Creating Drum tracks in Cubase

[Goport]

This is not really a tutorial but just a pointer to get people started. It obviously helps if you are familiar with cubase.

I use Native Instruments Battery VSTi (Virtual Studio Technology Instrument) for the sound generation for the drums but you can do this using your soundcard (if it has a midi wave table) or by soundfonts or other VSTi programs such as drumkit from hell 2, Groove agent, BFD, Kontact, Super Quartet etc.

First things first, open up a midi track Project > Add Track > Midi. Then set the left and right indicators to ive you a work space. The easiest way to do this is to click on the white triangle highlighted in the image below and drag it to the right.



This effectively creates a work space, which is highlighted by the cyan area. The positions of the left and right triangle markers dictate what will actually be played in midi. Rename the midi track by clicking on the “Midi 01” and call it drums (it makes things easier in the long run). Then insert a blank midi track by double clicking on the cyan area to the right of the track info box. So you should end up with something like this…


At this point you may wish to insert a VSTi drum package (if you have one). Press the F11 button to bring up the VST Instrument panel and insert your desired VSTi y clicking in one of the empty slots. I am going to use Battery. Note some VSTi’s like Battery requires the sounds to be loaded in, be sure to do this or you won’t hear anything.



Now set up the midi track for drums. The easiest way to do this is to use the Inspector panel (click on the button if it is not in view)

Click on the output combo box and select your drum sound generator. I am using Battery but you may wish to use your soundcard’s midi option, ie audigy.
Change the Channel output to 10; this is the midi default drum channel (it is not always necessary to set this to 10 but some packages still need it).

Set the Map to GM Map. Note: Not all VSTi drum packages are GM compatible but they all share the same basic drum settings kick, snare, toms, hats and possibly cymbals.

After you have completed this you should have something like I have below:

[Goport]

Right that is all set up so it is time to make some noise…

Double click on the blank midi track you inserted earlier and you should open up the midi track for editing.



The grid is important. The darker lines (reading from left to right show the count. This is set to 4/4 time. So each bar is set to 4 beats per bar. A simple beat would be inserting the bass drum on the 1st and 3rd beat and the snare on the 2nd and 4th beat. To add a bit of colour I will add some hi hats. Right click and select the drum stick from the pop up context menu and drop the notes in as follows to create a simple beat.



Manually dropping the notes onto the drum map is a bit tiresome so once you have a basic beat you can copy and what you have done so far. This is easy to do and will help you establish a basic drumbeat. Ctrl + A selects all in view and Ctrl + C copies it to the clipboard. Click on the ruler on the number “4” to position your cursor at the start of the next bar and use Ctrl + V to paste the drums. You can repeat this as required. You can also adjust the view using the little triangle slider to show more of the track, like below.

[Goport]

So it sounds something like this

http://www.guitars101.com/forums/attachm...id=17305&stc=1

but this sounds a little boring and it needs a bit of variation. I have added a few bass drum beats, varied the hihats a little and put in a little roll at the end of the fourth bar. I then deleted the left over 2 bars and copied the first 4 bars and pasted them to create an 8 bar sequence. Bars 1 to 4 are shown below.


Another thing I have done is alter the last snare hit of the 4th and 8th bar to make it louder. This is done by clicking on the instrument name on the left hand side of the screen and adjusting the red bar under with the snare hit to get the desired velocity. You need to have the drumstick cursor to do this and then you simply drag the bar up or down depending on what velocity you need. Note: do this slightly to the right of the volume bar otherwise you may accidentally edit the snare hit before.



The bar turns black once you edit it and the beat marker changes colour (blue being quiet and Bright red for loud.)

[Goport]

If you are using a program like battery – the sound doesn’t just get louder, the tonality of the drum changes as it would in real life. Volume editing is the key to giving your drum tracks more character. listen to the example below.

http://www.guitars101.com/forums/attachm...id=17308&stc=1

That’s about all I can tell you for now but hopefully that will get you started.

Goport.

[ericgtr]

Excellent, stickied! Thanks for posting this up goport.

[Goport]

thank you eric - it is really just meant as an introdction to the process. maybe I or someone else will develop this thread further in time.

Thanks again Boss

[BleedingPinky]

hey, thanks a lot Goport, this is great!

[stingx]

Nice, Porty!

[Goport]

Hey no problems guys - this is just a beginners guide - hopefully someone with skilll will add to it

[Seq]

Yes,you have to set your locators to one meassure and double click inside to create a one meassure clip,put the notes you want in the editor(double clicking the clip),then return to the clip,select it and go to edit menu/repeat ,there you can set how many repeats you want.
Easier way to get a basic track to start working,then you can make variations across the track.

Also Alt+drag the clip to the next bar will copy it.

[Goport]

cool tip Seq - I am no expert

[POD GOD]

Great stuff GoPort! Thanx for doing this

[Seq]

Good initiative Goport,I'm no expert either and Cubase is very deep but I'll try to do my best on any questions.

[Rythameen]

The only thing I would add to all this (and has nothing to do with Cubase in particular) is something I've seen a lot of beginners do when programming drums, and that is the dreaded 3 or 4 arm drummer! They should look at their patterns, and if they have say a snare hit, a tom hit and a hi hat hit all on the same beat, they have a 3 arm drummer, and it won't sound very realistic.

[Goport]

good point Rythameen. another is to weight the hi hat. a constant tick tick tick tick with no volume/tonality is horrible to listen to. It sometimes helps to imagine playing it yourself. If you lead with your right hand then normally the right hand hit will be heavier than the left. also introduce a few half open hihats to the rhythm just to ensure the tonality is varied (so it doesn't sound like a computer).