Cutting your drums via drum machine - is it viable?

[AlexanderK]

Hey guys, just started visiting the forums after getting the "jam bug". It has been fun so far but I am really annoyed by the fact that I can't really program my own drums to this.

I also have Ableton Live and a drum machine (Boss Dr. Rhytm 880) so I was wondering if there is a way I can bring sounds/patterns from the drum machine into these songs?

The drumpacks seem pretty limited for my taste and plus I already spent $500 on drum machine, it'll be a waste of money to keep on throwing cash at this if there's a way to patch things in.

Let me know what my options are.

Thanks,
AlexanderK

[pooterpatty]

Hey Alexander,

Bringing drum patterns into RW can be done, but it's tricky. The tricky part is hitting "Play" on the drum machine and "Record" in RW at EXACTLY the same time so that the pattern loops perfectly in RW. I've tried this myself with an Alesis SR-16, and have found it almost impossible to get a pattern to loop *perfectly*.

There is one other option. Create your entire song on your drum machine, then get it into your computer and save it as a WAV file. One of your fellow Riffworks Junkies, a real cool guy named Amit, wrote a slick little app that will convert WAV files into a format that Riffworks can import. Unfortunately for now Riffworks can't import WAV or MP3 files directly, but I'm pretty sure Sonoma is working on that - we've all been whining about it forever. Anyhow here is the download link for Amit's app:

http://www.sonomawireworks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=6027

Hope this helps. Happy riffing!

[rhynoclemmis]

Depending on the interplay between guits and drums, it could also be feasible to record the song, mix it and record the drums separately like pooterpatty said and to join the two files in Audacity or any other such programm.

If you need the two instruments sync-ed together in absolute perfection (as in Metallicas "Day that never comes", f.e.) this approach perhaps is a little too work intensive, as you'll have to check the syncing in Audacity over and over again.

[AlexanderK]

I actually had pretty decent success tapping the drum machine's pads in realtime and recording several tracks, I do that on the song in progress now "Loud N Rude" - you can check it out. It is a bit hard but gets there with enough practice.