposed to turn up the crash cymbal and turn down the ride cymbal?

Both are controlled by the Mixer track 'Overhead' and I need to do this somehow, because my ride cymbal is always waaay too loud and the crash cymbal is waaaay too quiet.

Excellent tutorial, by the way

There is a "Mixer" in the EZDrummer window (That has the picture of the drums).

That is assuming you use the provided loops in EZDrummer and edit them like I do. (Saves time)

I have a question myself. Can I "Widen" the drum editor so that I can precisely get beats in between the whole notes? Or "zoom in" to the track?

 

[Leec]

There is a "Mixer" in the EZDrummer window (That has the picture of the drums).

That is assuming you use the provided loops in EZDrummer and edit them like I do. (Saves time)

I have a question myself. Can I "Widen" the drum editor so that I can precisely get beats in between the whole notes? Or "zoom in" to the track?

Actually, he can't do that with the mixer in EZD, both the ride and the cymbals come through the OH mic. The only thing you can do is input your cymbal hits at a high velocity and ride hits at a low one. But I (and many others) found the problem to be the reverse - the ride is just way too quiet.

A simple way to solve this is to program your cymbals on a separate midi track also assigned to play through the same instance of EZD. This allows you to still hear the project "whole" but you can export your cymbal hits separately from all the other OH mic data and render them on their own WAV file for separate editing later on. I used to do this with ride hits so I could boost them but not anything else that came through the OH's.

And for zooming in on the drum editor, sure - in the bottom right hand corner of the piano roll (drum editor) in Cubase there's a horizontal slider which will allow you to zoom in. Then simply change your graph to 8ths, 16ths, 16th triplets, etc.
There's also a vertical slider just above it to increase line space between each part of the kit (or key if you're not using a drum map).

 

[Groff]

Thanks Leec!

 

[Leec]

No worries, dude.