Lessons

Lesson Info

Enhance Drums with Velocity

What does not start with drums and the first thing I want to deal with is a lot of times when people are new to machine, one of the first questions we get is, you know, how do you make all of your drums the same velocity or, you know, how do you set up a full velocity? So really, I want to deal with just your drum velocity and using the event screen that kind of build up your group, so what I'm gonna do first, which is going to be a little different for me, is I'm a record everything with the grid on someone recorded kwan ties on, and I'm a recorder, everything at full velocity now, this is not normally how I do it, but I want to do this so I can kind of show you how you can actually go in and manipulated someone just load a really basic kit first, we'll just make a really basic pattern, so do something to bars, I'll make sure my great is on, I'll make sure my input kwan ties is on just so I can show you what I'm doing so and then what I want to do, I'm going to pad mode do fix velocit...

y, so now everything, no matter how hard I get the past, everything is that full velocity, so it doesn't matter. You know how hard or how quiet you hit it? So again, I'm doing this specifically so I can show you what it is I want to show you this is normally I don't use full velocity, but again, what is going to do it so that's too fast for me? Tap tempo, I used tatp temple a lot just to set mine my temple, I don't really go in and turn the temp or anything just because sometimes, you know your temple is your own groove is wherever sat you know everybody you're ninety three may have a little bit after tonight, you might be ninety three point five I might mean ninety three points that you know, it's just a pen, so I've used tatp temple a lot just to set my tempo so you can hear things really basic, you know, simple groove everything's at the same velocity, but one of the great things about machine is we can go in even if you don't have the best, you know, personal groove like me, I like to play it. You know what? The velocity often would agree it off and just kind of going my groove that way, but even if you, even if you don't prefer to do it that way, there's a lot of things inside of machine that you can actually go in and edit yourself. So if we go into the range screen, you see, I have it on the pattern screen not going to events, and what this is going to do is gonna let me see all the events, you know, in my pattern. So right now you could see all my kicks over here on the right screen I got on my kicks and we're looking at the velocity and everything is the same, so as I go through him, a kind of play the the pattern, and I'm gonna just the velocities manually from this event screen and used these these two arrows over here to kind of get through your different positions. So I mean, one of the one of the tricks I've learned just from growing up using hardware is a lot of the groove comes from the velocity. So it's that's almost like a ghost no before that main hit, if you get that velocity down a little bit it's going and it's going to enhance that group just just by just messing with the velocity, you're going to get a just a different field, so I'd like to turn it down, so if you listen to the beginning of that pattern and then you listen to the end of it, where all the velocities are the same you could get a little bit of a different room and of course I'll go in and kind of show you how this with, you know, kind of moving the notes, you know, along the grid to give even more of a better groove. But even just with the velocity itself, that can change a lot in terms of when your land down your tracks so you have to live with. So, you know, that's that sounds cool, but again remember I recorded with that kwan ties a record with that group of one. So right now everything is stuck to the grid, you know, and what you can do if you notice over here on the left screen, you see a position, so whichever note on the one I can actually change the position, but the thing to remember is that position is going to change based on whatever your step greeted set to so right now it's on sixteen so even if I move, it is just going to move, you know, a really big increments. So what I usually do is go in and either turn it off or put it on something like one sixty fourth one thirty second just depends on what you want to do, but for me to hit the grid button and from a step grid, I'll just sit it toe off and now I can actually go in and just exactly where that kick hits and that's I just that you'll see it'll start really enhancing the groove compared to what it used to be. Get the closer, you kind of move it, and with that velocity, it almost you're almost really building your own swing. You're building your own groove and you can get it exactly how you want cause you know, machine has a groove page. You can go in and that's what the swing but I feel like the vents pains gives you way more control. You could get it exactly how you want it. You can move those notes exactly where you want it. You could get that slump that you know, that groove that swing exactly where you want it to fall. So based on we just be going through kind of dealing with the position of the kick and in relation to each other and kind of messing with the velocities. And as I go along, you kind