Drum machine with random kits

[Martin Gifford]

Is there a simple software drum machine that has like a billion sounds and a billion kits and every time you put it on a new track, it gives a new kit? I reckon this would increase speed of workflow. I hate going through samples or sticking to the same few kits. I find when I have a surprising new kit, I create some great pattern even with the weirdest elements. It's a great rut-breaker.

On the subject of randomisation, here's a tip if you find yourself accidentally writing patterns at the default tempo all the time (an album with every song at 100bpm or something would be pretty boring!). What you do is save a default template that is too fast or too slow for anything. Then when you notice the extreme tempo upon starting a new project, you drag mouse over to the tempo, close your eyes then drag up and down a few times, then make a pattern at whatever tempo you landed on.

I reckon there could be lots more randomisation rut-breaking tricks possible.

[panten]

I'm totally with you on this. On loading a kit or patch I never used before I always produce something that is fresh (to me) in rhythm or mood. I'm always looking for ways to think laterally or to approach things from an oblique angle.

I can't answer your original question but have you tried the 'Last Drum Rack you'll ever have to make'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TO3z8LtP5U

Then just manually randomise the macro knobs and play with whatever you get.


One thing I've started doing recently is to go to Clips and just choose a random loop, drop it in a channel, then create a bunch of my own clips and jam along. Then delete out that first random clip and you're left with your own sound but with echoes of that original flavour.

It breaks me out of my comfort zone esp if the clip is from another culture e.g. Indian or Latin.

[TomViolenz]

Assuming you are already using a DrumRack with Samplers in a 128 configuration, you could easily use clyphxs Dev RND action.

Just assign the SampleSelectors of 8 of these Samplers to the surrounding DrumRack and enter the clip name
[Randomizer] Dev"DrumRack" RND on one of the clips on that track.

Triggering of that clip will now randomize the 8 DrumRack macros and hence the SampleSelectors of 8 of your Samplers.



(You could also do it just with the RND action, in which case you could direct it to all SampleSelectors on all pads of the DrumRack and without having to map it to macros, but you'd need to find out on which bank Samplers SampleSelector is located (if you installed the community mapping, you could look it up in its documentation - it's on the BoB if I recall correctly), and the clip name would be a little more convoluted, since you would have an individual action for all Samplers on all pads.)

[Martin Gifford]

That big drum rack is slow to load, right? That's what I assume, judging by the fact that just opening the 707 kit in Ableton takes a while to load the samples.

What got me thinking about this topic was that I loaded a demo of FL Studio, because I've been feeling a bit stuck with Ableton. First thing that struck me was that the program loads in 3 seconds - I kid you not. Then there's a cute little drum machine waiting there ready to go - it's set at one bar of 16th notes, and the default sounds are punchy. So I made a good pattern in about 1 minute, and it just felt so natural and effortless. So I thought the same thing in Ableton or as a third party plugin with a few more buttons plus a thousand far-out kits, and some randomise buttons would be freaking awesome and fun. I would be excited to open Ableton rather than getting off to a slow boring start.

Ironically, one of the key features of Ableton in the beginning was that it was like Fruity Loops and Acid in that it was supposed to be fast and fun. It's not fast and fun for me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

New Mission: Make Ableton fast and fun and pretty.

(BTW, FL Studio is ridiculously complex in other ways.)

Edit: The other thing that inspired me was Ableton's downloadable kits - can't remember the pack names but the kits are Acoustified, Charred, Electrified, Grounded, Hymned, Kindified, Steamed, etc.

Actually, I just loaded up one of those and came up with a good pattern pretty quick, so maybe just more of those kinds of kits. I'd like maybe 1,000 of them. (And it would help if you could see the names of each drum in the midi editor when you have a dark skin.) Are there more of those kinds of kits available? It would be especially good if each kit was very different, rather than groups of similar ones.

[panten]

New Mission: Make Ableton fast and fun and pretty.

If you haven't already; get a Push. I haven't looked back since I got mine, Live is so much fun to use now.

