Create beats from scratch without midi keyboard

[markwaldo]

How hard is it to create a beat from scratch without midi… as in just clicking and moving with the mouse.  Is this form of creation going to take forever or is it reasonable to create a unique drum track this way.  I have ezdrummer + DFH, and I am working in Pro Tools M Powered 8.

Topic

[Martin]

It’s not hard, but you just have to be patient. It definitely takes some time.

How it’s done is a bit depending on what DAW you are using, but most DAWs has a pencil tool, which you can use to draw the notes in your sequencer. Me personally, I always use the included MIDI as a starting point and take it from there. It’s always a bit tweaking here and there, but it is definitely a lot less time consuming.

Martin Kristoffersson
Sound Designer

[Scott]

It can be done from scratch. It would depend on your patience and if you find staring at a blank MIDI piano roll daunting or not!

If you’re just starting out, I would agree with Martin. Start with the included MIDI grooves and adjust them to fit your needs. If nothing else you will get a great tutorial on how to ‘roll your own’ by looking at how the Toontrack MIDI was created.

There was a user named Jacker that created some of the best sounding drum tracks using only a mouse. Not just simple stuff, really complex stuff. I guess it would depend on your patience!

Here’s a link to the only Jacker song I could find:

http://fr.audiofanzine.com/compos/a.play,t.8879.html

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[jgro002]

I agree with everything said in the responses above.

When I was first trying to ‘build’ some drum beats I was doing it the way you describe – using the mouse in Logic’s piano roll. To answer your question, yes it is ‘easy’ but it is extremely time consuming and I found that I never got something I was happy with. The reason I was never happy is that a drum track done this way will lack the groove that a real drummer has. And it is not a case of simply needing to randomize the beats in some way after they have been written into the piano roll – that won’t sound like a drummer either (drums was the first instrument I learnt by the way so I know how they should feel which is why I’m fussy about it).

My advice is the same as the posts above. Start by finding a midi groove that you like the feel of. Especially important is to get the right feel in terms of the hi-hats or ride. Then you can still move the kicks and snares around as required for your track. Your drum track will have a much, much more realistic feel if done this way compared to using the mouse.

If you don’t want a natural feel i.e. if you’re writing electronica, or anything that requires all the beats to line up exactly with the beat, then disregard all that I’ve said and using the mouse would be more appropriate for these styles of music.

Jeremy.

iMac 3.06 GHz 4 GB OSX 10.6.5, Focusrite Saffire 6 USB, Logic Pro 9.1.3, Lacie D2 Quadra

[Author]

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