HELP! No sound when using drum maps

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llawtj
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:10 pm

Post by llawtj » Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:20 pm

Sonar 4: Producer Edition

For some reason I am not able to hear any sound when I use the drum map.
A friend of mine told me to use channel 10, because this is the universal channel for drums (midi I'm assuming). I have the particular drums designated on the track, output, etc. but still no sound. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch.

-Jason


andychap
Posts: 685
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:26 pm
Location: UK

Post by andychap » Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:44 am

Drum maps are just a way of associating drum sounds to notes to keys. They don't have any sounds.

The idea is if you have a Roland sound module for example and you are using the Roland GS drum patches on it then they might not correspond to normal midi notes ie an acoustic snare in GM might equate to a snare Rim shot in GS. The map will sort all those anomolies out for you.

What are you using to generate the drum sounds? A midi sound module/soundcard or a software synth like the TTS-1.

llawtj
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:10 pm

Post by llawtj » Tue Mar 07, 2006 6:17 am

ummm I have no idea to tell you the truth. I'm doing this on a laptop, and what I have is an audio interface to plug instruments into my computer, and the software itself. I have a friend that has Cubase, and on that he's able to create drum sounds solely with the software (also uses VST instruments). I've used that before, and it seems pretty similar for the most part. I was under the impression I could generate those sounds without plugging a keyboard into my computer through a midi interface. I'm very confused so more input would help me out a lot. Thanks

andychap
Posts: 685
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:26 pm
Location: UK

Post by andychap » Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:58 am

In that case you will have to use a VST or DXi as they are known in Sonar.

The easiest way is to go to the Insert Menu > SoftSynth and select the TTS-1 instrument. In the dialogue box that opens make sure the first two boxes are checked this gives you another midi track and an audio track with all the inputs and outputs correctly set up.

Highlight the midi track with the drums on and right click and copy. Make sure you copy all events in the dialogue box that appears. Now highlight the new midi track that you created and right click and paste. You drum midi notes should appear in that track. You can delete the original track or archive it.

Press play and you should now here the midi drums playing through the TTS-1 instrument and out through your audio interface.

Any changes to the instruments being played in the TTS-1 can be made in the bank and patch boxes on the midi track or you can open the user interface of the TTs-1 via the View menu > Synth Rack. When the synth rack appears double click on the green area with the synth name in it and it will open up the instrument. Here you will be able to select different drum kits, adjust volume, panning and reverb etc.

Give that lot a try, see if it works and post back.

llawtj
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:10 pm

Post by llawtj » Tue Mar 07, 2006 5:41 pm

A success! I now have drum sounds; however, I'm a bit confused by the separate channels on the synth interface and how to use those with the track containing the drum map data, and also how to use VST instruments with the drum map/track (if that makes sense). At any rate, I appreciate the input, since my number one problem is now solved. Thanks a bunch.

-Jason

andychap
Posts: 685
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:26 pm
Location: UK

Post by andychap » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:26 pm

Midi Drums should only be on Channel 10, the other 15 channels you see on the TTS-1 are for the other instruments, that's what the other banks and patches are for.

You will notice that all the different drum sounds play on the same channel but you can seperate them on to different tracks ie kick on one snare on another etc. This enables you to tweak each sound seperately but they are all still on channel 10. Remember tracks and channels are not the same thing, for instance you could have several different tracks of piano playing different parts but you could put them all on the same channel because they are playing the same instrument.

To split the drums onto their own seperate tracks you need to run a CAL routine accessed through the edit menu. This is an extract from Cakewalk Tech Tips:
To extract each drum instrument, each group of notes with the same value must be cut (or copied) and pasted to a new Track. In Cakewalk Pro Audio and Guitar Studio, this is a simple task because these products include a CAL (Cakewalk Application Language) program that automates the process. Here’s how it works:

1. Select Edit>Run CAL.

2. Choose the Split Note To Tracks.cal file, and click Open.

3. Enter the number of the Track containing your drum parts. Click OK.

4. Enter the number of the Track that will contain the first drum part. Click OK. The CAL program will put the data for each drum part into each successive Track after the one you choose. Be sure there isn’t any data in the Track that you choose or the ones after it because the data will be overwritten.

5. Enter the MIDI channel you want to use. More than likely that will be 10. Click OK.

6. Enter the MIDI port you want to use. Click OK.

The program will then remove the drum parts from the source Track and split it into separate Tracks. The only thing left for you to do is assign appropriate names to the Tracks.

Home Studio users aren’t quite so lucky. With Home Studio, the process has to be performed manually. Following these steps will do the trick:

1. Open the Track containing your drum parts in the Piano Roll View.

2. Select the first group of notes pertaining to a single drum part by clicking on the appropriate pitch in the Keyboard pane. For example, to select all the C3 notes, click on C3 in the Keyboard pane.

3. Select Edit>Cut. Activate the Events In Tracks option, and click OK.

4. In the Piano Roll View, check to see at what start time the first note in the group that you selected resides. You’ll need this for the next step. For example, if the first note resides at the beginning of measure 3, the start time would be 3:01:000 (measure 3, beat 1, tick 0).

5. Select Edit>Paste. Enter the start time you obtained in step 4 into the Starting At Time field. In the Starting At Track field, enter the number of the new Track into which you would like to put the drum part you copied in step 3. Click OK.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for each group of notes in your initial drum parts track.

When you are finished, enter names for each of the new tracks that you created, and feel free to delete your initial drum parts track since it should now be empty. Now you can edit and process each of your drum parts with ease.
If you don't have the necessary CAL files in your Sonar folder let me know and we'll sort it.

The benefit of doing things with the drums on individual tracks is so that you can bounce them to audio and apply effects processing, level and panning to each individual sound. For instance Kick drum with compression and EQ panned center and right up front in the mix. Probably the same with the snare. Hi hats and cymbals will need a bit of reverb added and a touch of EQ and panned slightly off center. Toms panned in a semi circular pattern, get the idea.

Working with audio gives you a lot more control over the finished sound so when you are happy that they are as good as they are going to get as midi, bounce each midi track to it's own audio track(no need to re-record them when using a VST/DXI) and carry on from there.

See how you get on and post back if you need anymore help. Good luck.

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