Tracking Drums? what's your way....

so - again, been working/learning/experimenting on the 1K seriously for about 6 months. Learning a lot, getting frustrated a lot, etc...

I'm currently on JJOS1, when I get my monies straightened out i'll upgrading to OS2

One thing that has been bothering me. Recording drums. I like to play the pads like the drums, hitting the kick, hats, snare all in the same sequence. having a clap sent to a delay, etc.

So, if want to separate the kick, snare, hats each into their own track, I have to copy the track into a new track where I just want to keep the kick. So in the new track I delete the snare and hats. Repeat the same process for the snare, etc.

If you have lot of drum hits, ghost hits, etc...it becomes a pain in the ass. So my question is: What's the point of separating the drum tracks out?
Is it strictly to be able to apply "TRACK MUTE" in song mode? Is there another way, a better way?

Also, I remember reading in someones post that the DRUM EDIT in OS2XL made you able to work without having to separate out each drum into its own track. Wish I could remember more, I searched for a post about it but found nothing.

What's your method?

What's the point of separating the drum tracks out?

one might say that there's no point.
why do it that way?
why use track mute at all?
why not just sequence it the way you want it to sound instead of trying to find a shortcut that doesn't really cut short?
one might say.

Nym wrote:

What's the point of separating the drum tracks out?

one might say that there's no point.
why do it that way?
why use track mute at all?
why not just sequence it the way you want it to sound instead of trying to find a shortcut that doesn't really cut short?
one might say.

i hear ya. so what's your method, and why?

not an isssue of "copping" but being exposed to different methods sometimes will make better sense than the one you (I) are (am) currently using.

Please, by all means steal whatever methods you like. It's not like anyone can claim authorship to them anyway. And if so, they'd only be the happier for your using their method. Who is protective of such things? Never heard of it.

Anyway, just do your beat on one track. Send it out to a mixing board for eqing, outboard effects, etc. Get them sh**'s sounding just the way you need, and record it out to your DAW. If, after adding more tracks in your DAW you need to reapply other effects or settings to your beat, nothing is stopping you from repeating the process while changing some parameters. Or you can add in another drum track on top of the current one with whatever you want to emphasize. Pretty flexible and easy. I'm sure quite a few follow this simple procedure.

Shebooya.

In the MPC i do drums on 1 track. (No need 4 me to do them on seperate tracks cuz you can send each pad to its own output) I do variations on different sequences. I then track out via the assignable outs to record into my DAW. All future editing such as track mutes, automation and fx are done inside reaper.

Swamp Gravy... Basically, I think there are quite a few people in your exact spot right now. The only way to really work the way you want to right now is to either get used to recording each pad on it's own track, or get Ver. 2 xl. In the xl version you have the option of moving a pad to it's own track. This way you can record everything on one track then move each pad to it's own track and use track mute. One warning about this though, if you do move up to V2xl you will lose a few key fetures. Namely track outomation. Also, there are still quite a few bugs left in xl. Version 2 seems pretty solid at this point. Study the comparison chart and see where you fit. Personally, I have moved back to version 2 for a while. I've been messing with the Mp1k for about a year and a half coming from keyboard workstations and I'm still really trying to find MY way of working. A lot of this is me basically just playing with new features and waiting for JJ to add the features I thought I needed, but now I'm starting to bend. Don't get me wrong, I would still love a solid way to move all of the pads to their own track (this is one of the areas that seem to have some trouble in xl), or a pad mute option. Untill that time there are still many ways to get the results your looking for. Good luck...

Wudsiba-- Off topic, but what keyboard workstation and what made you switch?

I went through the same transition, mostly due to increased travel for my job. I wanted something small but roughly equivalent, then boom I get hooked on the MPC simplicity and sucked into this crazy world, hah.

wudsiba wrote:Swamp Gravy... Basically, I think there are quite a few people in your exact spot right now. The only way to really work the way you want to right now is to either get used to recording each pad on it's own track, or get Ver. 2 xl. In the xl version you have the option of moving a pad to it's own track. This way you can record everything on one track then move each pad to it's own track and use track mute. One warning about this though, if you do move up to V2xl you will lose a few key fetures. Namely track outomation. Also, there are still quite a few bugs left in xl. Version 2 seems pretty solid at this point. Study the comparison chart and see where you fit. Personally, I have moved back to version 2 for a while. I've been messing with the Mp1k for about a year and a half coming from keyboard workstations and I'm still really trying to find MY way of working. A lot of this is me basically just playing with new features and waiting for JJ to add the features I thought I needed, but now I'm starting to bend. Don't get me wrong, I would still love a solid way to move all of the pads to their own track (this is one of the areas that seem to have some trouble in xl), or a pad mute option. Untill that time there are still many ways to get the results your looking for. Good luck...

