Midi Sampler vs Arrangement View

Production
1

This is a general discussion about drum programming.

I don’t understand how plugging one-shots in arrangement view could ever be beneficial. You can’t affect their swing, velocity, not to mention an infinite number of adsr settings There is no such thing as midi groove in arrangement view.

I use the Drum Rack in Ableton, with some very specific things in mind.

  1. too damn clicky, give it 1ms attack. This preserves transients even though we’re taking away from it.
  2. too damn long, sustain -inf db, adjust decay.
  3. too damn loud, lower peak output -3db, emphasizing on step 2.
  4. ONE ONE ONE voice, THATS all you need.
  5. You need to adjust your velocity sensitivity. Apply to volume 100%.
  6. once the groove is picked, keep the same groove for everything.
  7. Immediately apply pitch envelope +3st @ 15-20ms decay, 100% peak. This will shine and give your samples new life, almost like a little extra UMFH

What does everybody use? Do you disagree?

2

Record in via MIDI controller to give the necessary ‘human’ variations in velocity/timing etc.

3

Strongly disagree.

Edit: junk phone is junk.

I disagree because I feel like it wastes more time. I just program everything, “human var” and all. Not looking for a cheap bump.

4

I hate production rules. Your list makes me angry.

Besides, you can easily “program” swing, velocity, ADSR with one-shot samples, by adjusting the volume, the fade-in, the fade-out, even the exact timing if you turn off the grid. All MIDI velocity really does is program the volume into an individual MIDI note, so you can just mimic that by changing the volume on individual samples. It’s tedious, but some people like it. I love it when I’m cutting up breaks especially.

1 BigUp
5

Also why did you poo-poo this suggestion?

Good suggestion to me.
But you say:

I would argue, in some cases, it uses less time because you can just play each note and not have to be bothered with programming at all.

6

I agree with you on chopping breaks, and respect your counter argument. Granted all of those functions are available, I find. Using a sampler gives me twice as much flexibility without the tediousness.

I ultimately dislike arrangement view for its ability to encourage laziness, plugging every veng perc loop at their disposal.