I need help! New to the recording world!

[Dreathus]

Sorry if i annoy you guys with my questions but i'm kind of stumped.

I bought a cheap little M-Audio Fast Track that came with Pro-Tools M Powered Essential, its as basic as it gets until you upgrade, but i just want to make random songs or record riff ideas and stuff so it's no problem for me.

I'm having a lot of trouble programming drums. I was using guitar pro to write drums and then i would export the midi and use EZ drummer in pro tools.

I'm wondering though, how do some of the people on this forum write such cool, technical drum parts? There has got to be something i'm not getting. Guitar pro takes for-fucking-ever and i can't always get what i'm looking for.

Should i use the midi mapper? Loops? I don't get it!

 

[CubanDude]

maybe a midi keyboard helps, but it general it takes "for-fucking-ever"

 

[heshian46]

Finger pads help. But honestly, programming drums takes time. Unless your dragging and dropping the stock loops from ezd, you'll need to spend the time to get it right.

 

[andygo]

Unless your dragging and dropping the stock loops from ezd, you'll need to spend the time to get it right.

Its the best starting point!

 

[heshian46]

Its the best starting point!

Good starting point, but you'll soon see that they start sounding generic.
A nice thing to do is start with a loop, and then tweak it a little here and there to make the fills/patterns your own.

 

[sawtooth]

Read the programming drums article from Sound On Sound.

 

[blue_fAng]

I use FL STUDIO for everything and drum programming with its own piano roll is one of the easiest things to do, changing the velocities , blending notes, etc. Any DAW should have a piano roll I've seen cubase and it looks as easy as fl studio. The reason because people make so technical stuff in midi is because they have a drummer playing with an electronic kit and record via midi (the same way as midi keyboard recording) and quantized the timing errors or either manually write with squares and rectangles and they have experience doing it. You can copy paste the repeated parts or use a pattern/loop manager thats in the DAW. Recently I got a really messed up 3 min demo with some technical stuff and I wrote it 99% accurate (i couldn't understand a fill because of the bad preproduction) and of course the drummer is out of town for life so i had to program drums, I did it in two hours. So, it's just experience with programming same as practicing your instrument.

 

[Kohugaly]

I use FL STUDIO for everything and drum programming with its own piano roll is one of the easiest things to do

totally agree.... I dont know if pro tools have such thing but piano roll is the fastest solution available (well... drummer with midi-drums might be faster). Its all about practice - more you sample the faster and easier it goes and the better your drum parts will sound.

 

[Avgvstvs]

I usually start writing the basic rythm I want for the riff (a thrash metal beating, D-beat, nwobhm rythm). Then, check the velocity of notes, try to put a slightly higher value to the beats you want stronger, this will give more pulse to the song. Add the cymbals and fill-ins based on what you'd like to add in the vocals.
For creating fill-ins, I try to imagine how I would make them if I was a drummer (which I'm actually not). You can watch some drum footage from your favorite drummers and try to write some stuff based on what they do.

 

[Dreathus]

Thanks for the tips everyone

 

[Benny H]

Yep paino roll is the go. You can get into a good flow once you get used to it... get your copy/paste shortcuts down etc.

The creative process is still imagination and experimentation though. Just listen.. you will hear things in your head.
Then how quick and accurate you can punch that in comes with experience and knowledge.