Can Drum Replacer work with MIDI notes? *SOLVED*

[Gary Lehmann]

I use Sonar for backgrounds when I play gigs, most of my sequences are strictly MIDI.

Can I replace the MIDI drum info using Drum Replacer?

Edited 2 hours ago by Gary Lehmann
Problem solved

[Amberwolf]

I don't know the answer to that, but:

What is the goal?

If you're using MIDI to drive drums, you could simply point hte midi track(s) to a different drum synth, or use a different kit in the drum synth you're already using, if you simply want different drums than you already have.

If you want a different sound to the drums you are already using, you can setup different bussing or effects on the synth's audio tracks, etc. 

 

[mettelus]

3 hours ago, Amberwolf said:

If you're using MIDI to drive drums, you could simply point hte midi track(s) to a different drum synth, or use a different kit in the drum synth you're already using, if you simply want different drums than you already have.

This is what you want to do. MIDI has no audio (is simply note data), so there is nothing for drum replacer to process. In essence, drum replacer allows you to fine tune the audio you want to replace, converts them to MIDI hits, and replaces (or blends) that audio with another sound set (and a limited selection to choose from). Since you already have the MIDI, just point it to another drum virtual instrument (VSTi) of your choice and select/edit the kit pieces as needed.

Edited Wednesday at 08:14 AM by mettelus

[Bass Guitar]

I think the OP is confusing replacing a Synth  with the concept of what drum replacer is for. 
 

If you don’t like the sound of any VST instruments you can choose “Replace “ and swap it for something else. 

As said Drum Replacer was designed to augment real drum recordings with midi drum sounds. By default it uses some pretty lame sounding drum sounds. But you can use any other drum VST by dragging the drum replacer track to a drum vst track . 

It takes a lot of screwing around to actually make it play even the kick drum. I sort of don’t think it gets used much by anyone. 
 

When it first came out I played around with it on some multi track acoustic drum tracks and after a few hours of tweaking managed to get the kick drum extracted and converted it to a midi track. Yahoo. It would have been faster to use Melodyne. 
The snare was way harder and it totally misses things like rim shots and other important parts. Then you can totally forget any cymbals. 

 

 

[Clayton Gary Lehmann]

I’m still using tone modules for MIDI—any recommendations for VST drums?

[Chaps]

1 minute ago, Clayton Gary Lehmann said:

I’m still using tone modules for MIDI—any recommendations for VST drums?

Depends. Do you want free or are you willing to buy a product. If buy, how much are you willing to spend? I mostly use Addictive Drums 2 because I like the interface. Free drum kits I have used are:

SSD 5.5 FREE

MT Power Drum Kit 2

BFD Player

MODO DRUM CS 1.5 And Other Free Products

A lot depends on how configurable you want them to be.

[Gary Lehmann]

I downloaded and installed SSD 5.5 free, looks good, but no sound.

It finds the plug in and the volume indicator shows the information is being received.

I installed the Library to my main file folder, should I move it elsewhere?

TIA

Gary

[Chaps]

1 hour ago, Gary Lehmann said:

I downloaded and installed SSD 5.5 free, looks good, but no sound.

It finds the plug in and the volume indicator shows the information is being received.

 

How are you playing the sounds that the volume indicator is showing information from? Are you clicking on a drum in the SSD5 window or are you playing MIDI information from a MIDI track? What Bus is the drum kit outputting to? Is it receiving information from the track and is not silent? I'm assuming you have already loaded a Kit Preset from the main window as shown below.

[Amberwolf]

2 hours ago, Gary Lehmann said:

I downloaded and installed SSD 5.5 free, looks good, but no sound.

It finds the plug in and the volume indicator shows the information is being received.

Which volume indicator?   

On the MIDI track, or the actual SSD audio output track?

Is the SSD audio output track routed to a bus that is routed to your audio output?  or?

Edited 8 hours ago by Amberwolf

[Clayton Gary Lehmann]

3 hours ago, Chaps said:

How are you playing the sounds that the volume indicator is showing information from? Are you clicking on a drum in the SSD5 window or are you playing MIDI information from a MIDI track? What Bus is the drum kit outputting to? Is it receiving information from the track and is not silent? I'm assuming you have already loaded a Kit Preset from the main window as shown below.

Yep, just like this. 
when I click on the instruments (BD, etc), no sound. The beater moves, tho. 

[Clayton Gary Lehmann]

2 hours ago, Amberwolf said:

Which volume indicator?   

On the MIDI track, or the actual SSD audio output track?

Is the SSD audio output track routed to a bus that is routed to your audio output?  or?

The MIDI track. 
just created a track on a new sequence, notes played thru MIDI, clicked Insert/Soft Synth, selected SSD, sound stopped. 
 

[Chaps]

23 minutes ago, Clayton Gary Lehmann said:

The MIDI track. 
just created a track on a new sequence, notes played thru MIDI, clicked Insert/Soft Synth, selected SSD, sound stopped. 
 

I can see where there might be a problem there  The MIDI Track Output has to go to the Synth you want it to play, or to a drum map you want to use. Generally, it is easiest to create the MIDI track for the Synth when you insert it using the Synth Properties Options. There you can choose to have both MIDI and Audio on one track by inserting the synth as a Simple Instrument Track. The first image below shows the synth being inserted with the corresponding MIDI track already output to the Synth. The First Synth Audio Output is selected and that puts all the synth's output to one audio track with a separate MIDI track. Much simpler than using the All Synth Audio Outputs but more limited as to how you can control the synth's multiple instruments. Really, these options will take some experimenting to decide which is best for your project.

You can still use the MIDI track you created first, you just have to change the Output of the MIDI track to the synth you want to use or, as in the case of drum synths, a Drum Map... which is not something I want to get into here. See the second image to show where you can select the SSD5 as an output to the drum synth.

Edited 5 hours ago by Chaps
clarification

[Amberwolf]

1 hour ago, Clayton Gary Lehmann said:

The MIDI track. 
just created a track on a new sequence, notes played thru MIDI, clicked Insert/Soft Synth, selected SSD, sound stopped. 
 

Just so you are aware of the difference:

The MIDI track doesn't have a volume indicator, becuase it doesn't create any sound.  All it does is show you that there are MIDI events that the nowtime is passing, that are being output to the destination you've set in that MIDI track.

Only audio tracks (or the audio side of a synth track) have a volume indicator that actually shows sound levels.

 

So as Chaps notes, you'll need to point the MIDI track to the synth, and then you'll need to make sure you have loaded a kit into the synth.  And make sure the synth's audio output is sent (directly or via a bus) to a hardware output that is connected to your speakers so you can hear it. 

 

Since drum kits in various synths (hardware and software) are often setup very differently form each other, you may alos have to rearrange the notes in your MIDI track to send the right ones to the right drum sound within the synth to get the expected output.  Sometimes a MIDI note that triggers say, a snare, in one synth (or kit within a synth) may point to an empty slot in another, or a completely different sound. 

 

 

 

[Gary Lehmann]

Problem solved--thanks for the instruction!

Think I will try some other VST instruments as well--much obliged.

[Amberwolf]

1 hour ago, Gary Lehmann said:

Problem solved--thanks for the instruction!

For others that come along with similar issues, what was the solution?