What do you recommend?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by DonaldM

Not quite. Yes, there are any number of sequences already built into it. BUT< those are all highly editable, PLUS you can use the MIDI notes to play individual parts to fill out a sequence, add a fill, or create your own sequence...AND if you take time to edit the sounds, you can get some really dynamite sounding drums with it. Boom is much better than a lot of folks realize!

Also, you can get sampled drum kits for use in Structure free! If they follow the General MIDI protocol on kit assignments, then you can program some nice drum parts with whatever kit you have in Structure or use MIDI loops to create drum tracks.

I know you can make your own patterns in Boom. Then again I don't have much use for sequenced drums like what Boom does for the type of music I do. Give me a real drum vi anyday over Boom.

[VRW]

Originally Posted by Terry Wetzel

musicman691. Thanks. This is very helpful! I have never used the midi section of preferences until now. Yes, the 2i4 does have midi in & out and I bought midi chords at radio shack. I'm going to proceed with caution and I'll probably need you to assist me further as I go if you don't mind. Is Boom the Pro Tools drum VI? I want to start with drums because that's where my songs are in need of a more realistic sound.
.

Boom is a cool little drum machine but far from sounding any realistic/natural.
It´s nice if one wants to recreate synthetic (old) drum machine sounds.

If one would want to get more realistic drum sounds and would not want to invest
in a dedicated 3rd party drum VI (like BFD, Toontrack etc.) he could just start with using e.g. XPand!2
which comes for free with PT (if you take yourself a little time you definitely can find useable drum sounds there
which can even be tweaked and layered) or you go for Structure Free which also comes as a free VI with PT
and is a nice, useable sample player.
Both VIs are multitimbral and not too bad if one gets to know it better to use all it´s possibilities.
For the use with Structure Free you may go there to download a bunch of good, free samples e.g.
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...tely-free.html

Also synth sounds for free if one would need.
http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...oops-free.html

...there are a lot more sites out there where you can get free stuff for it. You just may search the web.

But, as mentioned before, the easiest way to start out in Pro Tools with definitely useable sounds
may be to search the XPand!2 library and to get into the deep with the options to
tweak, edit and layer the sounds within XPand!2... there´s much more you can do with it as it may seem at first.

Wishing you lots of success and have fun,

cheers, VRW


You may find yourself more tutorials at YT, this is just a bunch of to start out.
For Xpand!2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q8GP8J7240
there you can listen to some of the stock drum sounds-but you can get a lot
more out of it by tweaking, shaping and layering the individual sounds (you can
change the whole sound by Attack/Decay/Tuning etc.
and also get rid of or change any of the Reverbs/FXs,
I just can tell you that by my personal experience, you can get some decent
sounds out of it by putting a little time into it.
http://www.youtube.com/user/airusers...ch?query=XPand
http://www.youtube.com/user/SynthMan...ch?query=Xpand
For Structure Free
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dVXr1N6H44
there you can hear just the very basic sounds that come originally with
Structure Free without any tweaking but you can use it with any wave samples you get.
http://www.youtube.com/user/airusers...Structure+Free
http://www.youtube.com/user/SynthMan...Structure+Free


MacMini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MBP Mid 2012 2,5GHz i5, 16GB Ram, MacOS 10.9.2, Apogee Quartet+Duet 2, Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10,
Pro Tools 11.1.2, Logic 10.0.6, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, Softube, HOFA, IK Multimedia etc

[Terry Wetzel]

Thanks Donald M & musicman691. I'm going to take my time and ease in to this. I don't want or need the frustration that I suffered when I first ventured in to Pro Tools! I appreciate your advice and sharing your extensive knowledge of this subject and I look forward to my new adventures in virtual Instruments!

[SpinningDisk]

There is nothing wrong with MIDI. I have a Motif ES8 and use MIDI all the time because you can always manipulate it. It also saves computer resources.
As someone said. I'm a big fan of Addictive Drums. It really does sound good.
Don't give up on MIDI.

📀

[mesaone]

I really like XPAND. But for drum sounds, the stock plugs are not where it's at. Geist is on sale for $84, it's a nice sampler/sequencer, and will work with Pro Tools. It's got a flexible MPC-style workflow, and can load Wav, REX, REX2, AIFF. Not necessarily the tool for acoustic drum programming, but definitely a great tool to have for other drums and rhythmic sequencing.

[VRW]

Originally Posted by mesaone

I really like XPAND. But for drum sounds, the stock plugs are not where it's at. Geist is on sale for $84, it's a nice sampler/sequencer, and will work with Pro Tools. It's got a flexible MPC-style workflow, and can load Wav, REX, REX2, AIFF. Not necessarily the tool for acoustic drum programming, but definitely a great tool to have for other drums and rhythmic sequencing.

Basically you may be right, may be not the first choice for drums
but actually with some effort and dedication you can get some
useable drum sounds even out of Xpand.
Have done this before, 4 different layers for the kick, 4 for the snare, 2 per Tom etc.,
lots of fine tuning and tweaking Attack, Decay etc., carefully choosing FX.
Similar with Structure Free.
If one got some quality samples Structure Free is an useable option anyway.

Btw my intention was just to show some options if one cannot/don´t want to invest
more bucks in a 3rd party drum VI.

Me have been using BFD for a long time, now I´m combining Logic Drummer
with the BFD library which is the nicest way so far for me personally to make drums
when not having a live drummer.
Though this here is the PT forum I have to say that Logic Drummer is a f... magical tool IMO.

Anyway.

Best of success everybody,

VRW



MacMini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MBP Mid 2012 2,5GHz i5, 16GB Ram, MacOS 10.9.2, Apogee Quartet+Duet 2, Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10,
Pro Tools 11.1.2, Logic 10.0.6, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, Softube, HOFA, IK Multimedia etc

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by VRW

but actually with some effort and dedication you can get some
useable drum sounds even out of Xpand.
Have done this before, 4 different layers for the kick, 4 for the snare, 2 per Tom etc.,
lots of fine tuning and tweaking Attack, Decay etc., carefully choosing FX.
Similar with Structure Free.
If one got some quality samples Structure Free is an useable option anyway.

Btw my intention was just to show some options if one cannot/don´t want to invest
more bucks in a 3rd party drum VI.

Understood, and agreed. If you don't want to spend additional money, there are a half million things you can do to change the stock VI sounds into something more to your liking.

And if you feel like dropping some coin (but not too much of it in many cases) there are some great, inexpensive instruments out there that can expand your workflow and creative possibilities.