Ableton Forum

HI

Im close to buying an electronic drum kit but, before shelling out the $$$ Im still not clear on:

-If I want to record the drums as MIDI, how will Ableton recall the kits used upon returning to session and how will I be able to edit the beats?

thanks

Play some drums with whatever you have for midi control, a midi drum kit will do the same thing, send midi notes. I think you're asking about how will Live tell your MIDI drum brain to load up a patch. Live does have program send commands, it's not Live's best implemented feature, I've never used it. Check out clip view (and the manual).

It's a long answer, basically, you're fine. It's just the 25 year old midi protocol.

Which kit btw? I'm jealous.

Just be aware that you'll need to map your drum trigger's note/pad assignments if you want to use it with Impulse. Impulse expects to see kick on a specific note (C3, I think), and so on for all the drum sounds.

This is not a big deal, but it's frustrating until you find it in the manual. Learn from my pain!

Im closer to buying the electronic drum kit. Again, its for me to have drummers come over and play drum parts vs taking file to a studio and bring a drummer there etc.
I will however, take my demo and have it tweaked by some Pro Tools guy who will EQ eveything etc.

I went to music store looked at all Rolands, Yamaha and Simmons. The store guys explained that most brains have 2 direct outs which means that when I record the drums they will be in one track vs having one drum part per track. There are a couple of more expensive Rolands that have multiple outs and editing capabilities in the barin itself--=editing on that small screen doesnt look fun. Also, I believe only the fancier ones let you control the volume/gain individually per drum part...

So, is there a common workaround the 2 direct out scenario? Is multi outs a big deal?

How will I be able to change kits after recording (MIDI)?

Sebastian,

You definitely want multiple outs from your drum module. This allows you to later adjust volume and alter individual sounds once you have recorded them. If you only have the stereo outs, all drum parts are directed to those two tracks, not aloowing you to adjust or tweak the sounds individually. You do want a midi in/out, this will send all played information out to Live as midi information and can be tweaked in Live, and you are also able to change any individual sound after recorded if using midi. if you can afford it, the Roland TD-12 or the Roland TD-20 are the two best, and most tweakable...

So....

I can create any kit on Impulse with any samples and have the Roland drum kit play those samples on Impulse?

I wonder how Impulse would automatically detect the kits that come with Roland?

it doesn't work that way. Once you get your roland kit, you will have to affect every pad (kick, snare, hats, etc...) to a specific note number.

Impulse has specific pads affected to notes/keys, C3 to C4 and no black keys, which means 8 pads.

Let's say that Kick in impulse is on C3, so affect your roland or whatever kick to that note, Snare is D3. and so on. Once it's done you will be able to do whatever you want!

L.

but I will be able to build any kit on Impulse with non Roland samples?

Also, how many inputs will I need on my soundcard?

an electronic drum kit uses just ONE midi cable, so no need for many inputs, just a midi interface.

And you can use whatever you want as an electronic drumkit is totally independent from Live and vice-versa, still they communicate through midi.

L.

im talking about the direct outs. someone said i need to gte the kit with multi outs which is several cables out of kit intoo....??

Sebastian wrote:im talking about the direct outs. someone said i need to gte the kit with multi outs which is several cables out of kit intoo....??

Using Impulse is an alternative to having multiple audio outs on the drum kit,instead the drum kit may send only midi to live/impulse which you can populate with any sample you choose,for example the samples from the roland drum kit,the impulse kit you create can be saved as a preset as well as part of a song.
The fact that you would be using impulse for the sounds means that no sound would need to come from the physical drum kit only control/midi data,meaning also that you don't need multiple outputs , you may not need any sounds on board at all,but most came with some built in sounds i think.

thanks. then why did BeatPhysic---above--- say I definitely need multiple outs?

When is multiple outs necessary?

Sebastian wrote:thanks. then why did BeatPhysic---above--- say I definitely need multiple outs?

When is multiple outs necessary?

BeatPsychic thought that you also want to use the internal sounds of your drumset. In this case it's better to have multiple (audio) outs rather than have a stereo out with all the instrument mixed down to a stereo signal.

If you use MIDI, you trigger sounds externally. That means you don't use the audio outs of your drums, but only the MIDI outs.

Gruesse, Pablo

pls bear with me since im new to audio stuff. if I want to use the kits sounds, i need multi outs? I thought those could be used as MIDI too?

Is multi outs necsesary if I want to record drums as audio or play the kit live?

Sebastian wrote:Is multi outs necsesary if I want to record drums as audio or play the kit live?

No. Not at all.