drums in syntesized midi

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fretski
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drums in syntesized midi

Post by fretski »

I use qjackctl, rosegarden and qsynth mostly with standard midi synths or the ZYNADDSUBFX dssi plugin and/or Hydrogen. I'd like to get a drum sound similar to what 's in here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEeqramL4mQ

Any suggestions? Is that a kick? I normally set my backing tracks up in rosegarden and when ready I save the play with jack_capture. Or I can save single or a few tracks at a time and then mix them in Audacity but this latter sometimes gives awfully poor results. Is the trick to start with the drum track and amplify it to max and then mix in in the other tracks much lower?

Thanks
rghvdberg
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Re: drums in syntesized midi

Post by rghvdberg »

2 tricks going on.
Compression on the kick drum.
Side Chain compression (actually its called volume ducking but nobody says that) virtually all instruments from the kick. So whatever is playing the kick drum cuts through.

I'm not that familiar with mixing in rosegarden so I can't really help you set up a mix in there.
I use Ardour and unfa made a nice video about sidechaining in Ardour.
https://youtu.be/ang44Dtg-Jk
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bluebell
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Re: drums in syntesized midi

Post by bluebell »

fretski wrote:I use qjackctl, rosegarden and qsynth mostly with standard midi synths or the ZYNADDSUBFX dssi plugin and/or Hydrogen. I'd like to get a drum sound similar to what 's in here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEeqramL4mQ

Any suggestions? Is that a kick? I normally set my backing tracks up in rosegarden and when ready I save the play with jack_capture. Or I can save single or a few tracks at a time and then mix them in Audacity but this latter sometimes gives awfully poor results. Is the trick to start with the drum track and amplify it to max and then mix in in the other tracks much lower?

Thanks
There are 2 different kick sounds, on wth and one without low frequencies. Maybe it's only one sound and the difference makes an automated EQ or one track with low frequencies and one without. Since Rosegarden has no automation you can use 2 different tracks with different settings.

I don't hear a sidechain compressor effect (ducking). I think you can get the same effect by making the kick loud and use a compressor afterwards for the whole stereo signal. When I used Rosegarden I used Jamin for mastering. It has a builtin multiband compressor and limiter. Works ok. You can chain Rosegarden and Jamin with jack.

If you need a more complicated audio routing, AUX sends (for reverb, echo) and LV2 plugins then Rosegarden comes to its limits. That's the reason I use Qtractor now. I don't need Jamin anymore and have replaced it with some CALF plugins in the master bus.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

fretski
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Re: drums in syntesized midi

Post by fretski »

Thanks guys! now i have something to go on, like it is in fact a kick sound. I would never have thought of using effects on it. I can try hydrogen or midi to begin, then i'll amplify and compress, etc. The sidechaining i never heard about before but it's very interesting for other jobs as well. I love this forum, one learns things on it :-)
fretski
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Re: drums in syntesized midi

Post by fretski »

bluebell wrote:
fretski wrote:I use qjackctl, rosegarden and qsynth mostly with standard midi synths or the ZYNADDSUBFX dssi plugin and/or Hydrogen. I'd like to get a drum sound similar to what 's in here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEeqramL4mQ

Any suggestions? Is that a kick? I normally set my backing tracks up in rosegarden and when ready I save the play with jack_capture. Or I can save single or a few tracks at a time and then mix them in Audacity but this latter sometimes gives awfully poor results. Is the trick to start with the drum track and amplify it to max and then mix in in the other tracks much lower?

Thanks
There are 2 different kick sounds, on wth and one without low frequencies. Maybe it's only one sound and the difference makes an automated EQ or one track with low frequencies and one without. Since Rosegarden has no automation you can use 2 different tracks with different settings.

I don't hear a sidechain compressor effect (ducking). I think you can get the same effect by making the kick loud and use a compressor afterwards for the whole stereo signal. When I used Rosegarden I used Jamin for mastering. It has a builtin multiband compressor and limiter. Works ok. You can chain Rosegarden and Jamin with jack.

If you need a more complicated audio routing, AUX sends (for reverb, echo) and LV2 plugins then Rosegarden comes to its limits. That's the reason I use Qtractor now. I don't need Jamin anymore and have replaced it with some CALF plugins in the master bus.
I looked more in detail at both of your links, also installed ardour but it will be a while before I get anything useful out of it (all learning curves are steep-squared by the time you get to be 75 like me). What impressed me MOST was the sound quality in your clips, the kick sounds are all far better than what I get out of my midiware.
fretski
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Re: drums in syntesized midi

Post by fretski »

bluebell wrote:
fretski wrote:I use qjackctl, rosegarden and qsynth mostly with standard midi synths or the ZYNADDSUBFX dssi plugin and/or Hydrogen. I'd like to get a drum sound similar to what 's in here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEeqramL4mQ

Any suggestions? Is that a kick? I normally set my backing tracks up in rosegarden and when ready I save the play with jack_capture. Or I can save single or a few tracks at a time and then mix them in Audacity but this latter sometimes gives awfully poor results. Is the trick to start with the drum track and amplify it to max and then mix in in the other tracks much lower?

Thanks
There are 2 different kick sounds, on wth and one without low frequencies. Maybe it's only one sound and the difference makes an automated EQ or one track with low frequencies and one without. Since Rosegarden has no automation you can use 2 different tracks with different settings.

I don't hear a sidechain compressor effect (ducking). I think you can get the same effect by making the kick loud and use a compressor afterwards for the whole stereo signal. When I used Rosegarden I used Jamin for mastering. It has a builtin multiband compressor and limiter. Works ok. You can chain Rosegarden and Jamin with jack.

If you need a more complicated audio routing, AUX sends (for reverb, echo) and LV2 plugins then Rosegarden comes to its limits. That's the reason I use Qtractor now. I don't need Jamin anymore and have replaced it with some CALF plugins in the master bus.
That ardour tutorial is something else man, I wish everyone who does tutorials would watch it. I mean the net is full of people working in their mother tongue but having no clue about diction/pronunciation while hissing and sucking their teeth in the mic. But here you are in what I think is not your mother tongue and yet there ain't a single syllable that one cannot understand. Nice work!
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Re: drums in syntesized midi

Post by spamatica »

fretski wrote: That ardour tutorial is something else man, I wish everyone who does tutorials would watch it. I mean the net is full of people working in their mother tongue but having no clue about diction/pronunciation while hissing and sucking their teeth in the mic. But here you are in what I think is not your mother tongue and yet there ain't a single syllable that one cannot understand. Nice work!
Absolutely agree, wasn't going to post the below link since the previous video covered all I can think of in a very pedagogic way.

But, Ardour can be daunting to understand since it is so full featured and complex. So here is a video I made several years ago on how to do the same thing in MusE. Not as professional ;) but maybe it gives another perspective on how it might work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arta2PtDHcs
MusE DAW
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