Drum sostware usage.

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Terrorizer
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Drum sostware usage.

Post by Terrorizer »

Hi everybody,

...i'm a musician, and i wanna produce some music in kxstudio. Is there an complete tutorial (for beginners) to make drum-samples (-loops) for a complete song with software like Superior Drummer, EZDrummer or Addictive Drums ?

...many thanx in advance.
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Qualitymix
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by Qualitymix »

Hey Terrorizer...thought I would pop on and offer my two cents. I am a percussion instructor and composer and have slowly been migrating to kxstudio for all my production and lessons. I have experience programming drums (when I can't record my own) and I personally use the piano roll editor in whatever DAW it is I'm using. That has always made great straigjtforward sense to me. And so all you need to figure that out is the manual from whatever DAW you're using...and then your drum software connected to your midi track
Joermungand
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by Joermungand »

Hi Terrorizer,
I’ve been using Superior Drummer 2 for some time – first in KXStudio, now in Archlinux. I load it with FSTHost (so I can save and load kits and presets) and it shows up as a Jack client. As Qualitymix suggested, all it takes, then, is connecting it with a DAW – I’ve been using both Ardour 3 and Rosegarden for the purpose – and composing your drum tracks there. With Superior, you simply bounce your drum tracks to audio files and import those in the DAW, as you would normally do when using it in Windows. I wouldn’t know much about either EZDrummer or Addictive Drums, as I’ve never used them.

Depending on your typical workflow, various scenarios can be imagined. I’ll be happy to help if you provide some info on how you intend to proceed.
Terrorizer
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by Terrorizer »

Thanx for the fast replies, but i'm searching for a step-by-step guide because i never used the sound programming capabilities in linux.
Alwaysanewb
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by Alwaysanewb »

The closest things I can think of is there is a tutorial on youtube on making samples or loops in ardour. I don't use any of those programs you mentioned. I have used hydrogen a little. There are plenty of tutorials on it look it up. The problem I see is your going to have to learn a few different programs to do this and to sync them all in jack. You could look up making samples and loops in rosegarden or Qtractor too.

I know it's not the anwser your looking for but I've never done it before and as like anything on linux there will be a bunch of different ways to do it.
ToddMWorth
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by ToddMWorth »

Joermungand wrote: Depending on your typical workflow, various scenarios can be imagined.
This.... So:
Terrorizer wrote:Thanx for the fast replies, but i'm searching for a step-by-step guide because i never used the sound programming capabilities in linux.
How do you do it in Windows exactly?

Linux is very flexible in it's way of doing things in general, and that extends to audio software, too. It might help if you have a really clear idea of what you desire linux to do for you, then make it do that :)
Alwaysanewb wrote:The problem I see is your going to have to learn a few different programs to do this and to sync them all in jack.
That may not be necessary, and it's not too hard anyway :)
hebjuzeb
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by hebjuzeb »

Interesting that nobody's mentioned Hydrogen. I recently had to do guide tracks for my drummer (that is, a click with guitar parts so he could easily follow the arrangement while recording drums) and the songs have a fair number of tempo and time-signature changes. Doing this in a piano roll would be a nightmare but in Hydrogen it was a walk in the park 'cause it has a feature that IMO should be included with the paywares: a flexible, intuitive step and song sequencer. In the latest version (I think you still have to use a git, but there's a command-line floating around that will install it for you) you can create patterns in different time-sigs and tempos, then just daisy chain them into a song, and export the whole thing as one audio file, it's awesome.

Sadly the kits are no substitute for the paywares, the ones I found were better than using a click track, but not convincing as drum tracks. EZDrummer gets used on pro recordings all the time, I don't see that ever happening with Hydrogen at this rate. Also the paywares have huge libraries of grooves, very handy to have around.

