Difficulty level: Beginner to Expert.
I will use interchangeable terms such as 'sequence/pattern/slot' etc. These terms will overlap but should help establish a common terminology when communicating with others.
[BACKGROUND]
A Flam or Flourish, is when you might, say, repeat a note or hit twice in rapid succession, providing variation and groove to an otherwise static or repetitive beat.
B-Step incorporates a 'FLAM' feature as found on some Roland drum machines. You will find it on the 5th Layer - 'REP1'. It is called 'STEP REPEAT', because it is actually a Flam function par excellence. In this tutorial we will just use it to do the most basic of things, which is probably what you want the majority of the time. We will take a 16th note and get it to repeat once with a 32nd flourish. This effectively doubles the resolution of the Grid for that step, without changing the overall look of the Grid. Think of it as splitting the Grid into 32nd notes as you can do with most drum and midi editors, so you can input finer values, such as needed for variation and groove. Try a variation for a 24th note flourish as well, so you can tell the difference (some people might find this more natural).
Ok, now the tutorial in 5 easy pieces:
1:
Set a tempo in your host around the 100-120 Bpm (Beats per minute) mark.
Start B-Step with an empty set up and click on the PENCIL icon.
This will open the Chord Editor. Open the file 'B-STEP-DRUM-TUTORIAL-MAP' from inside the editor. This will map B-Step so that it triggers your drum machine like this:
Kick > XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Snare > XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
CHat > XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
OHat > XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
(CHat = Closed Hat)
(OHat = Open Hat)
I have proposed a naming convention when saving extra info along with presets. It helps if you can see exactly what will be triggered and what is mapped to what. So 'KICK-SNARE-CHAT-OHAT' means that we will get the mapping above. Also it helps to maybe include the Drum Machine you are mapping to as well to avoid confusion. For now I have used a pretty standard mapping that should work for the majority of drum machines.
Sometimes I use 'KICK-SNARE-HAT-1-2' - this just means that there is a kick, snare and 2 hats (one not necessarily an open hat). It only takes a few seconds to input this extra info, and even if it isn't 100 percent accurate, as long as it gives a rough picture of what can be expected, it's enough to help when you (or someone else) go to open the preset some time later.
For this tutorial I have used Drumazon, ADM (CM) and Sforzando (CR-909). They should ALL work out of the box without having to adjust anything, but so should most XoX type drum machines. (XoX refers to Roland style drum machines such as the 808 and 909 and their emulations). Make sure that you change the sequencer settings on whatever drum machine you use so its notes are triggered by the host and it is not internally playing back its own patterns. This has to be done as well for ADM and Drumazon don't forget.
Just use what you have to hand, but check that the correct mappings are applied before you proceed.
I will now assume you have a drum machine of your choice and it is being triggered correctly with the mappings given in the template. We will learn how to map to different sounds/notes later in another tutorial.
2:
Now we need to open the '16-BAR-DRUM-GROOVE-AND-FLAM-TUTORIAL' preset from the file manager in B-Step. If everything is hooked up properly you should now be hearing the 16 bar pattern playing back.
This is just to check that everything is working. We will now delete this and work our way back, starting at the beginning, with you programming your own beat/groove. It doesn't even need to be 16 bars long, it could be 2, 4, 8 bars or any other number up to 16. For now, we will just concentrate on coming up with an interesting 1 bar groove to start things off.
Select bar 1 (the furthermost left button on the bottom) along the 'select / copy' row. Click on an empty step (square), then with 'MULTIDRAG' enabled, paint over all the notes in the sequence, so as to delete them all, and give us an empty pattern that we will copy to the all the other bars, clearing them as well and giving us a blank canvas to play with.
[MULTIDRAG]
Obviously you will need to have Multidrag enabled. I have mine set so I can use it with the left mouse button, but there are different options. You may find you need to adjust the sensitivity to get this to work for you in a comfortable manner and how you expect. Different systems, different mice, different ways of wanting to work all mean you will just need to take a minute or two to set this up.
