Eric, thank you! I have been looking for a decent solution for automating orchestral keyswitches from Kontakt in Pro Tools and this was the ticket. It's just like a drum matrix, but an articulation matrix. Once I'm done writing the bulk of the keyswitches I just merge the midi clips into one to save space in the workflow, and it allows me to conveniently keep articulations separate from notation!
Eric, I really appreciate you taking the time to look at these issues and going as far as contacting Avid. Thanks again for this great idea to make up for lack of dedicated MIDI drum editor in Pro Tools.
This is brilliant to this day, but I am wondering if it might be easier just doing it all on an instrument track, so will try that now and see how I go. Such a great video.
WOW, one of the more creative uses of pro tools i've seen so far...of course i'm new to this stuff but really appreciate this kind of stuff...thanks much my friend!
THIS IS THE COOLEST SHIT I'VE EVER SEEN IN PROTOLL, THANKS MAN, YOU'VE OPEN UP A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF DRUM EDITING FOR ME. NOW THIS IS A RU-vid VEDIO THAT'S WORTH MY TIME. THANKS A MILLION
Wow thanks a lot. I've been battling with the clunky PT midi interface and and trying to find a better to program drum patterns. This should help me a lot. Not exactly what I want, but way better than they I've been doing it. This will help me until I find just the right tool I'm looking for.
Thanks A LOT for this tutorial. I really wanted something like this and could never have done it by myself. Just made my template here and it works. This was awesome and very useful.
Thanks for this. Greatly appreciated. This answered a whole heap of questions I had. As I am an Ableton User, so I just expected Protools to be able to do this.Loved learning. Well presented lesson.
True, it's not ideal. But it's the best way to program drums in PT unless you want to use a plug-in that offers its own pattern creation. For example, I use iZotope's BreakTweaker in PT when I need to do intense programming. On the other hand, for typical rock/pop stuff I do find it faster to just do it natively.
Like everyone else Thank You for explaining this! It's insane that Pro Tools doesn't have a dedicated midi drum editor? I thought I'd have to keep Cubase on my computer for drum edits and have to deal with importing and exporting midi in and out of both programs.
Yooo ik this video is super old but this helped me so much!!!!! I have a project due soon and the drums were giving me so much trouble!! Thanks so much!!
This is a really creative and easy method for programming drums using midi! My question is this...once I have used this method to program my different beats for a song how do I get them onto an audio track as separate instruments so I can EQ, compress, etc. separately?
Hi Leatherface, It really depends on the virtual instrument that you are using. A basic one like Xpand only has a single output, so you'd have to use an instance of Xpand for each part of the kit that you want on a separate output. It's a pain but you can definitely make it work. A better option is to use a plugin that supports multiple outputs like NI Kontakt or Addictive Drums, etc. (As far as I know almost all of the dedicated drum plug-ins can do this.). Then you can actually route each part of a kit to a separate bus in Pro Tools from the one instance of the plugin. Very cool if you have one of those plug-ins. Either way, you need to get the individual parts of the kit routed to separate tracks so that you can EQ, Compress, or generally mix them independently. I hope that helps.
Hello - great idea BUT I am having the same problem as Fred - only small slithers of the rectangle fill - very frustrating. The question I have is what is the advantage of creating drums this way as opposed to simply using the built in MIDI editor in PT11? thanks for sharing this in the first place!
So I just tried this with PT 11.2.1. Everything worked as shown. Then I saved it as a template. When I create a new project using this drum matrix template, it loads looks fine. But when I click on a rectangle in the "grid", instead of most of the rectangle filling up, I get a thin horizontal line. The note graphic immediately to the left of the timeline is still there (indicating the display is in single note mode, as it should be), but when I click on the note graphic to get the track height pop-up and move the mouse down to where it says "single note", instead of a single not being there, I see two notes: whatever the correct note was supposed to be, and also "D3". So basically it seems like when I use the pencil tool to write a note, the note that gets written is D3 regardless of the initial note saved. Is this a PT bug or is it perhaps something I'm doing?
