New to MIDI Using PTLE With MBox

[dburrows]

The situation - I've had MBox for just over a year and it's come in real handy for creating backing tracks, etc. Recently my drum machine has crapped out so no more using it. Figured I'd get up with the times and check out this MIDI stuff.

I now have Drumkit From Hell Superior and I bought an M-Audio Uno MIDI Interface. I have a basic Casio keyboard that I want to use for the MIDI input and I've figured out enough to get the MIDI tracks up and record MIDI sounds into PTLE with DFHS playing back - BUT I think I'm still working with this stuff wrong.

Is there anyway to tell PTLE what key should be routed to what drum, etc? Where it stands right now, it seems very haphazard and unorganized. For example, the very lowest key on the keyboard will hit a bass drum and then right next to it is a crash... and I'm just like 'what???'

Finally I have a feeling I'm recording this stuff all wrong. DFHS came with a tutorial MIDI sample for PTLE and it seems like it was created much better than anything I can seem to start from scratch. I can't seem to find any good documentation on MIDI in PTLE for dummies.

Okay, enough rambling from me. Any help or point in the right direction is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[dburrows]

Okay so I figured that much out - DFHS app has a spot where you can map keys...

With recording however, let's say I'm recording bass and snare hits in realtime onto a MIDI track and I get a few measures setup and I want to now record some crash and ride cymbals, do I then want to record those on a new MIDI track or is there a way to record those without deleting what you already recorded on the first MIDI track?

Hoping the question makes sense. Even a point in the right direction would be a big help. Thanks!

[Brain Digger]

If you record with loop playback you should be able to keep adding to the same track. BUT, if you want to be able to record to separate audio tracks for processing or somesuch, you may want to keep the different drum instruments on separate tracks. You can alway put them together later if you so wish. Hope this helps.

[dburrows]

The seperate tracks would come in handy for editing yes... thanks a ton for the response. The loop option is a part of the sequencing right?

I'm assuming there is probably a ton of info out there for using PTLE's sequencer, anyone have any links that I could read up on?

[jonah day]

You can record on separate midi tracks for ease of editing. Or, record everything onto one midi track then cut each midi line and paste into a separate midi track . This way is handy if you want to play more than one note at a time, for instance, recording tom rolls. To record onto the same midi track without deleting what you're already done, hit the midi merge button on the transport window (the red & blue parallel lines that join at the end).I'm not at my studio pc at the moment but from memory, to cut individual midi lines, left click on the piano key left of the midi line whilst holding down Ctrl + Shift to highlight the line then copy or cut (if you copy, don't forget to delete the original to avoid duplication). Then when you paste into the new track, use grid mode and click on the bar / beat where you want the midi to copy to.

[dburrows]

Thanks, I'll work with that when I get home. Big help!

[dburrows]

Well I got a lot accomplished last night but it left me with one last problem...

I've got several MIDI tracks and everything is sounding great, mixed well, etc. now how do I take those to audio tracks and eventually bounced to disk?

I bounced it last night just doing a straight bounce to disk, however the sound quality went *way* downhill compared to how it sounded within Pro Tools. Any advice? Thanks!

[dburrows]

For search abilities, etc. I received an answer to the problem - it's not in PTLE.

DFHS has it's own bounce feature which records the MIDI data by playing it in your recording software, then you choose to bounce the samples to disk within DFHS. DFHS creates audio tracks for each mic that can then be imported into PTLE and mastered that way.

It is a HUGE difference, the drums sound great. I finished off a few backing tracks last night for warm-up practicing and I can honestly say in the last 15 years or so that I've worked with drum machines for writing/rehearsing, I haven't heard it sound this good before.