Can someone help me out with programming drums in Reaper?

[bryan_kilco]

I've tried to search around but didnt really find much.

I've always programmed my drums in FL Studio, but a lot of people say I should get Superior or something like that, and learn to use piano roll feature in my DAW.

Can anyone help me start off on the right foot? I want to be able to create more realistic sounding drums but don't know where to start.

Also - is there a demo version of Superior or DKFH or anything like that I can practice with? I have no clue what to get and/or how to go about linking the sequencer to Reaper.

 

[ahjteam]

Get free Native Instruments Komplete Players, there are a few free drumkits there on Kontak Player and Kore player. You can practice with those. For example the Sky kit sounds like this

 

[bryan_kilco]

Ok, will check those out. I'm very comfortable in FL Studio, I just don't grasp the huge difference between something like Slate or DKFH compared to FL Studio....also, I'm a total newb at piano roll and midi stuff.....

Thank you though, kind sir.

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Bryan - Programming drums in Reaper is super, super easy dude. The biggest hurdle I found was getting the note names to display (i.e., Snare Center, Kick, Tom 2, etc.) But, once you decide what sampler to use, whether it's Slate, DKFH, SD2.0, or another, you can usually find a premade drum map that you can load into the piano roll - that will make things so much easier.

From there, it's just a matter of adding notes to the grid in time. Another thing that's really helpful is using premade MIDI loops, to get the hang of note velocities, etc.

It's really simple man.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Ok, so I downloaded the demo of Kontakt yesterday and fooled around with it for a bit. I ended up just running it as a standalone to get the feel for it and it had me scratching my head a bit. The thing expired only after like 15 mins of me using it, so I really didnt get to wrap my head around it much at all.

 

[FIXXXER]

I've tried to search around but didnt really find much.

I've always programmed my drums in FL Studio, but a lot of people say I should get Superior or something like that, and learn to use piano roll feature in my DAW.

get superior or any other drum VSTi and use it comfortably in FL Studio!

cheers
S.

 

[DaveBlack]

Maybe i missed this, but why not program all your drums in FL Studio, export the MIDI File and then use that to trigger samples in Reaper? This is what I do because I've used FL Studio since, geez, 3.0?? and I'm insanely comfortable with it. Reapers MIDI piano roll is a little awkward for me. I'll use it if I have to but I try to stay away from it.

The realism comes from 30% samples and 70% programming. So the bulk of your job can still happen in FL as far as velocities and mapping are concerned.

get superior or any other drum VSTi and use it comfortably in FL Studio!

cheers
S.

Personally, I don't like the way certain things sound when they're bounced from FL Studio. Call me crazy, but I def hear a difference. Maybe it's the sound engine or something. The only way i'll render out something other than MIDI in FL Studio is if it's one of their plugins that I cant use in Reaper or if I have one of their stock mixer fx on something.

 

[FIXXXER]

Maybe i missed this, but why not program all your drums in FL Studio, export the MIDI File and then use that to trigger samples in Reaper? This is what I do because I've used FL Studio since, geez, 3.0?? and I'm insanely comfortable with it. Reapers MIDI piano roll is a little awkward for me. I'll use it if I have to but I try to stay away from it.

The realism comes from 30% samples and 70% programming. So the bulk of your job can still happen in FL as far as velocities and mapping are concerned.

exactly how i do it, i program everything in FL studio,
then export as midi and do the fine tuning in cubase.

exported audio sounds strange indeed :Smug:

cheers
S.

 

[DaveBlack]

is that sarcasm? lol. I dont mean it sounds really bad or anything but i can def hear a difference.

 

[FIXXXER]

haha, no scarcasm!
i think audio just does not
sound well when exported out of FL studio,
that's why i use it just for midi!

 

[bryan_kilco]

Ok, I'm trying to figure out how to make this work. I can export .MIDI file from FL, but I have to make sure to click Macros -> Prepare audio for midi export or something, correct?

But when I load this file into Reaper, it's just 1 track....and I don't quite know how to get different samples loaded onto it.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Maybe I'm doing something completely wrong? I never really used the Piano Roll in FL.....I just clicked in the boxes of the step sequencer.

So I'm learning the piano roll and velocities and all that....but do I have to program each drum, 1 at a time? For example, I have my kick drum up in piano roll and the only way to program a snare in is to click the dropdown menu and go to my snare track, which is totally blank in piano roll.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Bump.

Ok, after checking out some tutorials on YT, I'm still stuck here. It looks SOOOO easy.....

I guess I need some sort of VSTi to load into FL, such as Superior or something? And I can't just take samples that I already have and make them work without loading some sort ot VSTi? This is what I'm gathering, anyhow. I got the demo of Kontakt, but I can't figure out exactly how to work it.

Basically, I can bring up the piano roll just fine, except it's only linked to my kick drum....and any other key I hit is just a pitch-shifted copy of the same kick sample.

 

[FIXXXER]

I have my kick drum up in piano roll and the only way to program a snare in is to click the dropdown menu and go to my snare track, which is totally blank in piano roll.

seriously, get a drum VSTi first, EZ, superior, AD or whatever.
using this you can programm EVERYTHING in just one track,
as the different drum pieces are set do fofferent notes.
for example C1 is a kick, D1 a snare, E1 is a tom etc.
when you program it that way and then load the drum
vsti and the MIDI in reaper you'll have exactly the same
thing you programmed in FL studio before.

cheers
S.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Awesome, thanks! Will check into a demo version of these.