easy Drum machine/MIDI ?uestion....

[cerebral]

so I've been using an Alesis SR-16 drum machine for years now and have gotten pretty adept at programming entire beats, sequencing them into songs, etc.

I used to just record stereo in to ONE track for the entire beat (I would mix/pan/eq the drumset inside the machine before i went in), but now that i'm working on a legitimate album that is going to be taken in for professional mixing/mastering, it occured to me that i should have each pad/instrument going to a separate track

so my question is: how do I set it up so that I can just press play on the drum machine and each pad will end up going to a diff. track? I know a little bit about MIDI syncing w/ tempo and stuff (just started learning) and i've read the manual on how to map each thing out, but it still seems quite confusing. And opening a MIDI track in Pro Tools still boggles my mind at this point. I know nothing about the piano roll and how to make separate tracks and all that

can anyone help guide this lost college student along so I don't have to play each part of a beat separately ? thanks!

[lwilliam]

It isn't THAT easy of a question to answer in a short form, but here goes...

1. Set the SR16 to tempo sync externally. Assign the proper sounds (BD, Snare, etc) to the individual outputs instead of the master or main output. Both of these steps should be in your manual. Add a one or two-bar count-off (sidestick or hihat work well) to the beginning of the song.
2. Make sure you have a midi cable connected from your computer (or 002) midi out to the midi in on the SR16. Make sure it appears (or manually enter it) in the Audio Midi Setup program.
3. Set Protools to output Midi Beat Clock to the midi interface that connects to the SR16.
4. Take each output from the SR16 and run it into a separate input on your 002.
5. Create that number of audio tracks and assign the channel input to the proper SR16 output.
6. Name each track (do this before recording). Record-enable these tracks - you may need to use Cmd or Ctrl to enable multiple tracks for recording depending on your PTLE preferences.
7. Hit play/record in PT and the SR16 should start playing whatever "song" you have programmed into it at whatever tempo you've selected in PT.

There will probably be a small delay that offsets the actual recorded audio from the barline in PT, but once you've recorded all the tracks, set them up as a "group" in PT and nudge the count-off hits to line up with the barlines and you're done. Process each track however you want...

[alb]

This is also tricky due to the limited number of outputs on the SR-16. As I remember, there is a pair of main stereo outs, and then one additional pair of auxillary outputs, so your total available outputs are four. I actually *wouldn't* recommend the strategy of simultaneously recording separate outputs on the drum machine because 1) there aren't enough, and 2) you have to make those assignments when you are are configuring a drum "kit" on the machine, and that could be tedious to have to go back and do.

Here's another approach, a little more convoluted, but I think it will ultimately give you more control over separating sounds. It will also involve more work on the MIDI side within protools, which you sound unconfortable about.

I would slave the drum machine to protools, as the first poster suggested, but on the first recording pass, only record the midi output of the drum machine into protools. Because protools only records one midi track at a time, all this midi information will go onto one midi track in protools. After that's done, Create additional new midi tracks for each element in your drum kit, and keep them transmitting on the same channel (the one the drum machine is receiving). Find which note each drum is assigned to, select that note value from the entire track (using the select by note range feature), and then cut and paste those notes to separate tracks. When that's done, you should have a separate midi track for each drum sound you want to record separately.

Then, make passes of audio recordings while soloing the midi tracks for the drums you want to record on each pass. So, for example, you might record the kick to an audio track by soloing the midi track that you assigned the kick data to, and then recording an audio track of that pass.

It would be a lot of work, yes, but remember that if you're using the SR-16, it's limitations mean the other way suggested above would be a lot of work, too!

[cerebral]

thanks for the response

alb, i tried the first part of what you said by setting the midi on the SR-16 to drum out, then plugging the out of the SR-16 to the MIDI in of the 002. there's also the out on 002 going IN to the SR-16 and the SR-16 is set to recieve CLOCK IN

so i press record on a MIDI track and i see all the notes from a particular beat start to come up!

but that's as far as I'm able to get...

excuse my ignorance but where is this select by note range feature in Pro tools? and how do i hear each drum sound? right now i press play and there's nothing obviously since there's just a MIDI track with note information on it. i'm supposed to have an audio track first before i can hear the drums, right?

i know how to find out on the SR-16 what each drum is assigned to (kick = C1, snare = D1, etc.)...how do i do this solo-ing thing? i'm sorry i know i've entered into a whole new world, but i've tried reading the manual on MIDI and it's just making my head hurt at this pt.

thank you

[alb]

Okay, you're getting there. So you are able to record midi data into ProTools.

First, you should configure the SR-16 so that you can hear the midi data play back. On the SR-16's midi controls, set drum out to "off", clock out to "off", drum in to "on", and clock in to "off". You are making the drum machine a passive sound module, much like a rack mount synth. Note what midi channel the drum machine is receiving.

Now, on your midi track in ProTools, make sure that the midi channel for playback is set to the same channel as the drum machine. If you don't know how to do that, I suggest reading the section of the ProTools manual on Midi Recording. (If you don't have the complete manual, go to digidesign.com, click "support", then choose the "Technical Documents" section. Look for the manual for your version of ProTools.)

By this point, you should hopefully be able to hear your drum machine being played by the midi data recorded in ProTools. As for selecting notes by range, you can do this by using the "Select Notes" item on the "Midi" menu within ProTools. You can figure out what note to select either by looking at the piano roll display, or by checking the note assignment for the pads on the SR-16, as you mention.

Once a range of notes are selected you should be able to copy them out of your source track and onto a separate midi track. Good luck.