Improving Your Drum Track, Part 1: Getting Started With Independence Free

In a home studio, it is easy to make electronica, techno, and dance tracks. There is an expected level of machine-like precision to the music. Perfectly accurate precision and artificial drum beats are readily acceptable. (Let me go on record with a disclaimer: making those forms in a home studio are easy. Making good or great tracks is another story. I am not trying to downplay the level of artistry involved. I saw Aphex Twin spin live in the mid 90's, so I can appreciate the level of complexity of the art form.)

Where it becomes much more of a challenge in the home studio is when you're trying to sound like a traditional band (guitars, bass, drums, vocals). There is some level of trickery that is required to achieve your desired sound for all of these instruments. Right now I want to focus on the difficulty of drummers. Much like Spinal Tap, I have always had a hard time keeping a drummer on call. And then you have the acoustic issues of sound isolation, excess mic bleed, having enough mics and inputs to record the whole kit, complaints from the neighbors, etc. As usual, I will be focusing on use of this within REAPER.

My Dream Drums, For Now
Years ago, I had a Yamaha RY-30 Drum Machine. Bought it used for $330 in about 1993. Like an idiot, I sold it around 1998. Now they're hard to find, but it had very sweet sounding drum kits. Their natural kits were extremely beautiful, using 16 bit samples at a time where the average home user was rocking out to 8 bit. Listening to old recordings I did with that drum machine make me once again regret having parted with it. I have been working to try to achieve the "is that a real drummer?" sound and feel using only free tools.

This is the first part of an ongoing series of posts that will be focused on the best tools I have found to "fake a drummer" and how to tweak your drum tracks to get the "real" drum feel.

Yellow Tools Independence Free
One of the best all-in-one packages I have found so far is Yellow Tools' Independence Free 2.0. As the name implies, this is the free version of their very robust sampler tool. There's a couple features disabled in this version, and the bundled sample library is "only" 2 GB of data. The "Basic" version ships with 12 GB of samples, and the "Pro" version ships with a whopping 70 GB sample library!

My initial goal is to have one or two good "natural" kits. Included in the free 2 GB library are 6 acoustic drum kits, so there are plenty of options. The kits have multiple velocity samples for each sound, so there's more detail than your average single-sample kit.

So What's Missing?
The Free version lacks a couple of major items. The most notable is the lack of ability to import your own samples. The other is the lack of ability to import 3rd party VSTs. Of course, if you're hosting this in your own DAW (like REAPER), that's not really a problem. You can add your VSTs to the chain after Independence Free, and have as many add-ons as you want. Lacking the ability to import your own samples is more of a concern if you want to branch out into custom kits. Later in this series I will tackle this issue with another tool.

How Do I Start?
You can start by going to Yellow Tools' website at http://yellowtools.com. Under their "Products" section, you can find Independence FREE. You'll have to register on their site to download it, but registration is free. All of this is detailed on the page. (Alternately, you can pick up a copy of the UK magazine "Computer Music", which comes with a DVD that includes the "Independence Free CM Edition". Same thing, with an extra logo on the UI. You will still have to register on the site & download the instrument files separately, however.)

When you install it, the installation location is for the standalone app only. It will prompt you separately for the location for the VST. Either install in with your other VSTs, or add a path in REAPER's VST configuration screen to find it. Either way, the next time you boot REAPER, you should see a new entry in FX "VSTi: Independence Free (Yellow Tools) (24 out)"

Starting Simple
To start a simple track in REAPER, open a new project. Insert Independence Free as a VST, and then open it. Your first view is probably going to be overwhelming. This is a very complex and sophisticated interface. Since we're starting simple, look for the layer controls. There will be a highlighted item that says "01 click here to load instrument". When you click on it, you will get a popup menu. Select "Load Layer". When the standard file requestor opens, navigate to the "Independence Free - Instruments" folder, and then into "01 Acoustic & Electronic Drum Kits". The .ytil files are the ones you care about. Select "Acoustic Drum Kit 1.ytil", and click "Open". Now your Drum Kit is ready for you on MIDI channel 1.

If you want to hear the sounds in this "layer", click on the "Mapping" button at the top of the VST's display. You will get a piano key layout, with colored bars representing the samples. If there are breaks in the line, that represents different samples used for different velocity ranges. As you can see in this kit, there are 11 velocities for B1 and C1, which are your kick drums. You can play the samples on the keyboard by clicking on them, but it is not going to be easy to trigger at varying velocities that way. It's easier using REAPER to control it.

Close the FX chain window and insert a "New MIDI Item" in the track where you set up Independence Free. Hit some notes, and you'll hear your new drum kit. How simple is that?

Ummm....What Happened To My Octave?
The first thing you might notice when you compare Independence Free to REAPER's piano roll is that the octave notations don't match. What Independence Free calls C1, REAPER calls C2. This is a common problem across music apps, because of differences in opinion on what octave is considered to contain middle C. You have 2 options: make a mental note of this difference, or reconfigure REAPER to honor the offset.

