Help with Strike Virtual Drummer

[sonicland]

You don't need a midi controller and you don't have to hold the mouse down. I'll do my best to give good directions, I have PT 8 but I don't think it works differently in PT 7.

1. Open a new stereo instrument track and load in Strike as an instrument.

2. Load a kit into Strike.

3. Switch to the Project window and right click anywhere in the Strike track and it will open a selection window, down towards the bottom you'll see "Open In Midi Editor", select this.

4. This will open a new window that has an empty grid for your Strike track.

5. Select your pencil tool and left click and hold it down anywhere at the beginning of the track and drag it to the right, then let go. You will see and hear the note being drawn and if you do this while in grid mode you can easily pencil in a 4 or 8 bar note. You can always extend or shorten the note you just drew with the Trimmer Tool.

6. You should hear the beat as you pencil it in. Once it's drawn, you can select the grabber tool and move it up and down to different notes and hear all the different beats that are available with that kit. Basic beats are on the white keys, fills are on the black keys.

That's really it!! What I tend to do is find a beat that's close to what I want for the song and just repeat it for 3 or 4 minutes (you can just keep penciling in 4 bar notes in the Midi Editor or copy and paste from the Project Window). Then I work out the arrangement of the song. Along the way I can preview different beats and start changing things around, add some fills and what not to get a realistic drum track happening.

It's also good to know that each of the individual drums in the kit are available by themselves in the 4th and 5th octave so you can easily pencil in cymbal crashes on the downbeats and things like that.

Hope this helps! I'm not quite expert yet but I get pretty good sounding drum tracks out of Strike and would be lost without it. Good luck.

[spc1968]

Sonic Land,

OK now we are getting close. I am with you up to step 2, then you mentioned switch back to the Project Window?

Did you mean Edit window? If so I can see the Instrument track that we created and it also has Strike indicated at the Mixer window.

When I right click next to the instrument track - I get nothing...Am I clicking in the wrong area. I clicked everyone to the right of that little keyboard in the instrument window. Not even in the left pane with the instrument track..

What do you think? GOD I am getting close.

[RegenerationMix]

Hi, you dont bus the midi track to an audio track from its out near the fader. You use a SEND from the instrument track to send the audio to an audio track. SENDS route signal from one channel to another. BUSSES near the fader route tracks to your outs (main, monitor, headphone, etc or out of the interface as a line out( for the most part). So your audio tracks can be bussed to an out but the SEND will take your signal to another track track.

Not to sound harsh but honestly you need to read the manual and learn the difference between an instrument track, a midi track, an audio track, an auxilliary track and the difference between sends, returns and busses. Pro tools is a complex piece of software and if you have no reference of how to setup a mixer and how to route things, you are going to be stuck alot.


Chris

[sonicland]

Sorry, yes I meant the edit window. My FaderPort calls it the project window.

Make sure you RIGHT click somewhere on the Strike track and it should bring up that window. If that doesn't work, then highlight the Strike track and choose "Midi Editor" from the Window pulldown menu to the right of the Set Up menu at the top of your screen. That will accomplish the same thing.

I understand Chris' point and it's a good one but I know even reading the manual can sometimes be confusing if you're new to PT. I used Cubase for 10+ years and when I first switched to PT, I felt like an idiot for a couple of weeks until I started catching on. It can do some really complicated stuff but stay with us and you'll get it.

[RegenerationMix]

for us to help him, he needs to understand the basic concepts of a pro tools mixer setup and what you are referencing, so he can ask the right questions and follow the directions easily. If the manual is confusing, there are plenty of videos on youtube that are free showing how to add a midi track, and audio track to record the midi and audio of an instrument and explaining the differences of the tracks and setup etc. and how to use VI's like strike in the software.

otherwise this is frustrating for all involved and i dont want him to waste another 5 hours trying to get 3 tracks properly routed so he can play and hear strike.

not trying to be tough, trying to make it easier for him.

Chris

[madgt621]

Originally Posted by spc1968

Hi Sonic-land,

What I am trying to find out is whether I can have a style continously play with a mouse click - however something tell's me that this is not the case... Hopefully you or someone can prove me wrong.

Just putting this out there, I don't know if anyone covered this yet. But it IS possible to play Strike via single mouse click. You can do this outside of the timeline say to audition beats etc.

The main thing you absolutely need to do is to be in "Style" mode, and have "Latch" enabled.

After you have Strike instantiated, look to the bottom of the Strike window. You will see three buttons: "Style", "Kit", and "Latch". Make sure the "Style" button is highlighted blue, and also make sure that the little indicator next to "Latch" is highlighted yellow.

Do this, click (no hold) a key on the Strike GUI keyboard, and Strike will begin to play. Now how Strike behaves when you do this depends on your settings in the "Configuration" window. Access this by clicking the little "wrench" in the upper left part of the screen.

Hope this helps. Sorry if it doesn't.

