Hi experts
I am a skinflint, and am therefore looking for a FREE (or very cheap) software program that would allow me to create some fairly simple drum progressions to provide the backing for some recordings, and save out to *.wav or *.mp3 format. Here's the background so you get an idea what I am trying to do.
I play the guitar and try to sing. Years ago I had an old Tascam 244 Portastudio and multi-tracked a number of songs to cassette. I've since managed to recover a few of them to *.mp3 from those old cassettes and it inspired me again to get into some recording using the PC.
While I was getting to grips with multi-tracking, and as part of guitar practice, I shamelessly used some ancient backing tracks that I got on skinny little "vinyl" 45's that came with Guitar magazines. I recorded them to cassette from my "Hi-Fi" and then played lead guitar, sang, and basically jammed my way to a few fairly good mix-downs on cassette. Now you'll know how far back I'm going!!
Oh my, this is quite embarrassing, especially for you younger folks who don't know what a "Hi-Fi" was, and for whom the word "cassette" conjures up images of your grandparents.
On a couple of my tracks I actually resorted to using a simple little Casio keyboard that had a headphone socket and I could record into the cassette multi-tracker. I used some of the built-in basic rhythms and used the setting where a single key played a nice chorused chord for string sections, and (surprisingly) managed to get one track that I was (and still am) quite amazed by.
Well, obviously things have come on a long way since then and, while I build up callouses on my playing fingers again, I tested my options with the computer and realised that I needed an external interface and software that supported ASIO Drivers, so bought a discounted Line 6 TonePort UX2 that came with its "Gearbox" software and a Line 6 Edition of Ableton Live. It has since advanced to "PodStudio":
http://uk.line6.com/podstudioux2/
http://line6.com/toneportgx/gearboxplugin.html
I have messed with the Toneport and gearbox software while I put together a PC to use solely for music recording, but one space that needs to be filled is percussion. I can put a guitar through an Octaver to get the semblance of an electric Bass, I can even use that old Casio keyboard again for string section swells if I really needed to, but I don't have anything to create fairly realistic drumming.
I was watching some software for about $8 on eBay, but never got around to buying it. The software was definitely quoted as being for the Windows platform, and I have attached a *.pdf file showing the contents of the original eBay auction that has long since vapourised. In the details, I saw mention of "Hydrogen" softwaer, so I looked it up.
http://www.hydrogen-music.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_(software)
It does say that there was an "experimental" offshoot in development to port this software to the Windows platform, but I can't find this and it seems that this software is only for Linux or Mac. OK, so I can install Linux and use the plethora of recording-related OpenSource software, but I am choosing to run XP on the PC I want to use for recording.
Perhaps that software would actually end up being too complicated for me to use anyway, and the sounds more aligned to Hip-Hop (urrrrggh!). So my thoughts turned to one of those gizmos that people buy for bored husbands or kids at Christmas, without considering the long-term implications. Something like this:
http://www.firebox.com/product/1573/USB-Drum-Kit
or a much smaller and affordable but ... well ... crap "pad" versions:
http://www.paramountzone.com/usb-drum-kit-pz.htm#
This bozo thinks he's an Amazonian cannibal or from a West Senegal tribal dance troupe, or perhaps the "drum kit" can't produce anything other than sounds like that:
http://66.148.80.65/pzvids/drums.wmv
Obviously you get what you pay for, and I don't want to pay anything because I am broke.
Does anyone know of some software that allows you to assign your normal keyboard keys to drum sounds and get a fairly realisting "real-time" percussion effect?
I'm not looking for anything overly complicated here. I don't need to sound like Steve Porcaro or Buddy Rich, just something that helps me to create a backing for various different types of (mainly) acoustic guitar music and record it in real time to take account of my ... ahem! ... syncopation due to rusty technique ;-)
You know, I once came up with an idea many moons ago when a drummer friend was asked to step in to cover for illness in a band that played kind of funky stuff. His conventional kit didn't cut the mustard, but he had an old Moog synthesiser box and zero disposable income. I had been expermenting with sticking piezo-ceramic transducers (http://img.en.china.cn/0/0,0,316,983,450,330,72be807c.jpg) to the underside of acoustic guitar soundboards and feeding output into amplifiers. We tried that through that old Moog Synth and he got a good mix of conventional and synth drum sounds (boiiing, duuung, etc imagine the decay decreasing rapidly in pitch :-)
I could "amplify" some cardboard boxes and old Costco coffee tins?
Any ideas anybody?
Regards
Bill
by: BillDLPosted on 2009-04-13 at 11:33:13ID: 24131800
Whoops, forgot the PDF file of that eBay auction description. It certainly looks like the "Hydrogen" software. The images were from the following sources, and it would seem that the server is some kind of in-between software vendor:
http://kirafiles.com/drumm
http://kirafiles.com/e/Dru
http://kirafiles.com/e/Dru
http://kirafiles.com/e/Dru
http://kirafiles.com/e/Dru
http://kirafiles.com/e/Dru
http://kirafiles.com/e/Dru
http://kirafiles.com/e/Dru
PDF Print of original eBay auction description for software