Using Hydrogen to play DrumGizmo's DRS Kit
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 4:10 pm
Hi everyone,
This is my first real post on this forum, I hope I can contribute something with it. Basically, I've created a 'dummy' drumkit for Hydrogen which feeds MIDI to DrumGizmo, allowing you to effectively program drum patterns in Hydrogen using DrumGizmo's excellent samples.
First of all: why did I do this? Well, I use, support and love Ardour to record and mix, I really like DrumGizmo and the way it integrates with Ardour (the mic setup rocks, mic bleed makes everything sound really real). I loathe, however, a piano roll to program drum patterns. Piano rolls were never designed for percussive stuff, it's not nice to look at or work with, etc. I love Hydrogen for drums though, it's really good at it and I've been able to create some really awesome drums with it in the past, the GM kit rocks! DrumGizmo is a LV2 plugin and doesn't 'work' with Hydrogen, too bad! Well, not anymore...
OK, how do you use it? Easy-peasy, you set up Ardour with DrumGizmo as per this excellent tutorial: http://libremusicproduction.com/tutoria ... zmo-ardour. I've also made an Ardour template once the setup was done, so I never have to do it again . That's step one, to get DrumGizmo running use the DRS Kit (minimal) - I've still got to do the other sets (brushes, basic etc). Next, open Hydrogen and install the attached drumkit file and load it up. The drumkit is all set up to correspond with the DrumGizmo MIDI notes. Instrument mute grouping is also taken care of, so a closed hihat will mute an open one for instance. In Ardour, connect Hydrogen's MIDI out to DrumGizmo's MIDI in. Now, when you use the kit in Hydrogen, it will play the kit hosted in Ardour. From there you can record, mix, and do anything you'd like to do. If you record to DG's MIDI track, you can save the MIDI notes on the piano roll in Ardour. Or save the Hydrogen session. Or both.
The result: awesome drums coming in from Hydrogen straight into your Ardour session without using the piano roll.
Personally, I really like this setup, I'm still testing to see what I can improve, but it seems to me that this is as simple as it gets to get the desired result I was after.
I hope this helps someone who was looking for the same kind of thing. And if it does, let me know and motivate me to finish the other drumkits (brushes, basic, full, etc).
Cheers,
Michael
This is my first real post on this forum, I hope I can contribute something with it. Basically, I've created a 'dummy' drumkit for Hydrogen which feeds MIDI to DrumGizmo, allowing you to effectively program drum patterns in Hydrogen using DrumGizmo's excellent samples.
First of all: why did I do this? Well, I use, support and love Ardour to record and mix, I really like DrumGizmo and the way it integrates with Ardour (the mic setup rocks, mic bleed makes everything sound really real). I loathe, however, a piano roll to program drum patterns. Piano rolls were never designed for percussive stuff, it's not nice to look at or work with, etc. I love Hydrogen for drums though, it's really good at it and I've been able to create some really awesome drums with it in the past, the GM kit rocks! DrumGizmo is a LV2 plugin and doesn't 'work' with Hydrogen, too bad! Well, not anymore...
OK, how do you use it? Easy-peasy, you set up Ardour with DrumGizmo as per this excellent tutorial: http://libremusicproduction.com/tutoria ... zmo-ardour. I've also made an Ardour template once the setup was done, so I never have to do it again . That's step one, to get DrumGizmo running use the DRS Kit (minimal) - I've still got to do the other sets (brushes, basic etc). Next, open Hydrogen and install the attached drumkit file and load it up. The drumkit is all set up to correspond with the DrumGizmo MIDI notes. Instrument mute grouping is also taken care of, so a closed hihat will mute an open one for instance. In Ardour, connect Hydrogen's MIDI out to DrumGizmo's MIDI in. Now, when you use the kit in Hydrogen, it will play the kit hosted in Ardour. From there you can record, mix, and do anything you'd like to do. If you record to DG's MIDI track, you can save the MIDI notes on the piano roll in Ardour. Or save the Hydrogen session. Or both.
The result: awesome drums coming in from Hydrogen straight into your Ardour session without using the piano roll.
Personally, I really like this setup, I'm still testing to see what I can improve, but it seems to me that this is as simple as it gets to get the desired result I was after.
I hope this helps someone who was looking for the same kind of thing. And if it does, let me know and motivate me to finish the other drumkits (brushes, basic, full, etc).
Cheers,
Michael