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Drum Machine ..is this a thing?


LilyM

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I am intereted in using a drum machine, preferably software... for some light occasional backing on a solo gig However I am not the slightest bit interested in doing any programming whatsoever. I am thinking that possibly at this point the technolgy has reached a place where I can basically just pick out a groove and tempo and the drum machine can add some variation and randomization on its own that makes it at least a little interesting if far from perfect. Is this a thing?

 

Alternatively, I could see maybe if the drum machine had some variations that I could assign to a foot switch to step through might work as well. Anyway any thoughts/suggestions on this sincerely appreciated.

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These iPad apps by the developer Lumbeat sound great: I currently have 'Funk Drummer', 'Rock DM', and 'Afro Latin'. I see that there are several others, including Jazz and Reggae.

 

Very simple to use but powerful at humanizing and randomizing They all have pattern and song modes. In song mode you can save an outline of the grooves and fills, etc. The program generates the grooves and you can alter the amount of 'jam' and humanization. You can alter the sounds a fair bit by changing kits, swapping individual drum sounds, altering effects, and managing the mix. In essence you can dive deep or just pick grooves and go.

 

I like them for practice where I stay in pattern mode but they would work in Song mode for gigs.

 

These apps are suited for natural sounding grooves but not for copying an exact drum beat for a strict cover.

Chris

Main gear: Yamaha C7, Kronos 2 88, Moog Sub 37, CK61,  Kurzweil PC2x, Pearl epro, Mac/Logic/AUs

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Indeed there are software and hardware drum machines that will do this. I suggest there is little audience appeal to an act consisting of one or a few guys and a drum machine. YMMV. Sure there are musicians who do this, and just as surely there are people who will leave the room when such an act appears.

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Here's another approach a bit more setup involved, but end result far more flexible.

Darrick Keels does music for church and other performance situations. Two videos first about the MPC and how he sees it versus he workstations (Kronos and MoDX). Second video on how he uses it with his keyboard. What I think is cool how he can mukte drum or bass or other parts depending on who showed for the gig. MPC you can setup parts like drums you trigger as needed in real time.

 

MPC video

[video:youtube]

 

MPC with workstation video

[video:youtube]

 

Why Darrick uses hardware solution with MPC One versus using a software solution.

 

[video:youtube]

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I suggest there is little audience appeal to an act consisting of one or a few guys and a drum machine. YMMV. Sure there are musicians who do this, and just as surely there are people who will leave the room when such an act appears.

 

Well, I have a pretty good audience...for just me, one guy. I'm a piano player basically and do some fun things with my synths to augment things now and then... emulating guitars etc. People seem to enjoy it and I don't see anyone walking out. My thought... after seeing a lot of people in this format using a loop pedal, which I don't want do for some reason, but wanting some kind of support on certain tunes... was to occasionally have a subtle drum backing. But again I don't want to program out an entire song. It's just not where I'm at with my time allocation and I perform in a very improvisatory manner.

 

I can understand the drawbacks of a simple 4 bar pattern repeating endlessly and was hoping there was something that gave enough variation on its own or simple enough real time control to make it interesting enough to work for me.

 

Thanks for all the other suggestions so far!!! I guess I should explain I am on Windows (will Garage Band work for me?) and also I do not work with an iPad. It is just a Windows laptop, for me, running Gig Performer and various VSTs.

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Also check out BeatBuddy ...great units and can be operated totally with the feet! Use live drum samples and can even play a complete song with a bassline - that last bit needs a particular format and drum kit created with bass samples which are available freely on the forum.

LINKS: https://singularsound.com/product/beatbuddy/ forum: https://forum.singularsound.com/

There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence...

 

Time is the final arbiter for all things

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Only trouble with The Lumbeat apps (and I have three) is the running in the background controls, and the MIDI implementation is a bit lacking as well, or maybe not lacking but a bit unusual. I agree though, superb apps! If I had a second iPad I'd use it over the BeatBuddy.

There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence...

 

Time is the final arbiter for all things

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Another Lumbeat drum app user. If you're looking for something you can set and go, the Lumbeat apps work real nice. Design seems to be performer oriented so features are easy to dial-in and start playing.

 

- interface is very "non-standard" but simple

- jam, swing and fill settings to randomly go "off-road"

- "roll the dice" button which randomly changes the beats/grooves and drum sets

- pad screen to change tracks on-the-fly and add fills/endings

- a bass app - called iBassist that can play in time with the drums using Ableton Link

 

Re: Hardware

- compatible with old versions of iOS, so the older hardware can be put into service, (my 1st generation iPad happily runs these apps).

