Lets Talk Drum Mapping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BVFMvC9-7s

That is **** dope! So fast and his timing is perfect.

I'm so sorry to do this but after browsing through some Jeremy Ellis videos I came to this:

NSFW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt7dK62QdLM

Back on topic, I really love watching those videos online of Damu pad-bashing. So much funk!

scoobylol wrote:I'm so sorry to do this but after browsing through some Jeremy Ellis videos I came to this:

NSFW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt7dK62QdLM

Back on topic, I really love watching those videos online of Damu pad-bashing. So much funk!

Damu The Fudgemunk is in my top 5 all time greats.

i'm gonna suggest something even more boring than peterpiper and suggest this site:

http://www.drumlessons.com/

its a great site with video demos and practice tracks as well, you just need to adapt it to the mpc.

but for the mpc before you even load up any samples you need to figure out what it is you want to do,...

do you want to play it like a drummer only? ie two hands for drums alone?

this isnt that complicated,...

for the right handed,.... you play hh and kick with your right, with the hh finger leading, and snare with your left, more or less as you would with a regular kit. i've found that the index finger on hh and middle on kick to be the easiest combination. for this i'd load the bottom row with:

snare-hh-kick-2nd kick

and the row above that with varitions or and open hh, etc, whatever you fancy.

and the round robin thing is brilliant for this.

if you're looking to trigger musical samples i've found the above technique somewhat lacking,... or i'm just not fast enough. so i wind up playing and setting up differently:

snare1 - kick - hh - snare2

this lets me play kick, hh and snare2 with my right hand, index, middle, ring/pinky respectively, freeing up my left hand for snare1 and triggering the musical samples on the top two rows of pads.

so snare rolls are comfortably two handed, and row two will have variations on the bottom row samples, or if the song calls for it toms, etc.

this is a bit trickier as i 've found my ring finger to be stupidly weak, hitting the snare in time with the hh sometimes. its a **** to get right but with practice you'll get it.

i hope that helps some.

but as the others have said,... there's no right or wrong way, just efficient and inefficient, and everyone's definition of that is different. with practice you not only learn to play, but you figure out what feels natural to you and you move the pads accordingly. for example i had snares grouped together at one time, but found rolls to be too cramped so now they're on opposite ends, which for me better mimics the actions of a roll,... on the other hand someone else might find placing them right next to each other easier to focus on.

disclaimer: i've only been doing this for a short while, so i might wind up changing my mind completely next week

didnt have time to read the whole thread, but like someone else said, round robin some stuff. i like doing that to the closed hihats the most, also the snares if im not layering them too much.
tune one down -.10 to -.20 ish usually somewhere in between them, not too much though or it will sound weird.
you just want a little different feel for each snare, not a full on distinguishing of a whole tone down or whatever.
i also do this to kicks and hats.

if i have a pattern thats kick snare kick kick snare

i will make the 2 kicks that are next to each other, one of them pitched a little down. so the ba-boom sounds more natural.

also play around with the velocity of all your drums, this is key. way more organic/natural sounding.

the round robin works even better if you have for examle 2 snares that round robin, ie a regular one that cycles through 2 or more samples, and the same snare pitched a little that cycles through.

experiment around with this stuff for a bit and youll drums will have some new life breathed into them in no time!

My general layout is 4 kicks on the bottom, claps/rims on 5 and 8, snares on 6 and 7.
Open HH on 9 and 11, and closed HH on 10 and 12. 13-16 I use for percussion or one shots.

It's mainly so I can preview 100's of kits using the same pattern, or switch up a track completely very quickly. Sometimes I deviate from that layout for all the reasons other posters have mentioned.

I totally agree it's something that you have to figure out what works best for you as an individual, as well as what kind of drumming you're attempting. Still though a layout like I use is good starting point as far as ergonomics and being able to use your palm bottoms as an extra fingers.

would randomized layouts lead to more creative accidents, as well as much more dexterity over time?

there is no wrong way to map drums just do the most logical /convenient for u

innovine wrote:would randomized layouts lead to more creative accidents, as well as much more dexterity over time?

creative accidents, yes. dexterity over time, probably not.
it'd be like if a typist had a different layout than QWERTY every time he sat down.

i've been editing my layout recently. and practicing my drumming. it's not easy.

yeah you'll stay shit if your set up is randomized everytime.

think of a drum kit, or a guitar or any instrument where what you get is what you got to work with. the idea is that you and your muscles memorize what you need to pluck, or where you need to place your finger's to make a certain sound. so guitarists can have a different tuning for every track, but the top string still remains the lowest note, or drummers can have set ups that increase or decrease in size, but the snare is always between your legs or the kick is always triggered by the right foot.

so when it comes to showtime, be it a show or production, you can get right down to work instead of faffing about trying to remember whats what and whats where.

i hardly map out my stuff, man i just load sounds up and put them on a random pad(s) and just play. if i want some kicks tuned down, i go edit them. once i've laid the pattern out, or at least the basic pattern, i'll overdub a few sounds until it sounds the way i want.

i never load toms up usually until im way into the beat for instance, then i'll just load some toms and go into 16 level and set the tune for all pads and play it out

i hardly map out my stuff, man i just load sounds up and put them on a random pad(s) and just play. if i want some kicks tuned down, i go edit them. once i've laid the pattern out, or at least the basic pattern, i'll overdub a few sounds until it sounds the way i want.

i never load toms up usually until im way into the beat for instance, then i'll just load some toms and go into 16 level and set the tune for all pads and play it out

+1

That's exactly what I do.
Easiest way for me.

Always record them without quantizing or using grid or sht. (dunno howto call it..)
I like to rec. them sloppy and off beat for extreme swing..

I normally 1st put some snares on the right spot. Then I record my hihats with a massive swing in it. Then remove the snares since they are quantized, and re-record them in a sloppy/swing way.

Then the kicks. With 1 pad holding 2/3 kick samples, and then 1 additional pad for adding stuff with overdub.

I don't use the 16 lvl. Is it worth to get used to this, I always manually tune my samples.

im actually used to playing the pads like a 2 bar loop.

kick / hat / snare / hat /

times four rows.. having variations of those sounds as the rows go up..


but also i like the way synth modules etc map sounds to pads in the preset programs, i think thats the most common way to map drums to pads..

I need to find out how to manage my patterns.. I don't know how to use tracks and stuff.. I don't find it very clear on the MPC.

I have an MPC2500 with JJOS 3.09 (Free??)
Bought it from an shop that sells used hardware.

I'm now waiting for mu RME FireFace UC to record my patterns as I can't seem to manage the shit on the unit itself :S.

Maybe any tips for that?
I've read the whole manual for stock OS and it's different, but it doesnt let me copy and paste patterns, or like putting more than 2 effects on 1 sample.

The programs to, I just start from scratch for each project, but it would be nice to use different programs that I can load for every project.

I don't like the grid editor on the MPC, so now I just use it for recording and flipping/slicing samples and recoring bars..

I just have the machine for 2 months right now so I have plenty time to spend with it.
It's a beast of a machine and I wish I bought it earlier.
I'm now looking for more gear. (vintage sh!t)
I want it all!

I want an ASR-10, which is on it's way.
And a S3000i, which is very close to my setup to

Any recommendations would be great