Replacing the drummer....

Just after some advice....

As I'm having huge issues finding a decent drummer, I am considering going down the drum machine route...Im hesitant anyway from a performance perspective but Im also unsure how to achieve it.

Whilst programming is a factor ( along with fixed arrangements etc) I think I have that covered.

I think I have 2 main options ( possibly 3):

1) Use a dedicated drum machine - having looked, most now seem to be bias towards electronic music and 808 simulations and less focus on acoustic drums. Some you can import samples though, but none I've seen that you can import midi files. Why is that needed, see option 3...

2) Programme via a DAW. Done this and works well but I don't want to lug a laptop to gigs, and not sure they are best to output the sound ( via headphone socket??)...so then perhaps export to .wav and play via some other device, but what???

3) Programme on DAW, load onto drum machine? Not aware of any drum machine taking directly midi files. Seen a way to do this but its cumbersome

So, does anyone else use midi files as backing, particularly drums or any other artificial drums? What works best?

Thanks for this. The only additional comment is whilst we are doing covers, we are doing non standard versions and so we need our drum versions if that makes sense? Our drummer is still available and my uptopia is "record" his parts and be able to replay them live.

Hope that makes sense.

Quote from musicmad

Check out Scott Uhl. Best channel for this kind of stuff. He demos several solutions. Like this:

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This look interesting, I'll check it out!!!

Quote from lbieber

One of my projects is a duo where we switch back and forth between guitar and bass. My partner has a Beat Buddy drum machine, which I programmed for all the songs that we do. It works well, sounds great and is easy to use. Unlike a real drum kit, it is easy to transport, it plays exactly what you want, and you set the volume. The volume part is a BIG advantage.

I don't suppose you know if you can import .mid files ?

Quote from lbieber

Yes, .mid import works fine. This is how I do the programming.

Although i dont need it in pedal format, this looks like a really good option. Thanks dude!!!

Quote from lbieber

No problem. The pedal format has upsides. Depending on how you approach songs there can be advantages. In my duo, I did not want to be locked into performing a song with the exact same arrangement every time. So, I setup beats for different parts of the songs and fills to do transitions. I use the pedal to trigger changes as the mood strikes me rather than having a full song which simply runs from beginning to end. This allows the 'drummer' to follow along in real time with the arrangement as it evolves. Not as good as a real drummer in that repsect, but it can work at a decent level.

Yeah I had thought about that but TBH I think that will confuse the whole band and the songs should be a fixed arrangement for us, so I literally want to just run it start to finish.

What I like about this and what I had bene looking for was something to import .mid files and map drums to it. Most drum machines don't seem to have this ability from what I can see, so thanks again

Quote from OneEng1

My issue with this approach is that unlike you, my poor brain is already out of bandwidth trying to do rig changes, boost changes, melody and harmony parts and moving from one song to the next at the gig. I would need to grow more brain cells and another leg I think :).

I'm with V8 on this. If I could just have it play a song from a midi sys dump (perhaps from a MIDI app like band manager) for the right song, that would be great. Someone would still need to either purchase the drum part, or create the drum part for this, but it is a one time event for each new song in the setlist.

Interesting idea.

My perfect answer is a real drummer ( ok not quite perfect but...), although for some reason there is a drought on good drummers in the UK.

So, I've landed ( probably) on...our drummer records his drum parts in full - one file for a song, as not looking to adjust arrangements on the file. He records this and gives 2 outputs - .wav file and .mid file.

The .mid file looking to load into a beat buddy as the main drum machine and use the built in drum kits. The advantage being there is some ability to tweak the sounds.

The .wav file is then used as a backup, probably loaded onto an ipad using something like stage traxx....so we will see...but still open to suggestions. Im currently interested in how to connect a tablet to a PA as most don't have a headphone socket, not sure about bluetooth ( latency and any compression??) and I tried a usb c on my Samsung with poor results...