So I got this BOSS DR-202 Drum Machine and I want to take sounds (or whole beats) from it and import them onto my computer. I have MIDI cables that go from the drum machine to the joystick port. I know I need those but beyond that I’m pretty much lost. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention…this might be an easy task but I bought the drum machine off of ebay and hence have no manual.
No clue, but there’s a video manual available, seems to be $24.95 no matter where you go. How desperate are you, yet?
http://www.synthony.com/Products/dr202.html
http://www.musiciansbuy.com/roland_options_3.htm#DR-202
You wouldn’t be transfering the “sounds” from the drum machine via the midi cables, just the note information. Midi carries no audio.
Think of Midi as a old paper piano roll. It only tells the piano what to play and when.
I think what you are looking to do would be to import these drum loops into something like Acid ro Fruity Loops yes? If that is the case just hook your drum machine outputs into the audio in on your computer, record the loops in something like Sound Forge, trim the ends of the loops and transfer that into the program.
If you are looking to transfer the MIDI drum patterens from the DR-202 into software like Cakewalk, then it’s a different story.
Run a MIDI cable from MIDI in on the DR to MIDI out on the computer. Run another cable from MIDI out on the DR to MIDI in on the computer. Set the drum machine to use the extrenal MIDI time clock (which would come from Cakewalk or your sequencing software). Allow the drum machine to respond to Start/stop signals. Then hit record on the sequencer. This should start the drum machine playing the beats you want and it will record them into the sequencer. You might have to play a little with sending and receiving MIDI channels on the drum machine and sequencers, but that’s the basic idea.
If this doesn’t help, let me know what software you are using and more on what you are trying to do. I’ll try to come up with a better idea.