What is the best backing track worklfow?

[barters81]

I'm a songwriter who primarily plays guitar who is wanting to start creating backing drum tracks easily and quickly. I've been making up midi loops using various VIs like strike etc, but due to my lack of drumming ability I guess I find myself spending more time cleaning up the drum tracks than actually writing songs.

Basically I'm looking for how anyone that quickly produce backing tracks from midi loops, pre recorded drum loops etc. I have a preference for midi loops as I'd like to changing the kit at later stages to suite the song better etc.

I'm writing stuff ranging from blues to rock to metal on an angry day. :)

[albee1952]

You should look into ezdrummer and some of the songwriter packs that are available, or maybe drumCore would serve you well. Or maybe find a drummer that wants to get involved? There are several that work over the internet and can provide either great midi tracks or record real drum tracks and email them to you. If you don't "think" like a drummer, you might be pleasantly surprised how a real drummer might enhance your projects(even without recording real drums)

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Check out our Multi-Format MIDI groove libraries for BFD2, Toontrack, Addictive Drums, Session Drummer and GM featuring famous drummers:

https://www.platinumsamples.com/index.php

Also check out Groove Monkee and Odd Grooves.

Rail

[necjamc]

+ 1 for the ez drummer song writing midi stuff. I have a couple and they really help the creative process quickly. I use them with superior drummer and I love them. I have a real drummer and I find I write quicker without making him sit around waiting for me.

[barters81]

Thanks for the replies.....

I have a good drummer with a decent room that I use to collaborate songs with quite often. Well....he is the drummer in the band I play in etc etc...

This is more for me just mucking around at home trying to come up with something late at night when the family is asleep type thing. Also when I feel like coming up with something too far removed from our bands 'style'.

I think I can generally pick the type of rhythm or beats a track requires, I'm just not capable of quickly generating that accurately on a midi interface etc. Either that or my system isn't setup for the low latency you might require to 'play' the midi track in real time. Quantising helps but often not in a good way.

I have been looking into EZdrummer, Steven Slate Drums, BFD and Superior drums. I like the apparent ease of use with EZdrummer. However I'm still trying to figure out how it all fits in in terms of workflow etc.

As in....can I play a guitar track, then start building the backing track behind it (in pro tools)? Or do I have to build a backing track on a separate program, then import in pro tools?

[necjamc]

With superior drums you can drag and drop grooves right from the groove window. you can preview the parts right from inside the superior plug, then drag into PT instrument/midi track. Loop, etc and add what you want. Then edit them or what ever you like. It's quick and clean and works like a charm. I say this cause I only own ez drummer and superior. Ez drummers nice but the sounds are better in superior.

[barters81]

Originally Posted by necjamc

With superior drums you can drag and drop grooves right from the groove window. you can preview the parts right from inside the superior plug, then drag into PT instrument/midi track. Loop, etc and add what you want. Then edit them or what ever you like. It's quick and clean and works like a charm. I say this cause I only own ez drummer and superior. Ez drummers nice but the sounds are better in superior.

Cool.....I think I'm leaning towards Superior drummer due to the better sound qualities. I am willing to sink the time in to work out the program I go with so in the long run Superior sounds the go. Plus I like being able to compress/eq/etc/etc drums myself.

Do any of you guys use Groove Monkee grooves in these programs? I've read good things.

[albee1952]

If you can tap out a decent groove, then you might want to grab something like the M-Audio Trigger Finger. I use that for fast grooves and its really handy. I just tap select Midi Merge mode on the transport and tap in the hat part for 2 measures, then tap in kick and snare. Repeat the 2 bars a few dozen times and maybe pencil in a crash here and there. One advantage(besides you get to create your own part faster than auditioning the hundreds of loops) is you can create a custom pad layer with snare and toms assigned to pairs of pads, that allows you to actually play fills that work(which is impossible with a single pad for each drum).

[zedhed]

You should check these 'Strike' videos out.

http://airusersblog.squarespace.com/...iguration.html

http://airusersblog.squarespace.com/...ogramming.html

http://airusersblog.squarespace.com/...x-section.html

http://airusersblog.squarespace.com/...le-editor.html

http://airusersblog.squarespace.com/...to-tracks.html

[barters81]

Originally Posted by albee1952

If you can tap out a decent groove, then you might want to grab something like the M-Audio Trigger Finger. I use that for fast grooves and its really handy. I just tap select Midi Merge mode on the transport and tap in the hat part for 2 measures, then tap in kick and snare. Repeat the 2 bars a few dozen times and maybe pencil in a crash here and there. One advantage(besides you get to create your own part faster than auditioning the hundreds of loops) is you can create a custom pad layer with snare and toms assigned to pairs of pads, that allows you to actually play fills that work(which is impossible with a single pad for each drum).

I have an Axiom Pro49 which I try and do this for. But I end up spending more time fixing my mistakes than doing anything else.

Thanks for the links to the videos.