of see how it how the group starts coming together. One thing I want to point out if you listen, listen to that first, that first kind of ghost kick, and then the one later in the pattern and the velocities air different and you'll hear you know the difference as as a changes so the first one has a little bit more of a groove in the second one just because the way that velocity hits and as as I turn ever lost need down lower and lower the group is actually going toe it's going to bring the groove out a lot of people don't realize that but if you think about a drummer when they're playing they don't hit the drum the same time you know the same strength every time it's a little bit of a groove so those imperfections really improved that some of this down so if you notice that that second one in that second part of the bar that velocity is a lot lower so it's still there so it doesn't hit it's hard but it kind of it kind of emphasizes that kicked this coming after it I think that for like that second part really got the got the groove exactly where I want if you listen closely and compare that second part of the pattern to the first part I feel like I got my velocity exactly where I want because it has that the drums they kind of roll into each other if you listen closely to the kicks those drums roll into each other it's all based on that velocity and kind of just in that position you barely hear it but you know the difference so if I go back over here and kind of just so it's all about your ear, what you're looking for, everybody's groove is going to be the same, and I feel like that's, why I prefer using the events page over, you know, the built in group just because you get it exactly how do you want it? So you you go in whatever you're here, whatever you're looking for, you can, you can go in there and set that up perfectly. So this event spain is really, really been efficient. Of course, you can actually go in and change the pitch of your you know you're different notes and kicks if you want to do as well, but for me, a lot of times I'm using the position and the velocity just to kind of enhance the groove you want to go to the share, maybe you kind of want to make it a little bit later a little bit early it's easy to do that used to go through each one of the snares and do whatever you can get whatever you want to do is creative as you want to get. So what makes this a little bit late? So you hear those that snare, you know, you got to snares that air kind of late into their right on so just some just some clues stuff I mean, is there any questions in terms of the events page and the stuff you can do? Because again, the main thing I really want to show what that part is had you can use the velocity and the position of your notes to really create your own groove it's a lot of times you know, we're looking for groove templates or you know, just a groove tab groove button and we just kind of turn to swing up, but I feel like, you know, if you go into the advance that ended it yourself, you really going to get a groove this this all your own because you could move each individual note wherever you want it so somebody on line d j r eighty one says, what does kwan ties do? I think if you're familiar with this okay? So enticing, okay, right? Maybe you could speak to line when you'd use it when not ok, so qantas is for let's say if you don't have the best rhythm or you you know you don't you don't really play exactly on the grid let's say if I have my grid set toe one sixteen if I have kwon ties turned on is going to move those notes exactly on that great it's gonna lock into that grid and again that could be what you're looking for me a lot of times I just I don't use quantas I feel like it it kind of restricts my own personal groove but if you're if you haven't been, you know, laying down tracks for a long time or you just really don't have the rhythm that qantas is going to fix it he's going put everything on beat but sometimes it's not perfect because the panel had you play it's going to move it forward or backwards in that grid so your step grid is going toe change how you're kwan ties works in machine and sometimes you know a good way to use kwan ties but if you still want to get a little bit of a groove is making a little higher don't put it on like sixteenth maybe putting on thirty seconds or sixty force is still going to kwan ties it but it's going to let you get a little bit more of, you know a little bit more play room a little bit more wiggle room so basically that qantas is going toe line all your notes up on that grid so you know, we get a lot of questions where somebody will be making a loop in the right man, you know? I can't get it to loop right? It sounds off, you know, my drums kind of sound off how do you get it on beat? Well if you if you turn on the qantas eyes is pretty much going to be on beat most of time and you can do it after the fact to you khun there's quan ties buttons and there's even a quantifies fifty percent so let's say you know you've got some of this kind of feels a little jagged you wantto tying it up a little bit but you don't want to tighten it up all the way if you press shift and kwon ties and a fifty percent so it's not going to put it all right on the grid is going to move it a little bit closer to the grid so it retains some of that group you're still