Redrum: Making Your Own Drum Kit

 

Today we are going to continue learning how to use the Redrum Drum Machine.  On Tuesday you made your first drum beats by using pre-made drum kits in the Redrum Drum Kits folder.  Today we are going to learn how to select your own drum sounds to make your own custom made drum kit.

Lets review the steps that come before creating your own drum kit.  First, create a new Reason document.  Then, you must always start by creating the Mixer 14:2.  Once you have done this you can create your instruments.  

Now you can go to the create menu and create a Redrum Drum Machine.  On the Redrum, you can load up to 10 different drum sounds.  Notice the 10 numbered tracks that look like the image to the right->.  On each track you should find a Folder icon.  If you click on the folder icon a window will pop up, just like when we loaded a full drum kit.  To find single drum sound select Reason Factory Sound Bank, then look for the Redrum Drum Kits folder.  Inside this folder you will find Xclusive Drums-Sorted at the very bottom of the list.  This folder contains several categories of drum sounds.  

Assignment

For today's assignment we will create our own drum kits and use the individual sounds that we picked to create a pattern. We will then save our created drum kits as well as our beats. Here are the steps to follow.

1. Open Reason.

2. Create a Mixer 14:2.

3. Set your tempo anywhere between 80-100bpm.

4. Create a Redrum Drum Computer.

5. Click the folder on Sound 1. Go to Reason Factory Sound Bank: Redrum Drum Kits. You should see the Xclusive drums folder. Click it and drag it in the same menu that you see the Reason Factory Sound Bank.

This will make it easier to locate this folder from now on. Now, click on either the folder 02_Snaredrums or 04_Claps. Pick a Snare or Clap of your choice and click it on boxes 5 & 13.

6. Click the folder on Sound 2. Go to Xclusive Drums: 01_Bassdrums. Pick a Bass drum of your choice. Click it on box 1 and 2-4 boxes of your choice.

7. Click the folder on Sound 3. Go to Xclusive Drums: 05_HiHats. Pick the Hi Hat of your choice and put it on any boxes that you want.

8. Click the folder on Sound 4. Go to Xclusive Drums: Choose a sound from either 07_Percussion-Hi or 08_Percussion-Other and click it on any boxes that you want.

You now have a 4 sound beginners drum kit. To save this drum kit, click on the disk icon on the bottom left of the Redrum. Save the kit in your folder as (your name) drum kit 1. Also go to File: Save As and save the Reason document in your folder. You can name it whatever you want, but do NOT leave it as "untitled" as this can become confusing later down the line.

When you are finished, start a new Reason document. Use the methods learned in this lesson & assignment to create another drum kit using at least 3 sounds.

Introduction To Reason

Welcome to Digital Pathways! In this class we will be learning much about audio production. There is much to learn and so we will be moving at a fast pace. However, with this blog we will be able to keep track of all of our projects and assignments. With that said, the main program we will be using is called Reason. It is one of the leading music production programs available on the market. What's even better is that it is a user friendly program that you have the chance to learn. It is very important that we do not move to fast as it could get confusing, so lets take time to learn the basics about Reason, it's controls, and music production.

Let's start with the very basics of making a drum beat. Drums are very important. In many cases they can be seen as the most important part of music. The reason is because a drummer's job in music is to keep the time of a song. He helps the band to know how fast or slow to play. It is for this very reason that we will learn how to drums first before we move to otherwise challenging aspects of music production. Here we go:

1. Open Reason
2. If you don't see a mixer: go to the CREATE menu and select a Mixer 14:2
3. Set Tempo to 98 bpm. You should see the tempo on the bottom of reason near the play button.
4. CREATE: Redrum Drum Machine
5. Click on the Folder Icon in the bottom left corner of the Redrum.
6. From there click on the Reason Factory Sound Bank:Redrum Drum Kits:Hip Hop Kits: Hip Hop Kit 07
7. Push SELECT on Sound 3. Click on Boxes 5 and 13 (This is the golden rule of drum programming with the ReDrum)
8. Push SELECT on Sound 5. Click on Boxes 1 and 11
9. Push SELECT on Sound 1. Click on all the boxes
10. Congratulations! You have made your first beat!
11. Now Click on Pattern 2 and create your own beat with a Clap or Snare, Bass Drum, and Hi Hat.
12. Remember start with a Clap (clp) or Snare (sn) on 5 and 13
13. And put your Bass Drum on 1 and a few other boxes (but not boxes 5 or 13).
14. Put your Hi Hat (HH) anywhere.
15. Now let's save the beat.
16. Go to the File menu and click SAVE.
17. When the window pops up, go to your folder you created that should have your name on it.
18. This is where you're going to save your beats.
19. Name the beat (your name's) first beat.
20. Click Save.
21. Now that you have made this drum beat, click over to Pattern 3 and work on a new pattern. Lets keep working on new patterns.

A Few Things to Take Care of

There are a few things we need to do to begin our Digital Pathways program.  The first thing we need to do is fill out a Pre-Course survey.  You will be able to do this by clicking on the link below.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LKTLC5X

Once you have finished the survey please notify Corina or Ian and we will help you with creating a BAVC Gmail account.   We will be using this throughout the program for email communication for class and for internship opportunities and coordination.  

This week we will also be creating BAVC Profiles on the BAVC website.  This will be a great place to showcase your work as well as blog.

Welcome to Digital Pathways Audio A

Welcome to Digital Pathways Audio A. Digital Pathways Audio A introduces students to the tools and techniques of digital audio production. Using the industry-standard Reason and Pro Tools software programs, students gain hands-on experience working in several areas of the professional audio field, including music composition, audio engineering (recording, editing, mixing), sound design and audio post-production. Projects are designed to facilitate critical thinking about the creative process, in addition to providing a solid technical background in working with the software and hardware tools. Throughout the course, students are exposed to different career tracks in audio, including opportunities to meet with industry professionals, and field trips to companies in different sectors of the audio industry. Upon completion of technical training, students are placed into paid internships within the audio industry.