How to Play Drums with song

[cwinn414]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum and recently purchased a TR-88 to play gospel music for my church. I have read the manual repeatedly and searched the forums and internet as well as Korg's website, and can't figure out how to setup a simple drum to play when I am playing a song. This is alot more complex than i thought. I would greatly appreaciate any help that could be provided.

Thanks
Cedric

[claydodo]

This would be much easier with an arranger keyboard.
On TR, you have to make a COMBI, with a drum timbre assigned to an arpeggio; or in SEQ mode, with drum pattern playing.

[Stephen]

You can assign a drum arp to any Combi with a drum program attached, just go to the Combi, you wish to use, at the bottom of the screen there are tabs marked Arp.A, and Arp.B, Press Arp.A (F4), and highlight the next to last line there, which is Pattern. It'll look something like this; Pattern: U119 (INT) : Dr- Bigbeats 2, scroll through the drum patterns, (noted by the Dr prefix), and find a pattern that works, then arrow back up to- Arpeggiator Run: and check box A.
Most likely you'll get the pattern to start when you strike a key, (make sure the ARP button is ON).
HTH

[diminuito]

In order to play drums with another instrument you need to use the combi mode and create a "ghost" timbre which plays an arpeggio.
Select the combi program you would use. Set a drum program in one of the 8 timbres on INT but on midi channel different from GCh (like ch02 or ch03, so the drums will not play when you hit a key), then apply an arpeggio pattern to the track (chose the series named like Dr-........ as the rhytm style you prefer). Then set the ghost track, set one of the 8 tracks in OFF mode and GCh. This track will make play the drum track. It's well explained at page 102 of the Basic Guide. It's not so simple, but it's the only way.

[cwinn414]

You can assign a drum arp to any Combi with a drum program attached, just go to the Combi, you wish to use, at the bottom of the screen there are tabs marked Arp.A, and Arp.B, Press Arp.A (F4), and highlight the next to last line there, which is Pattern. It'll look something like this; Pattern: U119 (INT) : Dr- Bigbeats 2, scroll through the drum patterns, (noted by the Dr prefix), and find a pattern that works, then arrow back up to- Arpeggiator Run: and check box A.
Most likely you'll get the pattern to start when you strike a key, (make sure the ARP button is ON).
HTH

Thank you very much for the response, I will be trying this today..

[cwinn414]

In order to play drums with another instrument you need to use the combi mode and create a "ghost" timbre which plays an arpeggio.
Select the combi program you would use. Set a drum program in one of the 8 timbres on INT but on midi channel different from GCh (like ch02 or ch03, so the drums will not play when you hit a key), then apply an arpeggio pattern to the track (chose the series named like Dr-........ as the rhytm style you prefer). Then set the ghost track, set one of the 8 tracks in OFF mode and GCh. This track will make play the drum track. It's well explained at page 102 of the Basic Guide. It's not so simple, but it's the only way.

thanks for the response, I think you are right, it isnt so easy. Just wishing there was an easier way to do this...

[Hobson]

Cedric

The advice given above is correct, but as we all know different people learn things in different ways. I’ll take a stab at explaining it differently.

The easiest way to do what you want to do is to tweak a pre-programmed (“Factory”) Combi (rather try to build one on your own).

Go into Combi Mode by pressing the top left button on the left side of the screen. Select a Combi that produces a sound you want to use for the performance. [By using the “Category” button this can be a quick process. If you can’t find the exact sound you want you can change the programs in the Combi, but that is a different subject.] Turn on the “Arp On/Off” button [it will light up when on]. Press any key on the keyboard. Because almost all the Factory Combis already have drum a pattern set up, you should hear a drum pattern playing. [If you don’t hear a drum pattern, select a similar, but different Combi until you do.]

Then all you have to do is change the drum pattern and tempo to suit the song you want to play.

