If you’re a singer/songwriter looking for some great drum tracks to go in your session then using loops and prebuilt patterns on drum machines can go a long way. We took a look at this technique in week 2 of the One Song One Month Challenge videos. But what if you need some custom patterns to more closely fit your material? Of what if you want more variation than what your loops can provide? It’s time to make some custom loops with MIDI and virtual instruments.
In this video I quickly dive into using your DAW’s included drum instruments and samples to create great sounding drum tracks in just a matter of minutes. Hope you enjoy!
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coolness. i need to get something with less latency before this will work for me. USB + cheap Yamaha keyboard isn’t cutting it…hearing the sound well after pressing the key.
What program are you playing through? It could just be a hardware buffer size change in the software. I reduce that down as much as I can when recording (to reduce latency) then bump it up when editing/mixing.
hi graham. i’m using Reaper, and a Lexicon Lambda USB interface. Buffer size is a HUGE mystery to me. How should i go about bumping it down? i guess i can just experiment with it, set it back to default if it doesn’t work…
Mark – Never used Reaper, but in Pro Tools and Logic there is a preference you can change for how many samples to buffer. Depending on the audio interface connection you can drop it to 128 or lower. Just try to find any preferences or settings that let you reduce that buffer.
thanks! i did find some buffer settings i can change, and i think the Lambda has it’s own as well. i’ll play around with that!
Fantastic! I’m sure you’ll figure it out. From what I hear, Reaper is a fantastic program. Have fun!
Graham, when i want to layer drums, i erase what i played before.
What do i need to do.
Hey Jeroen, I had the same problem once. If you’re using Pro Tools, select MIDI Controls so it displays in your tool bar (next to the Transport). Then click on the MIDI Merge button ( it’s to the left of the Conductor track button; looks like an arrow pointing at another arrow) to activate it. Then try to record again! I hope it works for you!
Hey Luis, thanks, it works
Alright! Makes my day! All the best…
Thanks Luis and Sorry Jeroen – I’m out of town and just now got internet. Problem solved. Love it!