MIDI controllable drum machine

Link to good samples/soundfonts at http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/free_audio_data

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

Post Reply
bobby.calamari
Established Member
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 10:52 am
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 2 times

MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by bobby.calamari »

Hi all

I'm looking for a tool for writing drum tracks which can be controlled by (i.e. the patterns sequenced in) a MIDI sequencer such as MuSE. The tool needs to be JACK compatible.

I've tried two things, which are not suitable:
Hydrogen - you can't sequence it from outside itself, you have to do the sequencing in Hydrogen and slave it, which I find a pain
QSynth - I thought this was the answer until I discovered it has no session management, which makes it unusable between projects

Can anyone suggest something else? How do you do your drums?

Thanks for your help.
merlyn
Established Member
Posts: 1392
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:13 pm
Has thanked: 168 times
Been thanked: 247 times

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by merlyn »

bobby.calamari wrote:Hydrogen - you can't sequence it from outside itself, you have to do the sequencing in Hydrogen and slave it, which I find a pain
Not so sure about that. Hydrogen has a MIDI in.
bobby.calamari
Established Member
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 10:52 am
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by bobby.calamari »

You're absolutely right! I didn't realise that. All I needed to do was connect MuSE to Hydrogen in the ALSA tab in qjackctl.

Thanks for your answer!
merlyn
Established Member
Posts: 1392
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:13 pm
Has thanked: 168 times
Been thanked: 247 times

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by merlyn »

You're welcome.
bobby.calamari wrote: How do you do your drums?
I've been using DrumGizmo. I use Hydrogen for a quick beat to practice with. If you want a drum part that is something like what a real drummer might play then DrumGizmo is worth trying. If you want a more electronic sounding drum part then Hydrogen with e.g. an 808 kit. If you're going to use Hydrogen to produce a track it's worth knowing that you can have each instrument on a different output. To enable this go to Options > Preferences > Audio System and tick the box 'create per-instrument outputs'.
bobby.calamari
Established Member
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 10:52 am
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by bobby.calamari »

Cool, thanks for the tip.

I installed Drumgizmo yesterday but was a bit puzzled when I found there was no option to start it from Kubuntu's application menu. Is it not intended for standalone use?
merlyn
Established Member
Posts: 1392
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:13 pm
Has thanked: 168 times
Been thanked: 247 times

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by merlyn »

I've used it as a plugin within Ardour. I would think it would also work in MuSE.
User avatar
sysrqer
Established Member
Posts: 2519
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 11:47 pm
Has thanked: 319 times
Been thanked: 148 times
Contact:

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by sysrqer »

There is also sitala, I really like it although I don't remember if it runs standalone.
scottwheeler
Established Member
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2018 4:26 am
Location: Berlin
Contact:

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by scottwheeler »

sysrqer wrote: Sat Aug 22, 2020 9:24 pm There is also sitala, I really like it although I don't remember if it runs standalone.
It does run as standalone, and supports output to JACK.
bobby.calamari
Established Member
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 10:52 am
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by bobby.calamari »

Ooh lovely, thanks, I'll give that a try.
Jamesf
Established Member
Posts: 70
Joined: Tue May 28, 2019 12:23 pm
Location: Madrid
Has thanked: 51 times
Been thanked: 13 times

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by Jamesf »

Late reply, but just in case you're still looking for options: Beat Buddy.
It's a drum machine in guitar-pedal format, so very much a hardware option and a non-trivial investment, but it's 100% MIDI-friendly and has some great sounds.
I'm slow, but I get there eventually.
Natelok
Established Member
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2019 7:18 pm
Location: Donnybrook Western Australia
Has thanked: 78 times
Been thanked: 14 times

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by Natelok »

I've used hydrogen and BSeq for step sequencing, with the midi out into either AVL or Drumgizmo for final. Sound generation. I don't remember where bit someone a while back made a bunch of presets for Ardour and Hydrogen Kits specifically for this use case. I'm sure if you search hydrogen Drumgizmo the thread will show up.

Sorry, I'd find the link but I'm out and on my phone. I'll have a look when I'm home though.

For live drumming, I've also been using Fabla by OpenAV, but I love their who suite and Luppp has become a centerpiece of my live work.


Edit

The thread is viewtopic.php?f=48&t=15946
Nate!

Music Nerd, Guitarist, Fixer of Things, DJ, currently employed by Donnybrook Balingup Community Radio (Station Manager & Drive Time DJ, Recording Engineer for a small attached studio for local artists)

DAW: Mixbus at home, Mixbus32C at work
tongo
Established Member
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2020 4:50 pm
Has thanked: 10 times
Been thanked: 22 times

Re: MIDI controllable drum machine

Post by tongo »

Hello ,

have you ever tried drum kv1?
you can sequence it at noon with any sequencer, it is stand alone and as a plugin.
but you will have to put your own samples in it. I use it a lot, it's good software.

See you.
Post Reply