Change the drum pattern by hitting the “Menu” button, and then open the Arp editor page by hitting F6. At the top of the Arp Setup page you will see box A and box B. One or both boxes will be checked. If one box is checked go to the arp editor page for that box (either F3 or F4). A drum pattern will be highlighted at the top just to the right of “Pat:”
Using the wheel scroll through the various drum patterns until you find one you want to use for the performance.

At this point the drum pattern you selected will play anytime you hit a note on the keyboard if the Arp button is lit. [You can turn the drums off anytime you want by turning the Arp button off.] If you want the drums to play only if you hit certain keys (instead of any key on the keyboard) [This is useful if you don’t want the drums to start until after the intro to the song.] you can select a particular key or group of keys that will activate the drum arp. To do this, open the “Zone” tab [F5] and set the range of keys that will activate the arp [You can limit the range to just one key if you want.

To set the tempo, use the arrow buttons to highlight the number in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Use the wheel to change the tempo to the tempo you want. [You might have to highlight and change the note to the right of “Reso:” if you need triplets or you need the speed much slower or much faster.

Now you need to save your work by pressing Utility [F8], select “Write Combination” and OK.

There are a whole lot more tweaks the TR will let you make to drum patterns, but this should get you started.

Hope this helps.

Hobson

[cwinn414]

Cedric

The advice given above is correct, but as we all know different people learn things in different ways. I’ll take a stab at explaining it differently.

The easiest way to do what you want to do is to tweak a pre-programmed (“Factory”) Combi (rather try to build one on your own).

Go into Combi Mode by pressing the top left button on the left side of the screen. Select a Combi that produces a sound you want to use for the performance. [By using the “Category” button this can be a quick process. If you can’t find the exact sound you want you can change the programs in the Combi, but that is a different subject.] Turn on the “Arp On/Off” button [it will light up when on]. Press any key on the keyboard. Because almost all the Factory Combis already have drum a pattern set up, you should hear a drum pattern playing. [If you don’t hear a drum pattern, select a similar, but different Combi until you do.]

Then all you have to do is change the drum pattern and tempo to suit the song you want to play.

Change the drum pattern by hitting the “Menu” button, and then open the Arp editor page by hitting F6. At the top of the Arp Setup page you will see box A and box B. One or both boxes will be checked. If one box is checked go to the arp editor page for that box (either F3 or F4). A drum pattern will be highlighted at the top just to the right of “Pat:”
Using the wheel scroll through the various drum patterns until you find one you want to use for the performance.

At this point the drum pattern you selected will play anytime you hit a note on the keyboard if the Arp button is lit. [You can turn the drums off anytime you want by turning the Arp button off.] If you want the drums to play only if you hit certain keys (instead of any key on the keyboard) [This is useful if you don’t want the drums to start until after the intro to the song.] you can select a particular key or group of keys that will activate the drum arp. To do this, open the “Zone” tab [F5] and set the range of keys that will activate the arp [You can limit the range to just one key if you want.

To set the tempo, use the arrow buttons to highlight the number in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Use the wheel to change the tempo to the tempo you want. [You might have to highlight and change the note to the right of “Reso:” if you need triplets or you need the speed much slower or much faster.

Now you need to save your work by pressing Utility [F8], select “Write Combination” and OK.

There are a whole lot more tweaks the TR will let you make to drum patterns, but this should get you started.

Hope this helps.

Hobson

Hello Hobson,

Thank you all so much for your responses, I really appreciate the help I have received here. Yes you are correct, people learn differently I purchased my keyboard from a store called Sweetwaters online so I didnt have the opportunity to talk with anyone before-hand about setting this much needed feature up. I will try you suggestion this evening when I get in.

Thank you again
Cedric

[Hobson]

You're welcome Cedric.

BTW: If when you turn the arp button on and you hear drums but also hear some other kind of arp thing going on. You will want to turn off the non-drum arp. You do that by unchecking the A box or the B box, whichever one is playing the non-drum arp.

Hobson

[smstome]

Hey you can use RPPR.
It is great for rhythm pattern than arp.

Even in one program you can have different drum patterns assigned to different individual key.

Please read manual - RPPR