To reset REAPER to use the same notation as Independence Free, go to Options->Preferences->Media->MIDI. The option "MIDI octave name display offset: 0 octaves". Change the value to -1. Now REAPER will call the notes the same as Independence Free. This change only affects the labeling in REAPER's piano roll. The same/correct MIDI note numbers will be used regardless of this setting.

What Now?
Start experimenting with the kits available and see how good the samples are. Be sure to vary the velocities, so you can get the full impact of the multi-sampled drums. So far I've been quite happy with the kits in Independence Free. Keep in mind that this is a sampler tool, NOT a drum machine. Look at all the other instruments that come bundled with it. They are of equally high quality and very useful in their own right.

Up Next...
In Part 2, we will go into more features and uses of Independence Free as a drum machine, including adding effects, using multiple ins and outs to minimize CPU usage, and some other random tweaks.

Read the full post here!

Where is My Cowbell? (a.k.a. General MIDI Drum Assignments)

When you are first beginning to use Drum VSTs, it sometimes comes as a shock when try to actually find the notes that trigger the sounds. This is primarily because drums are attached to individual notes (unlike a synth that you can play up and down the range). It is also because not all Kits are created equal. Most freeware drum VSTs only offer support for a standard 8 drum kit, sometimes more, sometimes less. This makes the game of "find my drum triggers!" even harder, if you're just hunting and pecking.

General MIDI standards
Fortunately for us, this has been a problem from the early days of MIDI music. The General MIDI standard was developed in 1991, and expanded in 1999. In a nutshell, the General MIDI standard included several pieces, most notably the assignments of specific instrument assignments to specific bank slots. So, for example, instrument 10 is always a Glockenspiel on an instrument that adheres to the General MIDI standard.

Drum Standards
For the mostly software-based home studio, most of the General MIDI standard doesn't impact too much, since we are more likely to have pieces that are custom-written specialized for out gear. The portion that I think is more important is the General MIDI Drum Standards. According to the standard, Drums should always be on MIDI Channel 10 (and 11 if you have 2 kits in use at the same time). Even more useful is that specific drum sounds are identified by specific note numbers. Notes 35 to 81 are identified as very specific sounds.

Why Should We Care?
Simply put, it allows you to swap out full drum kits without having to tweak your music. If we didn't follow a common standard, that means to change from one drum VST to another might require you to re-write all the drum parts to connect the entered notes in your DAW to the actual notes the new VST wants. By using General MIDI Drum Assignments, everything is much more portable. And easier to find the sounds you're looking for. (In the piano roll in most DAWs, you should have the option to see "named notes" or "note numbers", so you can see exactly where these sounds should trigger from.)

General MIDI Drum Note Assignments
35 Bass Drum 2
36 Bass Drum 1
37 Side Stick
38 Snare Drum 1
39 Hand Clap
40 Snare Drum 2
41 Low Tom 2
42 Closed Hi-hat
43 Low Tom 1
44 Pedal Hi-hat
45 Mid Tom 2
46 Open Hi-hat
47 Mid Tom 1
48 High Tom 2
49 Crash Cymbal 1
50 High Tom 1
51 Ride Cymbal 1
52 Chinese Cymbal
53 Ride Bell
54 Tambourine
55 Splash Cymbal
56 Cowbell
57 Crash Cymbal 2
58 Vibra Slap
59 Ride Cymbal 2
60 High Bongo
61 Low Bongo
62 Mute High Conga
63 Open High Conga
64 Low Conga
65 High Timbale
66 Low Timbale
67 High Agogo
68 Low Agogo
69 Cabasa
70 Maracas
71 Short Whistle
72 Long Whistle
73 Short Guiro
74 Long Guiro
75 Claves
76 High Wood Block
77 Low Wood Block
78 Mute Cuica
79 Open Cuica
80 Mute Triangle
81 Open Triangle

Closing Thoughts
These are only applicable to instruments that adhere to the GM Standard. Not everyone honors the standard, and there are variations created by plug-in makers who are apparently blissfully unaware that they are making something completely incompatible with any existing drum standard. There are also a number of other accepted formats (mostly pricey "pro" kits) that don't necessarily adhere to the GM Standard. Keep an eye for GM Standards-compliant packages while building your discount studio. It will make transitions a lot easier, and you will always know where your cowbell is. (It's note 56, in case you missed it.)

Read the full post here!

REAPER Tutorial 1 - part 1

BEGINNER TUTORIAL

Part 1: Let’s make some pretty sounds...

We are kicking off our instructional series with this tutorial on how to start making music with REAPER. As you may have seen in my Gear Review of REAPER, it has one major benefit over other similarly-featured DAWs on the market: you can download the trial version which is not time-limited and not crippled like other trial versions. If you like it, you can register it for $50, which is less than the “LITE” versions of other major DAWs.

Since this tutorial is based on the idea that we’re starting from a basic system, this tutorial will begin with the assumption that you don’t have anything. Like I said, we’re starting at the ground and will begin building up from there.

