Is there a MIDI instrument practice mode?

[Kevin Bramhill]

Utter noob question here; Can I set up drum beats that I should be playing on something like a music score, (could be blobs in rows if not proper sheet style notation), and then show what I'm actually playing on my midi drums? I'm wanting to be able to set something up, ideally with a backing track(s), some music to play and then see how well I'm playing along, i.e. a practice tool. To be super spot on I'd also like to (optionally) have a metronome and a way to move a marker along the music to be played to highlight where I should be in my playing of the tune.

I know that there's stuff sort of like this (e.g. a program called Melodics) but (1) that won't let me put my own stuff to practice to, (2) it doesn't use music notation and sometimes has the notes for a given drum in a different row to other tunes...

Can Cakewalk do this (or if only partially which bits can it do)?

Any pointers to where to dive in (e.g. appropriate sections of the just the gigantic nearly 2000 page PDF manual)? Or perhaps there's a "template" for this that I can make use of?

[LarsF]

Doesn't your drum engine have something built in?

Yamaha has excellent such practise tools in my old DTXPRESS IV.

 

But look at DrumGrooveTrainer.com maybe

https://softwiki.net/Drum_Groove_Trainer.html

[LarsF]

In theory you could make an analysis if recording a track to metronome and make a CAL script to analyze it.

Medium deviation from grid, min/max deviation and similar.

But that is some work, although doable by those familiar to CAL. I'm too novise myself, just modified some simple scripts.

[LarsF]

Maybe this download is better

https://download.cnet.com/Drum-Groove-Trainer/3000-20413_4-75452088.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody;3d

 

[57Gregy]

I believe you can open any MIDI track in Cakewalk, have it appear in the Staff, Piano Roll and other views, record what you're playing and also display it in your view of choice.
But, as fast as electricity is, it won't be instantaneous. And the CW staff view is linear, not formatted like standard notation.
To get something close to sheet music, I think you can open the Print Preview and as you record, it will display what you record.
I have done that in the past, but not with Cakewalk By Bandlab.

[Kevin Bramhill]

Thank so much for your replies.

[Existing setup] Yes, I can play stuff through my drum computer & hear it mixed with the drums I'm playing and it will also add a metronome beat if I want which is great for some stuff but it falls a long way short of what I'm looking for. Being able to see where my timing goes pear shaped or where I'm drifting early/late in real time is spectacular in the Melodics app' but I can't put my own tunes in it / edit anything / see music in the format I want or even be certain that the order drums appear in the rows will be the same between tunes etc. so it's a lovely practice toy but frustrating that even with multiple people asking for it, they won't tweak it to let you do these fairly simple & desirable things. So, I'm hoping to find something that will do the job properly because, for me, it would then be a really valuable tool for not just practice but experimentation, composition and beyond.

Drum Groove Trainer looks like it's no longer maintained, wasn't written for my slightly later computer system etc. and those download links always make me nervous after finding some installed more than I bargained for in the past, (stuff that re-directs my browser and is in generally a total pain to get rid of). So, without seeing more reports of it I think I will keep looking for now but, definitely,  thank you for the suggestion. I may well go back to look at it.

Using Cakewalk as 57Gregy suggests sounds closer to what I was hoping for although it also sounds like it might end up not really doing the job that well. In a way that's good to know as I don't want to burn days/weeks fiddling around sifting the nearly 2000 page manual (for Cakewalk) to only end up with a mediocre solution that I abandon.

If anyone knows of something that'll do the trick, please do let me know ?

[jesse g]

 

On 5/20/2020 at 1:38 PM, Kevin Bramhill said:

Utter noob question here; Can I set up drum beats that I should be playing on something like a music score, (could be blobs in rows if not proper sheet style notation), and then show what I'm actually playing on my midi drums? I'm wanting to be able to set something up, ideally with a backing track(s), some music to play and then see how well I'm playing along, i.e. a practice tool. To be super spot on I'd also like to (optionally) have a metronome and a way to move a marker along the music to be played to highlight where I should be in my playing of the tune.

I know that there's stuff sort of like this (e.g. a program called Melodics) but (1) that won't let me put my own stuff to practice to, (2) it doesn't use music notation and sometimes has the notes for a given drum in a different row to other tunes...

Can Cakewalk do this (or if only partially which bits can it do)?

Any pointers to where to dive in (e.g. appropriate sections of the just the gigantic nearly 2000 page PDF manual)? Or perhaps there's a "template" for this that I can make use of?

You can create a drum midi pattern in  BandLab using either a  Drum VST like the ones that come with CbB or install one yourself, like the one I use from Addictive Drums 2 . You can also use and electric Drum set if you have one.   Record the Drum pattern into a midi track, I suggest  using a simple instrument track first to test with.

After you have your pattern recorded,   highlight you Midi track and  select, View > Staff View you can see the staff view and  play along to your music with it as well.

OK,  Start here and READ THIS

Start with Page 1121

Here is something to look at for some of the functionality of the staff view. 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by jesse g