- runs on iPhones, so very compact and a nice match for Korg Module (which also runs on iPhones)

 

vs. Drum Perfect Pro

I also bought Drum Perfect Pro - but I feel like the Lumbeat apps are more performer friendly. The Drum Perfect app seems more oriented to those who want to program their own beats. Even with the in-app purchases, I just didn't find it as easy to use "on-the-fly".

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Wow thanks so much! Lumbeats and particularly Soft Drummer seem to be exactly what I was looking for. The main drawback for me is it's ios, but I'm seriously thinking of picking up a refurbed iPad just to be able to use it. And I am wondering what MIDI capabilites it has (if any, I have no idea how that works on an iPad)... but I would really want to be able to assign some of the paramaters (start/stop etc) to a pedal and controllers and or keys on my keyboards.

 

Beat Buddy also seems like a very good option, but the Lumbeats just feels a bit more right on to me. I just wish it was regular Windows software with full MIDI implementation

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Been doing somthing similiar for years. went thru a number of machines and now use a roland BK9 Arranger. Edited so as to have minimal backing along with my live playing and singing. No one walks out, they just dance. I would take the easiest route first and get an inexpensive machine to try out. Theres a few with pre-prgrammed beats in them. Last one I used was a Roland CR80, long out of production but it worked great. I don't trust sofware on a job but thats just me.
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Wow thanks so much! Lumbeats and particularly Soft Drummer seem to be exactly what I was looking for. The main drawback for me is it's ios, but I'm seriously thinking of picking up a refurbed iPad just to be able to use it. And I am wondering what MIDI capabilites it has (if any, I have no idea how that works on an iPad)... but I would really want to be able to assign some of the paramaters (start/stop etc) to a pedal and controllers and or keys on my keyboards.

 

I don't use it that way, but from a quick peruse of the settings & features, including MIDI, you will be able to set it up for your controller. Lumbeats' user interface isn't the cleanest, and it's a commitment for you to get an iPad. Perhaps you could borrow one, download the app and see if there are enough broad strokes to make the full investment worthwhile.

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Rod

Here for the gear.

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... I am wondering what MIDI capabilites it has (if any, I have no idea how that works on an iPad)... but I would really want to be able to assign some of the paramaters (start/stop etc) to a pedal and controllers and or keys on my keyboards.

The MIDI implementation in the Lumbeat Drum apps is solid. Almost all on-screen controls can be mapped to hardware and the on-screen controls will show what MIDI data they are mapped to. You can use Program Change, Note and Control Change data (like the XY slider or volume). Here is an Audiobus Press Release that lists the MIDI mappings (click here) - those same MIDI mappings are neatly listed inside the apps. Additionally, there"s a simplified a '4 board' mode for quickly connecting to pedal boards like the IK Multimedia Blueboard or Airturn. (Search for the online video demo of the Blueboard and the Rock Drummer app.)

 

There are 2 modes worth mentioning:

1. Live Pads - for live jamming, random access to looped rhythms using the on-screen live pads, plus, options for intros/fills/endings. You can also randomly auto-populate the live pads if you just want to jump in and play. Works great with a pedal board.

2. Song Mode - set lists / linear playback of rhythms. Options for intros/fills/endings. You can jump to different parts of a song, but it plays through linearly.

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But the important controls like fills stop start toggle hats tempo eyc can only be triggered by NOTE event info...might suit a guitarist but not a keys player...the controls allowed to use CC messages are not really all that useful for live play. I have written several emails and Luis has said he was going to implement more CC control options, but I think his target market really is guitarists and bedroom players.

 

And the 4 board mode is not that "simple"! As I wrote earlier the MIDI implementation is unusual and I would not call it solid...YMMV

There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence...

 

Time is the final arbiter for all things

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But the important controls like fills stop start toggle hats tempo eyc can only be triggered by NOTE event info...might suit a guitarist but not a keys player...the controls allowed to use CC messages are not really all that useful for live play.

I think Luis may have added this as the CONTROLS MIDI MAP? The CONTROL MIDI MAP let's you map NOTE, CC or PC data to the on-screen controls. It's been added to the Soft, Jazz, Rock and Funk Drummer apps. (see attached image)

 

The older apps (Reggae, Afro Latin, Brazilian, Mid-East), let you map either NOTE or PC data to the on-screen controls, but only included the Live Pads and Stop/Start buttons - not the Fills, Songs or F/X.

1877.thumb.jpg.40aadbdf7ececc17fc4712c65f84cc93.jpg

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I'm using the MPC One, I bought it last year at the beginning of the lock down. Its great for sequencing drums and multiple synths, plus sampling and audio tracks. I use it for composing, generating ideas and importing them into my DAW.

