Noob and I mean it!

Discuss working with MultitrackStudio for iPad
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Fildok
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 4:50 pm

Noob and I mean it!

Post by Fildok »

i bought this app because of all the failures that I've suffered by purchasing Cubasis, Stienberg lite, Reaper, etc etc.
I can sing and my friends can play guitar and we write some decent songs between us BUT...
All those Daws might just have well been written in Russian.
You see, we are in our 60's ,old dog ,new tricks etc..
Anyway, MTS is the first one that I have seen that actually has some logic ( excuse pun) to it.
So I hope you can understand that even with this app it has taken me half an hour to locate Matrix!..
...and now that I've found it I don't know how to use it. I don't seem to get the top box on my screen for starters.
We have got a Zoom 1608 and have made a few decent tracks over the years because of its tape like operation. But what always let us down was not being able to program drums.
So without wanting to go on and on could some please tell me how ,in layman's terms how I go about importing drummer apps? I have Cubasis which has loops, I have Session Band which..er...is Session Band??
Many thanks, Phil
StormJH1
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2014 3:30 pm

Re: Noob and I mean it!

Post by StormJH1 »

Fildok wrote:i bought this app because of all the failures that I've suffered by purchasing Cubasis, Stienberg lite, Reaper, etc etc.
I can sing and my friends can play guitar and we write some decent songs between us BUT...
All those Daws might just have well been written in Russian.
You see, we are in our 60's ,old dog ,new tricks etc..
Anyway, MTS is the first one that I have seen that actually has some logic ( excuse pun) to it.
So I hope you can understand that even with this app it has taken me half an hour to locate Matrix!..
...and now that I've found it I don't know how to use it. I don't seem to get the top box on my screen for starters.
We have got a Zoom 1608 and have made a few decent tracks over the years because of its tape like operation. But what always let us down was not being able to program drums.
So without wanting to go on and on could some please tell me how ,in layman's terms how I go about importing drummer apps? I have Cubasis which has loops, I have Session Band which..er...is Session Band??
Many thanks, Phil
Phil, I am also relatively new, but this being a kind of sparse forum, I'll try to help. If you were working off of this picture from the other thread...

Image

...then the thing on the top half of the screen is the Matrix "rack" or control panel. The bottom half is actually a keyboard/MIDI controller that you bring up if you want to control the sampler using pads. They are quite responsive, and I found this useful for recording a basic pattern.

As of right now, the Matrix sampler requires you to load in sample files one-by-one. Giel indicated he may be working on "presets" or "kits" where you could save a group of sound files and load them up all at once.

So, to use the sampler, click and hold the little effects slot button on a new MIDI track that you set up. This should bring up options like external apps, the SoundFont player, and (now, in version 1.5) the Matrix sampler.

Click each number and there is a Load button that allows you to store a sample of up to 6 seconds. You can import it using the excellent AudioShare app, or AudioCopy/Paste from another app. So, for example, if you want "1" to be a kick drum, paste in a .wav file of a kick drum. Repeat for other sounds 2-16, or however many you need.

With the samples loaded, you can program Matrix just like you can any other MIDI track. There is a MIDI "Drum" Grid option. Using "add instrument", you can create a line on that grid that allows you to program hits for your kick drum and other instruments. Or, you can just start a recording with the track active, and it will record MIDI data as you tap out the rhythm on the pads. You can move things around afterwards on the MIDI data screen, or use the Quantize feature to line things up into rhythm.

It's the integration of all of these content players and editing ability WITHIN MultiTrackStudio that makes it so great. But I've only just provided a VERY basic overview of how to use it. You can do much more complex things with Copy/Paste of samples from other instruments within the app and the sampler has pitch control and time stretching as well. It's already pretty great, but would benefit from sample/kit storage so you can just load it up and get to work with your favorite sounds.
dinoroo
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2014 7:49 pm

Re: Noob and I mean it!

Post by dinoroo »

Good explanation, Storm. Keep in mind you can do SoS recording. So you could start with just a kick drum, then rewind and add snare, high hat, etc. on multiple passes all on the same track.

If you need drum samples, there's some good ones here of basic single-velocity rock kits: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=353939

Unfortunately though your question is a little like somebody going to an auto forum and asking someone to explain how one drives a car. There's no easy explanation because the answer is dependent on lots of things like what prior knowledge you have of midi and how music apps work together with one another in the iOS environment (core midi, inter-app audio, audiobus), or do you know how to use a basic drum roll midi editor?

Then there's the question of how do you want your drums to sound? Electronic, demo, studio-quality realistic, whatever.

I think MultitrackStudio comes with a basic drum kit instrument. The easiest thing would be to create a new track with the MSI drum kit as the instrument, peck out a pattern in the midi (piano roll) editor window, and go from there. If you're unhappy with how those sound, then the next easiest thing would be to replace the MSI instrument with a drum soundfont of your choosing. I'd recommend looking for Douglas Natural Studio v2.0 as a good place to start.

If you want better sounding drums like using other drum apps with MultitrackStudio (sending midi, using audiobus to record), or importing midi drum loops, then it's going to be a steeper learning curve - one that can't be easily explained because there are too many factors.
Fildok
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 4:50 pm

Re: Noob and I mean it!

Post by Fildok »

Thanks for your quick and very detailed replies dinoroo and storm. Most helpful indeed.
I think it's a case of familiarising myself with the ins and outs.

Phil
StormJH1
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2014 3:30 pm

Re: Noob and I mean it!

Post by StormJH1 »

Yeah, @dinoroo's point is well-taken - it's just such a big task trying to explain how a DAW works from scratch. But if you have specific questions, Giel or others could probably help.

His recommendation of Derek Buddemeyer's samples could not be more spot on, however. Go follow that link and save all of those now, even if you don't have any idea what to do with them. They are masterfully recorded and about as good as you will find for a rock/pop drum sound - since most of the files passed around are of drum machines or EDM-slanted samples.

Within the instruments included in the iPad app, there is a drum kit. It's okay - certainly sufficient for sketching. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that while there is supposed to be universal mapping for drums to MIDI notes/keys, that isn't always the case. So, a bass drum may be C2 or C3 on one set, but not necessarily in another.

I think a good SoundFont (like the Douglas one recommended above) is a good starting point. The great thing about SoundFonts is that they can be virtually any sound. Since it's basically a bundle of samples, the internal soundfont player could be drums, bass, strings, guitar, synths, etc. And you can have multiple tracks within MTS playing different SoundFonts.
djsys
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 8:13 am

Re: Noob and I mean it!

Post by djsys »

If u need cool free samples packs , check this https://www.lucidsamples.com/14-free-sample-packs
stubbsonic
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 3:38 am

Re: Noob and I mean it!

Post by stubbsonic »

StormJH1 wrote: The great thing about SoundFonts is that they can be virtually any sound. Since it's basically a bundle of samples, the internal soundfont player could be drums, bass, strings, guitar, synths, etc. And you can have multiple tracks within MTS playing different SoundFonts.
One important drawback with SoundFonts (and compliant SoundFont players) is that they aren't capable of a true zero attack time. I found this out when I was trying to make a SoundFont of metronome clicks that I made. Some of them wouldn't even play, even with the attack set at the lowest possible setting. What this means is that the very earliest attack transients from a sample are lost during the initial ramp of the Amp Env. For many sounds this won't matter much. And for some sounds that were sloppily chopped, it might even be an improvement. But for me, that's a deal-breaker.

Too bad though, as SoundFonts SHOULD be a useful standard format sample playing.
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