Click this icon to adjust the MULTIDRAG parameters:
This is how I have mine set up and it works great for me:
We now have a blank/clear/empty pattern to 'paint' and 'copy' across all the other patterns, clearing them as well. Holding whichever mouse button you have selected for MULTIDRAG down, wait a little moment for the bars on the same row to show a 'T', then just paint or drag across all the squares at the bottom and this will delete all the patterns ready for us to use with our new groove.
3:
Now the fun bit. Making up a groove/beat/pattern. There are no hard and fast rules here. Most people start with a Kick on the first beat of the bar, so as to orientate themselves and align and sync in time with the host sequencer. We will do the same in this tutorial. Put Kicks (BD - Bass Drum) on squares 1 and 9 and Snares on the next row down on squares 5 and 13. You now have a very basic beat. Change it to something you like and that makes sense to you, filling in the hats below to something that also sounds good. Now might also be a good time to save your new work in the file manager, so if you make a mistake in the next step you can easily recall it. Try to come up with something interesting, because you will be listening to it over and over...
4:
Time to copy your groove and make some variations. Holding down the bottom most and left most button (square) where it says 'select / copy', with your designated MULTIDRAG mouse button, waiting a fraction of a second for the other squares/buttons to display the 'T', just drag it to the very next slot (square/button) and your pattern will be copied across. This is the sheer raw power and simplicity of B-Step on display. Aren't you glad you took the time to set up your MULTIDRAG options now?
Now, in slot/sequence 2, make a variation to the pattern. I suggest you select the first step/square/button of the CH row (Closed Hat) and again with the same modus operandi, drag all along the row, filling in every step and giving us a nice little speeded up feel. Or whatever you decide. You may decide to maybe just take one of the kicks 'off' the beat and put it a step ahead/back. Just make some kind of variation.
We will now copy those two patterns/sequences to give us a 4 bar loop that we will add another variation to as we go. See [TUTORIAL ON DRUM PROGRAMMING] at the end of this lesson for more info. It also wouldn't hurt to save your project as a new preset, renaming it to something new, so as to get a feel for how the file management works in B-Step. Better to learn this properly now and have it as second nature, rather then when you come up with your first KILLER beat, and have to mess around. Don't worry, it's very easy.
Ok, so far we have a 2 bar pattern and we want to copy those EXACT same patterns to slots/sequences 3 and 4. Drag and copy them across, taking care not to overwrite any existing pattern in the process.
[PITFALL]
So far so good, but let's just take a quick moment out here to cover a possible problem you might come across when copying patterns. Say you have made the variations and you now have your 2 bars/sequences and you go to copy them, if you drag button/sequence 1 OVER button 2 it will OVERWRITE it, so you have to be VERY CAREFUL not to do that and DRAG AROUND, in a circular motion so as to avoid overwriting. This is a very easy mistake to make for newcomers. Try to get into a little 'HOPPING' motion habit. Then you will have NO problems at all copying and pasting in B-Step.
So drag pattern/slot 1 to slot 3 and slot 2 to slot 4. All things going well, we should now have our 4 bar pattern to vary even further. Maybe put a quick little 'Fill' at the end on the snare track at the end of pattern/slot 4. Save your work again, just to be sure.
5:
Adding further variations with FLAM. You are probably getting the picture by now, so I will leave you to decide exactly how long you want your full sequence to be (8 or 16 bars). I will assume you have a pattern/sequence length that you are happy with, and we will now move on to the 'FLAM' or 'STEP REPEAT' - You will find it on the 5th Layer - 'REP1'.
We could choose to add a Flam to any of the drum parts, but very often you will find them put on Snares, so that is what we will do here. We will attempt the most basic type of Flam/Flourish - a 32nd note variation, repeated just the once. B-Step allows you to go crazy with these parameteres should you wish. Experiment.
Open up the 5th Layer 'REP1' - this is what the interface should look like:
Select the very last snare on pattern/slot/sequence 4 and adjust the 'Step Repeats' knob to just '1'. You will already hear a little 16th note Flam or Flourish. This is the default.