But I have seen these used live. I also have a Roland BK-7m arranger module that is pretty decent. It's the only real arranger I have ever really used .

Boards: Kurzweil SP-6, Roland FA-08, VR-09, DeepMind 12

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I'm using the MPC One, I bought it last year at the beginning of the lock down. Its great for sequencing drums and multiple synths, plus sampling and audio tracks. I use it for composing, generating ideas and importing them into my DAW.

But I have seen these used live.

 

Wow, thx for sharing,- didn´t know that exists.

 

I worked w/ the old AKAI samplers and MPC (60?) which already were great machines.

Now this for a fraction of the price, much more features and integration into modern DAWs is very interesting.

 

A.C.

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But the important controls like fills stop start toggle hats tempo eyc can only be triggered by NOTE event info...might suit a guitarist but not a keys player...the controls allowed to use CC messages are not really all that useful for live play.

I think Luis may have added this as the CONTROLS MIDI MAP? The CONTROL MIDI MAP let's you map NOTE, CC or PC data to the on-screen controls. It's been added to the Soft, Jazz, Rock and Funk Drummer apps. (see attached image)

 

The older apps (Reggae, Afro Latin, Brazilian, Mid-East), let you map either NOTE or PC data to the on-screen controls, but only included the Live Pads and Stop/Start buttons - not the Fills, Songs or F/X.

 

Yep but the important (imo) "live" ones are still mappable only to notes!

There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence...

 

Time is the final arbiter for all things

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But the important controls like fills stop start toggle hats tempo eyc can only be triggered by NOTE event info...might suit a guitarist but not a keys player...the controls allowed to use CC messages are not really all that useful for live play.

I think Luis may have added this as the CONTROLS MIDI MAP? The CONTROL MIDI MAP let's you map NOTE, CC or PC data to the on-screen controls. It's been added to the Soft, Jazz, Rock and Funk Drummer apps. (see attached image)

 

The older apps (Reggae, Afro Latin, Brazilian, Mid-East), let you map either NOTE or PC data to the on-screen controls, but only included the Live Pads and Stop/Start buttons - not the Fills, Songs or F/X.

 

Thanks for the image, mine must be older version...I have auto updates off afaik....I'll check it - that certainly makes them "go-to" apps for sure!

There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence...

 

Time is the final arbiter for all things

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Hey guys, I'm pretty certain I am going to splurge for an Ipad and go with Soft Drummer. But I am curious what is the porcess for connecting my Ipad to my PC, what sort of cable would I need? Thanks!

1. You can plug iPads directly into a Mac/PC with the supplied USB charging/data cable.

 

2. If you wanna connect to 1x keyboard or 1x audio interface, you'll need to use an adapter:

for iPads with lightning ports

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK0W2AM/A/lightning-to-usb-3-camera-adapter

 

for iPads with USB-C ports

a simple USB-C to USB-A adapter or this Apple adapter

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MUF82AM/A/usb-c-digital-av-multiport-adapter

 

3. AUDIO OUT

Some budget iPads still have a headphone out, otherwise you need the 3.5mm audio adapter or an audio interface

 

4. MULTIPLE DEVICES

You need a powered USB Hub to connect to multiple devices (e.g. keyboard + audio interface)

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Thanks Groove On!!! So just a regular data cable with appropriate connections. I will be sending CCs to the iPad from within GIg Performer, so Gig Performer needs to see the iPad as a MIDI device. I imagine there might be something I need to do for that to happen?

 

And yes, you got me thinking... if there is just a lightning connection, how do I get audio as well as the MIDI connection? iPad would have to go to powered hub... and then is option for audio only a USB audio interface?

 

Getting a little more complicated and expensive. I'm almost thinking to go with an older refurbished iPad with headphone jack, not only saving me money on iPad but not needing an audio interface. This is for live work and I think quality from the heaphobe jack will be good enough?

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... Gig Performer needs to see the iPad as a MIDI device. I imagine there might be something I need to do for that to happen? ...

The Korg Plugkey gives you AUDIO OUT, MIDI DIN and lightning connection to iPad/iPhone in one device. Please note, 1. it needs a lighting port iPad/iPhone, and 2. you can't use MIDI over USB.

https://www.korg.com/products/computergear/plugkey/

 

Some plus sides:

- lightning port iPads are less expensive and usually have the headphone jack

- you have the option to downsize it to an iPhone (PlugKey/Soft Drummer work on the iPhone)

 

Warnings:

There are some reports that the charging feature on the Plugkey doesn't always work.

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if i may ask a supplementary question of grooveon? How do you select user created songs? I still cannot seem to get this function to work....I'd be using network (ie commands coming from another app)

There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence...

 

Time is the final arbiter for all things

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