Jump to content

Noob question about SI drum kit


Carl Barker

Recommended Posts

Hello.

I am a complete novice, so please forgive me if this is obvious.    I have set up Cakewalk and got the SI drum kit working, but I am rather disappointed by the quality of the drum sounds.  Is there a way to get a better set of drum sounds?

 

Thanks,

Carl

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While it is possible to swap out the samples that SI-Drums uses; it is not a good idea.

Better to find a replacement plug-in.

Sitala and Poise are good free alternatives.

Sitala is a simple one sample per pad sample player with 16 pads.

Poise has 16 pads and supports up to 8 samples per pad.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drums are pretty important and of course there's no real substitute for the real thing.  A drum machine will always sound like a drum machine. The better ones give you more options and most will have multi samples that if you have the time and patience to learn the interface can produce a much more convincing drum track. 

If you were lucky enough to have bought the old Sonar you might have Session Drummer or Addictive Drums.  

I mostly use Addictive drums because the interface offers a lot of tweaking. But Session drummer has way more variety in samples and you can even make your own. I sampled my own drum kit and can play it via a midi track with SD3.  

For a while I was using Air Strike 2 drums as they were on sale for $12 but found the interface and layout real confusing. I kinda like my drums to be GM compatible. 

I have used SI drums for simple backing track stuff and if you pick the right kit and tweak it a bit it will suffice. 

But if you have a higher standard then you better start shopping and comparing the better multi sampled VST's packs out there. 

Always wait for a sale. Sign up for Emails at a few plug in vendors like this https://www.pluginboutique.com/deals  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's some truth to that. My first drum machine ( still have it ) a Roland 505 was purchased after our 3rd drummer wandered off with no warning. Took me a few hours to write out BPM's and the correct patterns to use for our 60 song set list but that was the end of real drums for us for a few years. I quickly learned about midi sequencing and purchased an Atari to drive the 505. I really couldn't  stand pain looped patterns and no fills.  Next came bass and onward. That was 1984? 

Edited by John Vere
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, scook ! Thanks for the response!
I tried to reinstall Sitala and it seems it was originally saved on Steinberg folder - I guess I installed the app but didn't pay attention to that!
Now it's working as VST. Thanks!

Edited by mgustavo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

scook, also thanks for the drum map for the 808 kit bundled with Sitala!

I also would like to ask a question about drum maps, because I've been trying to work with it to program rhythmic sections on Piano Roll.
But also I've trying to add 3 more instances of SI Drum Kit to have 4 drum tracks (like cymbals, snare, toms and kick), so I could give each one different audio treatment.
But when I set each MIDI out to a drum map instrument sounds will stop (so I'll need to set MIDI out back to one of SI Drum instances).

I'd like to know if it is possible to work like this or maybe there are easier ways to do it?

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sure you can use drum maps with SI-Drums. If you are not getting any sound with a drum map, open it up in the drum map editor and check the routing. If you can't figure it out, create a new thread post images of the project and the drum map.

If I understand what you want to do is have 4 separate instances of SI-Drums so you can isolate different kit pieces on different audio tracks.

There are a couple of ways to do this.

  • Create 4 complete instances of SI-Drums using instrument tracks or audio+MIDI track pairs. Using this method, each synth will have its own MIDI data in either the instrument track or
  • Create 1 MIDI track use a drum map to route the MIDI data to 4 instances of SI-Drums each with their own audio track or
  • Create 1 instrument track using CodeFN42 MIDIChFilter, NoteMapper or Veloscaler as the sent and use the VST2 drop down above the plug-in to "Enable MIDI Out". Enable input echo on the track. Then add 4 instances of SI-Drums using instrument tracks or audio+MIDI pairs. Set the MIDI inputs the SI-Drum tracks to the CodeFN42 plug-in and enable input echo on the tracks. In the 4 SI-Drums plug-ins turn off the volume of the kit pieces as needed. Using this approach all the MIDI is in one track and the drums only play on the tracks as desired similar to using a drum map but instead of using a drum map, it uses an extra track and a plug-in to distribute the MIDI. Killing the volume on different kit pieces achieves the instrument separation.

 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just downloaded the Grace and Poise 1 sample players. Very basic but huge potential for fun with my own samples. Thanks Steve. 

So to the OP-- all you really need to do is sample the sounds you like from SI drums ( or any cardboard boxes you have laying around) , process the sample adding effects etc and then drop them into the sample folder and play them with either of these freebies. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that Kevin- Just got it up and running and it's pretty impressive. Not sure how much is disabled in the GUI yet but seems very in depth and lots of kit piece choices. The default sounds great and is very close to my idea of what drums should sound like. Only bummer is there's no effects like compression and reverb. Not a problem as I can just insert it with multi outputs and use Pro channel. 

Hopefully the OP see's this one as it certainly a step up from SI drums. 

So I scored 3 freebies from this thread! :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...