BATTERY (II) >> YES / NO ? (WHY)

[ConneKted]

and how to step-sequence your beats best in ableton best .... any tips-tricks ?

[gaspode]

I would say yes to this... it is a very solid sampler, comes with plenty of kits... is quick and easy to setup and use...

To sequence beats with it... I tend to preview the samples in the battery 2 window... take notes of which notes I like the sound of...

Then I go back to live... and with the metronome on and midi record armed... bang out a 4 or so measure loop... stop the loop... setup the loop points and with record still armed go through and do different takes for all of the other notes...

[iskandar]

i use battery and it works very well, i do set it up a bit different tho.. here goes

I have 2 midi tracks one with impulse and the other battery i route the midi from impulse to battery ,i then program my drums in the impulse track as you can see the sample names in the piano roll, i just mute the pads in impulse as this wont mute the midi notes, i then drop the samples into battery. if you want to use more pads in battery just unfold the track .its also good as you can have battery open and also the midi editing at the same time, no switching back and forth like you do with impulse, then you get all the effects,editing and layering options in battery... i tried just about everything to program my drums but this works best..

[supster]

I use two seperate templates for any projects I want to see through full production

1 - Drum Template - mainly Battery 2, RM IV, and all audio loops.

2 - Main Template - for everything else

In the Drum Template I have seperate tracks for BD, SN, HH, Congas, etc etc.

Battery 2 is mapped so each row corresponds to an octave, starting with C1 for BD / SN ... C2 is HH / SHaker ... C3 for Hi Accents ... C4 for Congas ... C5 for Toms ... C6 for stereo FX and samples

I route to nested group channels so i can compress and EQ everything seperately or grouped in different combinations .. very flexible.

Splitting the templates this way allows more resources for everything. With everything Im running it brings my system to its knees if I try and do it all in one template

So:

- Work all drums and percussion in Drum Template. Bring them to a certain point ...

- Bounce drums with processing

- Bring Drum track into Main Template in its own dedicated track ... at SAME TEMPO .. no need to warp!

- Break down drums in a variety of ways as I build up the rest of the sounds on top ... then

- Bounce Main Template with processing

- Bring up Main Track in Drum Template .. refocus on drums

Bouncing back and forth this way takes a bit more time, but doubles my effective CPU and RAM.

It also has other creative benefits: when you are in the DRUM template, it forces you to focus on percussion and grooves. When you are in MAIN template, it forces you to focus on melody and harmony and working that groove

Battery 2 is the most flexible and powerful way to take advantage of this that i have found

[zekrab]

very interesting thread....

I think we have all here to learn from each other in the working methods and flow...

Maybe a dedicated thread on this forum?

[drush]

thanks guys - this turned into a very handy thread. sequencing drums outside an x0x box is often the bane of my existence... any & all creative ways like this to tackle it really help.

[montrealbreaks]

I sent the following message as a PM a while back, here goes....

I use an Akai MPD-16 for Battery. Normally, I will create a MIDI track in my Session view in Live, drag in an instance of Battery, open up a kit, hit record on that channel and bang out drum patterns with my fingers (usually at a lower tempo since I'm not that fast yet).

Sometimes, if the kit is 80% good and 20% crap, you can browse for individual samples to replace in the cells, so you can make a kit you dig.

Then, I go and do some corrections in the MIDI clip window at the bottom of Live if I made any timing errors.

Another trick I like to use is to take MIDI files for drums (millions available online) or make MIDI files for drums using Recycle with a human drum loop.

This gives me a nice, unquantized groove. Then, I copy these individual midi events and paste them to correspond with my own drumming. That is, some of these new midi notes will be a few milliseconds late or early, but I can eyeball it pretty good. These millisecond errors let me capture a good drummer's groove (since mine sucks for now) but use my own beats and kits.

In Battery 2, you can add EQ / filter, compression, bit crunching, and envelopes on each individual drum, so you can get really precise. Also, you can assign velocity zones, which allows you to make your snare sound tighter as hit it harder, not just louder. Very cool.

The original version of Battery couldn't eq the drums individually (among other things) but for me THIS WAS THE MISSING LINK! EQing your drums individually, all within the same VST instrument interface, meant that I didn't have to use 8 or 10 tracks in ableton live just to apply a different EQ to each drum (or sub-group them).

I can't recommend Battery 2 enough. It's my fav piece of software after Live these days,

I wish I could give you an MP3 example of Battery 2, but I haven't published anything with it yet, I just got it in November.

Hope that this all helps.

[ConneKted]

I would say yes to this... it is a very solid sampler, comes with plenty of kits... is quick and easy to setup and use...
.

any idea where to get more of these ?

[mcconaghy]

I would say yes to this... it is a very solid sampler, comes with plenty of kits... is quick and easy to setup and use...
.

any idea where to get more of these ?

Grab the free analog drum machine samples from Hollow Sound and map 'em.

[ConneKted]

I would say yes to this... it is a very solid sampler, comes with plenty of kits... is quick and easy to setup and use...
.

any idea where to get more of these ?

Grab the free analog drum machine samples from Hollow Sound and map 'em.

analog ?? ... no thanks bro

[mcconaghy]

any idea where to get more of these ?

Grab the free analog drum machine samples from Hollow Sound and map 'em.

analog ?? ... no thanks bro

Then do a Google for free acoustic samples

[gaspode]

If you spend some time on the Native Instruments website they are also now posting products that other companies have produced... so you may be able to find a sample library geared towards whatever kind of sound you are looking for.

As well, the synthetic drum and accoustic kits that native instruments put out themselves is a very well rounded kit and usable in battery or kontakt... although some of the sounds did make it into the battery 2 library from both of these kits, I would still recomend checking them out.

[::mic-minimal::]

are all you cats using battery 2, I've got battery one and I just can't fork out the dough for battery 2, who here is using battery one and loving it, give me some backing on how it compares

[gaspode]

are all you cats using battery 2, I've got battery one and I just can't fork out the dough for battery 2, who here is using battery one and loving it, give me some backing on how it compares

I switched... I would say if you're not going to use the features Battery 2 probably is not worth it... but the addition of multi velocity samples is great as this allows you to program in different sounds for the same instrument based on the velocity... the FX section per cell is first rate as well...

Personally I would rate Battery around an 8.0 to 8.5... I'd give Battery 2 around a 9.0 or 9.5... the new features are very nice... the enhanced sample library is worth it... If I had to give up Battery 2 and could only use Battery I don't know if I would complain TOO much as I personally use them both in about the same manner, but I do use Battery 2 now exclusively as if you happen to need one it is just that easy...

[montrealbreaks]

are all you cats using battery 2, I've got battery one and I just can't fork out the dough for battery 2, who here is using battery one and loving it, give me some backing on how it compares

I hate to say it, but Battery 2 is like high speed internet service.

You never realize you needed it until you get it, and then you realize you can never go back.

For me, I like having the seperate eqs and filters on each drum. That alone is worth it, otherwise I have to edit the samples themselves and apply the EQs I want beforehand... that's:

1. Work intensive
2. Inflexible (you do your mix as destructive edits? nuts to that man).

I like having my entire drum track in one channel in Live, so I don't use the routing options much, though I might check it out a little more.