Piano Roll Drum View without Drum Map

[Lee D]

I'd like to the ability to use the "drum notes" view in the Piano Roll without having to set up a drum map.  Also the ability to edit the note names and save for future reference.  See the way Reaper handles this as an example.  I've always found the drum maps in Sonar clunky and way too complicated for my needs.

[scook]

There is a  VST opcode (eff GetMidiKeyName) used by CbB, implemented by Fxpansion in the BSD series and the old Cakewalk Session Drummer which automatically displays note names instead of the keyboard in the PRV note pane. Unfortunately, they are the only plug-ins I know of that implement this feature.

Fortunately, CbB has a way to display text instead of the keyboard in the PRV note pane using the Note Names dialog. Right-click the keyboard in the note pane to open the dialog, select "Use these Note Names Instead" in the Note Names dialog and select the appropriate entry from the drop down.

The drop down may  by extended by editing the master.ins file. In fact, the image above shows "AD2 Standard" which I created some time ago. The master.ins is a text file in %appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core

To modify the master.ins open the file in a text editor and
1) create an entry in in ".Note Names" such as
[My Drums]
35=Acoustic Bass Drum
36=Bass Drum 1
37=Oink
38=Rooster Crow
....
81=Open Triangle
 
2) create an entry in ".Instrument Definitions" like this
[My Drums]
Patch=1..128
Key[*,*]=My Drums
Drum[*,*]=1

This will add a "My Drums" option to the Note Names "Use these Note Names Instead" drop down. The only downside to  this approach is the assignment is not persistent. Every session and every time a new PRV is opened the alternate note names must be selected. It would be a nice feature is this were persistent like the drum map assignment.

 

[Starship Krupa]

57 minutes ago, Lee Darcy said:

I'd like to the ability to use the "drum notes" view in the Piano Roll without having to set up a drum map.

Oh yes, this. It was so tough to figure out how to do it in the first place, too. Not the most intuitive process. Navigable once you know how, but the road to knowing how was ?. Considering the importance of the piano roll view for me when putting together beats, it was daunting.

[scook]

Hah, I misread the OP.  Aside from the drum map functions isn't the only difference between the drum grid and notes panes the ability to suppress note duration in the drum grid pane?

[Lee D]

2 hours ago, scook said:

Hah, I misread the OP.  Aside from the drum map functions isn't the only difference between the drum grid and notes panes the ability to suppress note duration in the drum grid pane?

Differences would be showing the MIDI notes as diamonds or triangles, showing the kit piece names instead of the piano keys, ability to mute and solo each kit piece, and maybe some "fill every 2 beats" type functionality.   The step sequencer does some of this already but it would be nice to have this drum view in the PRV as well.

[Lee D]

2 hours ago, scook said:

There is a  VST opcode (eff GetMidiKeyName) used by CbB, implemented by Fxpansion in the BSD series and the old Cakewalk Session Drummer which automatically displays note names instead of the keyboard in the PRV note pane. Unfortunately, they are the only plug-ins I know of that implement this feature.

Fortunately, CbB has a way to display text instead of the keyboard in the PRV note pane using the Note Names dialog. Right-click the keyboard in the note pane to open the dialog, select "Use these Note Names Instead" in the Note Names dialog and select the appropriate entry from the drop down.

The drop down may  by extended by editing the master.ins file. In fact, the image above shows "AD2 Standard" which I created some time ago. The master.ins is a text file in %appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core

To modify the master.ins open the file in a text editor and
1) create an entry in in ".Note Names" such as
[My Drums]
35=Acoustic Bass Drum
36=Bass Drum 1
37=Oink
38=Rooster Crow
....
81=Open Triangle
 
2) create an entry in ".Instrument Definitions" like this
[My Drums]
Patch=1..128
Key[*,*]=My Drums
Drum[*,*]=1

This will add a "My Drums" option to the Note Names "Use these Note Names Instead" drop down. The only downside to  this approach is the assignment is not persistent. Every session and every time a new PRV is opened the alternate note names must be selected. It would be a nice feature is this were persistent like the drum map assignment.

 

The issue for me is I'm frequently changing drum instruments and so it's not really practical to go and type in a MIDI map.  Much preferable would be to load a kit, figure out which sounds I will be using, name them in the drum view, and hide the rest of the notes not being used.  Also then you can save the note names and load them later again.  This was one thing that Reaper has that I really like.

[scook]

Yeah, I get it. The whole drum map process needs a rewrite. I suspect it is a pretty big job. 

In the meantime. while not as convenient as directly editing the drum map to the left of drum grid, there is a tool which converts a text file (using the ins format described above)  to a drum map. It may be easier than the existing drum map editor for some workflows. The tool is called Ins2map and is available from http://dis.sesseler.de/. To get the tool “Cakewalk SONAR” on the left side of the web page then click “Instrument to Drum Map” link to download the zip.

[Kev]

6 hours ago, scook said:

...Aside from the drum map functions isn't the only difference between the drum grid and notes panes the ability to suppress note duration in the drum grid pane?

One important difference is the ability to rearrange the order of the drums in the drum pane and not stick with note order.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Kev
clarity

[scook]

It is true, one would have to use Transpose MFX or something similar to alter the note order for the Note pane.

[lapasoa]

In the knowledge base of novenber 2015, Joey Adams  published a text named "Setting up a drum map for Addictive drums 2 in Sonar".

Recently I downloaded EZ Drummer 2 from Toontrack. It has very good drums sound and pretty nice fills.

Unfortunately It doesn't exist a drun map setting for this beautiful drums software. And no one from Cakewalk bothered to publish

a text similat to what I Learned about AD 2 drum map.

In this way it's really very difficult to tweak Ez Drummer 2. It's a pity.

[Eve Ripper]

I see another exit is to add “Fold” button.

In Ableton Live we have a drum rack which adds sampler on some notes. So we have 36 with bass drum and 38 with a Snare. Then we’ve left 37 untouched with no sample on this pad.

After opening piano roll in Live we can press Fold and all pads with no samples are gone and we can only see pads and notes which we’ll be using.

Also, renaming notes in Reaper is very easy and fast. Would like to see the same things in Cakewalk.

[Eve Ripper]

Up.

Adding "Fold" button (see only used by Sampler notes) is a time saver in PRV.

[Holm]

I am also trying to get the Drum Grid instead of the Piano view.  I see there is a "Drum Pane" but I can't see any of the notes there.  The diamond without duration make editing drums much easier than trying to use piano notes.

Any idea how I can get this view?

[scook]

Instrument and MIDI tracks routed to drum maps populate the Drum Grid View.

Without a drum map these tracks show up in the PRV.

 

[sjoens]

I prefer "notes" over "diamonds" as the latter are usually too small for me to see w/o constant zooming in & out and give no indication to length or duration, tho there's only a few instances where this matters.

[Colin Nicholls]

Not hijacking the thread, just adding a link in case it is useful to future readers: