building a virtual drum kit ??

[gypsy101]

maybe I didn't get the tutorial too well but how do you build a virtual/midi kit out of all the Acoustica stuff w/in Mixcraft 6 or add pieces from other kits/samples? I'm basically wanting to choose cymbals & hi hats from different kits for now.

also,on a couple of the Acoustica kits that are supposed to have 2 bass drums I'm only getting one on my keyboard(the lowest possible key).I'm not sure how to assign sounds to different keys if that's possible.
I'm using an Alesis Q49 keyboard controller if that matters.

and just in passing- it's a pain getting used to visual midi form in tracks when you're used to regular audio waveforms.

[Juno]

The way i do it is simple, not suited for all circumstances, and works best for crash cymbals/toms or other sounds that are not part of the main groove (which in my case are mostly hihats, kick, base).

I simply add 2 instances of Acoustica Studio Drum; set my main one to respond to velo 0-114 (or about, generally takes a bit of trial to feel the right amount) and set the one that i only want cymbals from to respond to 115-127. I guess the limited scope of this is clear, but it's also "natural" when recording.

In your case, you could setup the keyboard range for kit 1 to include the keys for the kick and snare, and include the keys for the hihats and cymbals in a range active for kit 2.

on a couple of the Acoustica kits that are supposed to have 2 bass drums I'm only getting one on my keyboard(the lowest possible key).

If your lowest key triggers a kick, transpose your keyboard down, 1 or 2 octaves.

I'm not sure how to assign sounds to different keys if that's possible.

Changing keys to trigger different notes (say a C-0 that produces a D-1) could be done from the master keyboard if it supports that function, you can then set this per key. But mostly you would have to tune down or up your master keyboard in steps of 1 (vs transposing it by the 12 steps in 1 octave) which obviously changes the value for all keys.

Also, i found that for some kits (don't remember which ones) there are two keys that trigger the same sound. Seeing two kicks may simply mean you have two triggers which makes recording a bit easier. It doesn't mean you always have two versions of a sound.

and just in passing- it's a pain getting used to visual midi form in tracks when you're used to regular audio waveforms.

Funny, for me it's the other way around. After years of working with just midi, i still find myself looking for note positions in a wav clip...

[gypsy101]

cool.I'll have to just play w/ it & see what I can come up with.

[Mark Bliss]

and just in passing- it's a pain getting used to visual midi form in tracks when you're used to regular audio waveforms.

I'm with Gypsy on this one. Its like working on a kids jigsaw puzzle as opposed to painting on a canvas.

As Juno pointed out, while some kits have two variations of a snare or kick (as examples) often they are the same, but provided so it is easier to do "rolls" faster and smoother than is possible with one key.

[gypsy101]

that's kind of the main point for doing double bass stuff & fast rolls.
if you watch the using Acoustica studio drums tutorial (from around 4:00-5:00)they're supposedly supposed to have a slightly "real" sound when doing that but I couldn't hear the difference myself.

[Tiasdad]

One little tip I've picked up, if you want everything to be tight is to use the Quantize function ... very useful if, like me, you have slow fingers

[TrevsAudio]

I recently did a drum roll by setting snap to 1/16 triplets, drawing in a measure then dragging it out and quantising the result - still sounds a little plastic like though...

[Acoustica Greg]

I recently did a drum roll by setting snap to 1/16 triplets, drawing in a measure then dragging it out and quantising the result - still sounds a little plastic like though...

You might try playing around with the Humanize option.

[Mab098157]

I've been using DVS drum sampler for creating my own kit. Works pretty well. Can create kits based on 16 bit waves, lots of them out there. Vintage snares, ambient noises, etc. http://www.dreamvortex.co.uk/instruments/