- Oct 7, 2000
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iOS, iPhone, iPad and music 101
- Thread starter Joe Nerve
- Start date
If GB had audiobus support it would be the greatest daw on iOS.......it has great virtual instruments and the drum machine is incredible. If it had audiobus as a "plug-in" pipeline......a whole new world would open up.
For me it is much easier to get a drum track on DM1 then on GB. I can't play the drums real time.... And it is not easy to control the touch drums. But the DM1 have some serious limitation regarding some stuff. How do I program a drum pattern that follow triplets? The resolution of DM1 do not allow you to follow 3-3-3-3-3 notes pattern on the bass!
DM1 definitely isn't gonna work for you if you're trying to do complex stuff on drums, mostly because of the process involved.
You'd need to build a ton of separate beats, save then in DM1 (still haven't figured out how to do this), then build a song in DM1. It's doable, but doesn't exactly lend itself to a fast workflow.
I used to build songs like this with my old school Yamaha drum machine, but it takes so long to build everything on drums that you end up losing the original idea by the time you're ready to do your instrument tracks.
The best thing I've ever used for drums was Sonic Foundry's (shows my age) ACID Pro. Being able to see everything on the screen and just "paint" the patterns into place, made building drum tracks really easy.
In DM1 it's all about Patterns and the Timeline (the "Song") screen.
Quick and Drity:
To add a pattern, after making the first pattern, for instance: select the drop down from the top, then select a blank square (or select a grey square if you want to modify a pattern you've already made). Then select the drop down again and you'll return to whatever page you were on; if you need to, navigate to the beat building screen ("Steps" screen) to create the beat.
Repeat this step for the number of different patterns you want.
In the Song screen, you can drag the different patterns you have made into the Timeline in order to create the song. If you highlight "Song" at the top if will play through the entire set of patterns you dragged into the Timeline grid, then repeat the song. If Song is not highlighted, it will repeat the particular pattern that is highlighted in the Timeline grid.
To have pattern 1 play X-times then pattern 2 for X-times, for example, simply drag the respective patterns from the Patterns boxes up into the Timeline grid - again and again until you have what you need.
You can add lots of patterns and organize them into a song by scrolling the Timeline grid up/down; likewise, you can scroll left/right on the small Pattern grid to see and select other patterns if you've made more than 4.
You can drag the patterns around the Timeline grid to reorganize the song, and drag them off the grid to remove them from the song/Timeline.
I haven't played with the lock and renaming options on the Timeline screen much, so I'm not sure the total relationship between the two (aside the obvious). But I have locked a song I liked, renamed it, and it's there for me to load when I like. The first pattern should be automatically saved.
Export as you like.
This is how I've been playing around with it with my 3GS but there's more to it.
DM1 seems to be capable of quite a bit.
The iPad instructions PDF for DM1: Invalid Link Removed, seems to suggest on one screen that you can change time signature(s) and create unique time signatures.
DM1 is very powerful but it is much easier to use on the iPad than the iphone. Not sure but I would be surprised if you can't program the triplet feel you want.
I don't have any problems with the size of my screen on my 4S with DM1, but I'm lost as to setting up the patterns (saving them, not building). I'm good in the Steps page, but the timeline is beyond me for some reason.
How do you save patterns? I can make them, even adjust levels and change individual drums, but saving what I've created hasn't happened up to now.
How do you save patterns? I can make them, even adjust levels and change individual drums, but saving what I've created hasn't happened up to now.
Duke,
I think I found how to do want you want.
I'm using the iPhone at the moment so that is how I will describe this. I'm on the "STEPS" screen. Tap on the Pattern you are currently editing ( up at the top next to the name of the drum kit ). The window that opens up allows you to edit the "step count" at the bottom. Place in a step count divisible by 3 and you should be good to go.
Rip, roughly following what I just typed out to Duke, you tap the Pattern # at the top. That brings up a new window with the current pattern your are working on highlighted. Just tap the next pattern number over and you are set to build the next pattern. Patterns are automatically saved with the song file. Then when you open up the SONG view ( timeline ) your patterns will all be there at the bottom .
Gotcha. Thanks.
Gonna try building a whole song's drums before transferring to the recorder (somehow).
Gonna try building a whole song's drums before transferring to the recorder (somehow).
Just set up Jamup for background audio and work it that way as you are building your patterns into a song.
Not sure I understood what you meant in post 313 but it sounded like you weren't sure how you would build a song of patterns and tie a bassline in. What did you mean?
I don't know what you mean either.
Of course, you can export into your program of choice when you're done.
My instructions above give quick steps to making a song - pretty easy. My post also includes the link to DM1's PDF manual.
If you have JamUp in the background, you can simply play along with your beats as you make them - helps dial it in.
Nah, I know how to do the bassline!!
What I meant what in DM1, I don't know how the song process STARTS. Is there something that resets everything so that the demo loops go away and I can save my own loops?
EDIT: I think I just found it.
Just create a new song and everything will be empty and ready for you to build from scratch.