going to get a little bit of that group but then it kind of fixes it up, you know, fixes up a little bit of kind of hides our imperfections, you know? So that's basically what the quanta eyes does that's great. Any other questions about the qan ties and the think we're good vince page one from happening here then so let's see, the event part is the ah or their beats their little square yeah oh yes so you know you got on the other studio, you got two different size you can see like I can I can zoom in and out if I want to just focus on specific a specific section but normally what I like to do whatever my pattern is it's like two or four bars I just haven't soon another way out so on the left screen I can see a full overview and then on the right screen I can see is that what I'm doing with so on the right screen let's say I'm dealing with my share that's what you'll see you'll see all the snares over here if I want to deal with the kick then the kickoff show up over there what's the other ways I want when you have the group button and it has the swing to the so yeah there's a group there's a group button for you can you can actually have it for the master you could have a groove button I mean you can have groove on the whole group or individual you know individual sounds so let's say if we get out of here and let's just go to that shadow and you'll see right here says groove and so basically you've got a groove right here so right now on sound because he had that on the left screen you got master you have master group in sales and they all have pretty much the same thing input, output, groove and your macro so if you want to have an overall grew for your whole project, you would do that on the master and there's different swing amounts and different cycles in the basically the cycle works in relation with your grid so if you have the cycle off your swing is not going to do anything because it doesn't have any it doesn't have anything in the core relate to it doesn't you can't really cycle anything because there's no grid for it so you know if you have a great set to sixteenth that you can go in and mess with the cycle and kind of just mess with the group kind of I'll show something on us and just do something really simple are clear this out and I'll kind of just make a really straight high hat line this this on the grid and then I'll go through the different swing settings so you kind of hear what each cycle does so we'll just do that really quick what do it we'll do like two bar so that might be thiss one might be a good one used so I turned my greed and I make sure my grid step grid is on I'll put it toe sixteen and actually I just just use party issues note replete so it's clear that out so let's say this that's on the grid as you can see if you look each note is directly on the grid so now we can go in and mess with the swing specifically will mess with the swing specifically on the high hat I'll go through the swing amount I go to different cycles and you'll hear how it kind of working in relation to that grid you got in here getting a little as you as you listen as I go to the different cycles each one is going to have a different effect because it all it all works in relation with the grid but there's different cycle type so it really depends on what type of swing you're looking for but and this is a quick way to go in and kind of enhance your group so there's no there's no swing right here and then as we adjust it and here I was kind of giving a little bit of and again you're different cycles are gonna do have a different impact so and I find in machine the one fourth is liketo that's like the really basic common group that you find in pretty much any any group mission if you put it on one four that's going to give you that really common swing that a lot of drum machines have but if you start getting to the other cycles you could really get into some just some different groups and then you could start playing with the invert so what I'll do is I'll go over here and then I'll kind of inverted and you'll see that kind of change the feel of the swing but if you listen closely I'll turn it off so it's kind of a push pull type of pain, and again, that's, your groove tab is for you could do an individual. So if you just want your high had to be to have a little bit of swing, but you want to play your kicks, you know, a little bit straighter your shares it's really easy to do that or, you know, if you want your whole group, maybe you're playing your drums in your whole group, and you want the whole thing that had the same, the same group, you just go over to the group tab, and you still have the same settings. Maybe you want your entire pattern or your entire project. You go over here to the master, and you still have your swing over the whole day, and you and they can all work together, so you don't have to use one or the other, so you can have ah, certain swing setting on your whole pattern or your whole project. Then each group can have its own setting, and then you can still go into each individual sound and do whatever you want to do there so that that makes sense. If we had explains, if not, you know, let me know, but hopefully that gives you a feel for what the group tapped us, so it's just some of the word on the chat rooms is that they're wondering actually how you get a lot of