MDrummer videos: Polyrhythm ?

[mevla]

Is/are there any MDrummer video around specifically on the creation of polyrhythm ?

Cheers.

[Chandlerhimself]

I don't think so, but I talked about polyrhytms in one of my videos, but I think it was in passing. Maybe I'll do a video on them sometime in the future.

[mevla]

Yes, I have seen your video on the subject, which is very interesting. What I'm interested more about, is how the MDrummer features can be used to explore and create such. Recently I got the Pulsecode drum machine and I find it naturally fitting for such exploration. Since I also like a lot many MDrummer features, I was wondering how one goes about MDrummer features to explore polyrhythm.

The first thing that I would question, and I have asked about it here, is that the easy 'global' copying of patterns in MDrummer seems to be absent. By 'global' I mean for instance copying everything pattern-wise that's under say the C key to the D key for further modification.

So far I cannot fathom spending a lot of time to manually copy 16 bars that are found under the C key to the D key so that a slight variation can be added, and then to continue likewise with the Eb key, E key, etc. The time spent in manual copying is enough to make the inspiration go away (I am not a drummer).

[goldglob]

......The first thing that I would question, and I have asked about it here, is that the easy 'global' copying of patterns in MDrummer seems to be absent. By 'global' I mean for instance copying everything pattern-wise that's under say the C key to the D key for further modification.

So far I cannot fathom spending a lot of time to manually copy 16 bars that are found under the C key to the D key so that a slight variation can be added, and then to continue likewise with the Eb key, E key, etc. The time spent in manual copying is enough to make the inspiration go away (I am not a drummer).

Did what I suggested sometime ago not help a little?
"A better way perhaps is to use save/load loop....the same number of bars will appear, the cursor position doesn't matter, quantized or not doesn't matter. If you don't intend to actually permanently save the loop just save it to say root in the directory then delete it later."
Admittedly you'd still have to do it separately for any variations you have in the index boxes.
I do agree that an overall duplicating of everything in a loopbox (including index box variations) would be handy.

[Chandlerhimself]

The first thing that I would question, and I have asked about it here, is that the easy 'global' copying of patterns in MDrummer seems to be absent. By 'global' I mean for instance copying everything pattern-wise that's under say the C key to the D key for further modification.

So far I cannot fathom spending a lot of time to manually copy 16 bars that are found under the C key to the D key so that a slight variation can be added, and then to continue likewise with the Eb key, E key, etc. The time spent in manual copying is enough to make the inspiration go away (I am not a drummer).

AFAIK there is no easy global copy function for the keys, but it is now easier to copy measures. What exactly is your workflow. I can't imagine a reason to copy 16 patterns from 1 loop box to another. Is there something specific you're trying to do? I usually just have 1 or maybe 2 things in each loopbox. For the breaks I might have more, but in that case each is unique, so there is no copying needed. It sounds like you're doing something different.

[mevla]

Did what I suggested sometime ago not help a little? "A better way perhaps is to use save/load loop....the same number of bars will appear, the cursor position doesn't matter, quantized or not doesn't matter. If you don't intend to actually permanently save the loop just save it to say root in the directory then delete it later." Admittedly you'd still have to do it separately for any variations you have in the index boxes. I do agree that an overall duplicating of everything in a loopbox (including index box variations) would be handy.

Yes, it does help of course. But it's certainly not like having a good multi-bar beat on note C and wanting to quickly copy it to C#, D, Eb, E for further mods.

[mevla]

AFAIK there is no easy global copy function for the keys, but it is now easier to copy measures. What exactly is your workflow. I can't imagine a reason to copy 16 patterns from 1 loop box to another. Is there something specific you're trying to do? I usually just have 1 or maybe 2 things in each loopbox. For the breaks I might have more, but in that case each is unique, so there is no copying needed. It sounds like you're doing something different.

16 being a random number used to express multitude. Basically if there's a good multi-bar pattern under note C, as I replied to goldglob, I'd like to quickly copy it to C#, D, Eb, E for further modifications. I don't necessarily want 'drastic' differences between patterns found under each note, eg. With note E a constant hihat is added, with note F a ride cymbal is added, etc.. I'm more into adding less significant variations on a regular basis.

I reckon that a proper use of the fills, especially custom fills, might also bring the same effect, more so with recording MIDI notes and varying their intensity after the fact to produce different fills. But still, being able to replicate easily multi-bar patterns would be nice.

And it might be useful with polyrhythm as slight variations can be added easily into patterns copied in such a way.