Hi Eric, Thanks for the tutorials it really helped me in beatmaking especially as an Imaging producer..but i have problem when the view changes to 'note' view and i find it had changing it back to the clip view...then it messed up the whole sequencing..I'd love to send you a screen shot of what I am saying...I'd reply appreciate a reply to this..Thanks
Thanx man wouldn`t switch from protools though I hate the midi window in logic pro and the others my eyes are easy on protools I use Bfd in it so no worries there.
This has been a bit of an eye opener for me Eric, thanks for explaining this. However, what of existing midi drum tracks. I have midi drum tracks I built on Cubase, I exported them to Protools. Set them up to run through my desk on separate channels via a costly motu sound card set up..........can I now set up the matrix, with them? while keeping the same output settings? so I can fully edit these?....
I lost one of the samples for some reason, and am having a headache getting it back how do I add another sample without having to make a new aux/midi track as I have done a lot of work with this matrix (THANK YOU!!) but I just want to add a splash cymbal that otherwise dissappeared. It wasn't hidden, the sound sample just wasn't there anymore when I clicked on it's boxes...
In my i/o I dont have the output set to "mix" the way you have it in my latest pro tools version. I'm stumped. I'm stuck at this step. I'm not getting any sound.
I just renamed the default "A 1-2" output. If you look at Setup > Playback Engine what is it set to? If you're on a Mac it should be "Pro Tools Aggregate" or your audio interface.
Hi Eric. Cool video. I created one of these matrix's as you described and saved it as a Track Preset but when I import it back in, the midi tracks loose their "single note view". I'm using PT 2021.3.1 Looks like a new bug to me.
Hey man, in my Midi Editor, I want to assign sounds to seperate keys (for e.g. a kick drum on C octave minus 2, snare d octave minus 2). How to I customise the sounds to seperate keys individually on my MIDI keyboard/controller?
@@erickuehnl Thanks for the reply. I just did this though earlier today in Pro Tools and it's awesome. I instantly feel so much more organized and using this method helps me stay creative with no break in flow like I used to have moving around the piano roll all the time. Huge thank you to you! Cheers!
olas591 I had an idea that might help but I haven’t confirmed if it works yet. Here’s a comment left above to see if I get a reply. Try it out. It may work for you. “I’ve been trying to figure out how I would go about mixing each part of the midi drums after I have my drum track laid out. I think I just figured it out. If I make a new audio track, then take each part of my midi drums and solo it, couldn’t I just bus them out to an unused bus, set my input on the audio track to that same bus, and hit record? If I do this for each part of the drums, wouldn’t I get a audio track of each piece of the drum (one of hihat, one for snare, etc...) that I could then individually EQ and compress if I need to? Can anyone confirm this? I’m at work and can’t try it out a.t.m.”
Just wanted to reply to my own comment and say that this does work. So now you guys can mix each individual midi note as well. If you wanted to take it a step further you could route the output of all the new audio files to an unused bus and then input that bus to an Aux track for further mixing.
Use Boom drum machine, each pattern corresponds to a note on the midi editor. Draw in the note for the length of the pattern and you solo each sound drop on an audio track.
I’ve been trying to figure out how I would go about mixing each part of the midi drums after I have my drum track laid out. I think I just figured it out. If I make a new audio track, then take each part of my midi drums and solo it, couldn’t I just bus them out to an unused bus, set my input on the audio track to that same bus, and hit record? If I do this for each part of the drums, wouldn’t I get a audio track of each piece of the drum (one of hihat, one for snare, etc...) that I could then individually EQ and compress if I need to? Can anyone confirm this? I’m at work and can’t try it out a.t.m.
Just wanted to reply to my own comment and say that this does work. So now you guys can mix each individual midi note as well. If you wanted to take it a step further you could route the output of all the new audio files to an unused bus and then input that bus to an Aux track for further mixing.
Pro Tools doesn't offer as many MIDI features as the other major sequencers. It's gotten much better in recent years, but still doesn't compare to Logic, Cubase, DP, etc. Yes, you can absolutely do this in PT LE8.
Great video! One question: how to EQ only snare or another of each 4 track separetly? Can i put new plugin only on snare track? In these situation i can't nothing to do in space for plugins where is snare. I can just put new plugins on Drums track under the Xpand2.