BTW I'm wondering, do you have a lot of experience programming drum tracks in Windows or Mac? Frankly I found the Linux audio learning-curve to be just shy of vertical . . . if you're just starting out with DAWs I'd suggest doing that first, then tackling Linux. In a few weeks or so, there'll be an instruction manual for KXStudio. Cheers,
h.
Acer Aspire 5742, Intel Core i3 370M @ 2.40GHz, 4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 532MHz, Intel(R) HD Graphics, Alesis iO4 audio device.
Terrorizer
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by Terrorizer »

hebjuzeb wrote:BTW I'm wondering, do you have a lot of experience programming drum tracks in Windows or Mac? Frankly I found the Linux audio learning-curve to be just shy of vertical . . . if you're just starting out with DAWs I'd suggest doing that first, then tackling Linux. In a few weeks or so, there'll be an instruction manual for KXStudio. Cheers,
h.

...no, i never used all this before, but now i'm interested in doing homerecordings.
hebjuzeb
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by hebjuzeb »

Terrorizer wrote:...no, i never used all this before, but now i'm interested in doing homerecordings.
I advise caution. Put it this way, Mac is a smart OS in the sense that if you start an audio workstation, it figures you obviously want high-performance audio with low-latency. You don't have to do anything. Windows is kind of dumb; not only does it not know this, it has no option for low-latency audio. Your onboard soundcard is all you need, but you have to use 3rd-party software to do any kind of serious recording (in this case ASIO4all or the driver from an outboard soundcard.) Linux uses something called JACK for lowlatency audio, and in my opinion JACK is absolutely user-hostile. People around here don't like it when I warn people away from Linux audio, but I feel strongly that you have to have lots of experience with both DAWs and Linux, and be totally immune to frustration, to have a good experience.

I don't know your whole situation but here's what I recommend: first, use Reaper for recording. It's fully pro, extremely intuitive, and works on all 3 platforms. Also it has a totally uncrippled demo that never expires. If you really want to use Linux, just dual-boot and use Mac or Windows purely for music production. It takes a while to get used to any DAW, and things are getting better in Linux audio, I'd just wait it out. (BTW Windows 8 is very nice, they've fixed lots of audio problems. The new UI is horrific, but a walk in the park compared to dealing with JACK.)

Cheers.
Acer Aspire 5742, Intel Core i3 370M @ 2.40GHz, 4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 532MHz, Intel(R) HD Graphics, Alesis iO4 audio device.
gazpacho
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by gazpacho »

I would recomend you to start from easier to harder. I find qtractor easy and intuitive, it does midi (hardware and software) well and audio, all with plenty of candy (synths & effects). You can use the piano roll to make your drum loops, or import midi drum tracks selectively from midi files and edit them easy. It has its own jack connection dialog. Find by trial and error the best setting for your soundcard (least xruns) in jack. Most important in qtractor is to first set your bus scheme (the way you are going to set ins and outs) and save it as a template. Then its straightforward to start working. It is regarded as "for home use", but I think it takes only a good photographer with a disposable camera to take good pictures.
rusk
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by rusk »

Just open hydrogen, download and install some libraryes listed on their website and start programming drums. Hydrogen is easyest solution. I prefer GSCW drumkits myself but there are some sort of other great sounds too. When you learn how KXStudio works you will be able to mix drums separately in ardour or whatever software you like. But for start try hydrogen, it has all you need for drums creating and processing.
ToddMWorth
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Re: Drum sostware usage.

Post by ToddMWorth »

hebjuzeb wrote: Cheers.
As usual I disagree with almost everything hebjuzeb said. Some of it is differing opinion, some of it is just incorrect information he's supplied. He's lacking some education/experience (not hating on you heb', no offense is intended here, but it's true) and I'd take his advice with a grain of salt, specifically with regards to the nature of different operating systems and the operation of JACK. Heb' has had some troubles with his system which are rare and also due to his wrong actions (we all break stuff sometimes, hey!) and ever since has spent most of his time on this forum spreading FUD about it. Don't let him worry you.

I definitely agree with him, that hydrogen is the place to start. That, and youtube for some instructional videos on how to make music :)
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