the different sounds on different paths d j sneaky snack actually says how did you load an entire drum group on different pads so maybe like if you can kind of like, show us how to build that okay, that kit maybe a little bit uh and he just wants a load of drum pattern just straight just load a drum group essentially how are you taking the kit and putting it on different pads is the question is that the kid or the kick the kit the kids so I just loaded a okay? We'll just we'll just do this so let's say we have nothing in there right now so if I want to go to kid you know, I just goto browse and I want to go into my groups and then I have all my kids here and, you know, the good thing about machine is it comes with a lot of different times of kids and I was in the vinyl kits, but maybe you're more into electronic there's elektronik kid stirs and a lot of kids there's digital kitsch there's crazy kids if you're into like, you know, weird sounds but it's really, you know, you just go through find the kitchen want let's say we want to do let's, do something like find a special kid. So we say we want a special let's say I want to load this black mambo kid so there's there's two ways you can load it by default, you can load it with the patterns so let's say I want to load it and I want the pattern to load with it. There's a there's a tablet here, two cents plus patterns. So was I load that if I click load now you'll see actually have patterns in there, but let's say I want toe if I don't like the patterns, I just unchecked that and it just loves the kids. So let's say, we want to replace that with, you know something in here, let's say we felt like a baller today, so well was little dead up you could see it has it's actually a premade patter, and we get this question a lot actually, like they'll figure out how to load the kid, but to say it already has a beat mate, I don't want that so that's the difference let's say we'll clear that out, so if you want to load it without the pattern, make sure that plus patterns is not highlighted, and that way I could just load the kid and it's ready to go across on the pad, so it was that the question? I think that was the question you want answered. I mean, from there, I guess, you know, mapping different sounds, I think to each individual pad. Well, maybe not. Yeah, there are. If you load a group, if you load a group or you loaded kid, then each pad is gonna have this on the sound already. Okay, but if you want to load a individual sound or sample, you could do that kid by kids. So if I want to replace this say I want to replace this, I would go over to samples. I got three here on, but let's say, I want to go now find I can find where that kick is just by pressing this quick find button. So now I know where that kick is, and I can just go through the individual one let's say, I want to turn on pre here and I want to just kind of go through so I could go through replace whatever I want let's say I like that one, I load it now that wasn't so. And of course you can. You can you can build your kids from scratch. You don't have to load a kid, you know, because you got all you have access to all the samples that air in there anyway so you can just start, you know, just the empty let's say I have anti group right here, and I could just go through and build it up like that and let's say, all turn on pre here a pre here's awesome because you could really audition. This sounds really quickly let's say, I like that. So a little debt, you know, fine. And then I could just start building up. Maybe I want to go into I'll turn that off and they want to go to the next one and maybe I want, you know, a snare, so now turn it back on, and maybe, you know, I don't want to go through the whole list so I can look for specific types analog snare, you know, brush digital, human, kind like beatbox rim shots, you know? So maybe I wanted something final me like that you could beat up your own kids exactly how you want another important thing that would be nice to see there's a difference between the user and the native instruments bills in sounds so they're in two separate sections on machine to and maybe you could just show them how to find between the two sections because I get a lot of questions about that as well, yeah, so, you know, basically I'm just inside of the machine library, but if you have your own samples, you know that you've imported into machine or you know stuff that you save if you get this tab right here it'll go right there to the user and as you can see, we got a bunch of user stuff from flood so let's say we go in here, we could go through his kits and again he's got his stuff tag so let's say, I want to go find a maybe some percussion so something like that you can make your own, you know, your own samples air stuff that you have on your computer with the built in machine stuff. And then of course, if you like that, you can go in and, you know, you could name and I can go in and name this kid, you know, whatever I want and actually save it so I could name it, you know, my kid, I guess and then if I right click on it, I could just save it or save it with samples. Now, you know, if you're using a lot of your own samples, I suggest you do is save with samples that way the kid will always have the sounds with it so yes, so you can load a kid or you can build your own