Edit: The other thing that inspired me was Ableton's downloadable kits - can't remember the pack names but the kits are Acoustified, Charred, Electrified, Grounded, Hymned, Kindified, Steamed, etc.

I use Acoustified all the time but maybe it's because I'm on a bit of a hip hop vibe at the moment.

Very rarely use Charred, Electrified, Grounded, Hymned etc as they seem to niche to me. It's a bit harder to bend them to your will, if you will.

[TomViolenz]

That big drum rack is slow to load, right? That's what I assume, judging by the fact that just opening the 707 kit in Ableton takes a while to load the samples.

Get a SSD.

And a rack like this you only load once per session anyways. Mine is part of my template.

[drchoc]

You need the random sample picker. Point it at some folders, tell it how many samples you want and kapow it generates a random selection for you.


http://www.maxforlive.com/library/devic ... ple-picker

[Tarekith]

If you like electronic drums, check out microtonic and patternarium. UTonic will let you randomize kits and patterns.

[Martin Gifford]

Push - looks too slow to me. Every video shows people struggling with it.

M4L tip sounds good. Avoided M4L cos of crashes. Might give it another go.

SSD idea good, except it's a hassle to change over.

Microtonic: I had a look at the video. First impression - it looks like my mum's electric kettle - definite turn-off. White? Blah. Round buttons? Blah. But it's a great idea, so I downloaded it. Hit play. Just flabby bass drum sounds and couldn't get other sounds working to make a full kit. Lost interest. Could be great for some people.

If I sat down to design a drum machine, It would be simple, effective, and cool. I don't get why there isn't something out there that is immediate, beautiful, inspiring, and efficient.

[fistikuffs]

Push - looks too slow to me. Every video shows people struggling with it.

M4L tip sounds good. Avoided M4L cos of crashes. Might give it another go.

SSD idea good, except it's a hassle to change over.

Microtonic: I had a look at the video. First impression - it looks like my mum's electric kettle - definite turn-off. White? Blah. Round buttons? Blah. But it's a great idea, so I downloaded it. Hit play. Just flabby bass drum sounds and couldn't get other sounds working to make a full kit. Lost interest. Could be great for some people.

If I sat down to design a drum machine, It would be simple, effective, and cool. I don't get why there isn't something out there that is immediate, beautiful, inspiring, and efficient.

I think the only way you'll be pleased is if you do design your own drum machine. Never heard a device being dismissed because it looked like a kettle....

[Garry Knight]

Never heard a device being dismissed because it looked like a kettle....

Have you seen a kettle drum?

[Martin Gifford]

I think it is obvious that people with the talent to design great functionality might not have the talent to design an attractive GUI. Ego's get in the way, and the designers won't budge. They are designing for themselves! My favourite stuff - Ableton, Sylenth, and Novation Impulse constitute the ugliest creative workspace in the world! Microtonic would add Star Wars Storm Trouper weirdness to that ugliness.

I don't want to add more turn-offs. I want to add turn-ons.

[TomViolenz]

My favourite stuff - Ableton, ...constitute the ugliest creative workspace in the world! M

Opinion disregarded from here on out

[fistikuffs]

I think it is obvious that people with the talent to design great functionality might not have the talent to design an attractive GUI. Ego's get in the way, and the designers won't budge. They are designing for themselves! My favourite stuff - Ableton, Sylenth, and Novation Impulse constitute the ugliest creative workspace in the world! Microtonic would add Star Wars Storm Trouper weirdness to that ugliness.

I don't want to add more turn-offs. I want to add turn-ons.

You seem to have very particular and discerning tastes when it comes to UI which is totally fine. However you might need to realise that saying Live constitutes the ugliest creative work space in the world would, i imagine, leave you in a minority as most seem to find Live's interface to be one of the better DAW interfaces. It seems to be one of those situations: are you wrong? Or is everyone else wrong?

As for Microtonic, the audio coming out of it is all that should matter. UI is important but when producing audio, UI is secondary, to me at least.