This is what it looks like with just a very simple 16th note Flam (Step Repeat):
Adjust the 'Rpt Interval' value to something you like. Try an 1/8th note or maybe something faster. Depending on your over all tempo, different values will seem more or less appealing. Try taking the Step Repeat up to 2 and hear how it sounds. Things should really be making sense by now. With these two controls you now have a massive amount of drum variation/groove power at your finger tips.
There you have it - your very first Flam.
Most people will probably get by with just these two parameters. But why not play about a bit and see what the other values do. Don't forget to save anything interesting as you go along.
I will include a simple example at the end, as I have worked through this tutorial with you, as you might have done, following my instructions. It has a very simple 1/8th Note Flam on the end snare.
See: [DRUM-TUTORIAL-EXAMPLE]
Remember, Flams can be used to input slower or lower resolution notes on to the Grid, not just for faster ones. So keep this in mind. This function allows you to add notes that are faster/slower, higher/lower resolution than what is offered, though you could just program them directly to the Grid if you liked. Here in lies the true power of B-Step. As always, play about and perhaps save some templates of your own. These presets can then be shared with other users.
You can have 1/8th notes repeated 4 times or 1/32nd notes repeated just the once or 8 times. Try 4 repeats of 32nd note resolution, for one example.
See: [DRUM-TUTORIAL-EXAMPLE-2]
B-Step has already gone beyond the functionality of what many drum machines provide in this department. Some (at their most basic) just give you one option to 'Flam' at the resolution you are working at (say 16th or 32nd notes). But even this option is better than nothing at all. B-Step provides many more options for this musical feature, but that should be enough for now to introduce you to this powerful concept. Although Step Repeat (Flam) can be used on synthesizer or sample program material (where musically it may also be called a 'Trill'), using this on drums and percusssion is where it really comes into its own, at least for me and the way that I work.
Why not explore these powerful features and find a way that works for you?
B-Step really is a whole lot more than just a simple step sequencer...
[END TUTORIAL]
If you got to the end of the tutorial and things are making a bit more sense to you, then go ahead and check out the Drum Presets in your Project folder for B-Step. Some of them have different mappings and of course different beats as well for you to play about with!
[PROJECT FILES]
B-STEP-DRUM-TUTORIAL-FILES.rar- (2.7 KiB) Downloaded 181 times
Put the '16-BAR-DRUM-GROOVE-AND-FLAM-TUTORIAL' and the 'DRUM-TUTORIAL-EXAMPLE' files into your 'projects' folder.
Put the 'B-STEP-DRUM-TUTORIAL-MAP' into your 'chordsets' folder.
[OFFLINE-DRUM-TUTORIAL]
- OFFLINE-DRUM-TUTORIAL.zip
- (63.75 KiB) Downloaded 149 times
- B-STEP-DRUMAZON-CR-ADM-TUTORIAL.rar
- (9.97 KiB) Downloaded 145 times
If you are not a seasoned drum programmer and want to learn the basics and be able to program a beat/groove FAST, then check out this excellent tutorial:
[TUTORIAL ON DRUM PROGRAMMING]
http://tweakheadz.com/how-to-make-original-drum-tracks/
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Here's how to write drum tracks really fast on a midi sequencer. Don't let the simplicity of my approach fool you into thinking this is an article for beginners. OK, lots of pros know about this, but I'll bet many an intermediate tweak does not. What I am talking about here is a "way of working" a "workflow" so to speak, which will work no matter what type of music you are doing. The goal is to build a drum track for a song in about the same amount of time as it would take to audition a bunch of loops to find the right one. Except here, at the end, you have a totally original drum track that, instead of staying the same as the song progresses, moves and breathes with the song. This method works in the midi domain of a sequencer. Because we are using midi and not audio, we don't have to mess with time stretching or beat chopping or any of that. We can tailor the drums to fit perfectly, change tempos, add fills and lead-ins with zero problems. It will work with software drum machines, real drum machines, samplers, and synth drum sets equally well.
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