Pinball Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Hi, I'm pretty new to recording and still leaning to use a mac and Garageband. I am having a blast but it strikes me that there must be quicker ways to get drum tracks in my songs. I started off by directly recording drum tracks from my looper. This was easy but is limiting what I can do so I recently got EZdrummer. I struggled for a while to get it to work with Garageband (mainly because I couldn't find it ). Now that I know where it is, I love the sounds and I can happily copy loops and insert them in Garageband. The problem is that the loops are short and my songs are long so I have to piece everything together and try and retain the beat at the same time. What I want to do is set EZdrummer playing and record for the length of the whole track real time in Garageband. That way I will have a basic drum track, or maybe 2 or 3 above one another that I can slice up and add to as I like. When I try this and play EZdrummer it doesn't record anything. All very annoying and time consuming! I'm hoping that someone here can give me some pointers. Total computer nerd here, (holds hands in the air!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinball Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stonecoldbass Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Aren't you using EZ Drummer as a plug-in in garageband? that way you can just use the midi grooves from ez drummer and loop them for as long as you want... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 [quote name='stonecoldbass' timestamp='1335509637' post='1632257'] Aren't you using EZ Drummer as a plug-in in garageband? that way you can just use the midi grooves from ez drummer and loop them for as long as you want... [/quote] +1, EZdrummer is far more effective as a plugin than as a stand-alone app. I've got both on my mac, so I'll have a look at getting them running.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Sussed - create a 'software instrument' track and I think by default it loads up a piano. Over on the RHS there's a couple of Tabs, [attachment=106241:Screen Shot 2012-04-27 at 10.23.56.png] Click the 'edit' one, [attachment=106242:Screen Shot 2012-04-27 at 10.24.00.png] and select EZdrummer from the bottom part of the drop down list, You should then be able to drag and drop MIDI loops from the 'groove' menu in EZ Drummer - [attachment=106243:Screen Shot 2012-04-27 at 10.25.23.png]. Loop away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinball Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 [quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1335518911' post='1632411'] Sussed - create a 'software instrument' track and I think by default it loads up a piano. Over on the RHS there's a couple of Tabs, [attachment=106241:Screen Shot 2012-04-27 at 10.23.56.png] Click the 'edit' one, [attachment=106242:Screen Shot 2012-04-27 at 10.24.00.png] and select EZdrummer from the bottom part of the drop down list, You should then be able to drag and drop MIDI loops from the 'groove' menu in EZ Drummer - [attachment=106243:Screen Shot 2012-04-27 at 10.25.23.png]. Loop away! [/quote] Thanks for all of the above help, I have got that far so would appreciate it if you can stay with me, An example is that I have an 8x repetition of a 4 beat loop in a row, that is the repeated 3 or 4 times periodically during a song. At the moment I do the following: 1. lay 8 identical loops end to end and the timing is out so I end up messing around with them until they sound right. 2. I Join them into one track 3. I slice the track so the 8 are now 1 of the right length by now I'm bored and have to have a coffee break! 4. Then I copy it 4 times and try and place them in the right places throughout the track so I end up moving them back and forward until they sound right. By now I'm really cheezed off and have had enough! 5. I start a new track below with additional percussion loops below and go through similar processes till I get bits I'm happy with and either have extra tracks or move them up. Then I decide to change something or change the length of the track and have to mess around all over again. That means that I spend 3 or 4X the time on the percussion as I do on all the other tracks added together.....depressing I want to play bass and guitar! I guess I don't understand using loops so help with the following would be good. 1. If I import a loop and set it to loop how do (or can't) I stop it a specific point? 2. When setting up a percussion track can I get it to snap into place with the right timing somehow? 3. Is it possible to record what I actually hear (in terms of length and changes once I'm listening) when I listen to a drum sample or do I have to work from importing small loops/samples loops. What I have been doing up until now was, finding a nice drum track on my effects pedal, recording it directly and job done. All I need to do is cut it to length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 (edited) I've just followed your workflow step by step and everything's in time over here. Could be a couple of things - some of the EZ drummer loops can sometimes be a leeeettle bit slow, you could use quantise to bring them in, you might not have 'snap to grid' (command and G) turned on, so your loops aren't starting at exactly the right point, or it could be a RAM issue - as EZ drummer does everything in real time. This is the first time I've opened Garage Band in a couple of years, so I'm certainly not an expert, but these are the initial things that spring to mind. There's also a tick box for 'follow tempo and pitch' that automatically takes care of time-stretching loops to the correct tempo, is that selected? [attachment=106269:Tempo and pitch.png] Edited April 27, 2012 by paul_5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinball Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 (edited) Thanks, I'll check those out. Edited April 27, 2012 by Pinball Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 (edited) It may be a snap-to-grid problem. Check that this option's switched on. Or, if you're really struggling we'll go for that beer soon and I can walk you through using EZDrummer and GarageBand Forgot to mention that it should just be a very simple case of dragging the midi loops from EZdrummer into the track in GarageBand. They should automatically snap to grid. Edited April 27, 2012 by Mornats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinball Posted April 27, 2012 Author Share Posted April 27, 2012 (edited) [quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1335551201' post='1633156'] It may be a snap-to-grid problem. Check that this option's switched on. Or, if you're really struggling we'll go for that beer soon and I can walk you through using EZDrummer and GarageBand [/quote] Beer that's what is missing! Seriously it sounds like the "snap" or "Tempo" tick box previously mentioned. I'll check it out over the weekend. Every day and in every way I will get better and better (or should that be older and older?) Edited April 27, 2012 by Pinball Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinball Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 Result! First track using EZ drummer and also 1st written with my bass. Top of the list here-all feedback welcome. http://soundcloud.com/mole-music-1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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