Get started with REAPER
Download and install REAPER from http://reaper.fm. Follow all the instructions for setting it up and load it. If you’re using an unregistered copy, you’ll get a brief “Buy it” nag screen when you first open it. After 5 seconds, you can close it. If this is your first time loading REAPER, you’ll probably see the demo song “Making Me Nervous” in the display. We don’t care about that song right now. Select File->New Project to get into your own space.

Where Do I Start?
Now we have a blank workspace. Maybe I’m a little stuck in my ways, but the first thing I do with a new project is to do a File->Save Project As… and save the blank workspace. Why? Because once I start creating, I like to be able to hit the “Save” button without having to worry about what to call it.

As you can see in the picture, there are check boxes at the bottom of the window for “Create subdirectory for project” and “Copy all media into project directory”. These are great options to check, because it will help keep your individual projects/songs and all their related files in the same place. (Few things are as heart-breaking as destroying one song because you altered a sound file for another song.) Go ahead and name it “Tutorial 1” and hit Save.

Let’s Make a Track
Now that the housekeeping is out of the way, let’s add a new track. You can do this in a few ways, but the simplest is to double-click in the blank space on the left of the REAPER window.

Check the Musical Toy Box
Since we are going to be using only native REAPER resources right now, the next thing we need is to get a virtual instrument to play. Click on the button labeled “FX” on the new track you just created. This will bring up the interface displaying all the plug-ins you have available on your system. REAPER ships with a few, so we’ll stick to using those for the moment.

Pick your instrument
If you want to see which are instruments, click on the “Instruments” option, and the display will display only those plug-ins that are capable of creating their own sound.
Let’s select “VSTi: ReaSynth (Cockos)” by double-clicking on it. This will get rid of the selection window and present you with the FX Chain window.

Here is where you can change the settings for the plug-in, if you desire. For now, let’s leave this at default settings and close this window. You’ll notice that there is now a green light on the “FX” button you pressed. This lets you know there is a plug-in of some sort active on this track.

Let’s Write Some Music, finally!
On the overhead menu, select Insert->New MIDI Item. This will put a nice little “untitled MIDI event” box in your track. Double-click on it. This will launch the piano roll interface that represents the item you just double-clicked on.

If you click on the piano keys on the left, you can actually play the ReaSynth instrument we selected. You can scroll up and down the octaves by using the scroll bar in this window. The ReaSynth is so deep below about C1 that you can feel it, not hear it. So try scrolling up to around C3 or so for a higher tone. Now you can write your music in the grid on the right by clicking in the boxes. If you want to hold a note longer, you can stretch the rectangles out to represent the holding of those notes.

To audition the sound, there is a play button in the lower left. If you want to hear how it sounds as a loop, click on the circling arrow icon on the far right of that same control strip. This will allow the clip to loop infinitely.

Here’s what my semi-dissonant clip looks like. (Feel free to copy if you like.)

The Measure In the Roll
When you’re working in this screen, it’s important to keep an eye on the markers just above the piano roll grid. The numbers represent standard measures, and the heavy black line on the right identifies exactly where to end point of the clip is. This is your loop point/end of track. If you haven’t made it move, it should be right on the line with left edge of the “2” section. This means your clip is exactly one measure long. You can expand each clip to be as long as you need to fit your “musical phrase”. If you’ve bumped it out (by drawing notes past it), you can get it back to a single measure by deleting any notes that are in the way, and click-and-drag it back to where you want it.

Now that we have something beautiful music to work with, close the piano roll window. Your “untitled MIDI event” box now shows a thumbnail of the notes you entered on the piano roll.

Now Let's Get Loopy
Now if you want to make that one phrase be repeated in your song, you can click on the right side of the “untitled MIDI event” box, (in the lower half), and click-hold-drag it out as far as you want. At every point where the pattern is repeated, there will be an indent on the top and bottom of the section.

Now you can use the transport controls in the lower left to listen to your creation. Go ahead and save your work by either selecting File->Save Project or by clicking on the Floppy Disk icon in the upper right. (Third icon from the left, top row)

You’re reached the end of Part 1. In part 2, we’ll begin exploring the art of “knob twiddling” – how you can change settings on the fly within your music.

Read the full post here!

Terminology: Piano Roll

A piano roll is a common input interface into DAWs. A piano roll is a graphic representation of a piano keyboard (usually on the left of the display), and a grid connected to the keys. By drawing marks on the grid of the piano roll, you are programming the notes on the instrument. The easiest way to think of this is that it is the digital version of a player piano. If the spot is marked, it will play that note. If you want to play a chord, draw the corresponding notes.

Piano rolls are also a good interface for cleaning up imperfect or sloppy playing from a MIDI input device. If you record the notes from an external interface (keyboard, drum machine, etc), you can manually adjust the layout in the piano roll to be spot-on without re-recording it.

Variations on the piano roll include a "drum mode" which marks the point where the drums are triggered, rather than the customary rectangles that are used to mark the duration of a note.

Read the full post here!