New articulations.

[Ames Alch]

I was just playing around with some of the new articulation features and noticed that in the Americana EZX, Flams is now an option. Naturally, I got excited, but upon checking all my other kits, I found that the Americana is the only one with flams as an option. Any chance the flams option will be added to the other EZX’s?

Topic

[Scott]

Flams have been an articulation in the Americana EZX since its release. Not all EZXs have the same articulations. I’m not sure they can be easily ‘added’ if they weren’t recorded in the first place.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Ames Alch]

Gotcha. Thanks.
Any chance flams can be added across the board in a future update?

[Tele' O'Neil]

Creating flams is real easy in the Midi file.
PPQ = Pulses per quarter note otherwise know as ticks per 1/4 note in some (DAW) sequencers.

For this example I will set the resolution @ 120 ticks per 1/4 note (or PPQ). If I use 480 PPQ then multiply my example x 4 and 960 ticks x 8.

Let’s examine a midi drum track and adjust one of the snare notes property.
Let’s use MIDI note #38 as an example. I use two different methods to create a flam.

#1 is for a fast song. I duplicate note #38 and then select the properties and move the note -3 to -5 ticks forward of existing position & turn the velocity of the first note down @ 35 thru 65 velocity. So now this note is played just a few milliseconds before the second note which should be right on the downbeat and turned up to 127 velocity. I will usually duplicate this note and move a second note to note #40 which is usually a rim shot. Sometimes it is OK and at times it may be too much of an accent. This is something you have to experiment with until you find the magic mix to make it sound authentic.

#2 is for a ballad or slow blues song. This time the second note is placed +3 to +7 ticks after the down beat. Here the second note is to be the loudest @ 127 velocity since a drummer will always strike the second note with more authority and the first note on the downbeat should be at velocity of 35 thru 65.

The flams that come with EZ Drummer & Superior 2 are very good but they are fixed at the tempo that the drummer has played them at in real time and the spacing between the two notes are relative to that specific tempo. You can get away with a bit of deviation but you will find doing it as I mentioned above will provide more accurate results to the tempo being used. It will be difficult to tell the difference from the real thing because it duplicates the real attack of the sticks on the snare and provides convincing results.

Hope this helps!
Tele’ O’Neil

Tri-Net Media

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