i have no idea what forum this is supposed to be in…
but does anyone know of anywhere i can get a free computer drum program. i’m talking about like an MPC but just not an actual machine, just one that simulates a drum? thanks.
This is a lot more than a drum machine, but I like buzz (www.buzzmachines.com)
:smack:
For the past 10 minutes I’ve been reading the title as ‘free online drug program?’
hmm thanks for the link, im downloading, but how does it work? i dont get it…
Hmmmm, that buzzthing seems interesting.
I wonder how it lines up against Cubasis/ Cakewalk and Reason.
Buzz is not like any other music machines I’ve seen. In some ways it’s simpler, but in some ways it’s more complex.
There are “machines” and “filters”. Each machine makes some sound, like a snare drum, or a piano. You program in the notes and sound qualities into each machine. Each filter changes sounds that are fed into it in some way. For example, there are reverb filters. You wire up many machines and filters, by dragging wires between them. So one or more machines can feed into a filter, and one or more filters can feed into another filter. the end things feed into a mixer, and what comes out of it is what you hear.
There are tons of people out there who write their own machines and filters for buzz. It’s very cool
What type of importing/exporting options are available?
This is pretty crazy.
I would agree.
Personally, if you’re looking for a simple and easy to use sequencing software, I’d go with Fruityloops for starters, then on to products like Reason, at a later time. However they do cost money, but you get what you pay for. I myself like my MPC2000xl in conjunction with Fruityloops. Fruityloops is downplayed by a lot of self proclaimed “pros”, but is actually a great sequencer, and very easy to use.
Personally my favorite was Acid. Me and my partners have been using Reason 2.5 for a good while. I think we’ve figured out how to squeeze 110% out of that program. With Reason I can export individual tracks (a drum wav & a bass wav) or the whole thing (one wav with drums and bass). I dump the wav into Cakewalk, record some vocals along with it, or guitar or yodelling, and voila, done. The benefit of doing things this way is I get to use an actual mixing board and all my outboard gear.
ok im an idiot. how do you get the generators into your program and to work? im so confused…
As someone who professionally releases records and works in studios…
For standalone, you want Fruityloops. It’s a drag-and-drop sampler and “TR”-style step sequencer that’s great for throwing together loops and beats.
If you’re already using a sequencing and recording program like Cubase, Digital Performer, etc., you want Native Instruments’ Battery or Battery II. It’s basically an MPC that opens up as a virtual instrument within that software, and it’s the software drum machine, period. I’ve owned an MPC60, 3000, and most recently a 1000, and Battery beats them all, hands-down.
I would not recommend Buzz; it’s an experimental modular software tracker that really has nothing to do with the concept of “drum machine.” Ditto for Reason - while it’s a great software, it’s an all-in-one software studio that includes a simple drum machine, but among 20+ other modules including synthesizers, samplers, and effects. It sounds like you just want a simple drum machine.
yes i do simply want a drum machine, but the one you linked to is about 220 dollars more than free…
World Eater wrote
I don’t know about Cubasis or Reason, but I’ve used Cakewalk alot.
Cakewalk and Buzz are very different. First off, Cakewalk is a professional program. It’s much less prone to crashes, is documented, etc. All the things you expect for money.
Cakewalk has the standard timeline, and individual tracks are put through whatever effects you want, sort of like a matrix (X tracks x Y effects). Buzz has a much more flexible inter-connection system.
What does this mean? I’m not following you here.
At first I hated reason, everyone I knew that had zero talent was making formulaic drum and bass on it. I couldn’t stand it. I will say in its defense that I’ve come to accept it as a damn good program. Sure you can open up a Dr rex loop player and you have a finished generic song. But the real fun is doing custom beats from the ground up in the redrum. You can even load waves into the redrum and have them play when its “hit”. In fact most of the beats we do these days are done in reason, then exported where were the rest is done in a program that has better sound quality and more sonic control. My only beef is the sound quality, which I’ll export out at 24 bit then normalize.
From my initial research on their site, it seems to be some type of “preset” player. I plug in the notes and mess around with the knobs and connections. sound about right?
Freejooky wrote
It’s certainly experimental, and it’s certainly different than what I’d consider a drum machine. But it’s one of my favorite free toys, and it can be used as drum machine, hence the reference. I’ll happily admit that something more stripped down and more straight-forward would be a better solution. But I don’t have anything to recommend there (for free anyway).
World Eater wrote
I’m not sure what you mean by “preset”.
In Buzz you build these graphs, i.e. flowchart like things, where boxes are connected to other boxes (like in Visio, if you’ve used that). You can put the boxes anywhere on the screen you like. Some of the boxes generate sounds, and some of them process sound, and one of them mixes everything it’s given together and plays it. Each of the boxes is highly configurable (typically too configurable; often you’d like 3 knobs, and you get 20). Inside each of the generating boxes, you have tracker-like functionality where you plug in notes, velocities, etc.
I should note that the way you plug in notes is pretty rudimentary. Not like Cakewalk where you have options like writing it as sheet music, or playing it on an on-screen piano keyboard. Instead, you type in G4 for example. It does have a way you can “play” the notes using your computer keyboard, but again, pretty rudimentary.
FreeJookey was on the money when he referred to Buzz as “experimental”. Perhaps you’ll love it (like I do), or perhaps it’ll have too many holes for what you need. It’s different and it’s fun. And those aren’t a bad combination when it comes to creative stuff. At least, that’s my opinion.
Yeah I think I’ll check it out. You can never have too many tools in the arsenal. How stable is it? I’m real crazy about what I install on my music computer, I wouldn’t want anything to wack it out.
I’ve had it die occasionally (but rarely). But I’ve never seen it hurt other programs or the computer in general.
I like Fruityloops a lot, but am not a huge fan of the pattern-programming of it. One thing I really liked about old-style trackers (like screamtracker and impulsetracker) was the ability to program synth lines by playing them on the keyboard. I hate the way it’s done in Fruityloops, with each note being a mouse-click as it seems to take me forever to get anything done.
Also, is there any way to insert a pattern into an existing song framework? I can’t find a way to do that, which is annoying if you want to restructure a nearly completed track.