drums

n-Track Studio Discussion Forum
1

ndrums vs others?

2

am in the process of working on some recording…new to the 5 version on n and see n drums…trying to figure out how to program them to do patterns…what do yall use…any free vst’s out there…have some samples i have dled…have used the sampler in tracktion to do some stuff…but that would require exporting…anyhows…let me know…am used to plain old midi drums…but a nice sampler or drum vst…or ndrums if i can figure it out would be fine…
kw

3

open N - PREFERENCES/MIDI settings/MIDI devices - set MIDI out to M $oft synth -

main toolbar - ADD CHANNEL/add new instrument channel/N track/N track drums -

import MIDI DRUM track - FILE/import MIDI file -

RIGHT CLICK in MIDI DRUM track/OUTPUT TO/N track drums -

click on play -

MIDI DRUM track can be part of multitrack MIDI file - use MENU on N track drums to change drum sets (OK to do while playing) switch to PIANO ROLL to move beats around -

Dr J

4

KW,

there were a number of helpful posts on the forum a while back. Have a search around or perhaps someone will remember when/where.

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5

loads of ‘FREE’ MIDI files here http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/midi/index.shtml
to drop into N and mess about with -

Dr j

6

thanks…will give that a try…goal for 07 is to record a 12 song cd of orginals and a couple traditionals…i do mostly folk…hopefully this will be the ticket…
kw

7

if you want FOLK you maay be better off using SOUNDFONTS - GOOGLE for SFZ (soundfont) -

SFZ is a soundfont player that you can drop different instruments into and they playback to MIDI notes (MIDI track) far better range of soundfont instruments than MIDI instruments - you can install it as a VST plugin in N and it shows up as a new instrument -

LOADS AND LOADS of FREE SOUNDFONTS available here -
http://www.ibiblio.org/thammer/HammerSound/hs_frontpage.html

if you download soundfonts set up a new folder to hold them in as some need unzipping before you can use them and its easier to see what you are doing when there all in the same place -

no doubt you have a MIDI keyboard, do you have a Soundblaster AUDIGY soundcard ? - if so things just got better -

Dr J

8

i have a audigy 2zs pcmcia laptop card…i run it at 24/96
have never fooled with sound fonts much…i couldn’t get them to work right to begin with so i just stuck to midi and samples…keyboard is a maudio usb…

9

Even with a card that supports soundfonts I think you’d be better off sticking with SFZ (or similar). You don’t then have any issues of getting the Audigy’s MIDI (SF) output back into the box, plus the SF “stays” with the song project rather than having to load the SF into the Audigy every time you want to playback the song.

0.02 of course.

10

Here’s a thread about the drums plugin:

h e r e

…just don’t drink too many of the beers in one go.

There’s a reference to the manual to which I think is included with the plugin.

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11

thanks…i like guiness…actually i like rogue ale’s shakespeare or chocolate stout better…

12

AHH, SFZ works only on MIDI tracks in N you cant load SFZ into the soundcard - to add soundfonts to the Audigy you have to download the FREE VIENNA soundfont editor from the X-FI page at the creative website - Vienna works with most Audigy cards - Vienna alows you to open and run any SF2 soundfont and to play that soundfont live with a MIDI keyboard you can alter how the soundfont sounds and resave the edited soundfont either back where it came from or store it in the Audigy (not recommended as may overwrite GM MIDI soundfont set in the Audigy) -

VIENNA is a very complicated program, at its simplest level (the one i use) i can play a soundfont live before i use it in N -

REPRISE - a Soundfont is a series of WAVE files all held together in one file (SF2) - these Wave files respond to MIDI information stored in a MIDI file -

SFZ is a player that when opened as a VST plugin in a MIDI track takes the information from that MIDI track and playsout that track through the soundfont (instrument) you direct SFZ to use - one MIDI track can now play unlimited (almost) instruments but can only play one instrument at a time per track -

ADVANTAGE - using SFZ on a MIDI track allows you to use MANY more instruments (and in most cases BETTER SOUNDING ONES) than are available by using the standard GM MIDI set -

VIENNA (when you get the hang of it) allows you to alter the soundfonts to how you want them to sound - something you cannot do with the GM MIDI set -

plug in your Audigy BEFORE you start N - import a midi file into N set MIDI OUT prefs to use M $oft synth and play MIDI track, then set MIDI OUT prefs to use the Audigy synth, you should hear a distinct difference between the two - the M $oft synth is using the standard GM soundset - the Audigy is using soundfonts -

Dr J

13

Since you are talking about SFZ and drums, maybe someone can found interesting the old Teej Tutorial about using SFZ and Drums in n-Track:

SFZ Tutorial by Teej.

It`s a visual Flash presentation.

14

when using MIDI watch of for this minor complication - unless you use a special MIDI loopback system (see N Track manual) or loop the outputs from your soundcard back into the inputs you cannot turn a MIDI track into a wave file directly -

if you have two audio tracks in N and do a mixdown, N takes the info from both tracks and combines them into 1 new .WAV file - if you have two audio tracks and i MIDI track in N and do a mixdown, N cannot include the MIDI information into the new .WAV file -

MIDI information is different, MIDI notes have to go to a synth (M $oft wavetable synth normally) where the notes are converted into audio - the output from the MIDI synth is remote from Ns mixdown process, the output from the synth cannot be diverted into Ns mixdown process -

using a soundfont player (SFZ) the situation changes, SFZ converts the MIDI notes to audio in house (by-passing the M $oft synth) it outputs audio that can be directly recorded as a .WAV file -

its not all plain sailing, but after a bit of trial an error it works -

Dr J