More than one drum track

[chaglan]

Trying to insert 1 drum track and 1 percussion track into same combi. Can I do this? How do I control the different patterns and perhaps tempos??? Thanks!

[billbaker]

You should be able to "associate" a drum track with any combination. You also have the option to select up to two arpeggio patterns as well - so, provided that you've selected appropriate drum kits for each element, you should be able to have up to 3 tracks of percussion going at once.

In Program Mode however, you can select only one drum track -- and unless the program is a drum kit (where an arpeggio could play the second track of percussion) you cannot add a secondary (arp) percussion track.

BB

[billbaker]

...continued

Tempo is determined by BPM (top right corner of "play" display) and is fixed, which is to say there is one tempo for both drum track and arps. You can adjust that tempo up or down from initial start rate using the tempo knob or by hi-lighting BPM and using the inc/dec button -- and tap tempo as well (maybe?).

That being said, you can make some adjustments as to how the arps play in relation to the BPM and each other by using the quantization function; i.e., 16ths, 8ths, quarters, and various triplet values.

I believe the drum tracks are synced at the 16th level. So you could have a perc arp playing at half time against the drum track, but probably not the other way around.

There are some interesting effects that can be gotten by having triplet patterns playing against 4/4 patterns.


BB

[chaglan]

Thanks BB,
Although I have 25 years as a working musician, I am new to the Krome (2 weeks) Can you explain in layman's terms how to get the arps to drive 2 different drum tracks? I'm not getting the basic implementation. Have looked in all the manuals I could find. Appreciate your help.

[kid_nepro_2002]

I think what Bill is saying has to do with midi channels. You would assign your drum kit “programs” to say, channel 2 & 3 and then set each ARP to channels 2 & 3. Then the ARPS would trigger the kits. That way, you can get three rhythms going at once (when you add your drum pattern, usually on midi channel 10). This will work, but your not actually getting any drum patterns triggering the kits, only ARPS - which are not really intended for triggering drums.

I have not tried this, so I don’t know how well this works. Might be interesting to experiment with. You could also try playing with the transpose parameter while doing this on each kit, to see what works best for you. Each time you transpose up or down a half step, the arp will trigger a different set of samples. You can’t actually get more then one drum “pattern” going at the same time.

Proton

[billbaker]

Chaglan & Kid,

Yes, what I was talking about was running a Drum Track (independent of arps) and a drum oriented arpeggio (of which there are some 70 to 100 in krome); saying the arps aren't intended for drums is a little misleading since the triton series used nothing but arps... most of it's rhythm arps are carried forward to Krome intact.

Krome can do pretty much anything Triton could, arp wise, with the drum track as an independent rhythm sound source. Bonus.

DT + Drum Arp + Drum Arp = 3 possible rhythm tracks per combi.

You're right that there are some specific MIDI requirements for setting up drum tracks - OP should read up on that including the need for a silent parallel "ghost channel" on each drum's MIDI channel to keep the drums from sounding when you play the keys and the arps are not active.

Look at combis that use rhythm tracks for template of how to set things up correctly. Or just copy a "good" example and edit it into what you want.

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One trick I've had good success with is writing a user kit that consists of one drum type or category - you have a "factory" example of this already done in snare-only and BD-only kits.

Extend that idea to build a user kit of, for example, ethnic hand drums only or shakers, clicks and brushed percussion only. E.g., there are latin hand drums - bongo hi/lo, conga hi/low/slap, etc. - enough samples to make up about a 6th. Don't worry if you have only a few drums in that sound palate; six or seven drums repeated and spread over the keyboard will work just fine. You should make them non-pitch responsive so they sound like themselves regardless of note number.

Once you have a kit like this you can apply any type of arp and get a rhythm track.

Benefits are, first, that you take away a great deal of the "machine" quality of most drum arps that are set up (i.e.) "BD 1+3, SD 2+4" leaving only the rhythmic pulse. Kid's transpose trick on a regular kit can sound a bit wonky ("no one would play that"), but keeping the rhythm within a single drum type helps the results to sound more musically probable.

Second, non-drum arps respond to note information. Using them will with a single drum type give you a recognizable and consistent rhythmic pattern with much greater variation in which drums are playing.

Finally, you can build a one-type kit with blank spots - say every 3rd or 4th note; even a repeated 16th note arp will sound different if there are "rests" as the arp hits silent spots. The rests will change as different chords play.


BB

[kid_nepro_2002]

Chaglan & Kid,

Yes, what I was talking about was running a Drum Track (independent of arps) and a drum oriented arpeggio (of which there are some 70 to 100 in krome);
BB

My bad, I forgot about all those drum ARPS at the end. Thanks for clarifying.