Vranye try this out and see if it works. Haven’t confirmed if it will yet but ima try when I get home. “I’ve been trying to figure out how I would go about mixing each part of the midi drums after I have my drum track laid out. I think I just figured it out. If I make a new audio track, then take each part of my midi drums and solo it, couldn’t I just bus them out to an unused bus, set my input on the audio track to that same bus, and hit record? If I do this for each part of the drums, wouldn’t I get a audio track of each piece of the drum (one of hihat, one for snare, etc...) that I could then individually EQ and compress if I need to? Can anyone confirm this? I’m at work and can’t try it out a.t.m.”
Just wanted to reply to my own comment and say that this does work. So now you guys can mix each individual midi note as well. If you wanted to take it a step further you could route the output of all the new audio files to an unused bus and then input that bus to an Aux track for further mixing.
Im using pro tools 12.1 and I can't get it to show the little boxes in the sequencer like the video. What setting am I missing?... I would love to use it this way cuz it's like making beats in FL. Studio!!!!
+WILLY STRIDE try changing your view on the piano roll next to the tracks with all groups and reduce it down to showing just the one note I had the same issue.
Hello - Thank you so much for this terrific tutorial! I do have one question - is it possible to assign sounds from something like Trigger 2 to this pattern, once it has been created? Thanks again!
Sure. You'd just need to substitute Trigger for the Xpand plug-in that I used in the tutorial. And then remap the notes to make sure they make sense with Trigger.
Tried this with Addictive Drums in PT12.8. Works great up to the point where I delete the MIDI track. When I do, PT deletes all the tracks. Any advise?
Hi , great video 👏🏻i have a question , When I program drums with a keyboard I usually play a basic beat , Kick , Snare & Hi-hat. Then I play (on keyboard too) my open hihats , ghost notes & drum rolls, cymbals etc on a separate midi track, quantize later & bounce both tracks together into a wav, Is there a way to record the extra midi rolls etc all on the same track without wiping my basic beat ? Also what does the quantize swing button do ? Thanks
You can enable MIDI Merge to add the extra MIDI data without erasing what you already have. Here’s the weird thing: you can’t do it with Loop Record enabled, but it actually works with Loop Playback instead. So if you like to record MIDI while looping be sure to change that. I just combine the two concepts when teaching this: “Loop Playback and MIDI Merge.”
Wow the select split notes "all notes" checkbox no longer exists in PT 2024. You are forced to choose a range and it defaults to C2-C3. So I decided to copy some notes and paste them 2 octaves above and below and highlighted the clip and pressed alt-y, thinking it would know to fill out the range automatically with the note range in the midi clip (after all, why would they remove the option otherwise)?, but nope, C2 to C3. That's pretty darn dumb.
Generally yes, but it depends on the drum instrument you are using. Using Xpand!2 you only have control over the “families” so to speak: kicks, snares, cymbals, etc. But a more sophisticated instrument would let you adjust levels for every part of the kit individually.
Hi William. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. Do you mean to play the drum part in a drum sampler like Battery? If so, it's the exact some technique as far as configuring the "matrix" for the appropriate MIDI notes.
I was able to set up a matrix using the MIDI editor feature instead of an external controller, but for some reason I can't individually adjust volumes of any of the separate tracks. No matter which slider I adjust, it controls the volume of ALL of the drums. Any thoughts?
You can't change the volume faders on the MIDI tracks because they all send MIDI volume (CC7) data to the plug-in which is (usually) a global parameter. A way around this is to build the template using instrument tracks with a discrete drum plug-in on EACH track. It's really a better solution in the long run but will definitely use more CPU power. I've been meaning to do another video showing that technique at some point.
Eric Kuehnl Thank you much for the reply. I hope that my Phenom II quadcore 3.2Ghz can manage, and since I'm using Pro Tools Express, that I won't run out of channels. Thanks for the tutorial. It's extremely helpful.
one question for you or anyone else. when i take the 'pencil tool' and go to enter a 16th note(fill one grid box) the damn thing keeps giving me whole notes....is there a trick to this? and thanks again for the great info...very good stuff here!
@@erickuehnl yup, thanks man. i just figured out a bunch of stuff from your video "Editing Midi Data'...answered all my questions and then some! thanks tons my friend, saved me a LOT of trial and error! :)
