This great tutorial from LOUDER65 of the Forum show's how to the tweak individual sounds of the Rhythm Track by recording each part to a separate track.....
Those of us who are used to full fledged drum machines will be more or less disappointed by the offerings of the MRS-8 in the rhythm department. Yes, it's possible to trigger an external drum device by MIDI and record that. But what if you don't have one? Here's something that makes the MRS-8 drums come out better; hope it helps you to develop your ideas and, most of all, have fun!
Basicly, you can only apply equalization, an insert effect and a send/return effect to the rhythm track, be it a rhythm pattern or a rhythm song. That means it will be applied to ALL rhythm instruments in the same amount. A bit of EQ-ing might work, but that nice reverb or echo on the snare sounds disastrous on the kick drum! What to do now?
If you would record a real drum kit, you would have separate mics and tracks for the kick drum, for the snare, for the hi-hat, overheads for the cymbals etc, and make a drum mix. We're going to do something similar here; we'll split a drum pattern up in different tracks.
One instrument per rhythm pattern
We'll take the first drum pattern you'll hear when you switch on the MRS-8: beat 08beat01 at tempo 120; the most generic (and bland?) beat available. Not really a beat you would build a song around, but just to keeping things simple, and it's a good starting point. Now, let's work:
- Open a new project; and give it a name easy to remember (p. 105).
- Select the first rhythm pattern (p. 63).
- Copy it to the first empty pattern; this will be pattern 473 (p. 75).
- Copy it again to the next two empty patterns (474 and 475).
We'll use the first pattern for the kick drum only, so this means we'll have to strip the snare and the hi-hat from pattern 473:
- Select pattern 473.
- Make sure it plays from the start by pressing the << (ZERO) key.
- Hold down REC and press PLAY.
- Erase the snare drum by holding down the FUNCTION key and the SNARE key for at least 4 bars (pattern 0 is four bars long, and so will be its copies 473, 474 and 475). See also p.68 at point 6.
- Erase the hihat by holding down the FUNCTION key and the CHH key for at least 4 bars.
- Press STOP
- Press EXIT repeatedly to return to the main screen
The second pattern (474) will be used for the snare only:
- Select pattern 474.
- Make sure it plays from the start by pressing the << (ZERO) key.
- Hold down REC and press PLAY.
- Erase the kick drum by holding down the FUNCTION key and the BD key for at least 4 bars.
- Erase the hihat by holding down the FUNCTION key and the CHH key for at least 4 bars.
- Press STOP
- Press EXIT repeatedly to return to the main screen
The third pattern (475) will be used for the hi-hat only:
- Select pattern 475.
- Make sure it plays from the start by pressing the << (ZERO) key.
- Hold down REC and press PLAY.
- Erase the kick drum by holding down the FUNCTION key and the BD key for at least 4 bars.
- Erase the snare drum by holding down the FUNCTION key and the SD key for at least 4 bars.
- Press STOP.
- Press EXIT repeatedly to return to the main screen.
You might disagree, but since I'm a bassist, ofcourse I'm convinced I could do much better than the MRS-8 bass patterns; I don't want the bass to come up with my own rhythm patterns. So:
- Select pattern 473.
- Set the bass volume to zero, see p.74.
- Press EXIT repeatedly to return to the main screen.
- Select pattern 474.
- Set the bass volume to zero.
- Press EXIT repeatedly to return to the main screen.
- Select pattern 475.
- Set the bass volume to zero.
- Press EXIT repeatedly to return to the main screen.
Recording one instrument per track
As you may already know, you can record the MRS-8 drums to tracks. First, set the bounce recording source to the drum track, see p. 42, then set the rhythm track to playback (status key is lit green) and its fader to 0 dB. Now record the kick drum to track 1:
- Select drum pattern 473 (kick drum).
- Set track 1 to record (status key is lit red), make sure all other tracks are off (except the rhythm track).
- Set track 1 fader to 0 dB.
- Make sure to record from the start by pressing the << (ZERO) key.
- Hold down REC and press PLAY, see p. 25.
- Press STOP to stop recording the kick drum.
Record the snare drum to track 2:
- Select drum pattern 474 (snare drum).
- Set track 2 to record (status key is lit red), make sure all other tracks are off (except the rhythm track).
- Set track 2 fader to 0 dB.
- Make sure to record from the start by pressing the << (ZERO) key.
- Hold down REC and press PLAY.
- Press STOP to stop recording the snare drum.
Between these steps, you might want to check how these individual tracks sound. Play them back the normal way, but select an EMPTY rhythm pattern to make sure you only hear your recorded drums!
Now we don't need to record the hi-hat to another track, since we can use the drum track containing the hi-hat directly for playback.
- Select drum pattern 475 (hi-hat).
Mixdown
Voila, there you have your drums on separate tracks and you're ready to do your drum mix! First, set the bounce recording source back to the MASTER, see p. 42. I assume you're familiar with the mixdown process, see p. 26 - 31. Select the drum track and tracks 1 and 2 for playback.
Here's what I made of it: 08beat01 Pimped All three tracks have different EQ settings. The snare has a short delay applied to it (customized MIC insert effect) and the VINSPRING as send/return effect. This send/return effect has also been applied to the hi-hat. No panning and no master effect was used.
Here's another one in hillbilly style (somebody in the Yahoo users group requested hillbilly style drum patterns), with just one track for the kick drum and one for the rimshot. Here, the BASS-SLAP insert effect and a bit of delay is applied to the rimshot. Hillbilly Beat These are pretty simple examples but I hope you get the hang of improving the MRS-8 drum sound. If you want to go wild: add distortion and modulation effects like auto-wah to your drums and things will get freaky!
More hints
- You can mix instruments of different drum kits.
- You don't need to have each percussion instrument on a different track, if the number of tracks for mixdown is an issue.
- Obviously, you can not change the tempo of the recorded drums anymore.
- The best moment to do the drum mix is when you have already recorded the parts you want to use as a basis. By then you will already have programmed your drum song on the drum track; now it's time to split it up over more tracks and mix them. Of course, if the drums are your basis, you will start with these...
Hope this helps, have fun! |
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