ah yes, that's what i remember reading - move pad to track. sounds cool, but i'm gonna pass on 2xl for now, because if all the bugs i'm reading about - when I get back from vaca next week on i'm gonna buy OS2 and experiment with the simult. Thanks for the input.

faze1 wrote:In the MPC i do drums on 1 track. (No need 4 me to do them on seperate tracks cuz you can send each pad to its own output) I do variations on different sequences. I then track out via the assignable outs to record into my DAW. All future editing such as track mutes, automation and fx are done inside reaper.

That's Kinda slick - I didn't think about that at all... I recently startet copy/pasting the drum track to new tracks in the MPC and then delete the pads/sound in each track, to have solo kicks, snare and hats... but I like your method much more. Thanks for sharing

wudsiba wrote:[...]In the xl version you have the option of moving a pad to it's own track. This way you can record everything on one track then move each pad to it's own track and use track mute. [...]

Yet another feature I totally didn't know of... damn I need to step my OS game back up Been outta there for a sec. And since I got me a 003 Rack and ProTools - which I am completely new to at all - this will be another thing I've to get in touch with... sometimes all this technical stuff totally hinders you from being creative.
Because when you get into all this DAW stuff, it's like you no longer just some sort of producer, you also have to become a sound engineer to some degree: you've gotta learn all that routing and inserting and sending and creating track groups and subgroups and all that stuff... I've gotta pick all this up now and I'm not a fan of it, but on the other hand I want to improve the quality of my sound, so I gotta do it. So in the words of Z-RO, "it is, what it is, mayn"

PEACE

Swamp Gravy: My pleasure.

Elevated: I use the Roland Fantom X6 as my workhorse. Like you, I wanted something more portable. The main thing that made me get the Mp1k was the JJ OS. I still love my Fantom, but lately I've spent so much time messing around with the Mp just looking at the new features and trying to get it to work as close to the Fantom as I can. I finally decided to just get a new work flow. One that suits the Mp more. I just find that I just end up wasting time messing with things instead of creating. When I get back on my Fantom, I just seem to complete more. Don't get me wrong, I really do love the Mp. I just need to come to grips with the fact that it is going to be different, find my own way of doing things with it, and get back to writing aqain. The combination of these two machines is really perfect for me. What do you use besides the Mp?
(And on another note: I would still like have you try to recreate a few bugs that I mentioned earlier, but with work I haven't had the time. Would you be interested? If so, I will try to work it out tomorrow.)

wudsiba wrote:Swamp Gravy... Basically, I think there are quite a few people in your exact spot right now. The only way to really work the way you want to right now is to either get used to recording each pad on it's own track, or get Ver. 2 xl. In the xl version you have the option of moving a pad to it's own track. This way you can record everything on one track then move each pad to it's own track and use track mute.

keep in mind you don't need os 2xl to copy / move each pad to it's own track. you can do it in SEQ EDIT in os 2 but it's just a bit slower.

Sooty_G wrote:keep in mind you don't need os 2xl to copy / move each pad to it's own track. you can do it in SEQ EDIT in os 2 but it's just a bit slower.

you can do it in OS 1 as well ... actually i'm pretty sure you could even do it in the akai OS but its been long as hell since i 've used that piece of crap so i might be wrong. but it definitely works in os1.

Sooty_G wrote:

wudsiba wrote:Swamp Gravy... Basically, I think there are quite a few people in your exact spot right now. The only way to really work the way you want to right now is to either get used to recording each pad on it's own track, or get Ver. 2 xl. In the xl version you have the option of moving a pad to it's own track. This way you can record everything on one track then move each pad to it's own track and use track mute.

keep in mind you don't need os 2xl to copy / move each pad to it's own track. you can do it in SEQ EDIT in os 2 but it's just a bit slower.

Man do I feel like a dumb ass... What really is the benefit of the move pad option then, since it allready exists?

well the gpe in os2xl is sick. the arrow-pad-copy thigy is dope.open window transports you all over the os like scotty..just said fugg it and work round them bugs cause the workflow speed up is just too tempting..

but to be honest when i track out i use the easiest method possible to get the job done proper since early 90's: MTC(or SMPTE) and the solo button in the main window..i just solo out them tracks which i played pad-per-track since mpc60 times and record away...