drum tracks/n-trak

Ok now that I know how to create really good drum tracks is this how I should use them in ntrak…should I…make the bass drum one trak the snare another track hhat another track …etc> so then I can eq, compress each trac separately or just have the whole midi drum thing on one track and eq,compress the whole thing as one.
Thanks in advance.

Cheers ???

Well the way I do it (which is probably not the most efficient way…) is this:

I create the whole drum part in 1 midi track - this is just cause it makes it easier when creating/editing it so you don’t have to keep swapping between tracks.

I then clone the midi track 4 or 5 times (more if you want)
I then go into each copy of the midi track and delete all drums except for 1 particular drum (do this by selecting eh notes on the keyboard in the piano roll, not in the piano roll timeline itself - this will select ALL instances of the selected notes).

So in the end I have 1 midi track with just kick, one with jkust snare, 1 with just hi-hats etc.
I usually leave the cymbals all on 1 track and the toms all on 1 but you can have separate it’s up to you…

I then mixdown each midi track to it’s own separate wav file and then mix those wav files as I wish

I think it would be hard to initially create each drum on a separate midi track unless you were very organised or a good programmer (ie. know what you want and exactly where each note is to go)


HTH
Rich

I generally keep all the MIDI in a single track, but it’s because my synth’s drum patches are already very nicely imaged in stereo, and I played the parts in with the right relative volumes.

It’s only necessary to separate the instruments like Rich does if you want to individually control things like pan and effects on individual instruments.

You have some volume control over individual instruments even when you’re using a single track for all. Just click on the instrument name at the left in the piano roll view. This selects all notes on that note (instrument). Right-click and select Properties, and you can adjust the velocity up or down. This isn’t exactly the same as adjusting the volume, in fact, often it’s better. (Changing the MIDI velocity often changes more than the volume: it might use a louder sample or open up a filter, etc.)

I definitely agree with Rich that you’ll want to keep all the parts together until you’re ready for final mixing, because it’s a lot easier to edit when you can see all the instruments.