[HD2]

Originally Posted by spc1968

HD2,

Isn't there a way to import track samples or loops from Strike - this video is a little off topic based on the setup I have with a mouse. There has to be a way for Strike to do this without a midi device.

Yeah ok - that video is using a midi keyboard, as I mentioned in my original post I gave details of the equipment I had.

Isn't there a way to just use the samples and drag them in or import them or something? I find it hard to believe that on the Avid forum - no one knows how to do this step by step without a midi controller.

Strike seems like it has really nice styles and samples in the explorer window so how do we import those into pro tools?

I really don't need to play the kit and get all fancy schmancy- I just want to record some drum tracks down...

Thx

Did you look at any of the other video links from that page?
There are many videos explaining what you want to do, on youtube and the airusersblog. Spend some time looking around the different videos and you will get it

[spc1968]

Hello everyone,

First of all - this is a forum for help and for some maybe you have a lot of free time but I want to clarify that I am in IT for a living and did that for 15 years so with all due respect I am not as ignorant as you think..Some have been very helpful and if I have details I can follow them very well.

Now as far as searching for some more hours on youtube for adding a midi-track let me clarify a few things.

1.I am on version 7.4 of pro-tools LE - so far sonic land has been the most helpful and friendly - as I understand Sonic Land, pro tools 7.4 does not have a midi-editor from the Windows Pull down menu (Please feel free to correct me - other's on the web feel otherwise) - next to the Setup window. Maybe the version I have just isn't good enough to do what trying to do with 7.4 and an MBOX2 - I really had no idea it was that difficult to put down a drum track. I have learned a valuable lesson from that and how the person @ Guitar Center that I relied on has left me empty. Certainly the other item that is clear as some have pointed out - Pro Tools is not easy at all and quite advanced at least it seems that way now.

2.I've only been @ it for a week and 2 day's and It's not bad eh - but please send me some e-mail' addresses and I will send you my screen shot's so you can see what I am talking about.

3. I will search some more you tube video's for adding a midi track and etc, but please do me a favor (Chris I am sure you are a nice guy I wish I had your knowledge and I respect you highly) But I really, really don't like the criticism - because it doesn't help me. Yes you are correct! I don't understand everything yet, but you have to understand I get maybe an hour here and and hour there and then the day is over. So if it really bother's you. Please don't feel obligated to reply to me - I will not be offended at all. That would be like me telling a newbie that I am teaching guitar - first you have to learn more chords before I can teach you anything...that's not me man but I understand everyone is different. It sounded like Sonic Land was onto something but maybe my version doesn't work the way version 8 does - what do I know..I am digging.

4.I promise I will get back to everyone after seaching all video's on the face of the earth with my free time. I am curious to see how many have version 7.4 or similar as well.

As far as Sonic Land's reply with the instructions - Yes I have the instrument track selected and then I right click anywhere in the region - and I also tried searching the Window pull down menu but I do not have a "Midi Editor" on the menu (Again I can send a screen shot of that) and again thanks for your help.

If I can't get an answer after searching miles and miles of you tube video's, can someone here at least do me a favor and answer these questions below.

1.If I call Avid support and purchase a support ticket- will they be able to walk me through recording a strike track with a mouse, keyboard and mbox 2 with Pro-Tools 7.4 LE? If Yes - great I will do that if NO then I think the only way I can turn to now is to use something else or use a click track. (which is really a disappointment)

[sonicland]

Originally Posted by spc1968

1.I am on version 7.4 of pro-tools LE - so far sonic land has been the most helpful and friendly - as I understand Sonic Land, pro tools 7.4 does not have a midi-editor from the Windows Pull down menu (Please feel free to correct me - other's on the web feel otherwise) - next to the Setup window. Maybe the version I have just isn't good enough to do what trying to do with 7.4 and an MBOX2 - I really had no idea it was that difficult to put down a drum track. I have learned a valuable lesson from that and how the person @ Guitar Center that I relied on has left me empty. Certainly the other item that is clear as some have pointed out - Pro Tools is not easy at all and quite advanced at least it seems that way now.

It's been awhile since I've used 7.4 so I can't be sure whether it does or doesn't have a Midi Editor. I'm sure I have the 7.4 manual on my computer so I can take a look and see. I'm off to work and won't be home till late tonight so I'm not sure how quickly I can respond but I'll do what I can.

FWIW, it's not so much that PT is hard, something as advanced as PT can't really be that easy and still deliver what it does. What I felt when I first got it is that it's not very intuitive, the basic things are not always obvious but once you learn how it works, you'll love it. There's a reason it's as popular as it is. I can tell you the upgrade to PT8 was a major change and quite an improvement over PT7 so I would strongly recommend upgrading.

[RegenerationMix]

here is a link to a video on Youtube with a guy using pro tools 7.4 and he shows how to setup all the tracks and record strike.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DjtW...eature=related

Chris